Sunday Cup-o-American Soccer: A home of our own

There’s been much discussion over the years about where would be most appropriate for a US Soccer national stadium. This idea is taken from other countries that have a national home ground for their matches. England has Wembley, France has Stade de France, Russia has Luzhniki Stadium, and Brazil has Estado Nacíonal. See, these other places do it and never have a problem with home field advantage, so should the USA.

This got me thinking, not so much about where this should be. The answer is, of course, Alaska, the only place that guarantees a home advantage. No, I began thinking about the other strategic aspects of what a home field should entail.

In the Art of War Sun tzu notes, “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” As we all know, soccer and war are the same, especially international soccer, it’s exactly the same.

One of the key elements of deception is camouflage, an element that several sports teams in the US use to great effect.

For example, the Bosie State Broncos wear blue and play football on a blue field. Since making this change they’ve achieved impossible results including using camouflage and deception to run a State of Liberty play against the University of Oklahoma to win a massive upset.

Photo by Dennis Hubbard /Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images

Another team that uses this same strategy to lesser success is Eastern Washington University.

Obviously, Eastern Washington wears red and is impossible to see when playing their foes.

This idea could easily be taken by US Soccer. It even seems like Nike has gotten ahead of this idea with the new kits the team will wear this year.

At first glance, these just seem like geometric inspired designs with a bit of a design edge taking a riff on the stripes of the flag of the United States. However, they also seem to resemble WWII era naval camouflage.

Photo by Imperial War Museums via Getty Images

Just look at how the black and white of this camo scheme blends in perfectly with the black and white of the ocean. No U-Boat will ever have this ship in its sights. The clear application of this technology to the US Soccer team is to combine the Eastern Washington and Boise State field concepts and merge them into a Blue and Red Dazzle camo field to match the new kits. It even neatly solves the problem of where to locate a national stadium for US Soccer. The clear answer is to put it half way between Cheney, Washington and Boise, Idaho: Walla Walla, Washington.

There is an issue that the stadium in Walla Walla is a baseball stadium that is converted to an American football field that seats just 2,376.

That said, this is clearly more of a blank slate than an obstacle. Perhaps a US Soccer sponsor that is located not far from Walla Walla would chip in to create a permanent home for the team. Or since fans are so enamored with the idea of having such a venue, a crowd funding drive could raise money for it. In any case, it should be a simple process of laying red and blue Dazzle camo once this is complete, giving the US Soccer teams an unbeatable edge in their home matches.