← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hivemindgammahydra7
Thread ID: 19966 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2005-09-03
2005-09-03 06:10 | User Profile
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Friday, September 2, 2005[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3][size=4]Ethnicity plays role in venue selection[/size][/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]U.S. Soccer officials don't want their team to play in front of hostile crowds in home matches.[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]By SCOTT M. REID[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]The Orange County Register[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]COLUMBUS, OHIO ââ¬â When deciding where to play World Cup qualifying matches, U.S. Soccer officials look at stadium availability. They consider television schedules and the logistics for European-based players.And they consult "the map."[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]The map, provided to U.S. Soccer by the U.S. government, breaks down ethnic demographics nationwide, highlighting areas with significant Hispanic populations. [/size][/font][font=Times New Roman][size=3]U.S. Soccer officials, determined to create a home- field advantage for Team USA, never book a World Cup qualifier without it.[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]That is why Saturday night's U.S.-Mexico World Cup qualifier, the most anticipated American soccer match in at least three years, will be played not at a sold-out Giants Stadium or Rose Bowl or anywhere else in the country's top 30 media markets, but in Columbus.The Ohio capital is the nation's 34th largest media market and ranks just 28th in the country in terms of soccer participation, according to a 2000 study by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers of America.[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]But the map shows that less than 1 percent of Ohio's population is Hispanics of Mexican descent - a small number that carries a lot of weight with U.S. Soccer officials determined to avoid playing Mexico and other Central American rivals in front of hostile crowds on home soil. [/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]"There's a premeditated reason why we're playing this game here," U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller said Thursday of the match, in which a victory for either team locks up a spot in the 2006 World Cup. "What we're trying to do is build the best possible environment for a home-field advantage," said Jim Moorhouse, a U.S. Soccer spokesman.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Critics in the Hispanic community, however, say U.S. Soccer's strategy of playing World Cup qualifiers primarily in minor-league markets in hopes of avoiding Hispanic fans passionately supporting U.S. opponents is short-sighted and exclusionary."To exclude a group because of a fear you're not going to win is ridiculous," said Jose Alamillo, a professor of comparative ethic studies at Washington State University.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Moorhouse insists "there is no exclusion going on at U.S. Soccer," and the American soccer community has largely applauded a strategy that also included giving first crack at tickets for Saturday's match to Columbus Crew season-ticket holders, fans registered with U.S. Soccer and local youth organizations.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]U.S. players have been cursed, spat upon and had to dodge flying objects ranging from bottles to cups filled with urine in places like Estadio Azteca in Mexico City and Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in San Jose, Costa Rica. But U.S. players also have been subjected to similar treatment when playing Mexico and Central American rivals in non-qualifying matches in California, Texas and Florida.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]"I can count on one hand the times we've played in front of a pro-American crowd in the U.S." said Jeff Agoos, whose 13-year, 134-match career with the U.S. national team included the 2002 World Cup.Rick Davis, a 1980s star for the U.S., recalled he and his teammates needing the protection of guard dogs and machine-gun-carrying security squads at home matches.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]"You felt like you were in a different country," said Davis, who lives in Yorba Linda and is AYSO's national director of programs."[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]For years U.S. Soccer seemed to be in some cases putting dollars in front of results," Davis said. "It was more important to get big crowds ahead of qualifying. "With annual revenues at U.S. Soccer now reaching $41.9 million, the map, not financial concerns, is the driving force in scheduling.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]A U.S.-Mexico match at the Rose Bowl or Coliseum would bring in between $3 million and $4 million more than at the 22,555-seat Columbus Crew Stadium.So convinced are they that the map will lead Team USA to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, U.S. Soccer has embarked on what some have dubbed the "Red States Tour."[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]The U.S.'s previous four final-round World Cup qualifiers have been played in East Hartford, Conn., Salt Lake City and Birmingham, Ala., the self-proclaimed "Football Capital of the South."[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]That's football, not futbol. Birmingham is nowhere to be found in the top 30 U.S. metro areas in terms of soccer participation, and it is the nation's 40th largest media market. Non-Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican Hispanics make up less than 1 percent of Alabama's overall population, so Legion Field played host to U.S.-Guatemala on March 30, Team USA's first final-round home qualifying match.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]New York, with the nation's largest number of soccer participants, has never played host to a World Cup qualifier. Neither has Chicago, home of U.S. Soccer's headquarters.The U.S. hasn't played a World Cup qualifier in the Los Angeles-Orange County market since 1989. There hasn't been a qualifier anywhere in California since the U.S. played host to Canada at Stanford in 1997.[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]"This isn't about Hispanics," Moorhouse said. "It's about creating the best opportunity for us to qualify for the World Cup." But playing in the land of Woody and the Bear instead of soccer hotbeds like California and Texas illustrates U.S. Soccer's inability to connect with Latinos and loosen the grip Mexico and Central American national teams have on even second- and third-generation Hispanic-American fans.[/size][/font] [font=Times New Roman][size=3]"The bottom line is, when the U.S. plays Mexico, the Mexican-Americans root for Mexico," said Galaxy coach Steve Sampson, who guided the U.S. to qualifying for the 1998 World Cup. "There's no getting around that. They consider their roots to be Mexican. They don't feel enough (allegiance) for their new country to root for them. As long as that's the situation, it's the obligation of the U.S. Soccer Federation to put our team in an environment where they're going to feel supported (by Hispanics). I think we're a generation away from that."[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Calling it a "short-term solution" to a long-term problem, Alamillo argues that U.S. Soccer's scheduling strategy is only creating more barriers for Hispanic fans who might consider embracing Team USA. "There really shouldn't be a preference for small locations with small Hispanic populations," Alamillo said. "That is a concern. Definitely what (U.S. Soccer) is doing in a kind of subtle way is not making it easier for Latinos to become fans."[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=3]Longtime veterans and observers of U.S. World Cup qualifying battles like Sampson are unmoved. "Having home-field advantage outweighs our ability to market to that community," Sampson said. "You could sell out the L.A. Coliseum, the Rose Bowl. But being on the end of it where (U.S. coach) Bruce Arena is right now, the important thing for the U.S. right now is qualifying for the World Cup and really using that event to promote soccer."[/size][/font]
2005-09-03 07:23 | User Profile
Interesting microcosm of the situation facing The Western World. Instead of running away from the Mexicans, they should force the Mexicans to act civilized or remove them from the stadium. Or better yet, hire British and European soccer hooligans to kick their asses in the stands during the game or after the game. :boxing:
2005-09-03 15:16 | User Profile
What we need is a separatist republic of white men and women.
