US Soccer Identity: Confused or Just Rebellious?

Photo Credits: Unknown

When I find myself watching soccer games in an American bar, I almost always have the following conversation with one of my fellow patrons:

Patron: "What are you watching?"

Me: "Soccer."

Patron: "Who's playing."

Me: "[Team A] and [Team B]."

Patron: "Oh .... So how did you become a fan? Did you play as a kid?"

And there it is, the one pet peeve I have as a soccer fan in America: I am constantly having to justify and explain why I enjoy and follow the sport. But do I really have any room to complain? No matter how many times die-hard fans argue to the contrary, many Americans are convinced that soccer is un-American and that being involved in soccer past the age of 12 is something to be explained. This makes for - if nothing else - a frustrating sense of identity in American soccer fans.

So when Jason Davis of Match Fit USA began musing this morning on his Twitter account about Americans ceding their soccer identity to British announcers, it got me thinking: Is the American soccer identity one of a crippling inferiority complex or just a rebellious adaptation of the world's sport to the American experience?

On one hand, you have the exquisitely passionate groups of fans like Sam's Army and American Outlaws, the Hudson Street Hooligans, Emerald City Supporters, Screaming Eagles and so on and so forth. While they support the subersive "Sixth Sport" (after American football, baseball, basketball, hockey and NASCAR), they are inherently American in their zealous fandom. Painted stomachs, foam fingers, tail gating and other staples of American sport have made their way into US Soccer. The fans have taken their passion as Americans and applied it to their sport, their team, their way of life.

On the other hand, we have the Soccer Mom syndrome which is unavoidably bound with the perception of the sport in the US. Over 90% of all American kids under the age of 10 are shepherded back and forth from practice and games by the infamous Soccer Mom. Soccer is a safer sport. It's far easier and cheaper to equip kids for it ($10 shin guards and an old plastic milk jug filled with water). And in the words of Dave Egger, it tolerates a fascinatingly high level of incompetence in the early years. But by the age of 10, 98% of those kids have dropped the sport to move on to the "real sports." As such, we find ourselves in a peculiar situation: A majority of Americans between the ages of 20 and 30 have played soccer in their life, but were never pressed to take the sport "seriously" or with an respectful consideration.

And then - if all of this wasn't creating enough confusion for the average soccer fan in America - there's the international stigma placed on American soccer. Many American fans are convinced we're "doing it wrong." The best soccer is played in any country BUT the United States. And the inability of the "average American" to understand the beauty and value of soccer in a global context is just another source of beleaguered frustration.

In light of all these contradictions, it's easy to see why the identity of the soccer fan is a prfoudnly confused one. We love our game, but with a genuine knowledge of the game comes the inevitable realization that our leagues, players and teams just aren't the best on the continent, let alone the world. This can be a tough fact to swallow when we are brought up in a sports culture and a country which places an fanatic emphasis on being "the best."

An inferiority complex is inevitable, but the passion continues to grow. And at the end of the day, that's all soccer is really about.