Soccer Watch
By Nick Barbaro, Fri., June 19, 2020
I ended last week's column noting that U.S. Soccer had yet to reply to players' demands that they retract the rule that players must "stand respectfully" during the national anthem, and apologize for making it in the first place. The players got what they wanted a couple of days later, as the association voted unanimously to rescind the rule, and federation President Cindy Parlow Cone apologized personally to Megan Rapinoe, whose 2016 kneel-down in support of Colin Kaepernick led to the rule. "I won't be watching much anymore!" tweeted Donald Trump in reply.
He'll get his first chance to put that into action next Saturday, June 27, when the National Women's Soccer League becomes the first U.S. sports league to restart play in the COVID-19 era. See the deets at www.nwslsoccer.com.
For the TV fans: All the major European leagues are now back in action, as the English Premier League started up Wednesday.
Locally, Austin Bold are doing virus testing this week in preparation for resuming full-squad workouts next week, still with a provisional start date of July 11 for USL league play... And Austin FC continues to work behind the scenes toward their kickoff next spring; Mexico international defender Héctor Moreno was on the radio this week, telling Glenn Davis' "Soccer Matters" how much he admires what the team is building.
