Letter 45
Life Goals
Dear Reader.
We pulled into a parking lot of a sports medicine clinic for my son’s check up when I noticed the Kansas City police SUVs at one end and then the other. No one stopped us from pulling in the parking lot. I asked the security guard on the way in if this was World Cup related as Sporting KC’s complex was near by. Yep, he told me, Argentina national team was using the practice fields right above the clinic.
And so it began.
For months we heard that the World Cup was coming to town., A few people I know had tickets. Others were volunteering.
I wasn’t quite sure to make of everything. Quite frankly I was excited about this but also waiting to see what what was reality and what was hype.
Many people know of the successful “football” team from Kansas City, mostly due to its Super Bowl success and high-profile connections to pop stars.
But “futbol” or “soccer” is an underlying force. We are the “Soccer Capital of America” - so says billboards and murals, bumper stickers and fanatics at the women’s team (KC Current) and the men’s team (Sporting KC).
Soccer has taken a bit of time to catch on in the United States. This isn’t the case in Kansas City. The Kansas City Spurs arrived in the late 1960s and then one of the first major-league soccer teams, The Wiz (now known as Sporting Kansas City), came later. Sporting Brookside soccer started a youth program in the middle of the city - in Swope Park, near the zoo and the amphitheater.
Kids start playing before they go to Pre-K, shuffling around in jersey-to-their-knees swarms on the turf. Even if they stop in grade school it is a right of passage to wear that Brookside/Sporting oversized uniform and head to a weekend game on the turf fields. There are leagues for club and for recreation from just-out-of-diapers into high school featuring elite adolescents and even adult teams.
These fields were home to England’s team during the World Cup. The Netherlands team trained north of the Missouri River and Lawrence, Kan. embraced the Algerian team.
On the first day of games here in Kansas City, on June 16, Argentina and Algeria were set to face off at Arrowhead. In a world limited by travel considerations like vacation and money I loaded my teenagers up like we used to for a downtown library excursion and we drove down Main Street, alongside the green and baby blue jerseys. Earlier in the week I had walked around City Market as I sometimes to do to drink in (and sometimes taste) the world - Vietnamese, French bakery, Middle Eastern, Italian, Brazilian, coffee house and grill. The Brazilian place had its screens ready for the big games.
A few days later we took the street car to Fan Fest. This is a free gathering spot set up on the lawn of a very central and popular area near the World War 1 Museum. It’s hills and grassy area make a good central location. Sweaty and hot we walked and watched one of that day’s matches on the big screen.
Two weeks into the World Cup festivities I flew to the Pacific Northwest to visit Jacqui and was in Seattle for a few days. It coincided with the city’s huge Pride parade. We saw soccer jerseys everywhere, but we also watched many people let their flags fly for the festivities. Seattle has a lot of large-scale options for locals and visitors.
But in Kansas City, we will celebrate the big stuff that makes it to the middle intentionally.
Thank you for reading.
Stay in touch,
Traci
P.S. I spent a lot of the last month catching up on books, magazines, catching up with friends and looking up information for family projects and interests. One piece of information of note from my World Cup dives: Lionel Messi - arguably the greatest, was diagnosed with human growth hormone deficiency and not expected to grow to 5 feet. He started taking growth hormone as a boy and then Barcelona paid for the expensive treatment. He is a giant among others with a little help from science and this sub-5-footer, who always wonders what might have happened as a baller with a few more inches, applauds loudly from below.
