No Stars

Who is going to become a household name in this year’s World Cup?

Thats the question the Maximum Soccer segment of Fox World Soccer Report posed last night. And since they tout themselves — “Fox Soccer Channel is the premier television destination in the United States for all fans of the beautiful game” — I assumed that I would get this guy’s expert opinion on who will emerge from our team.

One would think with the cupboard stocked full of young talent on our American squad the guy could come up with one player who will make a splash on the world stage this year.

But, instead of referencing any of our young and talented players, Gooch, Dempsey, Convey, he says this, “As for the US, No star again this year, they’ll have to get it done as a team.”

I was flabergasted. And after I lividly cursed the guy, waking up the geriatric neighbors that live underneath us, and threw a shoe at my roommates absurd 51-inch TV, I regained my composure.

I am reminded that FSC has no allegiance to me, the Fan, the American supporter. Its amazing that now, 12 years after hosting the World Cup, we still worship foreign soccer as much as we do. The game in this country is still in its infancy.

I am thinking about all of the years as an American player in which our ignorant parents sent us to soccer camps like the This Little Light of Mine Camp with coach Luis Guerillimo. This guy had no CLUE how to run a soccer camp. Every morning we had a chalk talk session, which entailed this overzealous smiling hispanic guy in front us, these bewildered American kids, leading a cassette tape sing-a-long of the American National anthem followed by a most unpleasant version of “This Little Light of Mine.” Then we would go out, follow these guys around as they taught us the rudimentary dribbling, shooting, passing, and heading drills that the camp organizers had realized Americans love to do, more specifically American parents love to watch their kids perform.

It seems to me that Fox Soccer Channel has the same mentality: worship European soccer, relegate American newcomers to the side of the kickball field at recess, explain to them how inferior they are to the rest of the world, and then explain “no stars, they’ll have to get it done as a team.”

So, enough complaining.

We at Reckless Abandon have vowed to step in where American media leaves us all wanting.

Get ready for our own list: American stars who will emerge as household names this summer in Germany.

Stay tuned.

“Play with reckless abandon boys!”

Our uncle and Dad would always say that to us during our club soccer games growing up. Our fathers were college football players, but we grew into college soccer players. What will happen when we have kids? The ’94 Cup team was filled mostly with the children of immigrants and coached by a foreigner. Reyna has bridged the gap and now the first generation of American soccer is poised to come of age: Damarcus, Clint, Landon, Gooch, and company are here. We are here. We’re at the start of America’s soccer century. We are here to tell its story.
Welcome to Reckless Abandon.

Lee McAlilly and Chris McAlilly