For Soccer (Football? I'm so confused...) Fans

In Gold Cup final, it's red, white and boo again

On a balmy early Saturday summer evening, the U.S soccer team played for a prestigious championship in a U.S. stadium … and was smothered in boos.

On a street outside the Rose Bowl before the Gold Cup final, Sanchez was hanging out near a motor home that was hosting 17 folks — 15 of whom were Mexico fans. Inside, that ratio held, there seemingly being about 80,000 Mexico fans among the announced crowd of 93,420.

This was Staples Center filled with Boston Celtics fans. This was Chavez Ravine filled with Giants jerseys. This was as weird as it was wild and, for a U.S. team that lost, 4-2, it had to be wearisome.

Well, where the hell d'ya think you are? It's LOS ANGELES fer chrissake! 'English as a second language' is not a class in school!

How many places are so diverse that it could fill football stadiums with folks whose roots are somewhere else? How many places offer such a freedom of speech that someone can display an American flag on their porch one day and cheer against the flag the next?

They weren't cheering against the American flag except in the limited sense of wanting to see their original country's team kick our ass. There's a lot more soccer on Telemundo than on Wide World Of Sports. Most Americans are a little scared of soccer, if they even know it's played in this country, because of its furrin commie popularity. I think the writer is a little over the top there.

I hated it, but I loved it. I was felt as if I was in a strange place, and yet I felt right at home.

Certainly, for the U.S. team, it undoubtedly stinks. But then, well, to be honest, the team stinks.

Ah, Grasshopper, perhaps enlightenment dawns! Heh.