Dhe almost collective kneeling of her fellow American anthem made Megan Rapinoe proud. From a distance, the world soccer player cheered the emotional signs against racism and police violence at the start of the Challenge Cup of the professional league NWSL in Utah. “It’s nice to see these women raise their voices and ask for something better – for America, for Black people and for People of Color,” Rapinoe tweeted about the much-respected first restart of a professional team sports league in the United States, which is all about it the “Black Lives Matter” movement stood.
The champion herself, like other world champions, refrained from participating in the tournament without spectators in the midst of the corona pandemic due to health concerns. But even without the prominent leader and Trump opponent, who once kneeled at the national anthem as the first white athlete like the former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and thus also took on the US Soccer Association, the images from the Zions Bank Stadium developed one enormous force.
“We went on our knees to protest racial injustice, police brutality and systemic racism,” said a joint statement by Master North Carolina Courage and the Portland Thorns before the opening game on Saturday. Players wore black “Black Lives Matter” shirts – including former national goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, who has been the goalkeeper coach at the Thorns since 2016.
The scenes before the second game between the Chicago Red Stars and Washington Spirit were particularly moving. Overwhelmed by her feelings, international Casey Short burst into tears during the anthem. The world champion Julie Ertz kneeling next to her comfortably took her black teammate in her arms and cried with the defender. And yet the deep turmoil of American society became visible. Because not all players knelt during the anthem. Right next to Short, for example, Rachel Hill paused and put her hand on her teammate’s shoulder.
Alexi Lalas proved that after the death of African-American George Floyd due to police brutality, not everyone understood the knee fall during the national anthem as an expression of solidarity and not as a disregard for the flag. The ex-national player and TV expert provoked with the words: “Now it takes courage to stand at the national anthem.” He later deleted the tweet. In an extremely heated climate in the United States, demonstrators and sports stars have been campaigning for black people and “people of color” for weeks. This is how people describe themselves who experience racism as members of a minority.
The Challenge Cup (until July 26) was initiated in response to the corona crisis as a replacement for the NWSL season, which had not even started. The return to gaming is and remains a fine line for American professional sports. The Orlando Pride team from Florida, with whom Brazil’s superstar Marta is under contract, had to cancel their participation at short notice after ten corona cases.
.
