A friend of the blog emails:
LOL. White urbanists who make up majority of attendees at MN United games upset that US Soccer chose Allianz Field for USMNT World Cup qualifier game because of the fan base whiteness.
Have any of them decided to just give their top row tickets to, say, immigrants or refugees?
Those demographic statistics are eye-opening. I knew the city was changing but didn’t realize how much. St. Paul is barely White majority and Southeast Asian refugees have passed Chicago refugees as the second-largest group. As Johnny Carson used to say: I did not know that.
Of course, that’s all irrelevent to the racism embedded in the Twitter thread. The game shouldn’t be held here because White people can’t watch soccer – that’s for Mexicans and we don’t have any. Ooookay.
I think holding this match in early Feb was a joke. It’s too cold for anyone to play soccer in that cold because you can’t wear a hat.
I’d be pissed if I was the Honduran team, not they actually had a chance, but that’s too cold.
The white urban elite in St. Paul have to continually find something to fuel their guilt.
I got out of Highland Park in August of 2019 for Dakota County. Best decision I’ve ever made.
Looks like US Soccer wanted a venue w/o too many people loyal to spanish-speaking teams. The optics would be bad if a huge number of fans cheered for the other guys.
MBerg — are you nucking futs? It was a 100% weather based decision. But hey — your post totally suits your style. Congratulations…
Had to find an advantage so USA picks a spot below zero for a match. The US men’s soccer team’s manager is a genius if only in his own mind. He got what he wanted, a qualifier against a bottom tiered team in the bitter cold for a possible win.
“It was 100 percent weather based decision.”
Except the US coach said, “Some of the criteria we’re looking for is minimizing travel and [a] pro-U.S. crowd,” Berhalter explained in December. “You know El Salvador in D.C. is really tough. You can’t play there. It would be a home game for El Salvador if you do that. Honduras, very similar. Eastern seaboard, New York, similar for Honduras and El Salvador. As you get towards warmer weather, potentially in Florida, you’re still running that risk of the crowd. We want a pro-U.S. crowd. You have seen what a pro-U.S. crowd does for the boys, does for the atmosphere. So now we start having to weigh the risk of that, of the weather—extreme weather.”
Fine- they wanted the Midwestern, white crowd, which they thought would be more pro-US, I guess. I don’t know how else to read that. But, they should have made a deal with US Bank stadium for the safety of the players. Two Honduras players left the game with hypothermia. That’s just cruel.
^ Scheduling and holding a game in frigid weather that was potentially dangerous to the players and spectators alike was a shameful attempt to gain an advantage that is devoid of any sense of sportsmanship.
If US Soccer felt the need to go to this extreme in playing a very lowly regarded Honduran team, it says all we need to know about US Soccer. They may have gained a win, but lost any reason for respect.
Proof positive that soccer players are wimps.
I can’t find the link but there’s a wonderful meme: “You may be cool but you’ll never be Bud Grant going out for the coin toss in -6 degree weather cool.”
rat sniveled: He got what he wanted, a qualifier against a bottom tiered team in the bitter cold for a possible win.
Cold doesn’t seem to bother the ones Pedo Joe invited to cross the border. I suspect Catholic Charities had a lot of clout with the siting committee.
I can just imagine the poor Honduran players talking to their kids. “How’d you get those scars and lose those fingers and toes, Daddy? Were you climbing Mt. Everest?”
“Nope, some blithering idiot scheduled a football game in Minnesota in February.”
I’m reminded of a time on the other end of the thermometer, when a track meet organizer chose to schedule the 3200 at the beginning of the meet on a 95 degree day, and let the kids know at the last minute–so you had all those kids (I was one of them) thinking it would be at the normal time (and not planning for a super light lunch), and then they cooked us in that heat.
I’m still primed to raise heck about that if someone should try to do the same to my kids’ teams. “If you want to get to know lawyers on a professional basis because kids are getting hurt, go ahead–and by the way, if you choose to go forward, yes, I am going to send a formal complaint to the state league.”