Soccer Moms Rule

Soccer Moms Rule

In the growing sport of American amateur soccer, we now see a different kind of support. This new fan evolved from our suburban culture, where Ozzie and Harriet once welcomed neighborhood kids with milk and cookies while also dispensing good old-fashioned advice. The Harriet of the 2000s has become what we commonly refer to as the "soccer mom," another form of diehard sports fan.
Soccer moms are changing the way we consider sports and the way we watch them. They - unlike men - don't use violence or force to show their support. These soccer moms represent the new frontier; they are the real postmodern patriotic soldiers, the suburban warriors. Their support is demonstrated every day through showing of force, not the use of it, on the soccer field sidelines.
They come to the soccer game in two groups. Those who are very self-conscious, only bringing their own kids in their gas-guzzling SUV tanks, pretending they are still single; and those who come with their minivans like a fleet of armored vehicles. They are the Hillary Clinton types, mothers who usually give rides to other kids, believing in the village approach to raise a good soccer player.
Before the game they both strategically position their vehicles on the top of the hills overlooking the battlefield. They unload their supplies of water, food, and battery-powered fans, and march to the soccer field with their mobile chairs strapped on their shoulders like machine guns, lining up opposite the other team's moms, already prepared for the battle of cheering.
Once the game starts, so do their screams, their outbursts of endless cries (Boot it, boot it!), and their rants directed towards their own kids every time they touch the ball. They watch their kids battling on the soccer field like it is a Roman fighting ring. They shout for the kids to struggle on, urging them to take no prisoners and accept no excuses in their pursuit for victory. Sometimes they chat, laugh, and giggle, but that gets intermittently interrupted by the screams, cries, and tirades. In the verbal war, "Go Blues!" is immediately followed by "Go Purple!" This is ongoing, for each side desperately tries to have the last word.
Understanding the game of soccer is not a requirement for soccer moms. All they comprehend is victory, and that is the only option permissible to their kids. They insist on total domination.
This is their battle and this is their fight. Young soccer players may just want to have fun, but soccer moms want to have victory at all costs.
Hockey dads may kill each other outside hockey arenas; however, soccer moms could possibly eat their own children at the soccer field.
Soccer moms may go against sending our troops overseas to bomb the heck out of Third World countries, but they are fighting their own war every day on the soccer field, sending their own offspring to beat the heck out of the other kids' team. This may not be good for the game of soccer, but for Americans this somehow seems to be a more civilized way to watch sports.

Ahmed Tharwat, producer of the Arab American TV show
Belahdan
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