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Life often offers up some interesting juxtapositions. I’ve spent the last 36 hours thinking why people in the soccer world were worried about me traveling to Qatar as a Jewish soccer fan. Obviously, I’m not quiet about my Jewish identity, but it’s hardly stamped on my passport. My two blonde children and blonde husband are hardly screaming out “Tribe”! to anyone.
Case in point: I went to synagogue tonight to celebrate Hanukkah with my family. As services ended, we gathered in the social hall for dinner and discussion. An older gentleman was there and purposefully introduced himself to me. “Hi, I’m Mr. Jewish Sounding Name. And you are?” “Tanya, Tanya Keith. Nice to meet you.” He started sputtering, “Keefe?” “NoKeith K E I T H” I said, a little annoyed. Then he did it: “Keith!? Well that’s not a Jewish sounding name!” I will save my commentary on how Jews shoot themselves in the foot with these comments all the time for another blog, but suffice it to say, I let him know that was inappropriate to say and left without further discussion.
So here I am, caught between two worlds. With some close minded people in the synagogue, I’m not Jewish enough. In the soccer community, I’m too Jewish to be comfortable in Qatar. I think in both instances, my response it, I’m just as Jewish and as big a soccer fan as I need to be. If you don’t think I belong, that’s for you to work out….on your own time. So I hope you meant what you said about bringing Middle East cultures together, Qatar bidding committee. Because I may miss Shabbat services, but I have a 16 year streak of World Cups that I’m in no mood to break.
I am not happy. And when Mama ain’t happy…..we must be going to Qatar.
I was so excited for the announcement from FIFA this morning. I thought that the earning potential for the US hosting would be a slam dunk. Then I woke up hearing my son getting up. My son that my husband was supposed to take so I could start writing this post in the morning. Note to self: three year olds do NOT understand the gravity of FIFA Decision Day. So I’m juggling getting him ready, me ready, cursing ESPN for talking about basketball all morning, and waiting. And waiting. FIFA started 40 minutes late. Would’ve helped me to know that ahead of time, so I could have dropped him off and had some peace.
So I finally gave up waiting for FIFA when? About 7 minutes before they announced. I was less than two miles from my house and I saw that Russia got 2018 on Twitter and I called my fellow Des Moines American Outlaw Corey so I could get audio and not be alone in my car with a three year old when I heard. So I heard it, through the phone, and didn’t really believe it until I heard Corey’s expletive commentary. Qatar. Really.
All I know about Qatar is from one of my soccer travel buddies, Brock. You’ve seen him on TV. He’s one of those guys that wear the 9/11 Eagle shirts. We had a contest in South Africa to see who could score more media whore points. Trust me, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably seen him. His day job is building the Doha Airport. And he reports via Facebook about the project and the culture. It’s nothing revolutionary. Mostly his reports were about how bazaar it is to need a permit for alcohol.
I’m trying to tell myself that I’ll be 50 and won’t care as much about drinking. But I think that’s a bunch of crap, of course I’ll still care about drinking. And about being a woman with rights. And a Jew. It wasn’t as much fun going to games in Nuremberg. It was a little creepy, and I have a feeling that I’ll be watching my back and not ever really comfortable. When we flew through Dubai on the way to South Africa, we took a cab around the city…a ladies cab. They have separate cabs that women can go in. I think Qatar is going to be a big cultural shift for most soccer fans.
Once I got off the phone with Corey, I called Chad, another Des Moines soccer fan that typically has some good analysis. He started rattling off stats to me: Qatar is 4416 square miles. Think about that number. See if this helps: Iowa is 56276 square miles. Connecticut is 5543 square miles. The 2nd largest city in Qatar is SMALLER than the Des Moines metro area.
I think it’s irresponsible to build infrastructure to support a World Cup in a country that size. I understand that they’ll pack up stadiums and ship them around the world, but what about the hotels? After sleeping in many, many Korean “love hotels,” it scares me to think what will be called into housing in Qatar.
And air conditioning a field? I believe that technology exists, but do we have any business using it for something like this in an age when we should be cutting energy consumption? I can’t see how that’s going to be a green thing…air conditioning the outdoors.
