I’ll be honest. For the longest time, I was never too impressed by soccer fans from the United States.
But this weekend, I had an epiphany.
No, it wasn’t on the meaning of life; I’m still working on that. And no, it had nothing to do with plans for my future career.
I realized something about the culture of American sports fans.
While covering Inter Milan’s practice on campus this week, I saw an increasing number of fans, from a variety of backgrounds, surrounding North Athletic Field to catch a glimpse of the soccer stars.
During a closed practice, I saw many fans outside North Athletic Field’s fence, sitting on each other’s shoulders and climbing the fence to watch Inter Milan practice.
Others were peeking between the tarp that UCLA Recreation had put up around the fence. So many people had been looking through the gaps of the tarp that by the end of the week, whole portions were torn off from people tugging so hard.
When I was granted admittance to the practice with my press pass, people were begging me to let them in.
Others began passionately arguing with security over why I got to go in when they, devoted Inter fans, were left waiting outside the fence. I had fans explaining to me finer points about the sport of soccer and the condition of Inter Milan’s squad with unmatched depth and detail. I even had a Facebook conversation with a UCLA student who found me through my coverage earlier in the week. He was inquiring about the best way to catch Inter Milan for photos and autographs.
If the old me were reading these little stories, he would think I was talking about Inter Milan’s appearance in Europe or South America.
But he would be wrong.
All these stories of relentlessly passionate fans of Inter Milan and soccer in general are from right here. And many of the people going to extreme lengths to watch the practice were from a variety of backgrounds, including from the United States.
For many years, I’ve heard about how sports fans in the states have a narrow, brutish interest in sports: “Football, basketball and baseball ““ that’s all they watch.”
People have told me fans in the states don’t have the culture to appreciate finer sports, especially soccer.
And for a long time, I thought they were right. I built up a negative perception of how the United States views soccer. I came to believe American soccer fans were not just few in number, but mostly lacking in serious knowledge of the sport. And as a long-time soccer fan myself, I grew increasingly self-righteous in my views.
I would refuse to watch ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup, citing its staff’s lack of soccer knowledge.
After this week of spending hours at Inter Milan’s practices at North Athletic Field, I had all my prejudices broken down and have come to regret all the feelings I previously harbored against American soccer fans.
Inter Milan’s practice may not have brought 70,000 fans covered in black and blue paint, but the several hundred people crowding around North Athletic Field and Gate 15 of Pauley Pavilion, where the team signed autographs and had pictures taken, came with the same passion as any other group of soccer fans, from the United States or not.
So, soccer fans from the United States, I owe you all an apology. I now realize that passion transcends national borders. I should not have assumed things about your love of soccer and knowledge of the sport.
And when next summer’s World Cup rolls around, I’ll be watching ESPN. I’ll just switch over to Univision when someone scores to hear the commentator yell, “GOOOOOOOL!”
If you discovered the meaning of life this past week, then e-mail Mashhood at fmashhood@media.ucla.edu