U.S. vs. Xenophobia

The first thing I noticed when we entered RFK Stadium last night was its vacancy. In How Soccer Explains the World, Foer was definitely accurate on how “hating soccer is more American than apple pie” (240). This sport that is so wildly adored outside the United States, is only half-heartedly embraced here. Looking around at the game also demonstrated that its crowd tends to be “yuppie soccer fans” or immigrants. When examining why there is this unreasonable hatred, it can only be explained by xenophobia.

The “yuppie soccer fans,” also known as liberals, are the group normally affiliated with international ideals and “Europhilic cosmopolitanism” (248). The immigrants, for lack of a better term, are simply celebrating a sport that they are used to celebrating. The group of Hispanic people sitting behind us in the game was the source of most of the enthusiasm on our side. Therefore, if the only supporters of soccer are the ones that see past the United States borders, then clearly the opposition has some fear of the outside world.

However, I cannot fail to discuss the other side of the stadium, where the beloved hooligans resided. We ventured over in order to get a real feel for the game, and we definitely did. There was always a constant stream of cheers, even if the game was not reciprocating in excitement. I especially enjoyed their originality in creating profanity. There also was the intense hostility towards Columbus Crew, which became the most entertaining when Crew fans decided to take a lap around the stadium with their yellow and black flags. The disgust and anger was evident in the eyes of each D.C. United fan. It’s hard to fake passion like that. That side of the stadium truly felt like a European soccer game; so it looks like globalization is having an effect, no matter how xenophobic some of us are.