World Cup fever grips Leelanau; global soccer offers antidote to imperialism

Photo: Elliott May and his son Ezra (age 9, in the Christian Pulisic jersey) from Columbus, Ohio, watched at the River Club as Team USA beat Australia, 2-0, on June 19.

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

Mike Sheldon, owner of River Club Glen Arbor, flew to Los Angeles to watch the U.S. national team play Turkey on June 25. Gary Jonas, co-owner of Farm Club and The Little Fleet in Traverse City, hit Dallas together with his father and his son on June 27 to witness Argentina’s date with Jordan. Greg Graetz and his son scored tickets to a friendly match between the United States and Germany at Chicago’s Soldier Field, just prior to this summer’s World Cup.

Venues including The Little Fleet and River Club are packed with enthusiastic crowds gathered to watch the world’s greatest sporting event, co-hosted this summer by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Crowds hush and gaze at the television as footballers send creative passes and move in unison up the field. Hundreds of voices crescendo into a roar as the ball cannons toward the goal.

Some locals find creative ways to catch the tournament even as they work. Bea Moreno, a migrant liaison with Suttons Bay Public Schools, joked, “What World Cup?” when asked what the tournament means to her and her family. She has watched some of Mexico’s matches at the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown where she works.

“We are trying to catch all the matches,” Moreno said. “It’s a game that brings so many of our families across the U.S. and Mexico together. We have group chats going on that share the excitement.”

Marshall Collins, a onetime star goalkeeper at Northport who is now recreational director of Traverse Bay Area Youth Soccer, followed the U.S. 4-1 victory against Paraguay on June 12 on a laptop computer while he simultaneously DJed a party.

Soccer may not (yet) pulse through the veins of American children as much as it does in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona, or Accra. Nevertheless, domestic viewership of this World Cup is breaking records and eclipsing interest in the NBA Finals, the World Series and Sunday Night Football. More than 18 million viewers watched the U.S. beat Paraguay on Fox and Tubi. Another nine million Americans watched the broadcast en español. And that was just the opening round group stage, before the knockout games began.

“Everyone watches soccer,” said Graetz, who splits his time between Traverse City and Glen Arbor. “It gets tiresome hearing the American vocal minority chiming in with anti-soccer sentiment. In reality, lots of people care a great deal about it.”

Sheldon was pulled into the sport by his son Cameron, who roots for Liverpool in the English Premier League.

“There’s a discernible difference between the crowd at a soccer match and any other sport,” he said. “The collective passion, enthusiasm and camaraderie is palpable. When the U.S. scored in the first five minutes (of their group stage match against Turkey) I found myself hugging people I’ve never met. It’s indescribable.”

River Club, on the banks of the Crystal River where it arrives in Glen Arbor, carries all the matches until the tournament ends on July 19.

“We don’t care if you spend a dime or just want to watch and hang out,” Sheldon said. “There’s nothing cooler than a northern Michigan crowd enjoying sports together.”

Jonas described watching Argentinian star Lionel Messi on the pitch in Dallas together with his son and dad as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“In a meaningless game for both Argentina and Jordan (the former had already reached the knockout round; the latter was already eliminated), both fan bases still brought all their energy,” said Jonas. “To see them dance and chant and show such pride for their country was inspiring. The mood was joyous and celebratory.”

The Little Fleet in Traverse City, which Jonas owns, has been the place to watch World Cup games since 2014. This year they added an outdoor television screen, just for the tournament.

“We are not really a sports bar, but we are a soccer bar,” he said. “The USA games have been packed with enthusiastic fans. People are more into it this year than ever.”

Soccer’s antidote to racism

At a time of caustic nationalism in this country—with the occupant of The White House openly using xenophobic language and pushing American imperialism—this North American World Cup has at times felt like a healing balm. It is a celebration of global diversity and joy between strangers as Americans welcome visitors from around the world to their cities, big and small. There are notable exceptions, of course. A Somali referee assigned to officiate a match was denied entry at Miami International Airport despite holding a valid visa.

The Iranian team, whose government is at war with the United States, faced strict restrictions and hostilities from U.S. authorities, contrasting sharply with the hospitality they received in Mexico. Their base camp was moved from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico. During their matches in the United States, they were restricted from staying overnight and were forced to return to Mexico immediately.

The teams themselves are more diverse than ever before. Behold the German national squad, not white like the newsreel archives would suggest, but nearly one-third of whom have African roots. One of Germany’s best players, Jamal Musiala, who wears number 10, has a Nigerian British father. France’s exciting star Kylian Mbappé, born in Paris, has Cameroonian and Algerian roots. The rising wunderkind Lamine Yamal was born in Spain to parents from Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. Of course, the diversity of these squads owes to centuries of European colonialism as well as recent migration.

At a birthday dinner party recently, I talked about the World Cup with a fellow Trump opponent and explained why I wholeheartedly root for the U.S. national team during this tournament, despite our government’s attacks and threats against Venezuela, Cuba, Columbia, Mexico, Canada, Greenland, Iran and the entire NATO alliance. The success of American soccer, its players and fans, its embrace of the world’s sport, are a direct reproach to Trump, I opined.

I’ll root for Team USA, and I’ll root for globalism and diversity both on and off the pitch.