World Cup Day 12: Liking Yourself Is Job One

The streak is over. After 10 consecutive days of spilling my thoughts on the oversized World Cup unfolding before us here in North America, I finally missed a day. Life outside of soccer chose to impose itself and I was unable to carve out the time I need to organize the swirling madness of my brain into something coherent for the newsletter.

I must convey my sincere and deepest apologies for this utter failure. I sense your disappointment and I am appalled that I have let you down. I will strive with every ounce of my being to open the path I know I must walk to brush against the whisper of a thought that might lead to your forgiveness.

Father's Day was fun though. Being a dad rules. I might have to write a bit about how my five-year-old, Thiago, is interacting with me and with the soccer during the World Cup.

As for my return and what we might consider here about the weekend we experienced at the World Cup, there's plenty to pick from. I, like almost everyone else who does not own a mate and bombilla, am enthralled by the exploits of Cabo Verde, the tiny island nation that stunned Spain by keeping the reigning European champions scoreless in Blue Sharks' World Cup debut, then scored its first two World Cup goals in a 2-2 draw with Uruguay on Sunday.

I had half-adopted Cabo Verde before the tournament began because of my exposure to the island's diaspora community in Rhode Island, but I never expected such a thrilling ride for country at the World Cup. I wrote about some of Cabo Verde's fascinating and troubling history after the draw with Spain; I imagine I might have more reason to write about the country and its soccer team again if a victory over Saudi Arabia in the final group stage match puts Cabo Verde through to the Round of 32.

Cabo Verde's achievement stands out so it's easy to recall and comment on here, but I'll let slip something that I've been loathe to admit until today: I think there's too much World Cup.

Don't get me wrong, so much of the tournament has been brilliant and I'm not sure I would willingly give up the moments it has given us. Every day delivers some new multifaceted jewel of the sport's brilliance, whether it be an individual player performance or the collective achievement of an unheralded team. Cabo Verde isn't alone in minting new soccer history for itself in this 48-team tournament.

It's just that it becomes more difficult to fully examine and appreciate each jewel when it is so quickly followed by a new one bursting into view. There's no room for the games to breath and as a consequence, less opportunity to fully appreciate their facets.

This World Cup is well and truly a made-for-TV World Cup, a thing that would be true even without the commercial-ready hydration breaks. The abundance is meant to flood the zone with "content" (in the sense that everything is content) in an era when that is the only idea that matters. If your head is spinning, that's the point.

We're also learning that the modern game, in a world where everything is connected and players from all corners of the map can be found, signed, and developed into competent professional players, is making it easier for the lesser-regarded nations to hold their own against established powers. The World Cup winner is very likely to be a country that already has a trophy to its name, but the gap has closed enough that a 48 team tournament isn't throwing up more than a small handful of ugly scorelines.

If the tournament is too big it's because of the bloat, not the competitive balance.

The genie is out of the bottle and we're never going to back to a leaner World Cup (and I'm certain all of the same concerns were raised each time FIFA added teams to the World Cup finals), but there should a point where jamming too many games into too small a window becomes the reason to stop expanding the field.

With apologies to Mexico and Canada and while acknowledging that the scenes in those two countries have been incredible, the world views this as an American World Cup. That's evident in the number of social media posts I see decrying the water breaks (created by very not-American FIFA) as an American capitalist creation as well as in the feel-good stories of soccer fans from around the world interacting with American culture in heartwarming and often hilarious ways.

Americans certainly view this as an American World Cup, a fact that magnifies one of our worst habits as American soccer fans; talking down our soccer culture as somehow defective when compared to <insert soccer culture here>. Usually the other soccer culture in question is English (especially for the us native English speakers), but by no means does it have to be. We've got an especially virulent streak of American soccer support that would love to replicate the barras of South America here in América del Norte.

The inferiority complex was on full display in discussion about the incredible crowd that showed up in Seattle to support the USMNT during its 2-0 win over Australia on Friday. Instead of thrilling in the size and boisterousness of the nearly 67,000 (some of whom were there to back the Aussies), a certain kind of American soccer observer pointed to the "bad chants" typically used by USMNT supporters. Although I don't directly engaged with the Men In Blazers universe, I came across a suggestion that American fans lean into the "bad chants" framing by creating a new chant that declares we know our chants are bad, but...get this...WE DON'T CARE.

The entire discussion is predicated on the idea that sports supporting cultures can be placed on an some objective scale of quality and that American sports supporting culture (and specifically our soccer supporting culture) belongs on the bottom of the scale.

Apologies for being blunt, but this is bullshit. American soccer fans don't need to apologize for how it supports their teams. If they choose to ape something that originates abroad, an instinct that flows from ours being a nations of immigrants, fine. If they choose to chant "FIRE FIRE FIRE" or "U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A" for 90 minutes, that's fine too.

Sure, it could be annoying and observers from other places might express (biased) opinions about it. They're entitled to. I'm entitled to not give a shit what they think.

Taking our cues from other culture can make sense for an insecure soccer country still working out what it wants to be 40-ish years into its first serious attempts to participate in the world's number one sport. I once wrote a response to an English writer who trailed Union fans and wrote a sneering, mean-spirited review of the cosplay (down to the Doc Martens) those fans fell into as they inaugurated Philadelphia's hardcore MLS support. At the time, I took issue with an English writer exoriating American fans for trying to be like English fans when their only crime was following the example set by the soccer culture they had been told was the examplar.

That doesn't mean I don't wish those Union fans or any other group of American soccer fans would strive to make something more unique to this country. Too many Americans act as though we're interlopers in the sport, as if the rest of the world (specifically Europe and Latin America) own the game and we're only borrowing it. Every American effort in the sport is treated as if it's an imperfect approximation of something better from somewhere else, rather than the natural product of America's already entrenched sporting culture.

There's something truly insidious and self-limiting about internalizing this idea. It leads to a drag not just on our ability to enjoy the game and our versions of it, but on the development of a supporting culture that reflects our national character and speaks to our belief that our soccer is as legitimate as any.

It's admittedly not the most interesting or original idea, but the crowd in Seattle joining together to serande a triumphant USMNT with John Denver's classice "Take Me Home, Country Roads" stood out to me not just because the vibes were immaculate, but because the moment felt American.

Maybe we stop worrying about our "bad chants" and sing the songs we know.

PROGRAMMING NOTES

Radio today! I'm on the air from 4-7 PM ET with Eric Wynalda to talk all things World Cup. Come by.

See you tomorrow (I think).