Kyle Hepp

October 9, 2010

I’m only posting this because it’s a weekend so most people won’t see it. Because, the sad truth is, nobody cares! In Chile, I can’t find places to watch the USMNT games because I assumed, nobody in South America wanted to see average soccer, when they could probably catch and Argentina or Brazil game on at the same time. And nobody in the U.S. cares either. The game was just a friendly, but still — the only channels it was shown on were Fox Soccer and Galavision. I went to a sports bar and when I asked the manager to turn it on he looked around at the 15 different TV’s showing various professional and college baseball and football games and said, “Well, what do you expect me to turn off in order to change the channel to your…soccer game.” Imagine the words “soccer game,” said with the maximum amount of disdain that a 45 year old pot-bellied man managing a local sports bar can muster.

In the end, it was a decent game. The U.S. and Poland tied 2-2, but more than anything else, I was excited to see us try some new combinations of players. I love friendlies since they give the coaches a chance to experiment.

Bob Bradley gave Jermaine Jones his first start for the U.S. He is actually German, born and raised and from what I could make out, doesn’t speak a ton of English. But his dad was a U.S. citizen (stationed in Germany) so he has red, white and blue nationality, and he made his debut tonight. Kind of weird for a 27 year old to be getting their first start at that age, but he was awesome. A while back I had read that he wanted to play for the U.S. because he felt like the Germans didn’t accept him for who he was, with his tattoos and the way he always spoke his mind. So he felt like he could switch to the U.S. to be more accepted here. I adore that. He was probably also frustrated with the simple fact that he was being overlooked by the Germany National Team coach for players less talented than himself, but it’s cool that he decides to come to us.

I LOVE, with all my little heart and soul, that tonight we had players on the field who are from all over — Mexican heritage (Carlos Bocanegra), Colombian heritage (Alejandro Bedoya), German born (Jermaine Jones) and Brazilian born (Benny Feilhaber). I absolutely love that for some reason or another…clearly not our soccer prowess….they all chose to come play for the U.S. team. I’m sure their choice is hugely influenced by on which team they’d have a better chance of starting. But Jermaine played for the German national team a few teams, never in an official FIFA date. And the second they changed the rule that would allow him to switch to the U.S. he did, even though he could’ve continued trying to start for Germany, which by most people’s standards is considered a better football nation. Then of course, there’s Freddy Adu — the world’s biggest Ghanan-American disappointment. No matter where he chose to play, I don’t think he would’ve ended up any better off than he is today. Can you tell I have absolutely zero sympathy for shitheads with bad attitudes, no matter how much pressure they have on their shoulders?

That’s not to say that every player that has had the chance to play for the U.S. has taken it. I have no stats to back this up, but if I had to guess I’d say more players than not have taken their dual nationality and used it to play for other countries.

Don’t even get me started on that little Italian bastard, Guiseppe Rossi. And Edgard Castillo, grrrrr.

Some people look at Jermaine as using the US team as his back up plan. You could see it that way. Or you could be proud that he is willing to give up his chance to EVER again play for Germany, the country that he was born and bred in, to wear the stars and stripes on his jersey.

I think about myself and if I were some superstar athlete — if I knew I would struggle to make even the U.S. team’s bench, or if I knew I could play easily for Chile, I would choose the U.S. EVERY time. I’ve now lived more of my adult life in Chile than I have in the U.S. and that would still be my choice. So I think it’s pretty cool that Jermaine has decided to play for us, I think it’s a big sacrifice, and after seeing this game, I’m excited about the possibilities.