re: Check in if you DGAF about the US Women's Soccer team's struggles

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That's kind of my gripe about people's disdain for US women's national soccer team. It's always "they" when talking about how unpatriotic and unAmerican the team is.

There are a ton of younger players on that team now that weren't on the roster when Rapinoe and company started the attention whoring politically.

Not to mention that other than Rapinoe, I don't really know who else on the current national team is actually pushing this "anti America" narrative that everyone keeps complaining about. I would venture a guess there are some, but certainly not a majority and certainly not enough to just shite on the entire team and root against them (that I've seen via news on tv or social media).

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I think that's fair, but the organization waged a ridiculous war about compensation in addition to the woke politics and kneeling. All of the angles we hear are about some injustice or identity thing, very little about big tent ideas, coming together, fun, gather the family and cheer on the Stars and Stripes, etc. I'll admit they don't control all of that and within the team there might be family-centric, more traditional players who'd love to have the average American family tuning in and supporting them and enjoying the competition.

But that's just not what we see, and they certainly have reason to know how the team is portrayed/reflected in media and the like.

IMO the reality is that soccer is, at the professional level in the US, a pretty "progressive" sport. Combine that with female activists being the loudest voices and waging a prolonged battle on the basis of identity (the equal pay thing) - and they've put themselves in a pretty small box. They do represent some swath of the country, it's just unfortunately the case that the country is also pretty polarized. In that sense, I think it's indicative of a bigger battle the US is going to confront in trying to rally Americans to support national teams/athletes/etc. - we're all asked to have an opinion and go on record with it, and increasingly those stances are very divergent.

Rapinoe is their leader and captain, and the rest of the team has always gone along with her obnoxiousness.

Many don't like the women's soccer team for the same reason many don't like the Lakers - in each instance their leader and the public face of the team is a fricking jerk.