The official Sportscenter Twitter account tweeted a photoshopped image of the US men's soccer team, saying, “Imagine these American stars suiting up in this year's World Cup,” with faces of athletes from other sports teams over the actual US men's soccer teams faces.
Why it matters: The US Men's Soccer team is pretty good, the World Cup starts next week, and none of the players photoshopped in the image play soccer. Sportscenter quickly deleted the tweet.
- Comments on the thread are split, some recognizing the insult and others in the camp of who cares.
- The image sparked a quick uproar on Twitter from Soccer fans everywhere.
What they are saying about the US Men's World Cup Image
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) November 18, 2022
This SportsCenter tweet isn't the biggest thing in the world, but it is insulting.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) November 18, 2022
The dudes we have repping us in the World Cup are great athletes.
Agreed. You don't run this piece a week before the world cup!
— Jonathon Matzke 🇺🇸🇺🇸 ⚫🟡 (@JonathonMatzke) November 18, 2022
Also not to be overlooked as (possibly? Likely?) a major motivating factor behind that tweet: @espn doesn’t have the broadcast or streaming World Cup rights and is looking to downplay it as much as possible.
— jill vejnoska (@ajcjillv) November 18, 2022
A hill I will die on. US soccer isn’t dominant because the best US athletes grow up playing other sports instead. With the decline in youth football we’ll start seeing a better US soccer program
— Tom Clark (@TomClark20) November 18, 2022