Monday, August 13, 2007

brief thoughts on soccer

oh demarcus. i'm glad you're playing for the rangers. i'm sorry you had to face racist taunts. but i'm especially glad you're scoring goals. hopefully you'll keep it up, and bring that back next time you play for the national side. and keep up the good work with the gers. it makes me happy, in a minor, i follow your team from a long way away sense. good luck wednesday in belgrade.

on an interesting note, that game had 11k people listed as attendance for a tuesday uefa champions league match (last tuesday). the galaxy's match againt dc last thursday drew 45k. and they say there's no market for soccer in the us? it's not every game, but still. and sadly, as i click through other espn soccer scores, that stat is frequently left off. i'd like to see how mls compares on a regular basis.

finally, i find it strange to encounter so many soccer stories about race. this is no naivete on my part. i know that we have race problems in the u.s. and, the rest of the world is nothing different. i also know that fifa has worked hard to really eliminate racism, especially through punishing clubs for the misdeeds of their fans. but really, what are the large groups of fans doing, chanting the taunts? who thinks this is alright? cheer for your teams, cheer against the other club, whatever. but dropping racist blasts? stupid. especially considering that your team probably isn't all one race.

No comments: