Monday, June 7, 2010

Brian Ching: Starting FWD on All-Pansy XI

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Apparently, Mr. Ching is under the terribly naive assumption that his service to the National team somehow makes him untouchable while on club duty.  Are you f**kin' serious?
The topic of debate surrounding this (and NY fans doing it last Wednesday, to which Mr. Ching responded with the ol' cup-the-ear, "I can't hear you" move after he scored...but before his team LOST) is going to be the propriety of American soccer fans verbally abusing a regular on the USMNT roster.  Nonsense.  The same way we fans keep our club loyalties to the side while supporting the Nats, is the same way all that kumbaya shit goes out the window when we're off neutral turf.

You're a professional athlete, Ching.  Act like it.  Better yet, how about you avoid sounding like a U16 girl in the national media?  How about you DON'T tell opposing fans exactly what gets under your skin?  Bad move, Ching.

But beyond that main discussion is this underlying one:  The USA/MLS needle has always pointed sharply on the country side of the "Club v. Country" debate.  This is more proof of things shifting a bit.  Suddenly we all have elite American players we don't like (ahem, Stuart Holden).  Suddenly many of us are glad, or at least not upset when our clubs' stars don't miss time for national duty.  Suddenly, "heroes" like Brian Ching can get absolutely roasted by opposing fans twice in the same week for not being good enough to make the World Cup roster.  Times are changing, folks.  A few caps for the US is no longer a lifetime free pass.  Slowly, but surely, club loyalties are taking over with American soccer fans.  Someone just forgot to tell Brian Ching.

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