Does anybody from New York city Traveling to the big razor for the US game? How Can I get to Foxboro I'm not driving.....
there is no good mass transit unless you want a train to Boston, then a short train to Foxboro.But I bet if you post on the Metro's board, I would be very suprised if you can't pick up a ride right to the Boro.Good luck and please come! Bruce
The US has a good team, but its impossible to follow unless you are a soccer junkie like most of us here. They play the WorldCup, qualifiers against teams that most consider to be weak and the lion share of their games are just exhibition. There is nothing for the "could be" fan to latch onto. No sport would be popular playing in this kind of format. The WC is garners interest, but fans know there is nothing else to watch for 4 years till the next one comes around. Thats not enough to build any sort of real fan base.
I have only been following the the team closely for about 3 years, but what does that have to do with the National team playing most friendly games??
A couple of points about our national team: 1) The whole World Cup process takes about 2 years. So it's not like fans have to wait for 4 years between competition. 2) There are other competitive matches played: Gold Cup, Confed Cup, and such. Even youth tournaments such as the Olympics, and u20 world championship. 3) Many of the friendlies are played with a real purpose of tuning up for a major tournament too. That's not bad in considering that all of our players have club responsibilities that qualify as their full-time job. The US national team (or any other national team) isn't susposed to play on a very frequent basis. That's what the MLS and other leagues are for. The MLS and the National team are susposed to work together in building the sport in this country. And also, the other teams in this region aren't necessarily weak. Qualification is difficult when considering how tough it is to play on the road in our region.
yes, you post this over and over.Let me take a wild guess: you would like to see the USA in the Copa America.
First, WCQ in this region are percieved as weak. Wether that is true or not is debatable but that is the perception. There are no real big soccer powers in concacaf. Secondly, Those tournaments are fine, but are not televised in english where people can latch on and follow the team. You cant expect to build a following where the only place you can follow the team is on the net or spanish television. Thirdly, friendly games are friendly games. They might be fun to watch for people that follow the team, but to an outsider, unless its against Brazil or Italy or a powerhouse, its meaningless. And that last point is really the big issue facing soccer as a whole in this country. With 80% of the team making the playoffs; regular season MLS is meaningless too. Not exhibition, but very close to it. Play in some tounaments (copa, gold, confed), televise them somewhere in english, market them a little bit and the fan base will grow. People generally generally become passionate about sports cause of the drama and competition. Exhibition provides little of either.
And as you point out lack of english language coverage, or any advertisement makes those competitions worthless for garnering new support.
I do, but I would like to see much more than that. Thats not the focus of my posts here though. How about a idea from you man??? Anything??? What would you do to make the National Team more popular? Or let me guess, you are just here to ridicule others..
What else do you want to see? There aren't many options for the US team. They can play in the World Cup and Qualifying They can play in the Gold Cup.. They can host the US Cup (but even these can be considered friendlies) If they do well in the Gold Cup they can play in the Confed Cup.. Other than that, that is all they can really play in. We can only play in the Copa America if we are invited. Yes it was a mistake to turn down the invites. But you can't rely on playing in a tournament if we have to be invited. There isn't anything else left
"What would you do to make the National Team more popular? * <sarcasm>Move it to a country where there's more of entrenched, historical fan interest in the team. Move it to a country where the game is the primary professional sport that most readily captures the attention and imagination of its citizens.</sarcasm> Seriously people, there's very little cultural identification with the game amongst middle-class, white, suburanite Americans outside of Saturday and Sunday afternoons when parents drag their kids to soccer games. That's not to say things can't change, but the kids who are playing today need to grow up to be passionate supporters, and not simply throw their interest in the game away when they outgrow other childish interests. Maybe it's having Americans star at the highest level for recognized clubs overseas... Maybe it's working to cultivate wider interest in MLS clubs in a way that's not dissimilar to other pro sports teams that enjoy longer historys, greater legacys, and strong cultural identification -- get MLS fans to form the bond with their club much like Red Sox fans have with theirs, Detroit Red Wings have with theirs, etc. Don't make MLS an event, make it have more value than that. Just a few thoughts, The Magpie
Growing soccer in the US is the reponsibility of the National Team and the MLS both. They have to coordinate their scheduling so that there is as little overlap as possible. MLS needs to give fans a reason to watch the regular season and get into the league. 80% (66% next season) of teams in the playoffs is undebateably ludicris. Fix it, and create some drama, create a sense of urgency, a must win game and passion for the sport will follow. Following a sport for 30 games to see who the 2 losers are, is not going to capture many peoples imagination. People here and elsewhere always talk about how exciting the EPL is. Thats in part, becuase the quality is better, but its mostly do to the fact that every game overthere is meaningful, here just a prescious few are. The National Team needs to be apart of just about every tournament that they can get in. Not go out of their way to make excuses like they did for Copa America (If MLS players have time to play Poland in a friendly and a silly East v West all star game, they have time to play in Copa). Playing against the likes of Brazil, Argentina and Mexico is one of the best showcases for soccer in this country I can think of. Play in it. The World Cup and qualifiers are great for soccer in this country, but we need more. Play the Gold Cup, The Confed Cup, the Olympics, Copa and whatever else, but show them in english and in a place where people can watch them. Not tucked away somewhere on Telemundo. This is tough, but there has to be one station out there (like FSW) that would televise this. The US can play in all the tournaments they want, but if noone can see them, they are not especially good at building a fan base. As a country we need to be playing in more meaningful games, televising them in english, marketing the sport to soccer fans instead of children and playing against the best competition we can. Earn the respect of the sports fan and perhaps one day we will be able to outdraw a tiny Central American country on our home turf..
