Olympic U23 Failure Leads Vulture “Writers” (Queenan) to Trash Soccer in US
Posted on April 2, 2012 5:27 am
Brett and Derek discuss the U23 Olympic Failure in TN and how certain journalists and writers used the incident to condemn soccer in the United States–in particular, Joe Queenan’s crappy piece in the Wall Street Journal called “A Final Red Card for American Soccer” which was neither satirical or humorous. Should we ignore these articles when they’re poorly written, or go on the counter-offensive? On The Straight Red Card.
I’m not going to justify Queenan’s poor piece of satire by posting a link here. Most of you will know about it already.
Enjoy my cameo on the show.
Wow. 14 minutes of baloney? Seriously? Where do I vote for the ‘thumbs down’.
I think you guys are all wet on this one, well maybe Derek is Brett seems to be ambivalent as am I.
But the article was more factual than you give it credit for. Only 7800 fans showed up and he gave 1/2 of those the U.S. (probably a high estimate)…what else is that but pathetic.
As for ‘not the Mens national team’ argument…that is week. In the Olympics there are Men’s and Women’s games. This was the Men’s, that Joe Queenan didn’t explain the nuances of a U-23 structure is irrelevant. Not that the article was good by any means, but to label it ‘not factual’…is well, not factual.
Wow someone is butthurt about his team losing.
I recomend you stop wasting time on worrying about detractors and start spending time figuring out whats wrong with your national team.
Because only one of these things is productive, and it certainly isn’t the prior you pathetic excuse for a crybaby.
Someone is furious. Is there a cactus stuck up your ass?
The only good thing to come out of Colombia is Shakira.
Why comment if you’re just going to bitch? I recommend you see a doctor.
Unlike the United States Colombia has the best Striker in the World Currently on it’s team. Cry more gringos.
At least we don’t kill our own players like you pathetic Colombians did.
Please refrain to put all colombians in the same boat with this douche.
I tend to agree seeing as my wife is Colombian. That guy (colombia10) certainly is an a$$hole though.
>implying we killed our own player
LOL Nice one. We didn’t kill him he killed himself.
I think while the reply was not nice, the original post by you was pure 3rd grade as well.
Stay classy nads.
What display of Class from US NAD Fan, lol
You lost to El Salvadorrrrrrrr you expect the write ups to be positive? Caleb porters a complete joke as a coach as well which i’m sure most us fans would co-sign. That team was to good to play the way they did and I’m not even one of those people that overrates the Us player pool.
i dont think anyone expects positive write-ups. Even the fans have been publicly critical and pointed out how disappointed we are and that this was truly a failure for US soccer.
But there’s a difference between being critical and flat out bashing the sport.
3-3 is a loss?? Must be that Al Gore fuzzy math.
sure felt like one
I was more bothered by the one in the Denver Post, because people take that stuff seriously. I was wondering if that author actually covered soccer at all, because his piece reeked of the ‘Olympic Sports Reporter’ who tries to become an expert on his assigned sport at the last second and, not knowing the game, chalks losses up to presumed character faults.
Interesting Stan, that report is segment 2 on the show, and the feelings are similar.
You just can’t condemn American soccer because you don’t like it. These writers probably haven’t been to any local parks in the evenings or weekends. In my city there are thousands of matches a week being played by all ages, skill levels, organized and pick-up. The sport is very much thriving and if USSF restructures and revamps its scouting process, it will translate to better soccer eventually.
The sport is growing phenomenally.
Soccer is unstoppable.
American soccer fans have the self esteem of a high school girl on her period. No matter how much you rationalize it, the truth is that you were not asked to the homecoming dance and in the end, no one will ask you to the prom.
That doesn’t even make sense. They didn’t need to be asked, they needed to qualify. And that is exactly what the US didn’t do.
I actually agree with dwreck. It is a little annoying to see the media there comment on the sport when clearly they don’t know much about it. But at the same time, that has hardly stopped other pundits in American sports from commenting on sports they know little about either. Football has been the whipping boy of US football for years and for some individuals in the sports media there, they will never change. So the best thing American fans can do is take control, and just ignore them and make their own decisions. Simple as that, really.
