Manchester United Fans Are Not the Capitol Rioters
So stop comparing them.
Let’s just get it out of the way right at the top, shall we? What occurred at Old Trafford on Sunday was not remotely equivalent to rioters storming the Capitol building in the United States earlier this year.
Some people have made the comparison between the two because of fans actually getting inside of Old Trafford and rioters storming the Capitol to overturn an election and subsequently killing Capitol police as a joke, because it’s an easy joke to make, primarily. And secondarily, because of videos like this, that appeared to show United stewards letting people onto the pitch.
There were also scuffles with the police that occurred outside the stadium, as it was reported that two officers were injured and one was cut on the face with a bottle.
I don’t think I should need to explain why what turned into scuffles with the police, some property damage, and two people being injured is not really comparable to a group of people breaking into a government building, some of whom who had previously stated their intentions to kidnap and/or murder lawmakers, many of whom who had firearms on their person, and again, who actually killed people, while elsewhere pipe bombs were found in various spots around said government building. It seems to me that should be pretty self-evident. But you wouldn’t know it watching and reading most coverage of the event.
The political necessity of violence will forever be a grey area for pretty much everyone. Yeah, I obviously think it sucks that someone got slashed in the face with a bottle, and that could’ve potentially been much more dangerous than it ended up being, but the police have never been known for their abilities to de-escalate situations like this, pretty much ever.
And none of this tit-for-tat excuses any of it or helps anything at all, really, it just gives you more context into understanding how and why these things happen. But fans throwing a couple cameras and getting into fights with the police is not the same as a group of insurrectionists legitimately threatening the lives of police and lawmakers in a government building. This really doesn’t seem that hard to not equate.
I think in my surveying of the event, I’m torn between my desire for people to really, actually care about things, and my American cynicism that United fans feel they “own” any part of their club. I like that United fans care enough about their club and the direction its being taken that they did something that actually disrupted the established order of things and ruffled the feathers of some extremely wealthy people who, really, the postponed game against Liverpool makes no difference to. But I ultimately see these protests and actions as ones that are ultimately doomed to fail, mostly because I feel much more familiar with these American ghouls than some Brits might be. They do not care about you or what you do. They might care eventually, if you do enough actual damage to their earnings, but I doubt you will get to that point. Not because of a lack of feeling or depth of passion for United. Simply because of the rot of wealth and the all-encompassing blaze that incinerates empathy in a human. Forest fires are a big deal in the States. It’s kind of like those.
I think, however, that I prefer United fans getting onto the pich and postponing matches than them doing nothing at all, or unfurling a few more “Glazer out” banners that will invariably do nothing. I cannot condone violence, but I also cannot condone brutality, and cannot condone the wealth hoarders trying to reduce the game down to the biggest numbers possible.
Let’s just agree to cover these a bit differently than people that actually tried to overthrow a government and actually murdered people while doing it, ok?
It’s A Beautiful Day on Twitch
We have a show today! Ply Jimmy with your questions and sarcastic remarks about the Champions League, MLS, the DFB Pokal, and any other things you think about regarding the Beautiful Game!
NY/NJ Gotham FC Show the Difference a Year (and Careful Planning) Can Make
A year ago, Gotham FC was Sky Blue FC, and they were busy finishing second-to-last in the preliminary round of the NWSL Challenge Cup. They exceeded expectations in the knockout rounds, making it past the Spirit on penalties and pushing the Red Stars to the limit in the semis, but ultimately couldn’t make it happen (and it became hard to ignore how the team only scored four goals the whole tournament, half of them coming in their last match). Now? Gotham is fun as hell, they’re going to the Challenge Cup final, and you should be paying attention.
Of course, none of this happened overnight. Major respect needs to be doled out to General Manager Alyse LaHue, the architecht who helped guide not only Gotham to the final, but out of the Sky Blue era and the ugly history the team carried with it. To that end, this New Yorker article about how that all went down is very much worth your time.
Reaching the Critical Mass of Cades
Cade Cowell and Caden Clark are both turning into the most important players on their teams. And I’m sorry, but not since the Great Kel(l)yn Conjunction of 2017 have I felt the need to put my foot down and say: no more.
If there are any more prospects whose names are Cade or Cade-adjacent, they must change them or go by their middle names. I’m very sorry to those players. It’s not their fault. We simply cannot take any more people named things this close together.
Shithousery of the Day
Goal of the day? How passé. Let’s talk about why we all really watch this game: for the ridiculous ways in which players and coaches act which may or may not give them the slightest upper hand.
An obvious entry into this is the ball-tossing debacle engaged in between Portland manager Gio Savarese and MLS Fantasy legend Ryan Hollingshead.
I have to say, Gio not even coming close to flinching really turned the tables on Hollingshead here. But this one doesn’t even come close to the best moment of the week, in which Bobby Reid tried to distract Chelsea keeper Édouard Mendy during a set piece by repeatedly undoing the velcro strap on his gloves.
I’ve never someone try to do this before in a game, and as such, I must give it the prize of our inaugural Moment of Shithousery of the Week.