For years, American soccer fans had to endure the glee with which the media reported on hooliganism, as if it dominated soccer around the world.
A reporter I know – one who likes soccer! – would focus on misdeeds to garner more space in one of the most respected U.S. dailies.
“Riot” was once the four-letter answer to a New York Times crossword clue, “Happens at a soccer game.”
The sport suffered for this reputation.
Then came the 1994 World Cup and mainstream America saw the wonderful side of soccer fandom.
But it felt like the bad old days before the USA-Guatemala game, when we got reports of plans of unlawful behavior dubbed “Project Mayhem” in the Washington Post and USA Today, whose Peter Brewington oxymoronically announced the arrival of “civilized hooliganism.” Afterward, Sports Illustrated reporter Grant Wahl offered a jolly account of 15 fans who invaded the Guatemalans’ hotel floor at 2 a.m. with noisemakers, clashed with security, and prompted the arrival of the Arlington, Va., police. They shouted patriotic things like, “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! motherf*****s!
It wasn’t a riot. But it was a disgrace. Misguided vengeance prompted by reports from Mazatenango that omitted the fact U.S. players weren’t bothered by the racket fans made outside their hotel.
The U.S. has been treated poorly abroad, but not “everywhere we go,” as Coach Bruce Arena told USA Today in a story outlining Project Mayhem. Longtime Federation officials can’t recall fans ever entering the team’s hotel floor.
This time, it was a hotel invasion. Wahl’s story promised more of that in the future and Brewington told me that, inspired by the publicity, ring leaders are orchestrating “grander plans.”
I’ve seen Americans pelted by fans on Central American soccer fields, but when American fans behave the same way it will be a very sad day.
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