Culture Shock

Football, Basketball, Baseball. If you ask most people, those would be the three most popular sports in the United States, probably in that order. Hockey has some appeal in the north. Golf picks up steam during Majors. And soccer, well, is off the radar most times.

Most Americans have never cared about soccer, and many never will. The sport hits a spike in popularity every four years during the World Cup, but other then that, the World's most popular sport is practically invisible to the most powerful country on Earth. David Beckham tried to change the culture, but other than his first couple MLS games or so, he has been unsuccessful.

This was my sports world. Football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring and summer. If anything else was on ESPN, I wasn't interested. Bowl season was the name of my holiday season and March Madness was heaven. But in the past two months, that has all been turned upside down.

Notice I said was.

Two months ago, a 15 year old boy from the Congo stepped off an airplane in Washington, D.C. He came to the United States to learn, and to have an opportunity for a better life. Leaving for his knew life was only the second time he had ever left his village. He did not know any English, so communication had to come through an interpretor or demonstrating with arm motions. He grew up with a very active lifestyle in the Congo, and therefore was in good shape and enjoyed playing sports. At least one sport.

Soccer.

He explained that he was one of the worst soccer players in his village, but in South Central Pennsylvania, he blows past guys twice his size. He lives in the home of a family with little soccer knowledge and even less interest, but for him, they learn, and turn out to enjoy it. They find soccer games on tv to watch, and kick the soccer ball with the boy in between his weekly indoor games.

While he has never played indoor soccer before, he learns quickly. He begins draining goals from midfield with relative ease. He jukes past defenders as if Barry Sanders bolting for the end zone. He understands soccer, and because of him, his new family has a new appreciation for the worldwide phenomenon.

And perhaps most amazing of all, he is my new adopted brother.