Fans of the Houston Astros baseball team value loyalty, literally. The replica shirt features the motto “We Bleed Orange.”
It’s a kind of obsession that is born within them. A lifelong passion for your favorite sports team. This level of respect is something that will never be accorded to the USA Football side.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino may feel like he is in control after leading his team to the World Cup finals on home soil. But he will never be the king of American sports. Even if he continues to win football’s biggest awards.
I could barely find a USA replica shirt here in Daikin Park. There’s no FIFA branding, no sponsor logos, no nods to the so-called Greatest Show on Lawn.
It may be the same as “soccer” being played on the moon, under the roof of another world. A sea of orange covered three sides of the indoor arena.
More spectators wore Dutch replica tops than their American equivalents. The Dutch were in the city to play Sweden the next morning at Houston Stadium.
Some of them wore custom T-shirts with the message: “We couldn’t afford tickets to the World Cup, so we’re here to watch the Houston Astros instead.”
That was a lie. Of course they had tickets. The Dutch blended in with the believers.
But it would be pointless to start a conversation about anything related to the World Cup.
Even the owner, who sells hot dogs, pizza and “astronauts” (nachos made with charred beef brisket or pork), didn’t even know his national soccer team was in action.
Ronaldo was in the city when Houston hosted Portugal’s draw with the Democratic Republic of the Congo
At the time, it felt pointless to ask him if he had ever been to the Fan Zone in Houston to watch the win against Australia on the big screen.
The closest cashier Coretta Smith is to football is working her second job at Houston Stadium on game days. There was only one show in town.
Forget Christian Pulisic. The sports icon in these parts is hitter Jose Altuve.
Altuve is the Astro’s highest-paid star player at $250,000 a season. The equivalent for the US team is Pulisic, who earns $6.50 at AC Milan.
Altuve hit a home run and helped turn the game in his team’s favor. Baseball is the be all and end all.
So imagine the shock and horror when a small group of young men showed up to the football bat in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Jose Altuve is a true hero in Houston.
Behind the stands they jumped up and down, waving their shirts over their heads and shouting “USA, USA.” Try to change the story. The turn of events was so dramatic and unexpected that the regulars looked as if they had seen a group of ghosts.
It was a complete culture clash. The leader of the ring, a man named Steve, knew he was hiding in the middle of nowhere, but he still had fun.
“I love soccer, but baseball will always dominate,” he said.
The Astros have won the World Series twice in the past nine years.
This is a sports facility that’s as woven into Houston’s culture as dance-offs, kiss cams, muscle flex cams, and free chicken wings.
And there’s nothing any other sport can do about it, World Cup or not.
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