‘If America learns to let talent grow’
British soccer journalist extraordinaire Rob Hughes visits New York and examines America’s cultural soccer divide. He locates the line between the rigid northern European athletic style exported from his homeland and the creative flair permitted on the Hispanic sandlots but not embraced in the U.S. national team structure:
“That freedom starts in infancy, and has to be indulged. One example of the spontaneity came as the children played in the Metrokids league in Queens. One small boy, in midgame, walked off the field. He saw an ice cream vendor and tried to barter two ice creams for $2 from the stoney-faced trader but eventually had to share one ice cream with his mother. The child then returned to the game, neither admonished by the coaches nor seemingly missed by his teammates.”
