I"m with you here in a way. I can't take never-played-a-sport-in-my-life sportswriters telling me about the zone blitz when they can't even catch a ball. If I had to listen to Around the Horn analyse soccer matches, I think I'd lose my mind. I fear this with lacrosse too. I kind of hope they both stay out of the mainstreme, b/c thus far, the only people who comment on these two sports are those who have played them and know the games well.
Yeah, Tommy Smyth and 'Celo are total geniuses. I want soccer to become big in the US. Why? Because it means we've got a really good team and we can attract good players to MLS. What a horrible world we'd live in if that happened.
I'm not sure if anyone has touched upon this subject or not but we also have to understand that another reason why soccer hasn't taken off in the United States is because this country as opposed to most European countries is too huge! I mean we have these expansive areas all over the place with nothing but desert and wilderness between Denver and LV or LA. Or from Seattle to Minnesota. I mean we have many pockets of people in the bay area and/or California but then from San Jose to Fresno and from Fresno to LA there is hardly anyone or anybody around. The state of California alone is probably 3 times the size of Italy. Italy by the way is only the size of Arizona however, with much more people (58 million). When you get this amount of people in such a small enclosed environment and every little city is proud and wants to have its name represented and the only way to do it is by having a soccer team with its history and/or stadium, there is bound to be enthusiasm and an abundance of fans. In Europe historically most cities were also built along rivers and oceans. Some towns were constructed on hilltops for protection from enemy's and wars and what have you. Before TV was ever invented people on Sunday's went first to Church all dressed up in their suits then they would gather together after the mass and then would talk or gossip for a bit and either go to the game at the small stadium in the center of town or go to different bars and cafes and listen to the match on the radio. In Rome you have Roma, Lazio, Lodigiani, Ospitaletto and a few others on the outskirts. Every club has its own supporters. They all hate each other and then come together at the EURO or WC. I read once that the city of London has 4-6 clubs. This probably doesn't even include non league clubs. Also there are something like 10 daily sports newspapers in Italy alone and each one of them talk about the games and analyze every move. I don't even think this happens in this country! I mean we have maybe 2 newspapers and maybe the USA Today. If one were to imagine the NFL in a small enclosed area or in only one state, I mean of course there would be a grand following.
I want to make another point on why soccer hasn't become popular in the USA. We had a 12 year hiatus from soccer during the years 1984-1996 (after the folding of the NASL) and that did nothing to enhance the sport's popularity. I recall attending a WSA Quakes game in 86 and my cousin telling me I don't want to pay to watch these players because I used to play with all of them! I'll bet if the USA were awarded the WC in 1986 instead of Mexico, the NASL will have lasted and the USA would have been where they are now 10 years ago. The scope of sports in this country is much different than in anywhere else in the world. If you have constant franchise relocations, folding of teams and leagues, how can you follow such a sport that no longer exists or that only exists for short periods of time? The MLS contracted two teams in Florida in one shot. This doesn't ever happen anywhere else in the world. Sure teams may declare bankruptcy but there usually is another team to step up and take their place. I was in Florence in 2002 and Fiorentina basically folded up shop and renaming the club the Florentia Viola and having to start again as a team in the 4th division. There was a home average of 33k screaming fans per match in the freaking 4th division! This team went basically from the 1st to the 4th and everyone got behind the club wanting it to climb back up real fast. What happens in this country you see teams like KC or San Jose who supposedly have attendance issues all of a sudden become on the chopping block. They find all kinds of ways like SSS and other ways to market the league in order for its survival but ultimately the teams end up moving or folding. I for one can't even bring myself to watching a Houston Dynamo match ever since they moved from San Jose. How can somebody be a fan of a team that leaves and comes back? We aren't talking about relegation we are talking about disintegration! I would just like to see a list of the teams the USL has had in the last 16 years! I mean the amount of teams and/or leagues that have come and gone in the USA is incredible. We had this overwhelming success rate with bandwagon fans in the 1970's in the NASL's halcyon era. The reasons the NASL failed are many however, with the constant folding and/or relocation of clubs, fans were left wondering and found it very difficult to get behind a sport for only a year or two. In 1986 during the Mexican WC I recall playing a pick up soccer match with some foreigners who attended my same college. I remember bringing some regular average Joe American guys over to play with us who were actually competitive college swimmers. They stepped onto the soccer field and they were schooling these know it all ethnics. I stopped the ball and asked them, where did you guys learn to play like this? They said we had been playing soccer for 12-14 years until we got to high school. We were best of friends but soccer was never ever discussed or brought up as I thought they were just into swimming. The foreign guys asked them to come back the next day but they never did! Soccer in those years and even today has become kind of like softball which is a sport that everyone plays but no one talks about or ever watches! One could just imagine what kind of professional league and/or national team we could have had if all those youth soccer players in the 70's, 80's & 90's continued to support soccer and lend their support to the professional game. The potential was incredible.
