The Smell of Orange Slices and the Rise of Soccer in America

There are scents that are so triggering for most human beings (sorry, Jason Sudeikis) that they can literally transport you to a different moment in your life. Smelling a dish that’s like something your grandma made, or fresh-mown grass or hay can take you back to your childhood faster and more deeply than a photo or a recording often can. But in a crazy synaesthetic kind of a way, one really triggers another. That scent brings a wave of video or audio straight into your brain the same way a specific photo can trigger that smell. In odd conversation, a few of my friends who played sports growing up mention specific scents from their games and practices that still evoke instant flashbacks. I can certainly relate.

If you were a kid who played baseball or softball, you might remember the smell of the nachos and hot dogs at the snack stand, or how that clay-ey dirt smelled when you practiced sliding into bases. Basketball often smelled like blacktop and/or rubber depending on where you were lucky enough to get to play. Football usually smelled like grass and the shoulder pads that never got clean enough after two-a-days. I don’t know what tennis might have smelled like, nor hockey… does ice have a smell? I’d have to think all those extra pads sure do. But soccer…

Soccer smelled like grass and leather and orange slices and gatorade. In California, it also sometimes smelled like smog, where in Colorado and Wyoming it could also often smell like wet leaves and snow. It tasted like blood (at least for the 2-plus years I played with braces) and is still my favorite memory of playing any sport as a kid, probably because it was the only one I was half-decent at. Because I started really young I got a chance to get decent at it, and was lucky to play with a few guys over the years who were good enough to get to go pro. I was never of that caliber, but I was struck by the sport like many others. Equally awestruck in once seeing Pele play as I was in watching Roger Clemens pitch or John Elway throw a football. I loved the game from the get go, and it never let go of me, even when it languished in popularity in the United States all these years. It literally never let go of me. I am certain there is close to a tenth of my 17 year-old ass-cheek that has long since become a part of the turf and sod right below a six inch sprinkler head on a soccer field in Greeley. The game giveth. The game taketh away… eth.

So it’s been heady stuff to read so many different sites and experts saying that the United States is breaking new ground in their current state, the progress coming by playing their way into the current round of 16, including a few guys in coverage who played for the USMNT over the years. While they do feel like the most complete team the U.S. has ever fielded, there are heights the team has reached on other occasions which have exceeded their current status. Best U.S. team ever? Maybe, even if they lose from here, but the topic will be up for great debate. They play more as a unit than most U.S. squads I can remember, and just that simple fact has given them a consistency and capability that is more mature than the types of soccer they’ve played in the past. If they can make it any further into this stacked field by getting past Belgium, they’ll make themselves more unimpeachable as the best the U.S. has ever fielded. It’s a shame they won’t get to find out at their full strength.

Where there’s already no doubt in this debate is in the attention this team has generated here at home. The two World Cups which have been held in the United States have been two of the biggest stepping stepping stones in finally capturing the hearts and attention spans of U.S viewers. With the games at home-friendly times and and the continued education of folks on the game, the cherry on top of it all has been an incredibly competitive team that came into their group stage as narrow favorites and exited as still-narrow favorites over their next foe, Belgium. With all of those pieces stacked in their favor, this edition of the World Cup will more than double its 2022 predecessor, a number that has been semi-steadily on the rise since the last World Cup here in the US, in 1994.

I was lucky to be in Chicago during one of the ’94 games, but was unable to secure tickets. It only showed me how amazingly popular the sport could eventually become here. Around those two tentpoles, add draws like David Beckham and Lionel Messi joining MLS, some very team-oriented growth in the national squad over the years, and the sport’s consistent expansion in America, and you have the recipe for this year’s soccer superstorm. Have you seen it? The television coverages are so beautiful I can taste the orange slices, but not the blood, happily. The North American split has made for even more broadly energized fanbases AND all three host countries progressing to the round of 16, a definitive and resounding success.

It’s led to those host countries and the visiting countrymen from other lands enjoying the hell out of having so many guests around. Such a refreshing reminder that we have the ability to do so, and even settle our differences out on the pitch. The joyful celebrations of Mexicans, Norwegians, Scots, Moroccans, Brazilians, and beautifully dozens more, especially and including Americans, has been a breath of fresh air to see so many people rejoicing. Even comforting. Who’d have thought watching an Argentinian coach singing John Denver with his team of American players would bring a lump to so many throats?

It’s been a blast. A blast that looks like all sorts of countries sorting it out over some grass stains, blood, and (orange slices?) beer to see who’s got it together this time around. What a wonderfully dioramatic way to celebrate an Independence Day, wherever you are from. If you’re having a watch party, the gatorade and orange slices will be an actual hit, I promise.