Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Why the USMNT coming to Jacksonville is a big deal



The U.S. men's soccer team is 6-6-2 all time against African teams. One of those wins
was a 1-0 victory over Algeria during the 2010 World Cup. (Photo by Will Brown)


By Will Brown

The North American and African champions will meet for an international soccer game… in Jacksonville. If that is not is not enough to pique one’s interest in the world’s game, there is not much that will.

The BBC was the first to report that the U.S. men’s soccer team will host Nigeria June 7 at EverBank Field.

Nigeria may be ranked No. 47 in the latest FIFA World Rankings, but they are not a team to be taken lightly. The Super Eagles will likely bring players who have suited up in the Premier League, Champions League and some of Europe’s elite leagues this season.

Historically, the United States’ record has been spotty against African teams with a 6-6-2 record. However, it’s one thing to get results so-so teams like Algeria (2-1 at the 2010 World Cup), South Africa (1-0 in 2010) Tunisia (1-1 in 2000) and another to beat one of the continent’s giants like Ghana, Nigeria or Cote d’ Ivoire. 

Playing a fellow World Cup participant, especially one from Africa, in the humidity will may be a psychological aide to the US when it plays Ghana June 16 in its first game of the 2014 World Cup.

This will be the fifth World Cup the United States has participated in what some have dubbed a “Sendoff Series”, but the first time one of those matches will be held in Florida. The USMNT is 7-3-2 in these exhibition games.
Clint Dempsey will lead the U.S. men's national team out onto
the field June 7 against Nigeria as part of the squad's
Sendoff Series for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
(Photo By Will Brown)

Wins against Uruguay in 2002 and Australia four years ago, both of whom were World Cup teams that year and this year, preceded the Americans getting out of the group stage. A scoreless draw against Scotland in 1998, a World Cup participant that year, was the precursor to a tournament where the Americans lost all three games.

A win this June over Nigeria may mean two things: firstly, the World Cup may be a good one and secondly the city’s record for hosting men’s national team matches would remain undefeated.

The U.S. men’s national team is undefeated in Jacksonville with a 3-0-1 record. The last of those contests was a 2012 friendly against a Scotland that drew 44,438 fans.
Are soccer crowds like this in Jacksonville's future?
(Photo By Will Brown)
Should Jacksonville draw a similar crowd this June — and there is no reason to assume it won’t considering U.S. men’s national team match held here drew a larger crowd than the previous one — it would be bigger than 10 of the 11 World Cup tune-up games played on American soil.

Columbus, Ohio; Carson, Calif. and Washington D.C. are all cities the U.S. men’s national team has frequently visited because of the combination of big crowds and great results. Jacksonville may eventually join that group if the Stars and Stripes can produce a victory over Nigeria on the road to Brazil.
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Monday, February 17, 2014

Why should we have children?

The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office had four marked vehicles patrolling the gas station where
Jordan Davis was killed in the aftermath of a highly publicized case where the unarmed 17-year-old
was killed after an November 2012 argument with Satellite Beach resident Michael Dunn. (Photo by Will Brown)

By Will Brown

Every month my wife and I share a laugh and a high five when we know parenthood is once again postponed.  

We are aware raising a child, especially a black child, will be a rewarding challenge. Recent events in our native Florida have highlighted how difficult our task will be.

Whenever our child arrives he or she will enter a world where it will be perceived by some as a second-class citizen. Our daughters will be objectified. Our sons will be vilified. Meanwhile, we will be petrified at the possibilities of what may happen when they are not in our sight.

Travon Martin and Jordan Davis were perceived as threats, despite the fact neither of them weighed 160 pounds when they were killed. Genetics say it will highly improbable our child will be that slight when they are 17 years old.

If being mouthy and picking a fight can get Davis, Martin and too many others murdered, one can see why we would be concerned to bring a child into this world that will be tall, dark and opinionated.

That cold truth was splashed across our faces at a family dinner Saturday night when six of us went to a restaurant in a Jacksonville suburb.

