An Open Letter to My Fellow American Soccer People During the World Cup
Dear Fellow American Soccer Professionals,
I know at least one of these has happened to you.
You've been sitting at a bar watching a match when someone nearby starts complaining about diving.
"Why are they adding time?"
"Why is the game 0-0?"
"Is Alexi Lalas the greatest American soccer player ever?"
Or maybe you've had a guy confidently mansplain the Champions League to you while getting almost every detail wrong.
Perhaps you've asked a bartender to put the World Cup on over a random regular-season baseball game and gotten eye rolls from a gentleman at the end of the bar who wasn't even watching the baseball game in the first place.
Because, in America, soccer still isn't quite our sport. We typically prefer American football, where there are breaks every ten seconds and enough commercials to remind us what we're supposed to buy next.
Maybe you've fielded questions from friends and family who suddenly care about soccer but don't understand how a player can represent France while playing for Real Madrid.
Or why MLS teams aren't in the World Cup.
Or whether promotion and relegation are a real thing.
I know you've wanted to sit them down, break out a PowerPoint presentation, and deliver a full footballing TED Talk.
Trust me, I get it.
But I've found that's usually not the best use of our time or energy.
Because beneath all those questions is something wonderful.
They're excited.
They're curious.
They're trying to understand something that has mattered deeply to us for most of our lives.
So instead of focusing on what they don't know, I've started asking them what they do like.
Is it the supporters?
The noise?
The tension?
The eruption when a goal finally comes?
The passion they suddenly feel in their bones?
As someone who works in the beautiful game every day, I know that feeling well.
They're just discovering something that has shaped my entire life.
Instead of criticizing the newly converted, invite them to watch a game with you.
Share a pint.
Answer a question.
Tell a story.
Welcome them in.
The World Cup is a celebration, not a gatekeeping exercise.
For me, I've turned off the pregame debates. I don't really care what former players think about every controversy, whether this U.S. team is the "real deal," or what some television panel predicts will happen next.
To me, football is joy.
It is passion.
It is excitement.
And sometimes listening to people endlessly analyze the beautiful game takes away from what made us fall in love with it in the first place.
So, I turn on the match.
I put my phone on airplane mode.
And I take in the spectacle that is the World Cup.
This is the beautiful game at its highest expression.
This is the world coming together to share something universal.
And our homeland, for all its flaws and all its imperfections, sits at the center of it.
For ninety minutes, we can stop.
For ninety minutes, we can put aside the noise.
For ninety minutes, we can bear witness to the one thing that transcends language, politics, borders, and culture.
The one thing we all understand.
The ball.
Sincerely, The Beautiful Game Believer
