I had to go with the Pens game live last night, but following up that win with a Bradlazo for the ages made for an awesome night.
I believe that this is because most sports reporters (guys) know the sports they grew up with, and soccer is a gray area for them. They don't know any history, don't know more than a few famous names, don't understand strategy and tactics, and basically don't want to learn. It will change when some of these old farts move on. Like so many things, you can only play sports for a short time, but you can write about them for decades.
You underestimate what it will take to be accepted in America's popular culture. A significant portion of the country still views Soccer as a Communist Conspiracy against America. Even worse, your patriotism and your sexuality will be called into question for liking the sport. This is the kind of cultural inertia you're dealing with. It's really one of the last acceptable forms of xenophobia left in America. If you think I'm making this up, go look up the early days of soccer in America.
There are a few generations of sports fans who have grown up with soccer now. When I was a child, soccer was a subculture. Its now part of the culture. Those old hats are having to bite their tongues.
Can someone explain to me why 1 point was so important last night? 12 possible points remain, 9 of those available we will be heavy favorites... If we don't take at least 9 from Honduras, T&T, and Panama we do not deserve it regardless. We parked the bus and got lucky with a freak Michael Bradley goal. I'm frustrated because I fully believe we have the better talent FOR the first time EVER, and we pussed out. While JK might not have been what we needed, Arena definitely isn't the solution. Yedlin, Acosta and pulisic have me excited for the future inspite of Arena.
It was an even game in terms of chances created, even if it wasn't pretty on our side. We stifled what they like to do, which is combine in the final 3rd. Then we countered with our athleticism. Only thing we could have done better really is pressured high up and countered with more dribbling. For that we probably need more of a ball winner/dribbler than Acosta to complement Bradley and find a way to put Nagbe on the field. I don't know if Klinsmann supplied Bruce one of those players to employ during these trying times. Maybe Danny Williams? That would be an outside the box pick. Gold Cup is Bruce's opportunity to make the squad his own. Maybe that's when we see Roldan breakthrough. Bruce could have started the integration at January camp and been playing Roldan instead of Acosta there. Although it would have been a rapid ascent. We were playing on the road against who we'd like to still consider CO-bosses of the region, a point would have been a good result, so long as you still gave yourself a realistic chance at 3, which we did. Pulisic could have netted, Bobby could have netted, Omar could have netted, so could have Mikey another time. Bruce was hamstrung by the quick turnaround and altitude, otherwise we may have seen even better. Not that he was infallible. But overall, can't complain. Don't think I'm even qualified anyway.
Yeah, but a sports writer can work 50 years, into his 70's, and even when they retire, they become "emeritus". I think Arena was the quick answer, not the long term one. We didn't play our best lineup either, and drew in Azteca. That has to hurt more than anything for mex fans.
Liking soccer is like using metric: no matter how much sense it makes, hating it is part of Manifest Destiny, something that makes us special.
The point wasn't important, but it is helpful. The USA controlled the game. Mexico was allowed to pass the ball around a lot but that was it. They had one, ONE SHOT on goal. Total defensive domination. The Bradley goal was hardly expected, but makes up for 2-3 other clear chances that were missed. Only in soccer do people complain about succeeding with defense. Saying 6 pts in bag in two CONCACAF road games is ignoring ample history.
At this point, all that matters is qualifying. Arena can work on all that stuff after the US successfully qualifies. Right now, the MNT has to get points anyway it can. I don't care how they win their rest of their qualifiers for this cycle. Just get the points and qualify.
The early days of soccer in America were over a century ago. Look it up. The proportion of the country that still views Soccer as a "Communist Conspiracy against America" is about the same proportion that subscribes to Ramparts Magazine. There may be some Americans, somewhere, who would relate soccer to your sexuality or your patriotism..this is a land of over 300 million souls, after all....but this would be about the same number of Americans who consider the chomping on non-free range chicken as a capital crime against Gaia. This is the kind of cultural inertia you are dealing with?? Well, blessed are Ye the Blessed. This is Xenophobia? Well, blessed are Ye the Blessed.
Think we should stick to US ratings. Adding the Ratings from the Spanish broadcast of game 6 would be fair but not adding an entire other country. Now an interesting question is which did better in the ratings world wide? On one hand US-Mex would obviously have massive ratings in Mexico, but probably not very big anywhere else, while hockey would have big ratings in Canada, and guessing they will do will in Sweden, Finland and probably Russia.
The worldwide soccer (football) fan community is huge, and if only a 2% of those people are soccer-mad enough to watch every (or near-every) qualifier, you can bet many more watched the Mexico-USA game than the deciding Stanley Cup game. Real soccer fans in soccer mad countries are not unlikely to watch all the soccer they can. too. And considering Mexico-USA is a big rivalry match... I'd bet the numbers were great. HOWEVER, soccer matches in many places are the domain of small cable networks, so you have to pay a premium price for most. That's why there are over 40 web sites with soccer streams, and at any given time the stream for a game reports 40K+ viewers. So you won't find great TV numbers, no one in a country in crisis like, say, Venezuela, is going to be paying half their salary to watch a CONCACAF game. The real action is in the streams. And for soccer, streams in Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese and Russian are legion.
ok http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...final-on-record-without-an-original-six-team/ I don't like hockey, I like facts.
What game had higher ratings in the USA? Game 6 of the NHL finals or the USA vs Mexico WCQ? My point is that the NHL is the most Canada/USA league of them all, but even if you leave Canada out, the clinching game for the Stanley cup got a pretty good number, And we have no clue if anyone watched the NHL final in any Spanish channel, I don't even know if any Spanish channel carried the game.
The context of the conversation was viewers in the USA which had nothing to do with Canada. It had to do with the USA since I brought it up in a USA thread (logically). Those are "facts" you obviously just seemed to ignore for some strange reason.
Pertaining to the USA I have a clue. There was no Spanish channel broadcasting the game in the US. And if there were hypothetically, I doubt the numbers would have been high. Most people would have been tuned into the USA-Mexico. That may not be a "fact" but it is good inductive reasoning and knowing the demographics.
ok, but the NHL final game still got higher rating in the USA/MEX than the qualifier. Hockey not not nearly as dead as many of here hope.