Foreign soccer fans have a reputation for being many things: racists, drunks, criminals, etc. That's not true for all of them of course, just about 99.6% of them.

Unfortunately, American soccer fans who cheer for MLS teams seem to be starting to head in that direction as well - especially fans of the Columbus Crew. Apparently Crew fans have learned from their foreign counterparts that you can do things at a soccer game that would get you a month in prison at any other sporting event.

Our first clip here is from this weekend's 1-0 victory by the New England Revolution over the Columbus Crew. The fans don't take too kindly to Kheli Dube's goal, throwing bottles at him, and one fan unleashes a ton of F-bombs followed by the N-word. Obviously this is very NSFW. Stay classy Columbus.



Obviously the derogatory racial remarks are terrible. But it's also bad to see people throwing objects at a player. And it's not like throwing stuff at players, which is more or less a game in foreign countries, isn't found here in the states.

In the video below, from the same game, you'll see what appears to be the identical corner of fans from the first video. They shower the corner area with streamers, and one fan even throws a flare at New England player Steve Ralston's feet.



What I find bizarre about all this is that if someone threw a flare onto an MLB field, an NFL field, or an NBA court, they'd be pinned against the ground with a billy club stuck into their groin in about 3 seconds. Yet at soccer games, no one does anything.

That better change soon if the U.S. wants to prevent soccer hooliganism from continuing to spread here. Or we could just ignore the MLS, which is more or less what I do anyway.

[Videos courtesy of Soccer By Ives]