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Ugliness in the Beautiful Game
The United States Women’s Soccer Team Loses to Brazil
By Amin Sharif
I divide sports
fans into two categories: those who love football
(soccer) and those who don’t. The former are the
majority of sport fans in the world. The later are
mostly myopic American males. These are men who think
that the World Cup is something to pour a bottle of beer
into while at a tailgate party. They have no idea that
more people watch the World Cup than the Super Bowl,
baseball, and basketball play-offs, and the Stanley Cup
combined. Not even the appearance of a phenomenal talent
like David Beckham, perhaps the most famous athlete in
the world, will bring these American men to the game.
When it comes to
soccer, they just don’t get it. And, since the number of
African-American males who have an appreciation for the
game is minuscule, I often find myself with no one with
whom to share my passion for the game. I feel like a
lone addict with no one to share my high.
Presently, the best
men and women’s football teams in the world are
attempting to qualify for the next World Cup. So
naturally when the United States National Women’s Team
was scheduled to play Brazil, it was a game that I knew
I had to watch. The United States team is a juggernaut,
ranked No. 1 in the world and the winner of 51 straight
matches. The team includes Wamback and Lilly—threats to
score at anytime and from anywhere on the pitch. Their
goalkeeper, Hope Solo, has been phenomenal. She has not
given up a goal in over three hundred minutes.
On the Brazil side
stands the formidable Marta and Cristiane—a deadly duo
whose abilities with a soccer ball is unmatched. They
are to women’s soccer what Serena and Venus Williams are
to tennis. Marta is a particular deadly foe and is
considered by many to be the best female player in the
game. Thus, the stage was set for a clash between
arguably the two best teams in female football. It was
the kind of game that make fans of the “beautiful game”
salivate.
But all the
anticipation and expectation for this monumental
showdown were soon dashed when Greg Ryan decided to
start Briana Scurry as goalkeeper and not Hope Solo.
This seemed to be a huge blunder, as Brazil went on to
defeat the United States 4-0. In NFL terms such a score
would be equivalent to losing the Super Bowl by a score
of 63-0. It was a humiliating defeat by any standard.
What was perhaps
more disturbing than the score of the game were the
comments of Hope Solo after the game. She flatly stated
that if she was in goal instead of Scurry that she would
have prevented many of the goals scored by Brazil. Such
comments are typical of American athletes who constantly
cry for the ball or to be put in the game regardless of
the situation. Solo’s comments were wholly unfair to
Scurry and simply don’t reflect the facts of the game.
For what Solo fails to acknowledge is that even if she
prevented every goal scored by Brazil’s team, the US
side did not score a single goal—and you can’t win if
you can’t score. Casting aspersions on one’s coach and
by implication on Briana Scurry may be emotionally
satisfying but shows a lack of maturity on Ms. Hope’s
part. But there is a lot of that going around today—just
ask Mike (Bro. can you light that joint for me?) Vick.
Might I remind Ms.
Solo that Briana Scurry was once considered the best
goalkeeper in the game. And, if she is now passed her
prime, this is simply part of being a professional
athlete. But, when Briana was on top, she was a thing of
beauty. She was a part of the1999 national team that won
the World Cup which put American women’s football on the
map. She was an Olympic gold medalist. And, she has 54
shutouts in her career.
This is a black
woman, who along with her teammates, made women’s soccer
fashionable. Without her, no one but a few diehard fans
would even care if Ms. Solo was in goal against Brazil.
And what of the Brazil team that beat the US team, Ms.
Solo talks as if it was a given that the US would even
beat them—an assumption that reflects the height of
arrogance when one considers the talent of the
Brazilians.
One can easily
dismiss Ms. Solo’s comments as a momentary lapse in
judgment of a disappointed young woman. She may wake up
tomorrow or the next day and regret her statements. She
may even apologize and go on to have a great career.
But, there are too many self-absorbed athletes in the
world today. And if Ms. Solo does not want to be counted
among their numbers, she had better spend some time
reflecting.
