SEATTLE, June 17 (Reuters) - The United States' clash with Australia on Friday presents the co-hosts with the chance to not only book a place in the World Cup knockout phase, but also celebrate Black history and showcase the diversity of the team and Seattle.
The match falls on Juneteenth, which marks the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans and became a U.S. federal holiday in 2021, and a series of events in and around Seattle will combine a local love of soccer with social awareness.
Friday's game and the influx of visitors provide "a rare opportunity to celebrate a really deeply important part of our nation's history", Girmay Zahilay, the executive of King County in which Seattle is located, said on Wednesday.
"This wouldn't be the first time that sports and social justice or social awareness have combined," he added.
Marcus Green, from Seattle's Juneteenth Matchday Advisory Committee, noted that the holiday marked the day in 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, when a group of enslaved African Americans were informed of their freedom.
He said: "That gap between the word and the world is what Juneteenth asks us to hold ... this is the uncomfortable, essential American truth: that freedom is not a single moment.
"It is a practice, a project and unfinished and that is why Juneteenth matters."
USMNT'S DIVERSITY REPRESENTS NATION, SAYS SANNEH
The match comes amid attempts by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which are being challenged in court.
But former U.S. men's national team player Tony Sanneh, who was part of the side's historic run to the quarter-finals at the 2002 World Cup, said the current squad's diversity represented the entire nation.
"For me personally, it's heartwarming," he told Reuters. "If you look at the players on the team, very international, very representative of our country, so we can celebrate the team and celebrate this holiday together."
He added: "I think it could be representative of what we hope that every community and city is like in America: it doesn't really matter where you were born, it doesn't really matter where your parents were born.
"It matters where you are and you joining up with your teammates to make it better so that you all win together."
(Reporting by Sam Tobin, Editing by Ken Ferris and Toby Davis)
