Patrick Dawson

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@shipwreckedcrew Getting closer now.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@JamesSurowiecki You're around 25-30.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@hmn_alchemy @jrzx298 @ShaneRyanHere It had a minor effect but Belgium have way better players.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

The American sport's system is entirely socialist. Local governments have to build stadiums for billionaires. Players have a salary cap. Poor teams can throw games so that the next generation can be given a charity pick for fairness.

[Ellen Carmichael @ellencarmichael]

The most interesting part of the red card saga isn't the ruling. It's how differently Americans and Europeans process the idea that they might have been wronged.

Europeans are fundamentally different from Americans in one particular way: they expect life to be aggravating and at times unfair. It's just a fact of moving through the world. I joke that in Europe, the customer is always wrong. You didn't read the fine print. The only pharmacy in town is closed every other Tuesday for three hours, and even if the times weren't posted, that's still your problem. Too bad if you want the bill, because the waiter's on his union-mandated half-hour smoke break, and you're just going to have to wait.

To quote the great Mark Knopfler: sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. There's something freeing in that. Things are less in your control, so there's less angst in managing your expectations.

In America, things couldn't be more different. We simply can't accept a wrong left unrighted.

The flight attendant sneezed handing you a drink on your one-hour flight? 15,000 frequent flyer miles. Didn't like your appetizer? A replacement is on the way, and the whole course comes off the bill. There's a reason our interstates are lined with trial lawyer billboards.

Europeans have turned complaining into a continental pastime with no expectation that the universe owes them a remedy for their grief. You gripe about the train being late, your friends nod solemnly and everyone goes back to their apéro. In America, we launch a full-blown investigation of the train system, sue the government (and its contractors) that allowed for the tardiness and hold a Congressional hearing on the state of national infrastructure.

So to an objective observer, the red card shouldn't have happened, and VAR was a travesty. To Americans, our star player shouldn't be unfairly banned from a match we couldn't afford to lose for a card he so obviously didn't deserve.

Who cares that FIFA used a little-used reversal to fix it. Who cares that other people are mad about it. We. Were. Wronged. It was unjust. It must be corrected. We would accept nothing less.

Europeans waxing poetic about the sanctity of the game are, of course, talking about a governing body whose last tournament host was decided via confirmed cash bribes — one that imposed dress codes on women, shrugged off widespread allegations of modern slavery and reconfigured the entire tournament calendar to suit the host country. Which is exactly the point. If you've made peace with all of that, at least enough to watch the tournament four years later, a probationary suspension isn't actually a scandal.

Maybe that's the real divide. Over millennia, Europeans have made peace with being the bug. Americans have never once considered it, and apparently, we're not about to start now.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@ellencarmichael Europe is one country apparently. All American states are the same. The French never protest.
This is the level of Atlantic discourse. A series of utterly ridiculous assumptions passed off arrogantly.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@MattBrownM2 Then do it. You've been talking about it for decades. What's stopping you?

[Chris Cillizza @ChrisCillizza]

I think this is totally wrong-headed.

The issue is not that our best athletes don't play soccer.

It's that we default to frame/size/athleticism at the youth elite level.

We need more good *soccer* players. And we need to stop dismissing youth players who aren't the "right" size.

[Chris Cillizza @ChrisCillizza]

Moral victories at this point?

No way.

Time to change what MLS Academies are looking for. The "just get athletes" theory is NOT working. And has not worked.

[Zayyan @MCIAZayyan]

More people in the US play football than Norwegians. A huge amount more. But the US hasn't produced a single very good player in history, even if the current US team is decent. Norway has one generational striker & a highly technical 10. Football isn't only about athleticism, and it would be terrible for it to become that, which it is in real danger of becoming. That would be when the US starts to become consistently one of the better teams.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

It's always fun to watch zoomers analyse long careers from few youtube clips.

[Rishi 🌐🗽🏙 @RishiJoeSanu]

Beckham was a one-trick pony of the 4-4-2 era. His technique outside of his crosses was atrocious & had no pace or dribbling ability. Easily the most overrated English player of the 2000s golden generation.

The GOAT of that era was Rooney, followed by Lampard, Gerrard, etc...

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@CoolCyWrites This is the first tournament they've made in 28 years and Erling Haaland is the son of a PREMIER LEAGUE footballer and champion heptathlete.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@BartWinklerShow Any kid that can't make a local high school football team is going to do absolutely nothing in the world's most popular sport. Get a grip.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

Many of the American players have come through the best academies in Europe. It's not a coaching or training issue. That's the eternal cope. It's an intelligence and talent issue. It's cultural. It's the hierarchy of American sports and status.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@CoffeeBlackMD We've heard this for decades. You're the richest most powerful country in the world. Decades. And you're still exactly where you were.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@Clapped_Dre Beyond cope. The greatest players in history come from all sorts of backgrounds. A significant number of them were born in the favelas of Brazil.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@Halonut24 @DuBoseDefense He's a fucking elite talent. Movement. Intelligence. Lethal technique. Jesus wept.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@LASPORTSFANATIC You aren't being real though. If you played a genuine series against of those teams- you would lose. Against all.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@notfinistg @JimmyDoinksRN Football is the cheapest sport to play. Two t shirts on the ground is a goal.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@MikeConti929 America is not a top 25 team. You had some home advantage and momentum. Most mediocre international teams would run you close or beat you.

[Patrick Dawson @patrickdwsn]

@sambrazy Americans say this stuff but the minute they have to compete in an actually popular sport, they blame infrastructure and coaching.