There's still plenty of anger out there over the renaming of Houston's new MLS franchise, and it's kicking up some interesting debate. Check out DCenters and Bruce's Belly to see what I'm talking about.
For more 1836-style debate from around the Blogosphere, click here.
But one post that really caught my eye was this one from mattwdc. He thinks American Soccer needs to come up with domestic traditions rather than trying to borrow from Europe:
It had started with DC United, a cute homage to the many United sides in Great British (heh) soccer. Now we have FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake, and the Dynamo. At some point we'll almost certainly have to have a Borussia Seattle, a Charlotte Celtic, an AC Detroit.
Actually, we already have, but I'll let Matt finish:
And of course there are other ways we ape other nations' soccer traditions -- I love La Barra Brava, but the barras are a South American tradition. I prize my USA scarf not because it's an authentic expression of my devotion to our homeboys, but because I was watching Fox Sports World and saw European fans holding their scarves up with pride, and thought that looked cool.How do you think a typical American sports fan responds to all of this? Probably with some degree of bafflement and maybe with a little resentment as well. Whose country is this anyway? Do you love soccer because it's a great sport or because being a soccer fan makes you better than the fans of the big four sports? Do you love soccer because you really aren't sure whether you love America?
What we need are home-grown traditions, not imports. I mean, we Americans are really good at creating sports traditions. Look at baseball. Look at college football and college basketball. There's no "anxiety of influence" in the stands at Michigan Stadium or Fenway Park or Allen Field House. There's just fans doing what comes naturally to them, which just happens to be repeating decades-old rituals. If we're going to create our own indigenous soccer traditions that draw in American sports fans rather than alienating them, we need to look to what we're already doing in other sports and venues where the traditions feel right.
You know, all-American names like the Boston Celtics, New York Knickerbockers and the Minnesota Vikings.
Below is a list of the names of some of the finalists who have played for the U.S. Open Cup, the official championship of American professional and amateur soccer. It was based on the format of England's FA Cup, and it's been held since 1914.
These are what American Soccer teams were named before some Madison Avenue marketing geniuses foisted MLS team names on an unsuspecting populace:
Brooklyn Celtic, Fall River Rovers, Paterson FC, Fall River F.C., Pawtucket Rangers, Brooklyn St. Mary's Celtic, Baltimore SC, Pawtucket FC, Brooklyn Hispano, Chicago Sparta, Chicago Viking, Fall River Ponta Delgada, NY German-Hungarian, Pittsburgh Heidelberg, S. C. Eintracht, Chicago Schwaben, New York Hakoah, Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals, Los Angeles Scots, Chicago Hansa, San Francisco Scots, NY Greek-American, Montabello Armenians, Los Angeles Croatia, New York Hota, Los Angeles Maccabee, NY Inter-Giuliana, NY Pancyprian Freedoms, Washington Club Espana, San Francisco CD Mexico
So from its very foundations, American soccer was all about keeping some sort of connection alive with the mother country. And while I'm all for assimilation, there's nothing wrong with celebrating either one's ethnic heritage or the heritage of the game.
Because sometimes Soccer has no country.
POSTSCRIPT: The feeble Metrostars have been purchased by Red Bull, the Austrian energy drink company, and will now be known as Red Bull New York.
As if it wasn't tough enough to be a New York-area MLS fan before. Trust me, we'll be laughing in the stands this season.
Will somebody please pay these people off and get the name back in circulation?
UPDATE: Here's another anti-MLS view.
