Soapbox: Soccer

The Women's World Cup matches these past few weeks have brought once again to the surface the awe and admiration I have for the sport of soccer - and the frustration and sadness I feel when confronted with Americans' dismissive attitude towards the sport of the world, known everywhere else as football.

I started watching soccer matches in high school, when my biology teacher was the district's founding coach of the soccer program and some of my closest friends manned the team.  I attended more soccer matches in high school than baseball and basketball games combined (it was Texas after all, so nothing was going to overshadow American football - even for me).  I remember scowling in disgust at our rival's, Waco Midway, field when they rolled out a red carpet and entered the field to the tune of Queen's "We Are the Champions".

But my real respect and humble appreciation for the sport didn't come until 2002, when we had the extremely good fortune (on many levels) of living in South Korea when Korea and Japan co-hosted the  men's World Cup tournament.  We attended two games and from the moment I set foot on the stadium grounds for the first game, I was enamored with the truly global nature of the sport.

We were surrounded by people of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  The 7-foot-tall, lanky, dark chocolate-skinned Senegalese in their flowing tunics and native headdresses mingled with their tow-headed, ivory skinned Scandinavian competitors and the short, squatty, almond-skinned Korean hosts eagerly snapped photos with them and every other nationality present.  It was a whirl of international camaraderie and excitement and anticipation that left our heads spinning.

Soccer breaks down boundaries.  International boundaries.  Socio-economic boundaries.  Gender role boundaries.  Check out this "partial list" of Women's National Association Football (Soccer) Teams around the world - you'll notice there are countries on there where women can't vote, or go out in public unaccompanied, or conduct business on their own behalf, but they can play soccer (see this article about a recent disheartening FIFA ruling that effectively means the end of the Iranian women's national soccer team).

In just about every nation in the world it's soccer that kids gather in dusty, empty lots to play pick-up on warm summer afternoons - like kids in the U.S. used to gather in an impromptu fashion and play baseball - sometimes these kids don't even have shoes and their ball is just a tightly wound globe of rags, but they come together and play.

At worst (and at the risk of having terms like "liberal" and "un-American" lobbed venomously at me from more conservative quarters for saying as much), Americans' disdain for, or simple inattention to or lack of interest in, soccer can be seen as a representation of a larger attitude of "who cares about or needs anything outside of the U.S.?" at the root of some of our most fundamental international relations issues.

At best, it keeps us from truly feeling and being part of something larger and greater than our own biological family, ethnic community or national citizenship - it's a missed opportunity to just be a part of the amazingly diverse race of humankind populating this small planet we all inhabit together - no boundaries recognized.