Fans of the Houston Astros baseball team wear their loyalties close to their hearts, quite literally. On replica shirts is emblazoned the motto: 'We Bleed Orange'. It's the kind of commitment born into them—a lifelong passion towards their favourite sporting team. The kind of reverence the USA football side will never have the privilege of.
Mauricio Pochettino might feel like he's ruling the roost, having guided his side to the knockout stages of the World Cup on home soil. But he will never be the king of American sport. Even if he goes on to win the biggest prize in football.
Here inside Daikin Park, there was barely a replica USA shirt in sight. No FIFA branding, sponsors logos or nod to the so-called greatest show on turf. Under the roof of another world, the 'soccer' elsewhere might as well have been taking place on the moon. A sea of orange swept around all three sides of the indoor arena.
There were more spectators wearing replica Holland tops than the USA equivalent. The Dutch were in town to face Sweden at the Houston Stadium the following morning. Some of them were sporting custom-made T-shirts with the message 'Couldn't Afford World Cup Tickets - So Here We Are Here Watching The Houston Astros Instead'. It was a lie. Of course they had tickets. The Dutch blended in with the faithful. But striking up a conversation about anything World Cup related would have been futile.
Even the vendor selling hot dogs, pizza and 'Astronautchos (nachos with beef brisket or pork burn ends), hadn't a clue his national football team had even been in action. It felt pointless then, asking him if he'd been to the Houston Fan Zone to watch the win over Australia on the big screens. The closest cashier Coletta Smith gets to the football is when she works her second job at the Houston Stadium on match days. There was just one show in town.
Forget Christian Pulisic. The sporting icon around these parts is batter Jose Altuve. Altuve is the Astro's highest paid star on $25m-a-season. The USA team's equivalent is Pulisic, who earns $6.5 at AC Milan. Altuve smashed a home run to help turn the game in his side's favour. Baseball is the be all and end all.
So imagine the shock and horror when a small army of young men appeared in the fourth innings to go into bat for football. At the back of the stand they jumped up and down, waving their shirts above their heads, chanting 'USA, USA'. Attempting to change the narrative. It was such a dramatic and unexpected turn of events, the regulars looked like they'd seen a group of ghosts.
It was a complete clash of cultures. The ring leader, a bloke called Steve, knew he was onto a hiding to nothing, but was having fun nonetheless. 'I like the soccer, man,' he said, 'but baseball will always rule.'
The Astros have won the World Series twice in the last nine years. It's a sporting institution embedded in Houston's culture, just like the dance-offs, kiss and muscle flex cams and free chicken wings are. And World Cup or not, there's nothing that other sport can do about it.
