WOW talk about a know it all moron. Its pathetic that your own still feel this way about the #1 sport in the world. I would definitly give him some feedback about this column
Sorry, but I don't see the problem. What he wrote was dead on (except I'm not so sure about the whole international basketball thing). The reality is that if we want soccer to have any impact on every day popular sports culture, they need to win. It's our mentality. Everyone likes to quote Team America's "America **** Yeah" song and it's true. We are cocky and like to be better than everyone. We think we're the greatest! Until we are the greatest in the world (IE: World Champions), the average Joe won't blink an eye about the Nats. Even if we do it's tough to say if it will have much of an impact. It's the cold hard truth. Just accept it and continue being an American soccer fan. Continue to spread the word because every fan counts for us. It's up to us to lay the foundation and up to our boys to build the tower.
At the world cups you know when they show a shot of different countries, towns and centers filled with world cup euforia. Like when teams qualified the world cup parties that happened around the world. Well lets say the US does win the world cup--i dont think much would change. The majority still wouldnt care or tune in or know any players. Do you see big parties going on and cities filled with huge screens. Nope i think not. And what about that commercial"well take about soccer for 2 seconds more than it deserves" very bad marketing The US should throw some commercials out with the us nats saying soccer is better than their sports with a bit of comedy like we dont get timeouts and we dont have our mouths filled with sunflower seeds while we play!!!!! Plus guys like beasley are what has to be done--go to europe and play and get some recognition. Like the NFL and NBA their players demand respect. More to come later
The problem I have is that soccer is 'illegit' unless it is as big as the NFL, and not being that big proves a legion of 'soccernistas' wrong. I don't really believe he gets harassed like that all the time in this day and age. 30 years ago, maybe. Today? Dubious.
Dan Wetzel? Is that an alias for Frank Deford? I'm open to any interesting, critical perspective on soccer in the US, but this piece has nothing. Haven't we heard all of these arguments before? How is this news? "We are going to talk about soccer for two minutes, which is two minutes longer than it deserves..." Wetzel and Deford's point has gotten so stale that even Nike ads make fun of it.
Are you aware that the average Joe does not have the remote Idea that soccer is play professionally in this country ....Why ? Simple because there is not coverage ....! ok now for the 67.35 DLRS QUESTION why there is not soccer coverage in USA..?.. because inside some inbreed mind in the American media Strong Man, poker, ice skate, Golf, Hog Dog eating contest, pumking trowing competition is more important that a sport that is play by 98 percent of the population of this planet... SOCCER...
its true soccer does not get the media coverage it deserves . I do disagree with this article , winning the WC would be a massive achievement for us , but I doubt it would suddenly cause Americans to follow American soccer regularly , although it could get them out to National games and MLS games , which is a very good start ..
Note to all these sports "journalists": If you don't know anything about soccer then we don't need you writing about the sport. Stick to baseball, basketball or football. Pro or college. Whatever. But we don't need anymore of these "meta-sport" articles on whether soccer will or won't make it. Why it is or isn't popular and what will or won't make it popular. If you can't explain the differences between a diamond or box 4-4-2 and if you can't give your list of 23 of who Bruce should take to Germany, I don't want to hear your opinion because they are typically uninformed, unoriginal and boring. But that's just my take.
I think he is dead on. Note that he is dispassionately describing a phenomenon. And answering the question of why Soccer is not more popular in the US. You may call him a moron, but show me where he is wrong. He gives a realistic appraisal of the US team and shows the path forward. I love the sport but am rational in my expectations of the sport's prospects of mainstream popularity. So is this journalist. On a slightly different note, I think that most American soccer snobs do not want the sport to be more popular in the US. They just want it to be popular enough to garner slightly more cable coverage. It is like the fan of a local college band that hits it big and then calls them a sell-out when they hit the top ten.
The only problem with the article is that it bases the legitimacy of soccer on the model of the NFL, NBA or MLB. I hope that soccer in this country never has the fluffed up hype that is seen in the NFL and NBA. Does it matter that 99% of our country is unaware and doesn't care about the World Cup and the US National Team? Is that what determines US Soccer's legitimacy? And honestly, even if we do win the World Cup is there going to be some sudden and overwhelming influx of fans who are now genuine supporters and would rather watch the Chicago Fire than the Chicago Bears? The reasoning is flawed. The MLS has done a terrific job of beginning to lay down grassroots networks. Slowly but steadily soccer in the United States is growing and hopefully in a way that doesn't cause it to self-destruct or become a greedy beast like the NFL or NBA. We don't need to be the biggest and best sport in the country overnight, so why Dan Wetzel are you telling us differently?
Random thought...I'm a soccer fan and *I* can't tell you the difference between a box and diamond 4-4-2, aside that one is "box" and one is "diamond"
To Dan Wetzel, What you columnists haven't realized is that us soccer fans stopped caring about what you think 8-10 years ago. Sincerly, Shaydee
I haven't read the article. I don't need to. After reading what you've already written I know what it's about. I don't think the MLS would be insanely popular like the NFL or NBA if we won the WC this summer. It would attract a few new fans, but I doubt it would sweep the nation. What we lack in the MLS is that "eyepopping" talent. We need players that can provide the highlight reel type of action that the American sports fan craves if we're to get any bigger. For that we're going to need to continually gradually grow until we can sign these bigger names. I think it's pretty obvious that we can attract these guys over here if we had enough money, but as of right now we'll have to wait until we are financially secure enough to do that.
