Quick Take: World Cup + American Immigration = Victory
Quick Take: World Cup + American Immigration = Victory
The USMNT is winning, and immigrant kids are a big factor
The US Men’s National Team had a thrilling victory yesterday in their third group match, featuring a starting eleven chock full of American immigrants. For soccer (football!) fans like the Kane family, the 1-0 win against Iran was a nice exclamation point on our previous two games in which the US team drew even but clearly outplayed Wales and mighty England.
While most of the attention goes to Hershey, PA native Christian Pulisic (nickamed Captain America), wing back Sergino Dest epitomizes the advantage that immigrants bring to the US team. ESPN.com has a fantastic feature story on Dest in light of the upcoming match against the Netherlands, which is his birthplace:
Dest was born in the Dutch town of Almere, about 12 miles east of Amsterdam. He came through the famed Ajax academy and turned professional there. But thanks to his American father, Kenneth, Dest has played his international soccer with the US, so when the two sides line up on Saturday, he'll see plenty of familiar faces.
"I know almost every single guy over there," Dest said through a team spokesperson following Tuesday's 1-0 win over Iran that secured the US's passage into the knockout rounds. "Yeah, it's going to be fun of course. I was born there, I speak the language, I know all these guys. They want to go through, but we have the same dream. It's going to be a fight again."
Indeed, the rich talent on the team comes from every corner of the globe. Yahoo Sports observes, “Their parents are Ghanaian, Japanese, Salvadorian, Guatemalan, Surinamese, Trinidadian and Tobagonian, Liberian, Jamaican, Native American and Latvian Jewish.” It wasn’t so long ago that the US Men’s Team was a lightweight on the world stage. If the current trends continue, the team will be a soccer superpower and could easily be #1 in the world.
Some critics will assert that the US simply poached stars from other countries, but that’s not true in most cases. Jesus Ferreira is a good example - the striker migrated with his family from Colombia when he was ten years old, but his star talent and work ethic emerged and blossomed on US soil. That’s a lesson worth taking to heart when we think about other things such as economic vitality.