The 2014 FIFA world cup came to a close this past weekend with a thrilling victory over the Argentines by Germany. The thing about sports, especially soccer, is that only one team can be fully content with that particular season or tournament’s outcome. This means every country in the world besides Germany is looking at their respective drawing boards saying “What If…”.
What the United States should view from this year’s World Cup tournament is that the coach, Jurgen Klinsmann straddles the German and American futbol border with one foot deeply planted in his home country (Germany) and a tippy-toe in American soil.
Five players of this world cup’s twenty-three man roster were foreign born. Four of those five are of German descent. One would suspect that this trend will continue as long as Klinsmann is the leader of U.S. soccer. It is obvious that these players would not have been big contributors to the German champion team. However, if Germany tells those four German players they’d get ninety minutes a game, four years from now (next World Cup) it is a guarantee that they will leave USA hanging. This should be noted because every 4 years these four German players can make the decision that is best for them. So why is constructing a team with players that were rejected from their own country a viable solution?
It seems as if Klinsmann feels that other country’s second-tier players are better than America’s best. This point is proven to be true when the most decorated American player, Landon Donovan, did not make the national team this world cup. Landon Donavan was the face of American soccer for years, and he earned his red, white, and blue stripes with his performance in both his club and national career. He is the all-time leading scorer for the U.S. soccer team(57 goals). The five foreign players did not contribute to the team’s successes, or failures, this world cup, but to say that Donovan did not even deserve a jersey for the trip is very alarming.
We, Americans, have to ask ourselves this question. Do we really want to cheer for players that are only American for a month every four years? The pride of the African and Central American teams reside in the fact that they are fully a native of the country they respectfully play for. For those countries, the wins are more epic and the losses are more devastating. That is what the World Cup should be about. However, it seems that more dual citizenship players are coming to America in the future. From the looks of it, the defending champions (Germany) will have a team and a half in the 2018 World Cup.
– B. Brown
Product Of Society 