During the World Cup, there are two types of American Soccer Fans who can really be annoying to those of us who support MLS, those of us who follow the USMNT through Would Cup qualification, through the Gold Cup, and in other international friendlies, Those of us who love the sport in this country day-in and day-out and not just when the World Cup rolls around.
Plastic American Soccer Fans
The World Cup is always a fun time to be had here in the USA. The past two World Cups that the USA have participated in have had at least one magical moment for the country. In 2010, Landon Donovan produced a magical goal to send the USA to the top of the group to get the USA into the last 16. This past week, John Anthony Brooks scored a brilliant goal against World Cup rival Ghana. During the World Cup, there is usually strong support from the general population here in the USA. However, the support is very short-lived. Usually once the USA is out, the support stops dead.
There is always “World Cup Fever,” but that doesn’t last very long. During the match against Ghana, Red Bull Arena drew out a large crowd for the match-viewing party. People even stormed the pitch after the final whistle. However, there is a strong feeling that most of the fans there at Red Bull Arena don’t even follow the US national team until the World Cup rolls around every four years. It almost seems like the fans are “plastic,” which is a different word for “frontrunning.” They won’t care about the sport of soccer until the USA is playing. They’ll buy the jersey, they’ll wear and parade it around, but still not know nine out of the starting eleven players on the team. Once the USA loses, it’s done, the jersey lands itself in the closet, and the sport doesn’t come back into liking until four years from now.
“Eurosnobs”
From my own observations, most people who even like the sport do not care about the domestic league because the league isn’t as good as the Barclays Premier League or La Liga. It seems like European elitism. Even when European teams come here, they’re usual starting eleven are not even playing. For the elite European clubs, it’s a time for their younger players to get some playing time since they more than likely won’t get a good amount of it during the season. A lot of those people who just support European clubs don’t even support the USA at all because “they don’t win.” Costa Rica is through to the knockout stages, Mexico has a big chance to go through as well. Of course excuses will be thrown around “England/Italy didn’t try.” “Costa Rica just got lucky.”
Those excuses are invalid, especially in the World Cup. But, all of the sudden, once the USA wins a game, the people who talk down to non-UEFA countries come out of the woodwork and scream their happiness for the country they live in into the twittersphere. The problem is that they consider themselves “American Soccer fans” when they more than likely don’t even know that Landon Donovan is not on the World Cup roster this time around. It’s always great to see new fans emerge after the World Cup and root for their country, but to act like they’re real fans when they watch it once every four years is awful.
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Main Photo by Stefano Rellandini
