“We’re not booing the country, we’re booing the team,” one fan said. (Yes, of course they were. –Editor.)
It was imperfectly odd. It was strangely unsettling. It was uniquely American (1).
On a balmy early Saturday summer evening, the U.S soccer team played for a prestigious championship in a U.S. stadium … and was smothered in boos.
Its fans were vastly outnumbered. Its goalkeeper was bathed in a chanted obscenity. Even its national anthem was filled with the blowing of air horns and bouncing of beach balls.
Most of these hostile visitors didn’t live in another country. Most, in fact, were not visitors at all, many of them being U.S. residents whose lives are here but whose sporting souls remain elsewhere.
(1) We somehow don’t believe that had the game been played in Mexico and the Mexicans booed their own team, many would not consider it to be ‘strangely Mexican.’ — Editor