Behind us was a family of five. To our left was a family of four. The first family had a husband, wife, two young sons and a daughter. The second featured a husband, wife and two young sons. All four boys appeared to be under 10 years old.

As we discussed Michael Dunn’s conviction on attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle — but not of killing Davis — we realized the two boys at the table behind us will be perceived far differently than the two boys at the second table five years from now in part because they are black.

The perception of young black men was all the more apparent Sunday afternoon when I visited the gas station at the corner of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road.

As I walked inside a uniformed officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office stood 50 feet away profiling me. The dread, anger and impulsivity that washed over me during the 15 seconds the officer was assessing whether I was a threat were all too familiar.

I have endured similar looks from law enforcement, store owners, potential employers and others during my lifetime to know when I’m being profiled. Having been previously profiled, I knew it was prudent to take off my sunglasses, tilt my hat higher so more of my face could be seen and wait patiently with my arms in plain sight Sunday afternoon while I waited on a friend to return from the bathroom.

Two other young black men walked into the gas station while I was inside. Both were sized up by officers as well in the time they walked from their cars.

Four police cruisers and at least that many uniformed officers were at that gas station Sunday because that was where Davis was killed. 

It’s not as though the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not have anything to do.

Since Saturday’s verdict eight people — yes, eight — have been shot in two separate nightclub incidents in Jacksonville. The identities of the victims, or the suspects, have not been released. Regardless, it’s a tragedy.

What is also sad is the realization that no matter how smart, gregarious and courteous our child may be there is a significantly higher chance he or she will be the victim of homicide than any other racial or ethnic subset in America.

The FBI reported there were 12,765 homicides in this country in 2012 with 6,454 or 50.5 percent, of those deaths being blacks.

If such statistics do not sound intimidating that is because it was not your son, daughter, mother, father, spouse or friend who was eulogized.

The FBI statistics indicate that strangers are much less likely to commit homicide than one’s family, friends and acquaintances. However, when strangers, like Dunn and George Zimmerman are allowed to accost, shoot and not face consequences for their quick triggers and tempers it is a reminder of why some still subscribe to Richard Pryor’s observation about American prisons: “you go down there looking for justice, that's what you find: just us.”

When Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, publically admitted last summer that he spoke with his teenage son about how to act when interacting with the police and strangers, it was enough of a jolt to make me question whether it is worth it to have children.

At the time Holder stated this is a sad reality in a nation that is changing for the better in so many ways. So long as that is a reality, I am just as fearful for my child as America is of my child.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb
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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Are we ready to admit Florida is a soccer state?

More than 5,000 people watched the New York Red Bulls play the Philadelphia Union
in a MLS preseason match in Jacksonville. (Photo by Will Brown)


By Will Brown

Thirty minutes before kickoff three teenagers were standing in the drizzle egotistically trying to see how hard they can kick a soccer ball.



Northeast Florida has numerous elite soccer programs, but the boys did not play on one of them, which made it all the more impressive that the  goalkeeper, midfielder and forward made their way to EverBank Field to watch a preseason game between two Major League Soccer teams.

The boys, members of the Raines High School boys soccer team, were among the 5,656 people who watched the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union prepare for the 2014 season on a rainy night far removed from either clubs supporters.

“I think it was good for us. It was the preseason game, so we had some minutes to show the coach (what we can do),” said Red Bulls defender Roy Miller, a Costa Rican international who entered the match in the second half. “Now, I think from today’s game we can take very positive things. It’s one more game. I think we’re doing well and I’m happy with the work we put in today.”

Miller and the Red Bulls had the best regular season record in MLS last year. Philadelphia finished 13 points behind their opponents from Wednesday night. Thomas Marks, one of the three Raines players who braved the rain, said he wanted to watch the teams play so he can get better in his final two years.

If Marks was taking his cues from No. 14 in white, then he certainly learned a few things.

Thierry Henry is a legend who has won silverware in England, Spain, France and the United States. He’s a World Cup and Champions League winner who was marketed as the star of Wednesday’s game by event organizers Sunshine Sports Group.


