After the U.S. lost the most anticipated and watched game in this country’s short history to Ghana this past Saturday, I got to thinking about what will happen now to soccer in the United States.
A little less than 1 week ago, America was in a soccer haze…all anyone could talk about was the miraculous effort against Algeria amidst questions of “how far do you think we can go”? While the loss to Ghana itself was heartbreaking, the future impact to soccer fans may take an even greater blow if the United States Soccer Federation doesn’t make a valiant effort at furthering the sport in this country.
In my opinion, the country’s soccer future remains in doubt until the following 4 issues are resolved in one way, shape or form:
• How do we entice our inner city athletes to partake in “The Beautiful Game”? Jürgen Klinsmann has made one of the better points commonly overlooked by the American Soccer fan, and said it again yesterday. He compared soccer to basketball and, specifically, the Boston Celtics. He talked about how himself and most of the great players in the world came from modest or even poor beginnings. They used the idea that football could drag them out of poverty and into fortune to become the great player he and his associates became. In America, there is no league where inner city youths can look to in hopes of one day becoming millionaires. Those leagues are the NBA and the NFL. No 14 year old living in Compton is going to want to kick around a size 5 ball in the hopes of someday making $40,000/year for the L.A. Galaxy.
• This leads me to my second issue…the lack of a legitimate professional league. I’m sorry but, getting guys like Beckham and Henry to play in the MLS at the end of their careers is not going to win over the American Sports fan. We’ve seen too many aging stars in traditional American Sports hang on for too long to embrace the idea of an over the hill athlete coming to play a sport this country doesn’t care enough about at this time. The lack of truly big name stars, in their prime, and money the average footballer can make in this country needs to change in order for soccer to continue to really grow in this country.
• I’m sorry but, we’ve gone as far as we’re going to go w/Coach Bradley. He did a solid job for us but, what might not be realized to the casual fan is that the U.S. were supposed to make the Round of 16. We were expected to beat both Algeria and Slovenia and, judging by how the world casinos (including Vegas) had the lines 16 days ago, many people thought we would have a decent shot against England as well. Bradley coaches based off of the American Spirit with an American Culture viewpoint on the sport. I’m not knocking this but, unless we’re satisfied w/being the 16th best team in the world, it’s not going to cut it on the International scale. This was the same as Arenas and just about any other coach we’ve ever had. We need a European or South American Mind and someone who can continue to capture people’s interest every few months instead of every 4 years. We need someone, who both on the field and off, will be outspoken and keep soccer more at the forefront than Bradley can.
• We need to figure out a way to capture the attention of the common man/lesser sports fan in this country. When I sat in my office for a Monday meeting, my boss, who is a big soccer fan, asked how many people had watched the game. Of 20 people in the room, 4 hands raised. Now, maybe that’s just my office but, I’m willing to bet it’s something more common than most want to believe, even with the record setting ratings. While the average American will watch football on a Sunday, even with limited or no rooting interest, the average American will not do the same with Soccer. I don’t have an answer as to how to solve this problem but, this may be one of the biggest obstacles this country faces if we ever want soccer to be on par with the major 4 sports.
I’m not saying it wasn’t a fun few weeks because it was…how does this country keep the momentum going for the next 4 years though and not just during the event itself 4 years from now?
Tim Rescigno – New York Giant apologist
Filed under: Soccer
Good stuff Tim,
#1. Soccer will not break into the mainstream for another decade or so. However, the sport is growing in popularity everyday. Soccer is the number one sport in the world, and immigrants moving into the U.S. will all love soccer. This fact alone will help grow the sport. Most American sports fans have a very low aptitude of knowledge beyond the NFL, MLB. They are like cavemen.
#2. The U.S. team does embody the fighting, never say die spirit of the country. However, there is no identity to the style of futbol that the Yanks play. Now that the U.S. has better positional talent, there is no excuse for such a lackluster offensive showing in South Africa. The U.S. needs more sophistication in their tactics and approach.
#3. Klinnsman is the ideal candidate to replace Bob Bradley. He lives on the beach near the Carson, CA training facility. Plus, Klinnsman brought a new attacking flair to Germany in his time as national team coach. He would help introduce a much more comprehensive system to the unsophisticated U.S. team. Not to mention the fact that he is a great guy too, and would be a tremendous face of U.S. soccer.
