Soccer, at least among the Women’s World Cup team, is shooting itself in the proverbial foot.

Sports, for me and so many fans like me, almost always bring a smile to my face.

I’m downright giddy about the fact that high school football and volleyball teams take to the preseason practice fields this week.

In fact, St. Regis, which is part of a co-op arrangement with Mullan, Idaho, opened practice this past Monday as they prepare for their first game of the season against Clark Fork, Idaho, wait for it...the Friday after this coming one. That’s AUGUST 17.

If I could do a back flip it would be inserted right here.

Most area teams are in action by the 25th of this month (see accompanying story).

I take great joy in that thought, like a break into a grin over the upcoming, if not scrambled college season.

Baseball makes me grin. Golf relaxes me. Basketball, even though I don’t like much of the politics, still makes the far corners of my mouth turn slightly upward.

Soccer, especially if it involves American national teams against foreign competition, is another grin starter. I am a fan of USA versus anyone.

But not this year in the case of soccer. At least not when it comes to the uppity U.S. women’s soccer team now “competing” in the World Cup.

I still admire the large numbers of area and national residents of all ages who play and thoroughly enjoy soccer. Soccer moms have grown into national icons.

But this year’s ladies World Cup team is turning my smile into a frown.

And it’s all about politics, which I say has no place in sports.

I was not happy in 1984 when Russia and other commie nations boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics because the United States and several of its friends had boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics over Russia’s military intervention into Afghanistan.

Kind of ironic, eh, that the two main “boycotters” of those games were both sucked into a bloody war in Afghanistan?

In fact, I went to the LA Olympics despite the Soviet boycott. They were good, but the satisfaction of beating everyone in the world was not there.

So, fast forward to this year’s Women’s World Cup, hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand.

It’s been underway for several weeks now and going into today (Sunday) the US team had advanced, by the skin of their protesting teeth, to the round of 16. A loss at this stage sends the loser home.

In the past two or three Women’s World Cups, the US has been dominant. They came into the once-every-four-years tournament this time around as the defending champs and odds-on favorite to win it all again.

But that may very well not happen.

Politics has reared its ugly head once again.

And in doing so, they have lost a new fan in me.

Led by disgruntled, blue-haired (or pink, or color of the moment) Meagan Rapinoe, the USWNT is quarreling among themselves, disrespecting the American national anthem, and generally acting like first-class A-holes.

Not all are involved, A few of the “ladies” still put their hand across their heart during the anthem, while Rapinoe, who reportedly has bullied teammates into being on her side in the fight for “social justice”, takes a knee.

Let me be clear. I thought Colin Kaepernick, who was once a decent NFL quarterback before he decided to lead the league in kneeling during the anthem, has a right to express himself. Just like I have a right to say I’m outraged by such behavior.

The players who stage these on-field, during the game protests create havoc and division. At least half of America doesn’t agree with the practice and when Kaepernick started his self-centered protests, many fans quit watching, including veterans at both Plains area clubs, the VFW and American Legion.

Many still refuse to watch.

So what did the protests gain? In my mind they can count only divisiveness as an “achievement”.

These players have a vast audience to spread their thoughts upon. They have a following, which dismays me to no end.

But they are ruining, if not interrupting, the very venue that has given them their voice.

Play the game. Then protest on your non-team time.

Remember the lesson learned from Kaepernick’s ill-fated kneeling when so many otherwise loyal football fans quit watching. Bud Light come to mind?

The truth is, sports are a means to escape political rhetoric. To take a time out from the screaming bullhorns. To enjoy an event that makes most people happy.

As my mom used to tell me whenever I had a childhood frown. “You keep frowning like that and someday your face will stick like that.”

I, for one, will not be sad if the women do not win the World Cup.

Should that happen, it will not be because of a lack of soccer skills.

It will be because the focus was on something other than the games.

Just saying.