hi everyone, what to spect sept 4? EL Salvador hanging from the post the whole game!!! the coach that we have, who thinks he is a coach, saids that he will attack and try to beat the USA. same thing he said against Panama, don't get fooled, ES won 2-1 but we were hanging from the post the whole game, all the fans are discusted by the way we played at home!! the coach said that ES was going to have the iniciative on the offense,.. guess what? it was panama who dominated the whole game, we were hanging from the post even before we received the red card!! after that it was worst. We call our coach BIG MOUTH because that is all he knows, because about soccer? is like if we have a team playing with out a guidence!! EL SALVADOR SOCCER is in the worst crisis ever, Corruption in the soccer federation is up the date!!! players get missery and the Federation is taking all the money feeding players water and bread,,, they bearly get $5 a week per player,,, sad huh? when the players step on the field is not surprising to see the lack of motivation. lost after lost on the friendlies say it all!! Don't espect to see many ES fans, I am personaly not going,I rather see it on TV, because with our current team there is no hope. maybe if we had a team like 97 when arce, cien, zarco, cerritos were on their best level, maybe I could have hoped for at least a tie, but with the team we have is just sad to think about it. don't be surprise if it ends in an scandalouse score. I am totaly resignated that we are going to end at the bottom of the table. I wish I could be wrong but with the way the team if playing? hmmm the win against Panama was miraculouse!! After Jamaica the next team to be careful with is Panama! After ES ... USA all the way baby!!
To some, both matter. Winning is important, but I would also like to see this team well supported. They deserve it.
I don't think you'd find anyone on here that disagrees that this team deserves the support. BTW, will you be here this weekend? Here being Gillette Stadium of course.
Just a thought, I don't know how to say this without making people angry....(qualifier) Here it goes.... there was a post last year I think regarding dorky/nerdy US soccer fans and I don't know if this is true or not, but I think die hard soccer fans in this country try to imitate othes such as, the mother land Great Britian. However, the way they look is foolish and dumb. I don't know what the fans can do but at least they are out cheering. Remember this is just an observation. Another huge problem is someone listed above is that the soccer in the US is marketing to young children and the Spanish speaking community. This makes only stereotypes the sport as one that only children and foreigners play. I hope those in marketing can only get away from these stereotypes and try to market the sport to a different demographic. For example how about running ads that appeal a wider market becuase as it is young children after they finish playing the game do not turn into life long fans. Just a thought
Fvckin' a, I thought the game was on Sunday for some reason, just realized it's on Saturday and had to switch my travel plans around.
Funny, it's on a Sunday, over here. Nah, it's on the Saturday. 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. I'll be getting up at 5 a.m. Sunday morning for a 6 a.m. live kickoff.
Someone started drinking to celebrate the win a little early. No, really, go for the the good time to drink - go for the soccer (doubleheader) - go to practice your Spanish on the Sallie fans - go to see if Arena will really play Gooch - go to see if Mathis has lost weight on the German diet - go to support the world's best-ranked yet least-supported team - go to prove we are a soccer nation - go to show that pride in our country's athletes doesn't go away after the Olympics - go to scream and yell yourself hoarse. Just go. Oh, wait - you were already planning to go. Never mind.
I am sorry if I seemed sarcastic so let me write out a serious answer to what you have posted many times in different threads:my response is that we are doing fine. I have been a fan for a lot longer than you I guess, and we have seen steady growth.My take is that it is MLS that is most important.We now have a solid domestic league that is growing.Maybe if you are from another country you take that for granted, but here in the USA we absolutely can not.Our league has collapsed once and it is not to be taken for granted. The US team will be a giant threat to the rest of the world when we have 20 teams in MLS and reserve teams- not a moment sooner or later.There are no cheesy short-cuts that will get us to REALLY compete with Brazil, Arg,France, etc. So you and I debated this in another thread, but I tend to agree with Arena about this.We have to disrupt MLS for WCQ because it is necessary.Any other big disruptions of MLS send the message that it is not a real league.It is a long term vs a short term debate.