The World Cup
I’m a huge soccer fan. I love our local teams - the Seattle Sounders, the Reign, Ballard FC, Salmon Bay FC. I’ve attended almost every Sounders home game with my Dad. But this year I’ve been struggling to get excited for the World Cup — Seattle is hosting some of the games! I should be ecstatic. But the government corruption, FIFA’s corruption, and the capitalist bent to the games (high ticket prices, the “hydration” breaks to allow for commercials, it’s all so incredibly offensive) have drained all my enthusiasm for the tournament.
Our local hero Cristian Roldan being called up to the team spurred some renewed interest. I’ve watched his entire career here at home, and he’s my favorite player on the team (maybe of all time?). But the USMNT fans spewing vitriol on social media about his call up pushed me away again. I’m sure I will go to a bar and watch a game or two, but man am I resentful that Seattle is hosting games for the World Cup and I’m… apathetic about it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to a World Cup game at home with my Dad, yet we both had no interest in going to a game.
Grouching aside, I greatly appreciate the person who took the time to pen the article “Roldanifesto Part 1 and 2”.
At this point, there’s no reasonable argument that he’s not up to the level of the USMNT. Anyone making that claim isn’t to be taken seriously. A big loss when Cristian leaves the scene as a player is that it’ll be harder to instantly spot people who don’t know ball.
Go ‘ders.
[Update]
After publishing this post, Sounder At Heart (a fantastic publication, if you’re a Seattle Soccer fan go subscribe!) republished the article and attributed it to MCB. I’ve updated my link from the original Google Doc to the Sounder At Heart permalink. YNYA.