We are alive and well, thank you very much . Most people do not like or simply want to oppose soccer for no reason at all. Many of them will rather, watch arena football, NFL Europe, golf or even WWF than a enjoy a good soccer game . Know what? - SCREW THEM! On a more seriuos note: Soccer in the US is HUUUGE at the children, junior and teenage levels. There is more funding and even organization at these levels in the US than in many other countries - even those where soccer is the number 1 sport. Something is happening between the high school and professional levels that causes a drastic loss of interest in soccer and the perception that it is not a serious sport. THIS IS WERE THE FOCUS NEEDS TO BE MADE. This trend needs to be studied fully, its causes found and counter solutions generated. Still even then, most will keep to their MLB, NBA and NFL teams. I say fine, let them.
The trouble is the mainstream sports fans just don't care or don't want to care about soccer. When everyone from TV to the sports journalists to the baseball people and what have you,bash a sport we are all guilty of believing what we read, hear or see! Its almost like we become indoctrinated by these stupid TV & radio sports talk shows and newspapers articles. When someone says a couple of hundred times that you or a certain sport sucks, you start to believe it. One of my cousins played professional soccer with the Cosmos and then with the Memphis Americans in the MISL. The other cousin played indoor with the Milwaukee Wave and then played outdoor for the SJ Quakes in the WSA. I attended their USL Super Y soccer tournament yesterday where both of their sons were grouped against each other. The game was very competitive and I was amazed at how well the level of youth soccer has developed as opposed to the 70's & 80's. I later on asked one of my cousins who played for the Cosmos where his kids practice and play? He said that both his boys go out and kick the ball around in the street or in the park. I said what about the other kids on the block? He said no one else wants to play! I said why not? Because they don't play soccer. I asked how many kids are in the neighborhood? He said pretty much every house has young kids because it is a new residential development for single family housing and they all moved in around the same time. I told him this is one of the reasons why soccer doesn't develop like it should in this country! I told him I thought that was a shame! Bruce Arena has even said that in order for this country to really become big time in soccer, everyone or every kid must just go out and play every chance he gets and not just wait around for his or her club, school or youth team. I may have mentioned that when I was in Italy, myself and a group of friends gathered together at an asphalted soccer/tennis court at a local park. We snuck on and tried to play on the grass pitch but we were kicked off by the pro side coach who said it was a private park and didn't want us to ruin the pitch. Then we all had to wait in line in front of 4 other teams or 2 games pay our money to only play for 60 minutes before the lights went out. I remember saying to myself I can't believe this! Here in Europe we have to pay to play on cemented fields and having to wait in line for 2 hours and in America where we can play on grass anywhere we want for free and not have to wait at all and no one plays! Wherever you go in the US you will see these huge parks, elementary and high schools with incredible green grass soccer fields in every residential neighborhood! When I walk by these fields on the weekend and I only see maybe only a group of ethnics playing a pick up soccer match, I just shake my head! Where are all the youth soccer players that we supposedly have? Soccer as you say is huge among the youth however, why is it that they can't organize and play an unorganized soccer game among themselves? Where are the pick up games? Why must it always be organized with soccer moms, team logos, mascots, flags and coaches and a guy selling soda and hot dogs twice a week? In the 30 years since soccer was discovered in the USA , I've yet to see a group of American born players (at least in California) organize a pick up match! This country has the luxury that no other country in the world has and I think the youth and everyone else involved take it for granted! With these fields, and parks and all the youth soccer players and facilities we have in place, we should potentially be in a position to win the World Cup every time the tournament rolls around!
