Team USA is out, but the World Cup still a welcomed jolt of enthusiasm
Team USA is done, but the party continues.
With Monday’s 4-1 loss to Belgium, the United States’ run in the World Cup ended pretty much where it always seems to hit the wall — in the round of 16, with promises from the folks in charge of the men’s national team that things will get better, so hang in there, and see you in four years when maybe we’ll have a team that can compete with the world’s best. When World Cup 2030 rolls around, we’ll be 28 years removed from the last time the U.S. advanced to the quarterfinals.
Forget that perpetual mediocrity for now. And forget for a minute about how corruption circles FIFA like a moon, and how it feels like soccer’s governing body designed every moment of this tournament to vacuum money out of your pocket.
Instead, let’s focus on the joy. There has been a ton of that. Let’s focus on the American soccer fans being created daily during this tournament as they witness and absorb the passion that visiting fans from around the world have brought to our country, which honestly needed an infusion of joy.
How could you not become a fan when you see all the fun that fans from across the globe are having? The biggest import into the country over the last month has been exuberance. Laughter is infectious. Enthusiasm spreads.
How can you not love the way Scotland’s fans, the Tartan Army, turned the streets of Boston into a roving party? They even came to Maine. Friends of mine ran into a few Scottish fans at a Portland brewery before a Sea Dogs game. They told him since they drank all the beer in Boston, they had to come here.
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The Tartan Army also left a big thank you in the form of a $15,000 donation to Massachusetts Child, a charity operated by the Massachusetts Teachers Association aimed at helping students in financial need secure the things needed for school, from clothing to supplies to books. Scotland didn’t advance to the knockout rounds, but its fans left a lasting positive impression.
We saw social media videos of fans from around the world amazed at things like the gas station/convenience store/restaurant hybrids that have become commonplace around the country. A fan from Australia professed his love for Popeye’s chicken and utter confusion over the chain’s business model.
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We saw Lawrence, Kansas, embrace the Algerian team that held its base camp there during its run in the tournament. We’re watching Norway’s Erling Haaland emerge as the most feared scoring threat on the planet, and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, age 39, refusing to hand over that title to Haaland without a fight.
Here in Maine, we’ve been on the cutting edge of the nation’s soccer renaissance. We sell out every Hearts of Pine home game at Fitzpatrick Stadium. We make a run on season tickets for a women’s team that doesn’t exist yet. We fill the State Theatre and bars to watch Hearts playoff matches, and we fill Monument Square to cheer for Team USA.
It’s nice to see that passion spread, and the hope here is that it’s not fleeting.
We’ve become such fans, we’re all experts on the nuance, or lack thereof, of red cards. In real time, the play on which U.S. striker Folarin Balogun was issued a red card and the one-game suspension that comes with it for stepping on the ankle of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemovic was simple bad luck, two players accidentally trying to occupy the same space. So at first blush, FIFA’s decision to suspend Balogun’s suspension made sense. When playing a physical game in which bodies are constantly flying and colliding, shouldn’t intent matter?
Then we learned FIFA made the decision after President Donald Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and since both parties have been accused of making shady backroom deals with the frequency that you or I make lunch, eyebrows were raised.
As it turns out, the interference of the Cooler in Chief only solidified his reputation as a witch’s curse soaked in bronzer. Balogun was a nonfactor in Monday’s game, and Belgium plays on.
Team USA does not. Heading into the quarterfinals, which begin Thursday, eight teams remain. Pick one to cheer for, and keep the party rolling.
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Tagged: Sports Columns, travis lazarczyk, world cup soccer
Travis Lazarczyk has covered sports for the Portland Press Herald since 2021. A Vermont native, he graduated from the University of Maine in 1995 with a BA in English. After a few years working as a sports. More by Travis Lazarczyk
