Manufactured Attendance

I've been thoroughly unimpressed by the quality of (for the sake of thedrunkenstriker's primary audience) football displayed thus far in the current MLS season. While living Saigon, I'd heard that the MLS was improving: additional clubs had entered the league, crowd sizes were increasing, talent was sprouting up and being flown in from Europe, etc. The fact that the United States had more supporters in South Africa than any other nation (aside from the hosts, naturally) seemed like confirmation that these rumors of growth had some legitimacy.

But, ya know, a US supporter who has traveled to South Africa is a wee different than, say, a Mexican who has traveled halfway cross the globe to support his/her country. While in South Africa last summer, I was a bit appalled in talking to some of my fellow countrymen who had sacrificed their money and time to serve in Uncle Sam's Army; that many individuals' knowledge of our national squad was limited to Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, and Clint Dempsey. Others still, after surveying the pitch during our opener against England in Rustenburg turned to the nearest guy in the bar or stadium wearing a white sashed jersey and asked, "Where's Freddy Adu?". No joke, on the walk from my hostel to the Ellis Park Stadium to watch our match against Slovenia, I was explaining the concept of offsides to a North Carolinian.

Oh yeah, US National Team supporters are one-of-a-kind. No other country can claim to have such ill-informed followers. My theory: the US excels in nationalism. We f'n bleed the Red, White, and Blue and whether our sons and/or daughters are heading to war or to the World Cup, we're gonna show(off) our support.

And don't get me started on our chants... Essentially, we have one. It's three letters long. The first letter is 'U' and the last 'A'. When delivered, you must try and achieve as deep of tone as possible- achieved en masse, you'll produce a chant that effectively makes others both laugh at you and hate you at once. Seriously, there's plenty I like about my country and our football team, but I hate this chant. Hate it.

Ok, this is getting lengthy, but I'm gonna plow forward in my intended trajectory so that I can tie the lameness of our National team's support with the lameness of our domestic support. First, watch this video taken at a Vancouver Whitecap (a first-year club in the MLS) match:

Ok, so, I love Steve Nash. I can't say that about many Canadians (frankly, I find most I meet to be extreme braggarts with a real superiority complex when it comes to their relationship with their southern neighbors). Nash and I are both alumni of Santa Clara University and we're both above average basketball and football players (he's far above-average on the hardwood, but I reckon I could defend him well on the pitch). Nash has long hair; I once had long hair. Steve Nash's father used to play for the Canadian National team; my father used to referee high school girls soccer. The similarities go on and on...

I think it's rad that Steve Nash would be in the stands at one of his home club's matches this year. I mean this guy is a two-time NBA MVP and it looks like he's chilling in Row L or something. I wouldn't put it past the guy to suggest that he's probably got a flask of whiskey in his pocket, too!

But notice the crowd's reaction. They're as pumped as I would be, but maybe a little too pumped. You get the feeling that when the match is over and they go home to their families eh they'll have more to say about who was in the crowd eh than about who won the contest eh. And these are Canadians. You'd think with nothing else to do up in their country apart from watching hockey, going ice-fishing, and making maple syrup, they'd have the time to really care about their football clubs.

In the US, I'm afraid the state of futbol fandom is even more bleak. In matches I've attended, the lure of attending seems to be for men: how drunk you can in the course of ninety minutes (+ extra time), for women: somebody has to drive the SUV home, for kids: the fact that all your other youth club teammates will be there.

Of course, there are encouraging exceptions to the sorry supporters criticized above, but for the most part, by far the truest contingent of supporters in the MLS (in Chicago, for sure) are the foreigners (mostly Latinos) who come to the matches because they love the sport and are compelled to watch the sport and support the local club that represents that sport. Their blood isn't sullied with American football, baseball, basketball, and NASCAR and is in constant need of injections of touchdowns, homeruns, alley-oops, crashes, bloody faces, stops and gos and highlights, highlights, highlights.. No-their blood flows in the milder pace of the beautiful game.