For those of you who aren’t habitual soccer fans-and I include myself in that category-America’s loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup Final this weekend might not have been an earth-shattering event. However, the importance of the match’s outcome-a 4-2 loss by the United States-was overshadowed by what happened outside of the game, which took place in Pasadena, California, part of Los Angeles. The same city run by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the rabidly pro-Mexican open borders enthusiast who supports a boycott of Arizona and L.A. remaining a sanctuary city.
It’s within this context that the reception our national soccer team received at the Rose Bowl saturday must be viewed. Keep in mind, the Mexican fans who assembled to watch their team were not merely cheering for Mexico, a country they had abandoned in order to come to the United States. They were showering abuse upon American soccer players on their (ostensible) home soil, booing the national anthem of the country they had sworn loyalty too-assuming, of course, that they had immigrated here legally-and acting the same way Mexican soccer fans south of the border do whenever our soccer team heads to Estadio Azteca.
Thankfully, American players this year didn’t have to dodge bags of urine, regurgitated food, or feces as they were playing their Mexican counterparts. Still, the unremitting hostility of the crowd probably made them feel like they were playing in a foreign venue, which in a very real sense, they were.
This is the problem with those who wish to minimize what happened this weekend at the Rose Bowl as merely an expression of cultural pride by new-or in some cases, not so new-Mexican immigrants who live in California. What happened in Pasadena wasn’t ethnic pride on display, it was ethnic supremacism. Adam Carolla engages in a thought experiment in his latest book, which attempts to address the specious accusations of racism and xenophobia that are often the first response to anyone who critiques our current immigration policy. Imagine that you lived in an American city where the 3 top-rated radio stations broadcast in exclusively in Polish, the mayor was Polish and concerned solely with helping Polish people, and whenever you dialed a wrong number you were greeted in Polish.
Of course, that city does not exist, but if you happen to live in Los Angeles you know what I’m referring to, and have probably realized that the point has nothing to do with discrimination or xenophobia but an expectation of equality that American citizens are increasingly being denied in order to placate our neighbor to the south. The schizophrenic attitude of some immigrants to this country who condemn their adopted country while at the same time exploiting the aspects of it that make their success possible-a dichotomy that Victor David Hanson astutely limns in an NRO column devoted to this soccer game-is something that aggravates ordinary Americans. The reaction of Mexican soccer fans to this latest match is simply an illustration of a much broader problem that has existed for decades, and which has only been exacerbated by the post-60s de-emphasis on cultural assimilation-a phenomenon that went hand-in-hand with chain migration and looser border controls.
That’s why the bold stand taken by American goalkeeper Tim Howard-pictured above-is so refreshing. Howard, a New Jersey native who is the son of an Hungarian woman and an African-American man, is the perfect illustration of the greatness of this country, and the opportunity available to those people willing to seize it. Regardless of how you feel about his performance in this particular game, the fact that he has stood up for the United States repeatedly during his tenure on the American national soccer team is more than enough to have earned my respect, despite the fact that I’m not a soccer fan. Perhaps the Mexican fans hurling abuse at American soccer players could learn from his life story, and invest some of the energy they use in rooting against this country into improving their own lives.
Sounds like a chapter in Ann Coulters new book “Demonic”. Mob behavior at its best.
I can only wonder what justifies this disgraceful behavior. Why would you stand in an American stadium and think it’s OK to be an American then hurl abuse at an American team in an American stadium. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.
BTW, I heard about this goalkeeper but had little idea about his background. Thanks for letting us know about him. More should speak up about this disgrace.
Yeah, he was part of the team that went to the finals of the Confederations Cup against Spain. I think he plays for Everton in the Premiere League