That Happy-Go-Lucky Bastard 'Ted Lasso' Is Apparently Adding To The Stigma Of Hiring American Soccer Coaches In Europe
[Score] - New Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch believes television series "Ted Lasso" may add to the stigma against Americans working in European football.
"People hate hearing the word soccer," he said during Thursday's press conference, according to BBC Sport.
"I think there's probably a stigma (around American coaches). I'm not sure 'Ted Lasso' helped," Marsch said, adding that he'd used "football" rather than "soccer" since the start of his playing career in the United States.
A whole lot to unpack here. First people hate hearing the word soccer? That's just going to make me say the word soccer more. I hate that people spell favor and neighbor with a u, but you don't see me complaining. You don't see me holding back bloggers because their headline is Neighbourhood Smokeshow of the Day or Flavour of the Week. So don't hold us back for saying soccer. We have football and soccer. We're not going to call two sports football. That's dumb. We already have to explain how read and read are two different sounding words while also explaining that red and read are pronounced the same. Words don't make sense, trust me, I say this as a blogger.
Then there's this happy-go-lucky that's also kind of depressed bastard.
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This is where I'd typically say I know that Jesse Marsch is joking around and just using hyperbole to get a point across. But I'm not convinced it is. I wouldn't rule some old bag over in the United Kingdom watching a few episodes and avoiding hiring an American. Everyone knows Ted Lasso is 100% real. Everyone knows this is exactly what Americans think of soccer. We need a football coach from a school that doesn't have football anymore lead the way to Europe for us.
Now can we get Jesse to leave Leeds and be USMNT? I have no idea if he'll be successful with us, but I like him a whole lot more than Greggggg. I mostly don't trust a guy who has that many g's in his name. Greg Berhalter might have a chance. Gregg Berhalter has me sweating out this last portion of the qualifying window.
Great response from Coach Beard from Ted Lasso though:
Now I just need the entire world to agree we say soccer and it's fine.