Solid is saying that US fans are unbelievably sensitive. And we are.
Unbelievably sensitive compared to whom? I see this written here all the time, but don’t see anything that really indicates that it’s true. If a similar article came out about, for example, hockey, would hockey fans react differently?
Dont get me wrong, prior to this article i would get up in arms to tear any argument the author had with facts and recent examples. But of late I’ve decided it’s not worth my time to get all worked up over someone who simply doesnt and wont like the sport.
I dont disagree with your point that other sports fans react similar. However, the soccer community seem to be a closer nit group and tend to be vocal to the point of irritation of those who dont like soccer stating “soccer is the world’s game”… “soccer is the most popular…” etc…
disagreeing with the author and posting facts to back your argument is fine. I’m always up for a good debate, but unfortunately we tend to get quite a large number who simply insult rather then defend.
But the author didnt post an amazing original ground breaking article that cause discussion, but rather a hate piece towards a sport he clearly doesnt like. Posting responses to his article is exactly what he, and to be frank, the WSJ want. It’s all about the hits and nothing brings hits to a website better then controversy and hate
I doubt if the WSJ thinks its going to lose readers, as many of the posters across the WWW were saying on the WSJ site and on FB, that they would continue to allow poorly written pieces like this occur regularly. I will also say that most of the people who criticized his piece as soccer fans did so in a very civil and well-thought-out manner. No death threats or vulgarity-filled rants, for the most part.
I’m a bit confused as to why anyone’s taking Joe Queenan seriously about anything ,let alone soccer.
I don’t really know many people that even watch Olympics anymore, at least past the opening ceremony.
Probably the only placed I’ve lived that got excited over an event was when that swimmer from Towson, MD broke the records. He had a parade, which I went to, and everything thing. I can’t remember his name, but, someone else will.
I didn’t watch the US vs Canada game, and forgot about the last one. I just have zero interest in the Olympics, whether soccer or basketball. I try to get excited, but, never happens.
What starts in June is all that matters, to me.
These old sportswriters only write this stupid crap because they’re threatened by the interest in the sport in this country and hope that it goes away.
It’s pretty sad that some people in this Country can’t support a growing sport, let alone something that everyone else in the world is interested in..People do care when it comes to soccer, just some are jealous that it could become popular enough that not even football players would watch anymore, I know half the people in our school, mostly americans, talked about the loss to Canada, and how they failed to qualify for the olympics, people hate it because it’s a low scoring game, and when it becomes a game where they win 6-0 then it becomes an excuse that the team just sucks, so we just need to keep expanding soccer through popular sports network, and maybe then the youth can finally start playing and care for the sport, mostly the fans.
Seriously though, it’s articles like Queenan’s that make me sad that reputable news outlets will publish such rubish. Honestly, did anyone else at the WSJ read it before it was published? It’s like my grandpa telling me that the music we listen to today was created by the devil. Clearly he knows nothing of the game in America.
People are worked up about a WSJ opinion piece? Please….
“Worked up”? Most people weren’t as worked up as they were astonished at how poorly written it was from a guy who supposedly is a 1st class “humorist.” This whole “worked up” and “throwing a tantrum” or “soccer fans are over-sensitive” thing is getting a bit annoying. Most people are simply pointing out the flaws of an article that was printed in one of the last big papers that people still actually read in the US. Its both relevant and worth-discussing how people who live “outside the soccer” world still perceive the sport. Or, that in fact, lazy writers, with nothing to say that week for their column, still can simply write a poorly crafted anti-soccer article to quickly fill space online and in print. I think its safe to assume that Queenan did very little research and put very little effort into this article. Which then begs the question: is it Queenan who should be ashamed of such shoddy writing, or the WSJ for printing it? When I look for “satire” and “humor” in my soccer articles, I’ll stick with reading Loney and Archer.
us fans get upset when the MSM doesn’t talk about usa soccer. Now MSM does talk about soccer and you’re still upset. oh i get it you only want MSM to report when it’s good news.
