Football in the USA 2002

"Soccer in Alabama?" began an article buried on page D10 of the Sports Section of the New York Times, America's erstwhile paper of final record. In the "Sports of the Times" column, George Vecsey, the paper's best-known sports journalist, reported on and was one of a small handful of reporters from US dailies to actually cover the US national team's friendly against Ecuador held in Birmingham in early March.

Cheekily entitled "Subversive Doings at Legion Field," the article expends much ink on Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach at the University of Alabama, which played its home games until 1996 at the same Legion Field. Were Bryant alive today, "[he] would jump up and down on his hound's-tooth hat in mortification at such furrin influences…," writes Vecsey.

The US ultimately prevailed in a hard-fought match that was anything but friendly. Back from club duty in England, Fulham's Clint Mathis assisted to Eddie Lewis in the only goal of the game. Still unsure of a place on the team, Mathis went on to receive a second yellow card in the 58th minute and was sent off. Also playing in England's Premier League, Tottenham's Casey Keller, who will likely start in goal this June, was not released by his club for the match.

Several thousand Ecuador supporters were on hand, but unlike some matches that take place in California, Florida, and the Northeast, the crowd was definitely pro-US. "The Yanks are always happy to play a game in Alabama, no matter what Bear Bryant might have thought about such subversive doings," was Vecsey's somewhat ironic conclusion.

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