Latino supports the US National Soccer Team!!!

If being an American sport requires that you must have a doping scandal as ridiculous as MLB, a lack of gun control as evidenced in the NBA, or the criminal element behavior that the NFL continues to produce time after time… then I’m glad that soccer isn’t under the same umbrella!

Nothing drives me crazy like people saying that America isn’t a soccer nation. We must remember that the United States isn’t a nation of one race… it’s a melting pot. Visualize the number of generations of American children who were raised rooting for their parents’ national and league teams instead of the US National Team or MLS.

Nothing exemplified that more than last weekend’s United States-Honduras match as majority of the crowd was rooting for Honduras. Regardless of the status of some of those in attendance, I am certain that most of the pro-Honduras fans were American-born.

Being a child of immigrant parents, I’m constantly ridiculed for rooting for the US National Team and being a supporter of Major League Soccer. Don’t get me wrong, I love following my parents’ national team and it would be easier to wear their country’s scarf and jersey instead of mine (the United States & MLS).

The reason I chose not too is not an act of rebellion. Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m extremely proud of my Latino heritage. It’s for the simple fact that if their country was so great at taking care of their citizens, then I would have most likely been born there instead of the United States. Say what you want about America but as I’ve asked my relatives and friends who are immigrants: which is the better country to live in?

The consensus has so far been the United States. Hands down. Supporting American soccer is my way of bridging my patriotism to this/my country as well as acknowledging my parents’ country.

In layman terms, the United States has been good to my family and I’m proud to be an American. With the recent success of Major League Soccer, America has been going through a Soccer renaissance. And it’s a renaissance that I’m proud to be part off.

Along with wrestling and boxing, soccer was being played in the United States long before baseball, football, or basketball was ever born.  Come the 2010 World Cup, I have a feeling the United States will surprise a lot of people. I’m not concerned about England because history is on our side as we triumphed over them in the American Revolutionary War and the 1950 World Cup.