Netherlands

I'm no soccer nut, but this morning I frantically searched Yahoo news without satisfaction to learn what Marco Materazzi said to Zidane to generate the most important moment in the '06 World Cup. Then two friends emailed me with the same thing on their minds. Here's Greg McNair from the Netherlands:

Everybody (meaning me) wants to know what Materazzi said to Zidane to set him off like that. One British report speculates that Materazzi called him a terrorist. I think the dude said somethin' about his Momma. Others speculate on a racist comment. (Zidane's peeps come from Algeria.) Did I say Italian opera, damn, this was damn near Shakespeare for Zidane.

Let's be clear: this is the ONLY THING anyone who loves sports cares about today. What will Materazzi admit to? What will Zidane say? Who will be believed? How will it all unfold? I can't wait.

This is bigger than the hand of god in '86. It's the tongue of god, and the head of god...

Did I really pick the Netherlands for the World Cup semifinals? Boy, was I wrong. I emailed my high school pal, Greg McNair, who is a jazz guitarist living in the Netherlands. Here is Greg's explanation:

As far as our Dutch team goes; well they had it coming and I'll tell you why. The new coach, Marco Van Basten, didn't pick any of the players of color (from the former colony of Suriname) who have been kicking butt and taking NO prisoners in domestic and European competitions. Players like Patrick Kluivert who has scored more goals for the national team then anybody. Didn't make it. Clarence Seedorf, a bigass star for AC Milan. Didn't make it. Edgar Davids, as a defender they call the man the pittbull because when he's on your ass, you give up the ball. You feeling me?

Not only that but Mr. Football (as they call it here) God himself, Johann Cruyff, even blamed the Minister of Immigration for our losing. She refused to naturalize Salomon Kalou, from the Ivory Coast. Her "advisors" said that he wasn't a player of exceptional talent. Oh yeah? Well why did the brother (Bonaventure) just sign a mega contract with THE top English team, Chelsea? Hello! Did I miss something here? (By the way, that minister, Verdonk has some other heavy issues but that's another story.) Cruyff said that we needed him because his talent lies in the fact that he can play with the ball (like the Brazilians). Not many Dutch players, though good players with tactical insight, can do that.

Fascinating to think that the Netherlands is now developing a reputation for nativism. As we learn today, Rita Verdonk's fussiness over another darkskinned applicant may help to have brought down the Dutch government. I wonder whether the Netherlands' humiliation in the World Cup did not play a part too.

(P.S. I should add that Greg McNair is a person of color himself...)

Maybe you saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali on 60 Minutes. She is articulate and appealling, the Somali-born member of the Dutch Parliament who came close to losing her citizenship over errors on her asylum application of 1992. Hirsi Ali is world-famous because she has renounced her Muslim faith over radical Islam, and because she wrote the script for "Submission," the movie about Islam that resulted in the murder of Theo Van Gogh, the film's director, in the Netherlands last year. After that murder, Hirsi Ali went into hiding herself.

Today the immigration case has threatened to bring down the Dutch government. And the Canadian Press reports that the former Muslim is headed to...

Hirsi Ali was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday looking for a house and was not expected back in the Netherlands until next week, [Ingrid] Pouw [a spokesman for Ali] said. Hirsi Ali is due to start work at the conservative Washington-based think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute, in September.

A reader, John, has nailed me on a recent soccer post, where I echoed Kissinger's statement that U.S. soccer needs "minorities."

Not sure if you're agreeing fully with Kissinger here -- I hope not, because his comment is effectively racist. K's saying "minorities," i.e., the dark people, are better at sports, regardless of if a hardscrabble life makes you hungry for the game. And this, if I can be mean, is what Kissinger likely believes those minorities can be proud of in life.

The irony is that soccer's great teams belie this view. Aside from Brazil, who are the powerhouse teams today and historically? Germany, for sure -- not many minorities there. Argentina, which has largely been a team of European ancestry. And Italy, a homogenous white team if there ever was one. The Netherlands and England are also perennially near the top -- and very, well, white.

Maybe the problem in the U.S. is entitlement, I don't know -- but the racist "minority" argument has the virtue of being an easy explanation, and the vice of being factually wrong, and bigoted.

Wow. Smart readers.

My response: O.K. Yes; I was agreeing with Kissinger. Obviously, I'm wrong, in some large measure. Culture is a significant factor in soccer performance. Saying "minorities" is pretty offensive. And I call myself an internationalist...

But to rally to my side for a second: There is a widespread equation in mainstream American culture of athleticism and blackness. C.f., Jayson "White Chocolate" Williams on the Heat, the movie, White Men Can't Jump, and Larry Summers's fatal, and scientistic, musings about innate abilities of a year ago ("the data will, I am confident, reveal that... white men are very substantially underrepresented in the National Basketball Association."). Isn't it true that, right now in America, basketball and football are dominated by black athletes, in part because they are faster and jump higher? And that if we want to perform in soccer, we have to get some of those guys on the team? What say you, John?

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