Hey Everyone,

I’m sure most of you are freaked the fuck out with what’s happening across our country. It’s hard to even be online at times, with the amount of bad news that’s hammered into my head every day. Things are going to get a lot darker before they get better. And though some of us will die, most of us (in fact, a large majority) will live. So we need to keep our heads up and keep moving.

We’re a soccer website, so maybe we aren’t the most important part of your online experience, but you are reading this, so we matter at least a little. Last week, when all the dominos began tipping and each league shuttered for the month, I considered shutting the site down. It’s hard to want to write about a sport, when life/death struggles are happening all around us. But maybe that’s why we need to press on. Because it sucks to be online right now, it sucks to have to work (if you have to, trust me, I feel your pain), it sucks to be cooped up at home, life just sucks right now. And maybe an article about your favorite sport or club gives you a tiny bit of light on a cloudy day.

I will warn you, production will slow, but all the writers are dealing with the same crap you are. Some of us are working, but consumed with stress and concern about contracting this virus. Some of us will get sick or deal with a family member getting sick. We’re just like you and when something bad happens, we’ll step away to deal with it. But we’ll work together to try and produce the best soccer content we can during this shitty shitty period of our lives.

I hope at the end of all this, we’re all still standing. And, if we aren’t, we’ll write a great eulogy for whoever we’ve lost. We love so much of the grassroots soccer world - the fans, the players, the clubs, the trolls, the zealots, the anti-MLS people, the pro-MLS people, the Eurosnobs, every single one of you, but, most of all, we love the game. And the game will kick off again soon enough. We just have to ride this out. Stay safe, we aren’t going anywhere.

Dan Vaughn

Editor

Protagonist Soccer