Maybe they just want the reporting to be somewhat accurate. Getting right which team was actually playing might have been a good start.
That is garbage. That isn’t what anyone is “upset” about–it is the misrepresentation and errors and baseless nature of the article. We’ve all read critical stories on American soccer that were RIGHT ON and applauded them–especially on youth development. You statement above misses the point by 100%.
There’s a difference between wanting soccer covered and having ignorant write ups to draw in hits. Wahl and many others were negative towards the result and they were correct to be. The result deserves negative press but that article was simply a crap article
You are so worked up with your minimal negative media coverage. In Mexico we put up with shit 100x worse. Imagine how our players feel going through all that pressure. The criticism your players feel isn’t even a gram of what ours have to put up with.
At the end of the day, just like us 4 years ago, you guys messed up. And like Colombian10 said before me, rather than concerning yourself with bad press, you should learn your lesson from this hump and accomplish your task next year.
What is up with the comments today? We usually don’t have to deal with this. uh umm… Regi0… They weren’t ONCE AGAIN complaining about negative criticism of the players or the team that lost, we all can handle that. The article they are discussing is about why SOCCER SUCKS. Get it? Does that help? Its not about criticism of the players, coach or team, its why he think SOCCER SUCKS. Understand yet? His article was about why the GAME OF SOCCER is horrible and boring and stupid. Does that help? Perhaps actually watching the show before commenting might help. I sympathize however with the critical press you must deal with in your country, but you totally do not understand what is being discussed here.
It’s not the bad press that’s being highlighted in this discussion, but rather the ignorance that spread from it. Being critical or even simply bashing the result is one thing, but stating opinions as if they were facts is another.
I would imagine the negative media from the Mexican Press have at least some idea of what they are talking about (the sport), even though it may be irrational and uncalled for. I do agree as a whole the media pressure on our players, teams and execs is SIGNIFICANTLY less then those abroad. But we do have an excess of ignorance towards the sport here and some sports fans who simply will bash the sport any chance given.
As for Colombian’s point, we discuss the U23′s in quite a bit of detail in later segments (released this week) and we are quite critical on the team (as is the rest of the Soccer media here in the US). This result was a complete failure, one i hope our players learn from.
Like Brett and Derek mentioned in the podcast, these old dinosaurs will never appreciate the game if they haven’t already. We all know that soccer doesn’t suck and we don’t need these people to validate the sport.
As far as growing the sport in the USA, I believe that soccer will take a similar trajectory as Skateboarding and other “extreme” sports. Skateboarding was considered a slacker activity up until the X-games and Tony Hawk’s video game came around. Now cities are building publicly funded skateparks and skateboarders have their own TV shows. The reason that skateboarding grew so much is because of the kids. The kids were playing the video games and watching skateboarders on TV so they started skateboarding. The parents had to take notice once all the kids were skating around the neighborhood.
It is the kids of America that will grow soccer to the levels that we can only dream of right now. You go to any middle school and guys like Ronaldo, Messi, and Rooney will be the favorite athletes of a large percentage of the kids. The FIFA video game is huge and will help to attract even more kids, just as the Tony Hawk video game did. I understand that thousands of kids have been playing AYSO and YMCA soccer around the country for years, but I believe that one thing that will change the culture is if cities start building outdoor futsal courts in public parks. It will encourage kids to play pickup soccer in an environmental that will demand creativity.
Just my two cents.
“but I believe that one thing that will change the culture is if cities start building outdoor futsal courts in public parks”
This is something I (and a few others) have looked into. Converting old tennis courts into futsal courts, etc…
great post
well is it an article or an Op-Ed piece? yeah… another op-ed piece. those don’t mean anything, anyone can write those.
Excuse me, but this isn’t just any op-ed page. This is the Wall Street Journal. They don’t let just anyone write for them. You have to be a real first-class asshole first.
