The USWNT team has brought a good bit of this on themselves. I say that wanting to watch and like them as I have a daughter that's getting into more serious soccer and I'd love for some of them to be role models.

But they've allowed Megan Rapinoe to be their mouthpiece and that's really not a good idea because she can be a pretty unlikeable human being even though she's an awesome soccer player. Then they had their lawsuit vs. US soccer which was pretty laughable. Despite multiple judge ruling and simply common sense they continue to double down on the idea that they are being paid less than the men simply because they are women. There are a ton of great 10 minute youtube videos that go into good detail on the suit and why they lost. They even send Rapinoe up to the White House podium on National Women's Day or whatever to beat the drum some more. For as much as she hates Trump, she's basically a ton like him.

Then they started the kneeling thing and while I know people have widely varied opinions on this, I think I feel pretty confident that most people would agree that it's not a great look when you are playing for a National team. Especially when the President has changed, there is a AA VP and almost all the country is supportive of ideas like ending racism. If it were state-led thing like a War or some really unpopular public policy then I could make sense of it, but that wasn't the case here.

So while I will never root against a team representing my country it's hard to get behind people that don't seem to take a lot of pride in doing that very thing.

What's interesting is that in the game both teams had a quick kneel right before the whistle a sign against racism (after the EuroCup stuff, etc). That's fine and I think it's a fine gesture - especially when you are talking about the global soccer community, but because you've done other stuff, people hear that you kneeled and assume it was during the anthem.

My bigger problem is when does it end? You're not going to eradicate racism. In today's social media there are always going to be idiots that post racial stuff like what happened to England's players that missed the PK's in Eurocup final. I doubt that mess even numbered into the hundreds. It was probably a very small handful of people. Heck Spain's best player had a crappy tournament and he and his family were getting death threats. There's just crazy people all over the place. I have no problem with a general "no racism" message from leagues and them being active supporters of that cause, but I don't see any way to measure when we say "we're good now and will stand for the anthem" from those that kneel.