These Sheep Ain't Gon' Shear Themselves- A 2023 World Cup Dispatch

This post was originally published in Nate’s newsletter on July 29 

The Running of the Sheep, Te Kuiti

The Running of the Sheep

I bring you greetings from a rented farmhouse in the sheep shearing capital of the world, Te Kuiti, New Zealand. Te Kuiti used to be the home of the annual Running of the Sheep but the festival was discontinued this year (yeah, I am bummed about it too). 

Since we last corresponded, after taking a detour to Hobbiton, Hope and I have traveled the 400-ish miles from Auckland down to the capital, Wellington. Wellington is lovely. It is a city the size of Tacoma but more hilly and cosmopolitan. We arrived on Tuesday, taking in two matches at Sky Stadium and are now winding our way back north for a final pair in Auckland.

Our football odyssey has been exciting. Here’s a rundown:

We watched the host nation, Lady Ferns, upset Norway in front of an ecstatic crowd of Kiwis in Auckland in the tournament opener in Eden Park.

Sky Stadium, called the Pie because of its resemblance to a disposable pie tin, is the site of World Cup matches in Wellington

We next watched an uninspiring but professional USWNT performance against Vietnam, defeating them 3-0 at Eden Park. I fear the US showing in this match was a portend of the unfortunate first half against the Netherlands.

On Tuesday at Sky Park in Wellington, we witnessed possibly the match of the tournament as the Philippines returned the upset favor to New Zealand in a classic 1-0 smash & grab. In the second half,  the Philippines played some of the most cynical, time-wasting-y football I’ve seen in my life. But it paid off. They won and the entire country (and assorted Filipino diaspora) celebrated their first ever World Cup victory. 

Most recently, again in Sky Park,  in a rematch of the 2019 World Cup Final, we saw the US draw against the Netherlands. The US peppered the Dutch goal before going down 0-1 in the first half. They established firmer tactical footing in the second half, with Lindsey Horan scoring the equalizer in the 63rd, but the match ended in a draw. The result left many USWNT fans (myself included) nervous.

We spent last night at the foot of Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings and  will arrive back in Auckland tomorrow for the Philippines vs Norway. If the Philippines can pull off another upset, the Cinderellas from Manilla will advance to the knockout rounds. 

Our final match will be the US vs Portugal. The US needs to secure a victory if they want to win Group E. But the Dutch face a weaker opponent, Vietnam, in their deciding match and thus have an inside shot at a higher seed for the knockouts round. 

Mount Doom (Mount Ngauruhoe) in the Tongariro National Park on Saturday

If the US comes in second, they likely face number two ranked Sweden in the round of 16. If they win the group, they would face the 14th ranked Italians.

Life and Learning in These Kiwi Streets

New Zealand is culturally diverse: the white majority are descendants of British and Dutch settlers. There are also nearly one million Maoris, the descendants of Polynesians who settled on the islands in the 14th century. As we’ve found in previous travels in ex-British Colonial territories like Singapore and Malaysia, there are high numbers of South Asians and ethnic Chinese people who have been here since the 1800s. Like in the Gulf, people from South East Asia, especially the Philippines and Vietnam have settled here in recent decades. But beloved, I have never been in a place so bereft of Black people. I saw more Black people when we traveled through China. Hell, there are more Black Republican members of Congress than there are in these Kiwi streets. This has resulted in some odd looks, particularly in the more rural parts of the country, but everyone has kept it one hundred thus far. Although, not even my family says “yah, brotha” to me as much as dudes of all stripes here. 

One element of this trip that I am dying to talk about at length either on the podcast or in a subsequent newsletter is the history and current status of Maori people in New Zealand Society. In many ways, they are among the most successful people groups in the world at weathering colonization but in others there are clear barriers to be overcome. We visited a Maori village and had a traditional meal (Hāngī) while visiting Rotorua. I felt like an idiot for not knowing most of the info we were taught that evening and I walked out of the village with a ton of questions but those will have to wait for another time. 

