So, of course, the liberal media had to make it weird.Could this just be a cool moment for American soccer? Apparently not.Instead, some of the usual suspects in sports media have decided the World Cup is another opportunity to push every preferred narrative: race, identity politics, Trump, MAGA, immigration, American shame, and the idea that there is a right kind of American fan and a wrong kind of American fan.USMNT fans across the nation brought the patriotism to the team's World Cup opener.(Photo by Jose Hernandez/Anadolu via Getty Images)The Guardian gave probably the best example in a Sunday piece about Fox's World Cup coverage and Alexi Lalas, framing Thierry Henry vs.
Lalas as "the World Cup's most compelling battle."The headline called Henry a "French aristocrat" and Lalas an "all-American idiot."Subtle, huh?EX-USWNT STAR CARLI LLOYD CALLS OUT ALEXI LALAS CRITICS, SAYS BACKLASH STEMS FROM CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL VIEWSThe piece referred to Lalas as a "MAGA hack" and positioned him as the embarrassing, loud, patriotic American ruining the world's game for everyone else.It also claimed soccer in America belongs to "migrants, urban liberals" and people "too scrawny" for other American sports.
Additionally, the column compared Lalas to serial killer John Wayne Gacy.There's truly no line these people won't cross when attempting to tear down their "enemies.But buried in all the ad hominem attacks lobbed at Lalas was the broader point the author wanted to make: Soccer belongs to them.Not to you.Not to the guy in a red hat.
Not to the Fox viewer.Not to the American fan who calls it soccer, waves the flag and doesn't apologize for loving his country.The Guardian doesn't just dislike Lalas' style.
It goes to extreme lengths to show that Lalas represents a kind of American soccer fan the left can't stand: unapologetically American.That can't be allowed.For years, soccer in America has had a strange gatekeeping problem.A certain class of fans and media members wante...