#4. The MLS will only be a league of young, emerging talent, and international stars past their prime. Please don’t expect the MLS to ever rival Serie A, La Liga, or the Prem. Thierry Henry is still a great footballer, and Beckham was still solid when he came to the MLS. Just because you can’t dominate at Barcelona anymore, doesn’t mean you are horrible and Americans dont care. I will buy a ticket to see Henry play. Trust me. Raul, Clarenece Seedorf and a number of quality footballers will make their way to the MLS, and this is a good thing.
#5. You are right about getting the best athletes in the U.S. interested in soccer. The U.S. needs more African-American players like Jozy Altidore to heighten the profile of the sport to inner city children. At some point there will be a superstar that will emerge from the U.S. and put the sport on the map.
#6. Altidore, Dempsey, Donovan, Bradley, Feilhaber, Torres, Davies, Onyewu, and Edu will all play in the next World Cup. This is some great core talent to build around.
Nice writeup Timmy.
It was heartbreaking to watch.
Not to sound defeatist, but I don’t think domestic soccer will ever find a place in the bigs.
Major league sports is a saturated market and most people don’t care if Los Angeles beats DC on a soccer field on some weeknight. It needs to be covered from the international angle more than every fourth year, and I think fans will jump on board to see us play against the Americas and Europe every once in a while. Show those matches on TV, cover them on the news, and build some consistent (if second-tier) buzz.
Oh and win.
U S A
Yep, good points by both of you…the biggest issue I have w/talks about the MLS is, that if the U.S. ever wants to be a major player in American sports, we need a legitimate league. Whether that is the MLS or something else, Soccer will only be mainstream here every 4 years without one.
The best athletes in the U.S. play Basketball (for example) because many are from the inner city and it’s their ticket out. Not only is there the prospect of millions of dollars out there in the NBA but, the 12 year old kid playing pickup ball at rucker park is so hungry the majority of the time…they will scratch and claw their way to get to the NBA to make millions.
Without a respectable American League where the top players can make European Soccer $$$, the U.S. will never be able achieve getting the best athletes to play the sport and therefor, will never make the sport mainstream…this is, in reality, probably the biggest obstacle in making soccer a big player.
The other issue is, we’re not going to win a World Cup unless we are able to get our best hungry athletes. I’m sorry but, half the guys on the National Team came from upper middle class to wealthy backgrounds. How many of the top players in the world did? Not many…most used soccer, in their countries, as their conduit to fortune. Every other country but ours has their best athletes playing soccer and the culture forces this into their mentality at a very early age.
Also, I just am not going to buy that the continued influx of immigrants to this country is going to be what helps to make soccer relevant. We’re a nation built on immigrants where the minority is really the majority. It hasn’t helped soccer to be mentioned in the same breath as Football or MLB, etc…
Sorry to read all this so late. Great comments from all. Good points about inner city, MLS, ageing stars, Bradley and the rest.
USA is what it is. Why do we have to be equal to football or baseball? Who cares? We will improve soccer slowly, incrementally, and by sending our best to compete with the best, just as Every nation does (Beckham at Milan and Madrid, Fabregas at Arsenal, Torres at Liverpool (with Alonso) and Barbatov at Man U as well as Henry at Arsenal and Barca…Every Italian who plays for Milan is on National Team. Every Spaniard who plays for Barca is on National Team. But many top stars even at the largest and best teams plays for clubs outside their country home league (Germans may be an exception). But even these club teams are sprinkled with the worlds best from Togo, Uruguay, Korea, and yes, USA.
Even Powerhouse Spain just won their first ever World Cup, and the great Holland has never won. Spain never even got to a finals. Russia and many other good teams like Ireland did not even qualify for the 2010 Cup tournament. England has won only at home in 1966. And France and Italy went out in the Group early stage. So lets keep perspective. As someone who played in collegein the 1970s against Bruce Arena, I can assure you the trajectory has been steeply upward. Steeply! USA Soccer glass if half full.
If there is anyone to sack and replace, go after Sunil Gulati and the cronies at US Soccer, not Bradley, who is a Horatio Alger boy makes good story of some serious proportion. Small town Jersey boy makes the Woeld Cup? Has a fantastic record, dominates his region, reaches top 20 rankings, beats Euro teams for the first time, and plays a well thought out, properly talent suited style based on athleticism, endurance, fortitude, midfield dominance and counterattack, and making the most out of Very limited attacking talent. Bradley is a hero (OK replace him but give him his full due).