Las Madres de Futbol (Soccer Moms)

For the longest time I could never really quite understand why there are so many soccer haters out there, but then I guess I starting looking at the sport from a different viewpoint. As a front office employee, I can't get emotional during the games. I have to remain professional. Now that I am refereeing soccer games, I realize how difficult officiating really is and how many whiners are out there. I realize- that there really is a lot to hate.

I blame the moms. (Not my mom, of course). Soccer moms are either too nurturing or too demanding. They yell, scream, carry on, and act like fools. In any case, they deserve a big super-sized serving of the Just Shut Up Award.

Soccer has a funny way of explaining the world, it is a sport that is a microcosm of the larger social issues in our everyday world. I refereed a game that put a rich, white club against a poorer,blue collar Hispanic club. Both teams possessed talented players and moved the ball down the pitch well, but the second the boys from whitey-tighty'ville went down a goal, the game might as well have been over. They hung their heads down, pointed fingers, and all in all gave up when the going got tough. One kids whined about every call that didn't going in his teams favor. Meanwhile, the Hispanic team kept scoring goals. They had faced and overcome adversity before- at home, in their lives off the soccer field.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I refereed a girls game later that day that was a make-up and had no influenced whatsoever on advancement to the state cup tournament. One of the moms acted in such a way that probably would have gotten her escorted out of Robertson Stadium. All of her ranting and raving was in Spanish, so that's probably what kept anyone from saying anything. Regardless, it was annoying.

I can go deeper though. That evening, there was a watch party at a soccer pub to watch the Dynamo's first regular season game against the NE Revolution. A mother was there with her two daughters. The mother appeared to be inebriated and was teaching her daughters soccer drinking songs. (YOU'LL NEVER BEAT PAT ONSTAD! YOU'LL NEVER BEAT PAT ONSTAD!) It's 7:30 pm, do you know where your daughters are?

So all you soccer moms out there, do your soccer playing kids a favor and keep your mouths shut. You're making the game look bad.