Two Melting Pots, Two Teams

Today, I watched the two games on ESPN: Mexico v Costa Rica and the USA v Panama. Last week, I watched the USMNT play, the week before that (i think), I watched the USWNT play. There's something about watching the men and women that represent the United States of America on the pitch that I find absolutely beautiful: they truly represent the United States population.

They players are black, brown, white, and yellow. Each and every player comes from a different heritage. Some actually were born in other countries but had dual citizenship and chose to represent the red, white, and blue.

In the U.S., we're force fed with diversity: African-American, Asian-American, Irish-American, Mexican-American, Cuban-American, and "name a country"-American. The more diverse we are, the more we actually remove our identity of just being Americans. When the players pull those white Nike jerseys over their head with the US patch over the left breast. The place where your hand goes when we listen and sing along to "The Star Spangled Banner." They're just Americans. The Outlaws that follow the US Soccer Teams all over the country, they are all just Americans when the ref blows the whistle to start the match.

I love that feeling. Everything else doesn't matter. White, black, brown, or yellow doesn't matter. They're all wearing the United States patch. Same white shirt with the US seal. Same blue shorts with the US seal. The only thing really different about the US players is the boots. They get to pick those.

Our country is a melting pot of people from all over the world. I can probably say and not be wrong that every country has a "representative"in the United States, and that's beautiful. And the populace that makes up America forgets that during a soccer game for 90 minutes that we're all just Americans, and that's beautiful, too.