there is some truth to the desire and pride.
Is it unfair to imagine there is a pride gap?
In NY we get a lot of celebrations of other countries national pride. St Patrick's, PR Day Parade (I know; not a country, but still), lots of little events. The celebrants of these events aren't even necessarily natives of those places. They just have ancestral pride. But DAMN do they have pride.
American pride is complicated. There is definitely the kind of pure, unquestioned, love-it-or-leave-it pride that feels a lot like those other country events, in magnitude if not in style.
But a lot of people view that kind of pride as a bit jingoistic. This at a time when the rest of the world is viewing the US with a lot of anger and disdain. And this among a group of players, many of whom grew up in and/or play in countries where that anti-US sentiment and anti-US-jingoism are prevalent.
I'm not saying players are conflicted when they take the field. I believe them when they say they want to play for the national team and are proud to do so.
But I think it reasonable to imagine that it is hard for at least some American players to summon the same national pride -and therefore energy - that you see in players from Morocco, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, etc.