The reason why American kids dont play soccer: 1. Their dad brainwash them saying soccer is for girls 2. Other kids make fun of them becouse they play soccer 3.Kids sit in the front of the tv watching cartoons 4. Kids play video games all day 5. They are too fat to play, they get tired after 5 minutes so they go and find a sport where they can rest
American kids don't play soccer? That's news to me. Everywhere I go I see them playing soccer. Maybe I'm halucinating?
Oh yeah.. diesel, you forgot "because they won't get off my damn lawn!" You sound like a grumpy old man.
As soon as we start to fire mediocre coaches and mediocre foreign players the things will spice up.....
Here is one reason on: Why the popularity of soccer hasn't been moving so fast ? One of the reasons could be becuase of performances like the USMNT against the Czech's. A game like this will make the casual sports fan, journalist and radio talk show host alike just say we suck at soccer! It would seem as soon as we generate some enthusiasm with the sport , we end up looking flat in the very next tournamnet. We had generated much enthusiasm with World Cup 94 and the MLS start up and then were 0-3 and out in the 1998 World Cup. Then we started it up again in 2002 with a nice quarterfinal finish and wins over Mexico and Portugal to a number #5 FIFA ranking, only to fall miserably to the Czech's. Granted the Czech's are #2 in the World, but in the American sports fans eyes,the Czech's are in no way anywhere near America not in just soccer terms but on any terms. American's expect and want to be the best at everthing they do and they must succeed at doing it and must win at all costs. No one likes a loser especially America.
I agree of course that their dismal performance and crushing 3-0 loss to the Czechs has severly hurt soccer in the US for the time being. There's more fuel to the argument that 2002 was a fluke because if South Korea didn't beat Portugal, wouldn't we have been eliminated by POLAND by losing 3-1? POLAND! A win over Italy will certainly turn many heads, but it's a long shot possibility. As the US Men get truly better and more competetive among the world's best, then we may see soccer's popularity pick up. But as many on this forum state, a major hurdle is the media. Despite all the World Cup coverage and advantageous soccer marketing, the media is inhibiting soccer's rise in the US. It is always put down as a silly competition and the message is sent that not only do all Americans not care, they say we shouldn't care about it, we are too stupid to understand it, and its not American. While I understand that it is the unfortunate state of soccer in the US now, I hate opening the Washington Post to find a glossary of soccer terms like "booking" and "offsides" like we are complete idiots. On opening day on Cold Pizza, Woody Paige, Skip Bayless and Jay Crawford were making "predictions" based on the country's names, jerseys and attractions, rather than anything serious like team skill or star players. On one hand, I realize why the media is, to me, immature about soccer, which is because many Americans are too and in that case, the media will feed off the public's interests and appease them to make money. But on the other, I think the media, especially the sports media, has a responsibility to take US national team soccer, as well as MLS, more seriously because it is a sport. I'm not saying that the media NEVER takes soccer seriously, because they definitely do in pre- and post-game World Cup coverage, but when the US team isn't active or making news, or there are no MLS games on, soccer is treated as a kiddie game or a foreign game, but mostly not at all. Other causes: lack of scoring, lack of unique of interesting actions (I dont think so but many do), none of their buddies watch soccer... That's enough of my rant.