2005-09-03 23:13 | User Profile
Bardamu, it will come to that eventually. It is an acknowleged sociological principle that people want to associate with those people that they have the most in common with. White people are leaving California in droves as it is ceded back to Aztlan.
2005-09-03 23:20 | User Profile
Snouter,
LOL! :cheers:
2005-09-03 23:44 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Bardamu]What we need is a separatist republic of white men and women.[/QUOTE]
I think that may be Argentina...
How's that for irony.
2005-09-04 00:11 | User Profile
[QUOTE=londo]I think that may be Argentina...
How's that for irony.[/QUOTE]
Viva Diego Maradona?
Seriously, when they have these matches down here in Houston the only people that attend are Mexican and Central American nationals.
2005-09-04 04:31 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Snouter]Interesting microcosm of the situation facing The Western World. Instead of running away from the Mexicans, they should force the Mexicans to act civilized or remove them from the stadium. Or better yet, hire British and European soccer hooligans to kick their asses in the stands during the game or after the game. :boxing:[/QUOTE] absolutely. I think they should play in a major market in the US and insist on full media coverage. That way maybe some of our own idiots will wake up to what is really going on here. This isn't our country any more.
2005-09-05 01:37 | User Profile
[one of the last non-snow sports that is still mostly White around here...]
Americans book a place in 2006 World Cup When they're not playing Mexico at Azteca Stadium, the Americans have discovered it has Mexico's number.
Actually, it's two numbers -- two and zero as in 2-0.
That was the score of the US qualifying victory over Mexicans in the cold here in 2001.
That also was the final of the Americans' stunning triumph at the 2002 World Cup.
And not surprisingly, it also was the result of Saturday's qualifier that boosted the US into its unprecedented fifth World Cup.
It certainly was sweet for the Americans, who lost to their rivals in Mexico City 2-1 in March.
In the other CONCACAF qualifiers on Saturday, third-place Costa Rica (3-1-3) posted a 3-1 triumph at last-place Panama (0-2-5), and Trinidad and Tobago (2-1-4) edged visiting Guatemala (2-1-4), 3-2.
The top three teams from the six-nation qualifying group from North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) automatically qualify for Germany. The fourth-place finisher faces the fifth-place team in Asia, either Uzbekistan or Bahrain.
Goals by Steve Ralston and DaMarcus Beasley early in the second half lifted the US to victory in front of a packed house of 24,685 at Columbus Crew Stadium.
"I'm so happy, man. They made it a little bit easier on us. I expected more. After we got the first one, they were never in the game," forward Landon Donovan said after tasting champagne in the Americans locker room.
"The only thing sweeter would have been to score. At least for three or four more years they will shut up and can't say anything and I love it."
The US became the seventh country to book one of 32 spots in soccer's promised land in Germany, joining the hosts, Argentina, Japan, Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine.
Mexico will have to wait until Wednesday to qualify, when it hosts Panama.
For the first time since 1934, when it defeated Mexico, 4-2, for the lone spot in the region, the US became the first team from CONCACAF to book a spot in the Cup.
"We've accomplished that before anyone else," US coach Bruce Arena said. "That's fantastic."
The US (6-1-0, 18 points) hasn't lost to Mexico (5-1-1, 16pts) in a home qualifier since 1972 and raised its record at the stadium to 4-0-3.
Moreover, the US is unbeaten in seven straight home games against the Mexicans since 2000, outscoring their foes, 11-0.
As it turned out, the US ended their qualifying quest at the same stadium where they began it in June, 2004, when they defeated Grenada.
This time it took them seven out of 10 games to clinch, as opposed to nine games in 2001.
"It's difficult," said Arena, who directed the US to the 2002 World Cup as well. ""You look at it and you'll say its a breeze and it wasn't a breeze."
After a scoreless first half, the US found a way to break the Mexican defence.
"The first half was sluggish," Donovan said. "We didn't play so great. After the halftime, we got a little momentum and we started to get some free kicks in good areas. You knew that if we got a goal, that they would be dead."
The US broke a scoreless tie in the 53rd minute on midfielder Ralston's fourth international goal.
Beasley gave the Americans a two-goal advantage in the 58th minute as the PSV Eindhoven midfielder scored from 10 yards off a pass.
At the other end of the field, central defender Oguchi Onyweu held Jared Borgetti in check. Borgetti, a thorn in the Americans' side with two qualifying goals in as many victories, was rendered virtually useless by the 23-year-old defender.
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