Finally, this is personal for me. Qatar will, G-d willing, be my 8th consecutive men’s World Cup. Not going is not an option. The expense comparison for England/USA and Russia/Qatar is huge. There goes the college fund. People were joking with me today about inspiring my children to play in 2022/23 and 2026/27. I’m going to have to, because those kids are going to need some serious scholarship money.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chicago, Playoff, USWNT, WCQ, Women's World Cup, World Cup Qualifier, WWC
1999 was one of those blissful pre-kid, pre-business owner years for me, when I could pick up and go to soccer games whenever I wanted, and I was a newly minted US soccer ultra fan, despite our performance in 1998 France World Cup. I wanted to see as many Women’s World Cup games as I could. My mom had a contact in New Jersey that was able to get us tickets to the opening match, which remains the only game I’ve seen with my mom (and I wasn’t even that rowdy at that game!)
That was all it took. I was hooked on the Women’s World Cup and continued on to games in Chicago and the final in Pasadena. Americans clearly loved soccer, but I remember talking with my travel buddies that night as we relaxed around the hotel pool after the final about how this was quite possibly the pinnacle for the USWNT. We hypothesized that it was only a matter of time until the rest of the world caught up to our skill level, and an unknown whether the US could support a professional women’s soccer league.
So here we are, eleven years later. Women’s professional soccer has sputtered and struggled along over the last decade. And the USWNT had become so dominant, that I think people forgot to support them. I took my daughter to a USWNT World Cup game in 2003, but I haven’t traveled the world for them as I have the Men’s team (there are limits to money and vacation time after all). We assumed that the US Women would qualify for 2011 Germany, and we’d go visit family and see them there.
Then, the unthinkable happened. We didn’t advance. And now we’re playing for our WWC lives today in Chicago. In our family, we’ve decided it’s time to start supporting the Women’s game, and I know we’re not alone. It’s fun to read women’s soccer fans learning about American Outlaws, and awesome to see American Outlaws coming out to support not just the USMNT. It makes me proud, as a soccer fan and a mother to a daughter that America has woken up to the fact that we can’t just assume our domination of the Women’s game anymore. And now that Mia has retired, we still have some amazing women playing for us, and not just Kristine Lilly (the woman I named my daughter after).
So today, while I dedicate myself to running my retail store on Small Business Saturday, my husband is taking the kids to Chicago with a few other American Outlaws to support US Women’s Soccer. I am very much there in spirit, and hope you will join me in paying a little more attention to the Women’s game. Today. Next Summer. At your local soccer games. We have to encourage our girls to stick with soccer, and continue to build our player and referee development programs for girls. We can’t afford to turn our backs on the rest of the world creeping up behind us any longer. And to the women it has been a pleasure to watch for the last 11+ years, you go girls…all the way to Germany.
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Match Fit USA posted today about trouble in Australia’s A-League, as well as in MLS, with cursing in the supporters section disrupting the enjoyment of women, in particular mothers with children, who would also be watching the game. It took only minutes for me to get Twitter mentions as the representative of mothers who still want to sit with the supporters. But I’ll go a step further.
I’m a mother who LOVES the supporters section. I will sit with the supporters even if I’m not one of them. I just think it’s more fun to watch a game with the people who are passionate about the game. And yes, I take my 3 year old and 8 year old with me into the supporters section, because they also LOVE singing and chanting and dancing under the banner.
This means that I *gasp* have to talk to my children about how things are in the world. There is “stadium language” that is OK to use at a soccer game that we would NEVER use on a play date. And when possible, we do teach the kids the kid friendly version of cheers. For instance, instead of “You suck, A–hole” our kids know it as “Your socks have holes!” It works, I swear.
There are times when they do pick up some rather nasty language. We took the kids to the Chicago Fire game the night before a USMNT game and in Section 8 (the supporters section). The Fire was playing Columbus Crew, who wears head to toe yellow. And to the tune of “Yellow Submarine”, I notice my 3 year old son had picked up with perfect pronunciation “Why are you such a yellow f—ing team?”
OK, so I wasn’t thrilled, but along with my dread of ever having him sing that song in preschool, I was a little proud. Here was my little guy, singing away with the rest of the supporters. It was the same swell of pride I felt in Germany in 2006 when his then 3-1/2 year old sister led a train full of soccer fans in “Everywhere we go”. I think it’s cool that my kids are supporters, and I’m willing to take the good with the bad. Which is easier for me to post a few weeks after the fact, now that my son has not belted our the Chicago Fire version of Yellow Sub in the middle of the supermarket.