I agree! The media and the radio sports talk show hosts seem to know absolutely nothing about the game, it comes out in their statements. It would seem that American sports announcers were trying to make this thing more political than normal they should. I think they should focus on tactics, strategy, player profiles and the game itself. All the other things should not be featured as much. Also, I would like to say its great to hear all the coverage from ESPN about the USA, which is normally the case with every country's side. I hope the USA regroups. I don't see them beating Italy but then the ball is round, so who knows? A win would definitely improve the games enthusiasm in the USA. Let us pray!
In my local market, we have a sports writer on a morning sports talk show who has what he calls the 3-2-1 rule on soccer. If anything soccer-related comes up he counts down 3-2-1 then ends the conversation. He is probably in his late 40s, and he is otherwise a pretty good sports writer. But he does not know anything about soccer and does not care to because he says his readers do not care about soccer. He writes mostly about college and pro football, baseball, and basketball so that is probably true. This attitude prevails in the mainstream media from the national level on down, and I think it hurts. However, I think it will slowly change as the media turnsover. The coming generations will be more soccer-aware and hopefully soccer knowledgeable. It just takes time. Overall, soccer has grown tremendously in popularity in the US since the 1994 WC. It has mostly been slow, steady sustainable growth.
Well another way for the popularity of soccer to increase is by having a successful national team. I remember reading a soccer magazine 26 years ago which had an article about Franz Beckenbauer. He was with the NY Cosmos at the time and was leaving the NASL to go back to GMY to play for Hamburg SV. He said then that in order for soccer to become really big, its national team has to become big. They must improve at every position because in a World Cup, you will pay for the slightest mistake. Another way to improve the national team is by having a strong domestic league. We have seen progress with the MLS , but the level of the MLS is somewhere between a mid 2nd and high 4th division club in Europe. Don't get me wrong they have made incredible strides especially for being only 10 years old, but they need to improve in every aspect of the domestic league. Whether it be an influx of foreign superstars or more clubs or better competition with South American and Mexican clubs or something. The USA has qualified successfully for 5 straight World Cups and they along with Mexico have become the class in this region. The trouble is qualifying doesn't guarantee great results. They totally screwed up against Czech and then played Italy tough. I didn't see the Ghana game today however, I have it on tape. The thing is though they must win these games against these types of opponents convincingly. If they won today they would have faced Brazil and you can say whatever you want but there is not way the USA would ever beat Brazil in a WC match unless they use their 2nd team as Japan did.
I agree that the popularity of soccer has been painfully slow to increase in the US. However, I think we're seeing some breaks in that with this World Cup. I think the fact that McBride got nailed, had blood drawn and was taped and back in the thick of things within a few minutes gave photographers something tangible to document. It appeared on the front page of our Mankato Free Press--not a hotbed of soccer ferment. Also, though we didn't win, playing with one man down for 20 minutes in a match with Italy a world power that most Americans can identify as a soccer-playing nation is another thing that people who understand other sports but don't know soccer can appreciate to some extent. It just seemed that there were more references to soccer in the popular media (David Letterman, for example), more soccer paraphenelia (Walgreen's selling team jerseys for European clubs) and then, most telling of all for me, my dad. At 78, it takes a bit for him to make ANY change whatsoever. Yet, without me sitting with him or prompting him, he told me he watched several minutes of the second half of the Mexico-Argentina game and knew the final score. "Man, those guys were really fighting each other out there. Pushing and pulling on each other. Elbowing each other." He was smiling and he really enjoyed it. He's got grandkids who play at the U15 level and below but has never really expressed a lot of interest. Maybe this year there are other new fans showing up. Does anyone else see any evidence of new interest in the game blossoming?
Reality is that all your best athetes play american football and other sports. Soccer is getting smaller, lesser athletes on whole. As long as that continues, expect the US progress toward elite status to be painfully slow. I hope it changes soon....