Henry certainly delivered in the 45 minutes he was on the pitch. In the 16th the former Arsenal forward nutmeged a Union midfielder, juggled the ball seven times while fending off a challenge seven minutes later and scored a goal in the 36th minute.

The goal wound up being the game-winner as New York won 2-1.


Afterward, there was not much time for Henry, Australian international Tim Cahill, or Philadelphia’s Andre Blake, the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, to speak with the local media. The two teams were in a rush to make it to Jacksonville International Airport for a charter flight for Newark, N.J. before returning to their respective mid-Atlantic homes.

Dave Rowan, the Union’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, said chartered flights are an anomaly in Major League Soccer. All 19 teams fly commercial, and all the players fly coach.

“The players understand that’s part of it and they have no issue,” Rowan said. “It’s what you get used to and that’s what you have. I look forward to coming back next year and having dry weather and an exciting game.”

Afterward, Mark Frisch, the owner of the North American Soccer League franchise that is slated to start play in Jacksonville next year tweeted that he would love to see the Union play his club in the 2015 preseason.

It remains to be seen whether Frisch’s hope will become reality next year. However, what is undeniable is that Jacksonville, and the rest of Florida, are quickly embracing the soccer culture.


Marks, the Raines forward, was introduced to the sport by his friends. His teammate DeAngelo Denson joked he was peer pressured into playing soccer, adding: “I just got into it in high school. I’ve been playing since middle school, but found it more interesting the better I get.”

There are 108,000 youth soccer players in Florida and another 30,000 who play varsity soccer. There are professional clubs in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, while Orlando and Miami will have MLS teams by the end of the decade. 


“By Orlando City being granted the 21st team, it is great testament to the state,” Rowan said. “I think you’ll see, MLS grow in the Southeast because of the family affinity to the sport.”
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Who would eat at your table?

No one in this picture made my top five, but the conversations that
are held when we all get together are priceless.


By Will Brown

As we all know the Super Bowl was a rout from the opening seconds of the game. Since the football was not as compelling as we all assumed, the conversation meandered in many directions during the course of the game.




Sometime during the second half, after discussions about Hillary Clinton, Bruno Mars and the lackluster commercials, someone asked: If you could have dinner with five people, living or dead, who would they be?

I chose Christ, Nelson Mandela, Diego Maradona and then gave up on the exercise. The game was back on and our collective attention returned to the Broncos getting bucked off the pedestal they were placed on.

For whatever reason, I was reminded of that conversation earlier this week, decided to finish out my quintet 
and chose to wonder who would make the cut for those closest to me.

 Christ took what most of us would consider lunch for two and fed 5,000; Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and was not bitter and Maradona was the cocaine-snorting, binge-eating, soccer savant whose life may be the inspiration for the Dos Equis commercials.

After Argentina was humbled by a 1-0 loss to Cameroon in first game of the 1990 World Cup, the miniature maestro quipped: "I cured the Italians of racism, didn't I? The whole stadium was shouting for Cameroon. Wasn't that nice?”

If he could conjure a comment like that after the embarrassment of losing to a team that was a 500-1 underdog, just imagine what he would say at a dinner conversation.

If there was more time, I would have considered Barack Obama, Alexander the Great, Beethoven, Ed Bradley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas DeSaille Tucker, Thurgood Marshall, Stephen F. Austin and Chief Osceola for the final two positions.
 
Thomas DeSaile Tucker,
Courtesy: State Archives of Florida.

Bradley, Austin and Beethoven.













Obama, Marshall and Bradley were trailblazers with undeniable impacts on American politics, law and journalism. Fitzgerald was the writer whose work inspired me to keep writing, Tucker founded the university that has been central to so many good memories and friendships, Austin and Osceola were historical figures from the two states I’ve resided in and 
Beethoven is someone who was unable to enjoy his own genius later in life.

Of course it’s a hypothetical exercise that is little more than conversation filler. Nonetheless, it is a porthole into the psyche.

Dinner is the most intimate meal of the day. Who we share it with says something about us, as well as the company we keep.

Laughs and liveliness,


-Wb
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