Soccer….Family Style

We Love You, We Love You, We Love You, Columbus

How about that yesterday? My blog went from a fun project I barely keep up while I work on finishing my book about my 20 years following US Soccer, to one of the most talked about thing in the soccer world. It would have been a fun day to have the One Goal and Kick TV guys shooting their documentary style, and I ran back and forth between helping my kids painting all afternoon (it would be early-out school, the day my blog blows up) and keeping up with twitter and comments on my blog. My keyboard, phone and ipad are all covered in paint, but kids made art, and we all survived.

Now how do I follow yesterday?

I mean, it was fun, getting ping backs from Prost Amerika referencing my “quaintly named” blog. I got really funny texts from friends like “Do you know Bill Archer? because he’s calling you a b*tch on Big Soccer” Yeah, I’m not linking to you, Bill. If you were a real journalist, you wouldn’t call women with opinions names, and if you felt that was the only way you could communicate yourself, you’d do it to me here, to my face. I have no time for trolls like you, except to call you out on your cheap misogyny. Go sit with Simon Borg and think about what you’ve done. Now then…I enjoyed Dan Loney’s blog as on point and funny, plus, the twist of calling a Jewish woman’s blog gospel. So many of you have entertained me, but I think the best part for me was the ongoing conversation with Devin Cathcart, aka @ClevelandGooner.

The discussion of whether or not we should have capo leadership is one I really didn’t cover on my blog yesterday, but it was an interesting discussion yesterday, on that made me realize that I swear I wrote a blog about my past experiences in Columbus, but I apparently never published it. I’ll summarize: I was in Columbus last year, as I was in 2009 and 2005 (I missed 2001 due to career stuff…a mistake I vowed never to make again, so I wasn’t there, but I shifted my priorities because of it). Last year was the best of all three of those games, and one of those games that will forever stand out among my 40+ caps. It will go down in history as the first time I ever saw an entire stadium of people stand for the full 90 minutes. They often cheered, sometimes in something close to unison. It brought tears to my eyes, that America had finally arrived. I finally saw a game, where the entire stadium was on some level, supporting the team I love.

Let that sink in, Columbus. I love you guys. In the book I’m writing, you’re a major character. When I was a referee traveling to Warrior Classic in the 90s, I used to love coming to Crew games. Because you have always had a great environment. And Frankie Hejduk. Have I mentioned how much I’ve always loved Frankie, and his mom, who let me cut the ladies room line when I was 5 months pregnant in Korea? Read my book (I’ll finish it soon, promise) and you’ll see, my feelings for Columbus are nothing but love.

I get it. Many of you don’t like capos. Or maybe you do like having “song leaders” just not on a stand, blocking your view. And you really don’t like people coming in from out of state and telling you what to do. I totally get that. Local flavor is the best part about traveling around the world following soccer. Hosting is something I’ll probably never get the chance to experience, although I do live in the fantasy world where the Menace will get their own stadium, and one day, we too will host a game. Y’know…a friendly, I’m not thinking something crazy like a qualifier or anything. I digress…

For everyone of you, who passionately want to bring it on your home field for USMNT, there are people like me, who will never get to host, but still want to be a part of the action. It’s part of why we bought the Midwest Mama flag and schlep it around the country. I may never get to host, but I can bring the flag, and I can capo. I like capos, but when I capo at Menace games, I do it from the back row, because, there’s like 30 of us. Maybe. Those of us who travel want to experience your local flavor, but we also want to bring our experience to the match and share it. I don’t think any of us want to share it in a bossy, take-this-thing-over way (well, maybe Seattle…I roll my eyes…it’s not that they don’t have good ideas, it’s that they feel they must bludgeon you into submission with their ideas. Not really my style).

I’ve never stood on a podium (although there was a running joke about building one for the Menace last year, just to be silly). I’m not coming to take over what you do, and I don’t support anyone else who wants to either. I’m coming to express my mad love for what you do, help support what you do, because what you do is glorious. I regret that anyone ever made you think otherwise. It has always been my hope that the negative blogs that were out there were untrue, because you deserve tons of respect for what you do. I look forward to seeing you all again, and coming together in the biggest supporter’s section ever, and dwarfing what we all did together last year. I hope you’ll accept my offer to help make the section the best it can be, because traveling to places like Columbus and learning from other hosts are what make the Menace supporters the talk of the PDL.

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