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See the guy up there? In front of the crowd? He is the song leader for the supporters section. And he’s my favorite guy at any given game.
I got in an argument with someone at the 2010 World Cup over this. A WC virgin was getting annoyed at our section’s song leader because the virgin didn’t want to sing or cheer. He was yelling at the song leader to turn around and watch the game. He was berating him for coming all the way to South Africa and not watching the game.
I look at that fact the other way around. The song leader came all the way to South Africa to lead a section of fans in songs and chants. It’s one thing to get up in front of your friends, when you know they’ll follow whatever cheer you start. It’s a whole other level of guts to get up in front of a mixed section: supporters, fans, people who just got tickets, and a few opposing fans and try to lead that section in chants.
I was remembering the song leaders (from Sparta, New Jersey…a couple of great guys) from US vs England as I watched this guy at the Fire last night lead my kids through a bunch of cheers. It made me think of how proud I would be if one day my kids were up in front of a section, leading soccer chants. I may combust from sheer pride.
I think, other than raising a national team player, a song leader might be the next best thing. It takes confidence, leadership, bravery, public speaking. It means you have the respect of your peers. There are worse things your kids could do for sure.
For the Sparta guys, I just pointed out to my virgin seat mate that there were plenty of sections that weren’t singing, and if he didn’t want to sing, perhaps he could be respectful and just move. Rest assured if it’s my kid leading the cheers, I won’t be so diplomatic.
If I’m at a soccer game and not under the giant banner/flag, it’s bad mojo. It feels unlucky, and I can’t really get into the game. Apparently, my daughter now feels the same way. She lit up like a light blub when she got to touch the giant Fire banner.
Yes, it’s taken me this long to cool down about Bradley getting rehired to coach US Soccer for another World Cup. I’ve liked Bradley as a coach. I think he’s done some great things. But I think the team we took to South Africa could have gone further in the tournament save a few critical coaching decisions.
But more than that, I feel like I’m facing frustration with the American Soccer system. I’m tired of being satisfied with getting out of the group. It left me wanting so much more. I know we can do better. But it’s like parenting: how do you tell US Soccer that you’re happy with their B+ performance, but a little disappointed because you think they were capable of an A?
And what’s with this buzz that America should have an American coach? I don’t get that. We are an immigrant nation. Does the coach have to be American born? American born parents? What about Klinsman, who lives in the US but isn’t a citizen?
I want a coach that understands the US game through and through, but also has the goods to take us to the next level. I want a coach that inspires me. Someone that makes me feel like getting TST7s* isn’t crazy. Bradley, show me that you’re that guy and I’ll continue to follow you around the world. Well, who are we kidding. I’ll follow no matter what. Show me that you’re the guy I’ll follow AND write nice things about.
*TST7 is the FIFA abbreviation for Team Specific Tickets to follow your team to the World Cup Final.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chicago, Fire, MLS, Poland, US Soccer, USMNT
I know. There’s been plenty to talk about. We have a new coach contract, my 3 year old has learn to lead chants at the American Outlaws watch parties, and then there’s the new qualifying for Concacaf to discuss.
But real life of work, parenting, roller derby and the rest can get pretty distracting. Soccer is always on my mind, but not always at my keyboard.
Yet here I am sitting in traffic outside Toyota Park on my way into Fire vs Crew as the warm up for US vs Poland. I don’t watch a lot of club soccer, but this WC cycle (2014) my goal is to get more involved in the club game and where everyday soccer in America is these days.
These two games are the first we’ve been able to take the kids to in a while, which is always exciting. Hopefully we’ll get to see a few of our travel buddies from American Outlaws and Sam’s Army. We’ll see how it goes: Cap 27 for me, #26 for my husband,#14 for the 8 year old, and #4 for the 3 year old up tomorrow night. As for tonight, we’ll see how life in Section 8 is.
“You take your kids to soccer games? Aren’t you worried about the hooligans?” “No, we are the hooligans.”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: American Outlaws, AO, Official Chapter, Sam's Army, Soccer, Supporters, USMNT
Soccer....Family Style 