Like^
Not sure what was so wrong with the article. Many people who commented are saying he’s bashing soccer. I didn’t see that. He’s bashing the US soccer team, which I think is completely warranted given the level of failure they’ve exhibited over the past couple of year- especially at the youth levels.
He’s not bashing soccer? What part of “soccer is boring” did you miss? He’s also bashing all of soccer in America not just the olympic team? No sir, i think you missed the point of the article all together. You may need to re-read. Or take some medicine that increases interpretive function.
PS. That wasn’t THE US Soccer Team. Do you hang out with Queenan and smoke from the same pipe? It was THE Under 23 TEAM. Hope that helps. It was A US Soccer team, not THE US Soccer Team. Pretty soon people will be calling the US U17 Youth Team THE US Soccer Team.
So every team in the tournament played with their full squad ? Was the US the only team to field a U-23 squad? Come on now, it seems like you are really hurt over this. Take a breath and move on LOL.
The article was pure comedy. My favorite part of the article is this where Quennan states:
“Millions of American kids have played youth soccer over the past 30 years, and only three of them are any good. None of the three played in the showdown with El Salvador in Nashville, since they’re all women.”
Hysterical… and true.
So he’s not really bashing the US team, but US sports in general.
Its like translating from a foreign language: it isn’t that all the teams weren’t U23 teams, its that Queenan didn’t know it. And I don’t find that quote in the least bit funny because it isn’t unique or witty. Its the same thing you’d hear from any half-wit redneck at a pumpkin seed spitting contest. And, its not true–just so you know. Which you don’t. And, no one is “hurt” over this. Losing is fine. That happens, but discussing sub-par, lazy-ass writers trying to fill blank space in their paper with garbage that any toothless soccer-hater in the US could write in 5 minutes without doing an ounce of research is absolutely fair game. Its a discussion bub. No one here is “hurt.”
PS. Not that smooth really. Kind of bumpy.
Seriously, I wouldn’t waste any time & mental energy on this guy? What did you expect of a guy with such a bio?
1.”Joe Queenan (born November 3, 1950) is a self professed negative styled humorist, critic and author from Philadelphia… ” (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Queenan)
2. “Joe Queenan is a well-paid bastard. For the better part of 20 years, he has made a living being mean in the pages of GQ, Movieline, Spy, the New York Times and countless other publications. He’s a self-proclaimed “full time son of a bitch” who has “never deviated from [his] chosen career as a sneering churl,” “.
(http://www.salon.com/2001/07/13/queenan/?mobile.html).
The fight ain’t worth it. Just ignore him you’ll “starve” his greed for attention, hahaha!
There have been some American players who have been good and aren’t women though. Dempsey is solid and so is Donovan. Altidore is doing his thing now. Adu can still be the next Pele LOL. I just love how you guys are getting all worked up over this. And you say I’m not smooth?
I’m kinda with Brett on this one. I enjoy TSRC, but it is getting to the point that every other show is a rebuttal against some idiot bashing soccer or soccer progress in the US. The sport is big enough that we don’t have to legitimize these jerkoffs by indignantly assuring everyone they’re wrong. In other words, it’s kinda preaching to the choir.
It also seems obvious that Queenan’s article isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. He seems to be making fun of the ignorant arguments of people who bash soccer in the US (and maybe general American ignorance) more than anything.
I hear you, but to be fair, there have been only TWO anti-soccer articles they have discussed in the last number of months. Most of the articles the guys discuss are by “soccer writers” or people in the soccer business who do analysis on MLS and US Soccer. That’s what this show is about. I’m sorry you feel like there have been more, but I can assure you, they won’t be making a habit of taking on idiots who write anti-soccer articles. In fact, they have ignored MANY such articles in smaller papers/sites. The last two they did discuss were I believe in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. And as Derek said, if the article was posted in “itty-bitty.com” or something like that, they would have paid it no attention. And again, I think no one is getting worked up here–this was very much a discussion not a furious angry debate, and my song at the end of the show should show that everyone here at TSRC at least has a sense of humor about the whole issue.
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