Weeds by Randy Krzmarzick: ‘Beautiful game’ around the planet

I have followed the World Series since 1965; the year the Dodgers beat our Twins. I
was nine. As I got older, I realized the “World” Series isn’t really the world.
The World Cup is the world, the entire world. Right now, here in the middle of the
continent, the World Cup surrounds us. There are matches north, south, east, and west
of us.
Soccer is “football” to the rest of the planet. Here in America, we give that name to that
other, more violent game we watch on Friday nights, Saturday afternoons, and all day
Sunday.
Soccer is by a lot the most popular sport on Earth. For whatever reason, it is behind
other sports in this country. Soccer has crept ahead in participation the last decades,
but it still lags well behind football, baseball, and basketball.
I have friends who tell me that soccer is boring. I push back on that. It’s so wildly
popular across the globe, there must be an attraction we don’t understand.
I assume if I had grown up playing and watching soccer the way I did baseball, there
would be subtleties I would know that I don’t know. Even though I wasn’t much of a
player, I understand things in baseball that aren’t apparent on the surface. Like a batter
adjusting his approach late in the count.
There must be nuances to soccer that one can only know if you’ve been playing it since
you could walk. Positioning, maneuvering, body movement, vision of the field.
I imagine a man my age from Ghana could find baseball boring. He wouldn’t know why
you bring the infield in with a runner on third.
Soccer is “futbol” in Spanish. It is known simply as “the beautiful game” around the
planet.
When he was fourteen, our son Ezra announced he wanted to play soccer. I knew there
was a program in New Ulm. Being a dutiful dad, we went over to sign him up for the
summer season.
There Ezra played U14 and for a couple more years after that. He was fortunate to have
Paul Koelpin as his coach. Paul was the soccer coach at Martin Luther College. He had
a son playing Ezra’s age and was coaching that team. He was patient and thorough,
explaining the game to the newby kid from Sleepy Eye.
The parents of that team who had played together since young were gracious in letting
Pam and I into their circle. They were also patient in trying to help our understanding of
what was going on out there. Offsides in soccer is a fluid thing. Stoppage time is literally
impossible to understand.

At the time, the New Ulm Soccer Association had a lot of members from the Martin
Luther College community. I remember mentioning that to someone, who said, “You
can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting a Lutheran.”
It’s a line that has stuck in my head. Take no offense, I love Lutherans!
In the years Ezra played, I became aware of things like the Euro Cup, La Liga, and the
Premier League. Around then, Minnesota United joined MLS. I dipped my toe a little
deeper into soccer fandom.
In this go round of the World Cup, I found myself with several rooting interests. Elia is a
friend who is from Mexico. Pam’s nephew is married to Elly from Argentina. Daughter
Abby is married to Jhonattan from Colombia. As I write, only Elly’s team remains.
If you are my age, you’ll remember the Minnesota Kicks. That was a pro team that
played at Metropolitan Stadium in the Seventies. I was mostly annoyed by them,
because they made a mess of the grass field where the Twins played.
More than once, a divot would cause a ball hit to the outfield to take a weird bounce in
front of Disco Dan Ford in right field. Dan had enough problems focusing without that.
For a few seasons, the Kicks were a sensation. Thousands of young people filled the
parking lot of the old Met. Mostly they were there to party.
I went to one Kicks game with friends. They were playing the California Surf, and I’m not
sure how I remember that. There definitely was an aroma on a certain herbaceous type
as you walked across the parking lot. It blended with smoke from the grills to create a
unique essence.
You could’ve gotten high and hungry at the same time.
A few years ago, I went with family to the new soccer stadium in St. Paul. Allianz Field
is home to Minnesota United, aka the Loons. It’s a great setting, designed for soccer, so
every seat is good. The playing surface is a pitch, not a field. I learned that from my
Lutheran friends.
As far as I could tell, there were no illegal smells. Simply good old-fashioned beer to
prime the spectators. An impressive Brew Hall has dozens of craft beer choices.
For a guy who is a minor fan, I did have a big soccer experience. In 2018 Abby was
going to graduate school in Barcelona. We went to visit her that summer. I knew enough
about soccer to know that FC Barcelona was one of the best clubs in the world. Their
star player was Lionel Messi, one of the best players.
Abby and I were able to get tickets to a La Liga match at Camp Nou Stadium. We joined
106,000 of our best friends watching a 1 to 0 win for the home side.

Getting to see that player on that team in that stadium was like watching Babe Ruth play
at Yankee Stadium if you want to do a baseball equivalent.
The thing that struck me was the attention every fan paid to the action on the field. I’ve
gone to a lot of baseball and football games. Some people are yapping, Others are
eating or going to get concessions. A ball game is a social event. The actual game
seems secondary sometimes to the visiting and ballpark food.
When the play was going on down on the pitch in Camp Nou, everyone was focused on
that. Even little kids who would be squirming around at Target Field had their eyes on
the futbol. I suspect it’s like that in most places around the world.
I confess that when I watch soccer, sometimes it still seems like a bunch of guys
running around out there. But I still appreciate “the beautiful game.”