Ever since the 1994 World Cup was played in the United States, we have been reading reports that Americans are no longer thinking of soccer as an amateur game for women and children ”” there are more than three million kids registered with the U.S. Youth Soccer Association ”” but are joining the rest of the world as big-time fans of men’s soccer. And yet, the day when Americans massively embrace the most global sport has yet to come.
But there are signs that, at long last, soccer is catching on in America. Shortly before the start of the World Cup, the Fox network pushed back its usual Saturday afternoon major league baseball coverage for three hours to broadcast the European Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. It may have been the first time in American TV history that a soccer match not involving the U.S. team or outside the World Cup displaced a baseball game.
Simultaneously, Vanity Fair magazine’s May cover featured Portugal’s national team star Cristiano Ronaldo and Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba in underpants, and shortly thereafter, Sports Illustrated carried a World Cup cover story under the title, “The beautiful game.”
As the World Cup started in South Africa last Friday, FIFA ”” the tournament’s organizers ”” said that 130,000 U.S. residents had flown to Johannesburg to watch the games, more than had come from any other country.
Most of the soccer mania is contrived by the media moguls. They are trying to convince us we like it so they can sell more ads. Nothing more; nothing less.
i dunno, i really like watching it when i can catch it. i also like the fact that the whole world is participating. i think ronaldo, donovan and wayne rooney have superstar appeal similiar to david beckham.
it’s a difficult game and when they actually make a goal it’s very satisfying.
Since the early to mid 80’s more colleges had soccer teams than had football teams, in part because of lower costs, of course. That is still true. But even in the lower levels, participation in soccer was way beyond most of the traditional sports of the USA, and that is still true today. Soccer is here, overwhelmingly so.
The old NASL had trouble catching on commercially (TV) because of the relatively low scoring nature of soccer and the lack of stoppage. Our commercial attention span has only gotten shorter and shorter, making it even harder for soccer to sell, but I note the increase of stations has worked in soccer’s favor.
Most professional sports have trouble making it these days without TV–and look at the number of teams that have had to access (lobby for, or nearly blackmail) public revenues to build stadiums and arenas to make teams viable! That soccer is doing as well as it is in these conditions testifies to its health. It has caught on and is here to stay even if getting into the imaginations of all Americans will never happen.
What soccer really needs is (1) more hockey-player manliness and and end–dear God, puhlease– to flopping (2) less low-paid players in the MLS who bring the style and level of play down (3) more gifted Americans who have played at a high level and who have the ability to coach at that level, getting global experience in coaching and bringing it home.
The pitches should aslo be about 7-10 yards wider on average here, too.
has trouble making it these days It has only gotten word