Star-Spangled Banter
Let’s not get carried away and turn a soccer rivalry into a serious issue. Remember that it was not too long ago that Honduras and El Salvador passed from a mutual recrimination into a full-fledged war over a soccer match.
In the first place, let’s all agree that the behavior of some of the fans who pelted the U.S. team with debris during a U.S.-Mexico soccer game at the Coliseum on Sunday is deplorable. I find it disgraceful that the fans did not show respect due to the American National Anthem. Let’s also agree that security guards at the stadium were, to say the least, negligent in performing their duty.
Next time both teams play, the promoters should ensure that real security guards are placed in strategic places like the tunnels to the lockers and the corners of the field. Fortunately, however, I understand nobody got hurt. Or was any U.S. player harmed?
Having said that, and without condoning the mob’s uncivilized behavior, I would submit to you, Alexi Lalas, that such conduct is, unfortunately, a typical mob behavior. And if you don’t believe me, I would suggest to you to go sit among an Oakland Raider mob wearing a 49er shirt. You’ll be lucky to come away unscathed, let alone wet.
Alexi, I can understand your frustration. After all, it was your fault that Mexico’s right defender, Salvador Carmona, ran the wing all the way to the corner from where he was able to center a great ball right to the heart of the small area.
I can also understand you must feel bad because you were so slow to mark Luis Hernandez, one of the fastest, most skillful Mexican forwards. He’s so good that not even Kasey Keller could stop his beautiful header.
But relax, Alexi. Don’t exaggerate! Yes, I agree it must be uncomfortable to feel like a pilgrim in your own land. Yes, it must feel awkward for the national team to be forced to travel to Boston to find a less hostile group of fans when you are playing against Mexico. I wouldn’t feel too safe, though, if you were playing the Irish national team there.
But if you feel like blaming someone, don’t blame the Mexicans. Try blaming the U.S. fans because they are the ones who don’t show up to make the stadium feel even. Then ask yourself why the U.S. fans did not go en masse to the Coliseum when you and your team performed an amazing and gorgeous feat beating Brazil, the world champion?
Do you know why the fans do not support the U.S. national team in spite of a record that would make proud many nations that have been playing soccer for more than a hundred years?
In America, the most popular sport on earth has been declared an alien sport. In spite of the large number of kids who now play the sport in the U.S., larger than the number of kids who play baseball or football, soccer is not on the radar screen of the media in the U.S.
No major U.S. newspaper, including this one, covers soccer in a consistent manner. And I mean soccer as it is played here or elsewhere in the world. And the same neglect applies to TV and radio. Thus, Alexi, you shouldn’t be surprised to see, feel, hear and recognize that the crowds that fill soccer stadiums do not feel familiar. Perhaps you should try to win them over, because they are the ones who go to the games and pay your salary.
I cannot agree with you, Lalas, when you stray into a peculiar type of melancholic sociology and indict a whole community. I have a problem when you wrap yourself in the stars and stripes and ponder, believing perhaps you are the true reincarnation of Uncle Sam, how can Mexicans be so ungrateful and cheer for Mexico!
When you wonder aloud whether the people who booed you and the U.S. team realize that “tomorrow morning all of those people are going to get up and work in the United States and live in the United States and have all the benefits of living in the United States,” as you were quoted in this newspaper, you have gone too far. For heaven’s sake, Alexi, this is just a game!
The problem with taking a game so seriously is that you drift into a dangerous zone. The current agenda between Mexico and the United States is complicated enough with issues like immigration, drug trafficking and the most intense trade relation ever. Let’s not add futbol.
The xenophobic, nativist, protectionist and isolationist undercurrents that are alive and well in California should not be inflamed with anti-Mexican rhetoric because of a soccer game. Let’s keep things in their right proportion.
I wish you could see the tape of the game. I would specially recommend you to see a scene I saw. When the referee blew the whistle, Luis Hernandez and Eddie Pope, who had hit, elbowed, kicked and spit at each other throughout the whole game, got into a friendly embrace and exchanged shirts. That was a fitting end to a game that was magnificently fought by both teams. Perhaps you should have tried to find Ramon Ramirez and exchange shirts with him. That would have been a good gesture, and perhaps the rascals who pelted you with debris would have taken a different attitude seeing you dressed in a green shirt and Ramon in a U.S. shirt.