After all, you did
not win a single game by yourself. There were ten other
players who made the US team great. Instead of pouting
over not being played, she should be consoling her
teammates and preparing for the next match. If it is all
about the team then she will show up and be ready to do
her best to help them win their next match. But, if it
is all about her, then she will continue to complain and
let her teammates down when they need her the most.
posted 28 September 2007
  Think Twice
Before Attending A European Soccer Match—International
soccer has been plagued for years by violence among
fans, including racial incidents. But FIFA, soccer’s
Zurich-based world governing body, said there has
been a recent surge in discriminatory behavior
toward blacks by fans and other players, an
escalation that has dovetailed with the signing of
more players from Africa and Latin America by elite
European clubs.
Players and
antiracism experts said they expected offensive
behavior during the tournament, including
monkey-like chanting; derisive singing; the hanging
of banners that reflect neofascist and racist
beliefs; and perhaps the tossing of bananas or
banana peels, all familiar occurrences during
matches in Spain, Italy, eastern Germany and eastern
Europe.Racist behavior at soccer matches is
primarily displayed by men and is fueled by several
factors, according to experts: alcohol; the
perceived “us versus them” threat of
multiculturalism in societies that were once more
ethnically homogenous; the difficult economic
transition of eastern European nations since the
fall of the Berlin Wall; and crude attempts to
unnerve opposing players during bitter, consuming
rivalries.—StreetsideInvestor
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Watch “Soccer’s Lost Boys” (Vanguard
Documentary)
Consider this a companion piece to Baff
Akoto’s Football Fables documentary, which
we’ve profiled on this blog. I’ve yet to see
it, but in watching Baff talk about it in
interviews, I feel like I have a good sense
of what to expect from it. Currently playing
the film festival circuit, it should come my
way eventually. The below 45-minute piece is
courtesy of Current TV’s Vanguard series,
titled Soccer’s Lost Boys. It explores the
more disagreeable elements of the sport’s
global popularity – something that’s been
termed “the new slave trade.”
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You gotta
move
Lyrics by
Mississippi Fred McDowell and
Rev. Gary Davis
You got to move
You got to move
You got to move, child
You got to move
But when the Lord
Gets ready
You got to move
(guitar)
You may be high
You may be low
You may be rich, child
You may be po'
But when the Lord gets ready
You've got to move
(guitar)
You see that woman
That walk the street
You see the policeman
Out on his beat
But when the Lord gets ready
You got to move
(guitar)
You got to move
You got to move
You've got to move, child
You've got to
But when the Lord gets ready
You got to move. |
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Bill Moyers Interviews Douglass A. Blackmon
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06202008/watch2.html
Douglas A. Blackmon,
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans
from the Civil War to World War II (2008)
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Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power
By Zbigniew Brzezinski
By 1991, following the disintegration first of the Soviet bloc and then of the Soviet Union itself, the United States was left standing tall as the only global super-power. Not only the 20th but even the 21st century seemed destined to be the American centuries. But that super-optimism did not last long. During the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, the stock market bubble and the costly foreign unilateralism of the younger Bush presidency, as well as the financial catastrophe of 2008 jolted America—and much of the West—into a sudden recognition of its systemic vulnerability to unregulated greed. Moreover, the East was demonstrating a surprising capacity for economic growth and technological innovation. That prompted new anxiety about the future, including even about America’s status as the leading world power. This book is a response to a challenge. It argues that without an America that is economically vital, socially appealing, responsibly powerful, and capable of sustaining an intelligent foreign engagement, the geopolitical prospects for the West could become increasingly grave. The ongoing changes in the distribution of global power and mounting global strife make it all the more essential that America does not retreat into an ignorant garrison-state mentality or wallow in cultural hedonism but rather becomes more strategically deliberate and historically enlightened in its global engagement with the new East.
Q&A with
Zbigniew Brzezinski |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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