The United States Women’s National Team has faced plenty of criticism after several members of the squad have chosen to remain silent during the playing of the national anthem before matches as the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. But as one columnist points out, that criticism isn’t necessarily fair.
This week, Ryan Tolmich wrote a column for Goal.com where he absolutely blasted those criticizing the USWNT for remaining silent during the national anthem. As Tolmich points out, the team isn’t even actively protesting anything, they’re just remaining silent and standing respectfully – just like many United States athletes have done in the past without facing criticism.
“This is all making something out of a whole lot of nothing. Yes, the USWNT has protested in the past and, yes, they have opened themselves up for criticism because of it. This, though, has nothing to do with that. This is criticizing for the sake of it – fabricating a problem and a distraction,” Tolmich wrote.
As Tolmich concludes, there is nothing the team could have done that would have been good enough for those criticizing them.
“Unfortunately for the USWNT, there’s no winning. When they stand, they don’t stand proudly enough. If they sang, they wouldn’t do it with enough passion. Anything they do will almost certainly inspire backlash, even when what they do isn’t controversial at all in the grand scheme of things,” Tolmich wrote.
It’s worth noting that not only are players well within their rights to stay respectfully silent during the national anthem, but they’re also actually allowed to kneel in protest if they choose after U.S. Soccer changed its policy back in 2020.
They’re following the rules, but people still aren’t happy.
[Goal.com]