Yeah, Suuuuure you did. That's why there's a whopping great thread about his column on Bigsoccer... Apart from his contention that the USA exports it's sports and a slight hyping of the popularity of basketball, his article was pretty accurate. Most people in the USA don't care, and it will take a spectacular World Cup performance to make them care.
This isn't a soccer-bashing article. This guy isn't Jim Rome or Frank Deford. In fact, he seems to know a little about our national team, and he gives respect for their strong performance at the last WC. A Rome or Deford would dismiss an 8th-place finish with some smarmy one-liner. This guy realizes that it's a strong accomplishment. He even knows what Group we're in--can you imagine Jim Rome admitting that he had even paid attention to the draw? Sure, it's an old story. But it is true. At least the guy is talking about soccer, right?
Zzzzzzzzzz Just the opening salvo in a long line of "soccer sucks" articles until next summer from angry white guys. (Hey, I'm a white guy, but I'm not angry.) Yes, we know you hate soccer. We heard you 3 and 1/2 years ago. Move on. My favorite line in the article: "Baseball is an international phenomenon." It's such an international phenomenon that it won't be played at the 2012 Olympics. Hmmm, who's next? Frank Deford? Isn't he due?
This is the same soccer bashing mindset updated slightly to meet the realities of 2005 I.e (he has to admit that the U.S. is now a "mid major" Gonzaga of international football). So much to criticize in this article - I just want to talk about one point. Americans won't watch soccer en masse untill we win the World Cup (i.e. untill we can dominate). For me the beauty of soccer has always been - everyone participates, nobody (Brazil is close but even they have only won one World Cup in Europe), nobody dominates. For those diminshing numbers of Americans who have little to interest in international sports except to see Americans beat up on other countries, I say soccer is not your game! But for the growing number of us who believe that Americans can't ignore the world because America is a microcosm of the world well then let's just get settled in -- almost time to get out of work early and plan your vacation days for June because the World Cup is right around the corner and the Media gatekeepers can't stop us from watching! Ps.- About the so-called lack of american interest in the world cup and soccer. Have you ever added up the World Cup ratings for both Univision and ESPN? Pretty impressive considering that the last cup came on at 2 AM!
There's no reason to get defensive about the concept that Americans will only watch sports they are good in. That's pretty standard the world over. Look at how unpopular basketball is in the UK. (The difference with baseball is that the sport is actually played here, and the majority of sports fans are aware of the NBA.)
Read and respected your post- Difference is between - we play the sport and we dominate. America plays soccer big time and we're good enough to be in the world cup finals since 1990. England/UK has not reached this level in basketball, so the lack of UK interest in the sport is understandable. Better analogy- Participation in Basketball in Continental Europe and Argentina has led to an increase in interest in the NBA. Similar increase in futbol participation in the US has led to an increase in interest in soccer played at the highest level.
If anyone here is moved to write to Mr. Wetzel, please remember to be courteous, polite and coherent. thank you. and I'm really trying to see what exactly is dead wrong (i.e non-arguably wrong) in this article, regardless of whether or not we agree with it and let's face it, if he doesn't make the snide comment to "soccernistas" (which is the truest thing in the article), no one gets upset
Dan here would tell you that the Dallas Cowboys are "America's Football Team" and not even skip a beat while insulting sports junkies from cities like Philadelphia, Houston or San Fran that loathe everything about the Cowboys and their false title! How can one city's team be given such a title if every Sunday they play to ruin other U.S. sports fan's Sunday afternoon? "Sports writers" like this guy have never put together the concept of a true National Football Team that competes against other, very talented and gritty National Football Teams. Since no one plays our code of football, not even Canada has ever fielded a gridiron team against us, it is very difficult for most sports fans in our culture to really grip the importance of International Association Football....more so when the Mundial comes around every 4 summers. What Dan and his sports writers have never done is to question our sports mad culture here in the U.S. to get behind our boys win or lose. Dan Wetzel has never given the uneducated a WHY CARE??? article. Simply put, he failed to mention that if everyone in the world played our version of football and had National Teams....wouldn't it be a sports fan's patriotic duty to get pumped up over the World Cup of Gridiron! How could Americans live with ourselves if we didn't know our group opponents, who woulda been on the U.S. Team except for a bad injury from last NFL season or who is going to start at QB? While Dan's article does speak to U.S. sports culture and our demand for winners, he completely leaves out the underdog side of our people. U.S. rebels against the superior Red Coats, Rocky, the NCAA "cinderella" underdogs that turn up giant killers or my favorite the incredible "Miracle on Ice" against the heavily favored USSR in 1980. What qualifies this guy for a poor sports writer is that he is truely out of touch with U.S. culture when not opening people up to WHY CARE???.....WHY THIS SPORT out of 'em all IS SO IMPORTANT??? "Damit we're still an underdog America!" "Let's be sure to give them all the support from back home while they are in Germany"---These quotes are unfortunately absent from our mainstream media types. That attitude shift more than anything is what will get the ignorant masses to care Dan.
Seemed like a pretty accurate article to me--in most respects. Especially the snide comments about soccernistas. Far too many soccer fans in the US seem to despise other sports and the fans of those games, for reasons that I cannot comprehend. I'm looking forward to seeing USC-Texas, and I love my Spurs. (The San Antonio variety, not EPL.) A winning team will attract more fans, but it won't be as big a bump as he seems to believe.