You Owe It To Yourself to Watch Women's Soccer & The World Cup

This post was originally published in Nate’s newsletter on July 21

 Trinity Rodman is a player to keep your eye on this tournament

Jet lag is real.

At some point yesterday, I looked at Hope and realized I had no idea what day (or day of the week) it was. Our road to Auckland was silly (Seattle to Dubai to Singapore to Sydney to Auckland) but was necessitated by life circumstances and the packing/clothing  requirements of going from northern hemisphere summer to southern hemisphere winter. Tonight when we go to sleep will be the first time we’ve spent back-to-back nights in a bed since June 15. I am far too old for all these red eye flights.

But we made it—I’m stoked for our third World Cup.  

Our seats in BC Place in Vancouver for the group stages in 2015

Last night, we were in Eden Park for the tournament's opening match. The hosts, the twenty-sixth ranked, New Zealand knocked off twelfth ranked Norway, 1-nil. Tomorrow we’ll return to Eden Park for the opening match for the US versus Vietnam (if you have access to a sportsbook, I suggest you bet the over, +/-6.5 goals). 

As often is the case in my life, plans came together one night at a pub. While talking with some friends, we decided we should head up to Vancouver when Canada hosted the World Cup in 2015. We caught a few matches and really enjoyed the atmosphere. We decided on the drive back to Tacoma to make this our thing. 

In 2019, the tournament was in France. We followed the US through the knockout rounds. The atmosphere at PSG’s Parc des Princes in the quarterfinal was electric, as tense as any football match I’ve ever attended. I have never heard anything as loud as the French crowd’s eruption when Wendie Renard scored in the 81st minute. The match result was in doubt deep into the match. We went to watch the US defeat England in the semi and the Netherlands in Lyon in the final. 

Hope and I in Lyon before the 2019 final

In some ways, high-level women’s soccer is the best sporting experience in the world. 

Players are accessible. I can’t imagine ever sitting down with Messi for an hour long chit-chat. But I interviewed arguably the best WOSO player in the world, Megan Rapinoe for an episode of Nerd Farmer. Several players from OL Reign (Seattle’s team in the NWSL, the professional WOSO league in the US) lived at Point Ruston before the team relocated to Seattle; a few players still live there. 

The matches are  affordable. Our tickets to last night’s opener were 30 Australian Dollars or about 20 USD ($20.29, if you’re nosey)—you can’t get in to see the Mariners lose for that much. 

The US women are dominant. If you like winning, the United States is the Argentina + Brazil + Germany of WOSO. They enter the tournament seeking their third consecutive World Cup title. Meanwhile, the American men haven’t gotten out of the round of sixteen since 2002.  

The game is at a really special point. It’s like the old baseball Negro Leagues or the ABA in the 1970s—arguably a better product—with less hype or recognition. 

This can’t last. 

In the book The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer by David Goldblat, he argues sports go through a transition from amateurism to professionalization to commercialization. WOSO in the US is professionalized. Players get paid (not enough, obviously). They play in professional facilities (I hated when OL Reign left Tacoma but they deserve to play on the same pitch as the region’s men’s team). They have a national TV deal with CBS/Paramount and are increasingly drawing larger audiences. There’s work to be done but with these structures in place, players have the chance to showcase their talent on grand stages. 

But commercialization is coming. 

The players deserve it but it will degrade the accessibility and affordability fans currently enjoy. Picture Alexi Lalas (bleck) bellowing “we’re coming to you live from the Subway Fresh Take Studios, here alongside the Raytheon Pitch at Facebook Stadium.” All the gross capitalistic trappings that have consumed European football and the big three US sports leagues are coming, but the barbarians aren’t quite there yet. 

The US women kickoff tomorrow against Vietnam at 1pm from Eden Park here in Auckland. I’ll be there and you should be watching.