US or Algeria in today’s game? I can’t decide…and honestly, I did not even know the decision was going to be this hard nor that the feeling would be so torn.

I thought I was going to be solidly, unconditionally behind Algeria. Yes, my reasons are perhaps incompatible with 21^st century universalist view of the world, and even wrong. Rooting for Algeria for political, nationalistic reason is not easy to live with. Not only it’s ethically and nationalistically motivated, views I advocate against, but it is also that case I have not material or tangible connection to Algeria.

It’s an Arab nation, but what connects me personally to it? Nothing… I have as many friends from Algeria as I do from Chile, Austria or the Philippines. I have never been to the country. But it is the only Arab nation to qualify, and for  better or worse, the whole world looks at us as one group, (until we try to act as a group that is, then a host of multi national organizations spring up to action telling us we’re not). And Arabs are oppressed, in their home, in Diaspora, for being, for being Muslim, by the west, by Israel and dictators who are supported by the west… So damn it, it’s about time I find solace in an Arab team qualifying, even if that’s the 20^th furthest out of 22 from me.

So I unabashedly rooted for Desert Warriors as they took on Slovenia, and especially England… All the contributed to the world was colonialism, bad food, and financial meltdowns.

I thought I’d do the same against the US. Not so easy. Remember what I said earlier about never being from Algeria and having virtually no connections to it…? Talk about the extreme opposite; I’ve lived in the US for just short of half of my life. The US has given so much, next only to my home, Palestine. The US has given education, multiple degrees, livelihood, even a career, a new perspective, world view, great life, plenty of vacations, and even a platform to advocate on behalf of Palestine (probably would have been censored had I tried it in most Arab countries.)

Yes, The US is the empire and the oppressor. But soccer is by no means the spectator sport of the elite or warmongering, gun touting, republican voting swats of the country. On the contrary, soccer is an oppressed minority in the US; in fact, the word “soccer” is the N word for what is really football, (American football is thrown by hand, so…). Soccer fans are generally such because they traveled abroad, or come from families with that kind of view, so good for the future of America as a multi cultural nation and a friend of world, that the right wing nuts have been lashing out against it. Besides, on an athletic level, the US is not soccer superpower… which I would have taken delight in their embarrassment, like England and France, and hopefully the imminent, similar fate awaiting Germany and Italy.

So go Algeria, or US, if I figure that out by the time of the game I may enjoy the game more… We’ll see, they can’t both advance. May be this is how it is when you make a good life in a country the oppresses your people… How did Latinos living in the US watch games between the US and South and Central American nations?

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