Everybody loves me, but you…the International Break
Don’t get me wrong…I don’t dislike international soccer, I just don’t love it like most American soccer fans. The USMNT and USWNT are not appointment viewing, even though I heard last night's game was insane. I have an mild dislike of American golden boy Christian Pulisic on principle, since he plays for Chelsea (nothing particularly against him, although I do find him a tiny, tiny, tiny, almost miniscule bit overrated). I would brace for the hate mail if I thought anyone actually reads this site. I again remind you that a) I am an Arsenal fan, and b) I am of the opinion that club soccer is better than international soccer. All of the world's largest men's clubs are global entities at this point, so you really do get a chance to see the world's best players quite often and don’t have to wait for international competition’s to do so. For the women I’m not sure that holds, so more on that later. My other Twitter account has 1300 followers, simply through following back other Arsenal fans. I think over 100 of them are from Nigeria. A majority are from England, but it's not an overwhelming one. While Arsenal is an global club, my feelings about international soccer probably most closely mirrors an English Arsenal fan. Not an insignificant number of them don’t care at all about the English Men's National Team. In fact they were probably more thrilled by France's 1998 World Cup win. That's not to hard to understand because England seems to always disappoint and recently has been full of Tottenham Hotspur players (gross!). England's greatest contribution to world soccer in the last 50 years didn't happen on the pitch (I am a massive New Order fan). Anyway the international breaks during the Premier League season are seen as an unnecessary chance for a star player to get injured at worst, and at best, a 2 week gap before you can see your team play again.
That's my main complaint here. I selfishly want to see Racing get the taste of two bad losses in a row out of their mouths. On the bright side, this actually comes at a good time since almost all of the players will be available to practice together over the next two week, and they will get a few well deserved days off. On the down side, what am I going to write about for 2 weeks? I should probably enjoy some days off too because I haven't quite figured out how I am going to handle 3 games in a week starting on June 20th.
Now the USWNT is a little bit of a different scenario. For many fans of women's soccer in America, it was the only widely televised game in town for quite a while. If you wanted to see women's soccer at all, that was it. I would imagine all but the very youngest soccer fans were a fan of the USWNT before they were fans of a club. In fact I think they think of the USWNT as their club. I am a fan with a passing interest…World Cup and maybe the odd match here or there. I wouldn't say I am going to make Olympic soccer appointment viewing this summer, and thanks to the decision not to suspend the NWSL season, I don't have to. Since soccer is a full year sport you are always going to have that balance between club and country soccer. Just give me my Racing with a few interruptions as possible. However, taken through the lens of an international first soccer lover, I can't imagine what the club schedule feels like when all they want to see is the USWNT. I guess I should be thankful that I am only mildly inconvenienced for a week or so. I guess the smartest (or dumbest depending on your slant) of us have great loyalty to both club and country. For now, Racing has all of my attention, but you never know.
M
