Why Doesn’t America Love ⚽️?
Dec. 2nd, 2022 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjlasky7Tomorrow morning, the U.S. men's soccer team will face the Netherlands in the Round of 16 at the World Cup in Qatar. Can you feel the excitement?
No?
You're not alone.
Other than a small but vocal subset of futbol fans, America has greeted this upcoming match the same way it always has treated soccer: with vast indifference. Most of the sports fans I know are much more invested in the Jets and Giants games this Sunday; the rest are wondering if Aaron Judge will re-sign with the Yankees.
To be fair, it's not like the U.S. national team has ever given American soccer fans reason to be excited about World Cup play. In the past four decades, the U.S. has only escaped the round of 16 once (in 2002). From 1954 to 1986, the men's team didn't qualify AT ALL.
But that doesn't mean Americans will only back a winner. American sports fans have a history of following plucky losers for decades, anticipating a long awaited moment of triumph. (It's practically the life story of the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox...)
So what's the explanation? One possible reason for our indifference is that soccer hadn't planted roots in American soil until very recently. The first attempt to start a professional soccer league in the US was the North American Soccer League in the 1970s. The New York Cosmos brought over Pele--maybe the biggest star in the sport--in the hope of jumpstarting a sports organization on a par with the NFL. But without a steady supply of home grown talent from a well stocked minor league system, the NASL gradually withered and blew away...
But even now, with a new soccer league and a minor league system, the best American players aren't always on display for hometown fans. Just like how East European hockey superstars play for the NHL (then go home for the Olympics), American soccer superstars get poached by Europen teams--because that's where the money is. Christian Pulisic may be the star of the U.S. national team, but he regularly plays for Chelsea in England.
At the moment, the U.S soccer system can't compete with England's Premier League in either prestige or money.
Then, of course, there's the matter of the sport itself.
If you watched the U.S. vs. England match a few days ago, you know it would be a tough sell as a recruitment poster for soccer. 0-0. Ninety five minutes of frustration. You could practically hear the TV sets shutting off all across America. "But wait," you say, "baseball and even American-style football have these excruciating exercises in futility." Yes, they do. But it only happens once in a while. A few weeks ago, the Jets and Patriots played nearly an entire game and scored only six points between them. It was a mind boggling, painful slog of a game. But that's a rarity. A 1-0 or 0-0 score happens frequently in soccer. For Americans accustomed to a fast-paced game that gets results, soccer has a distinct disadvantage.
(And as for baseball... a pitcher's duel has its own type of excitement--a battle of wits between the men on the mound and the batters at the plate.)
So, until all of these factors can be overcome (and Americans can get used to low scoring games), soccer will remain a minor sport in America, I'd say around.... eighth in popularity:
Baseball
Football
Basketball
Auto Racing
Golf
Tennis
Hockey
Soccer
But if the U.S. wins tomorrow, who knows? Maybe this will be the start of something big. (Unfortunately, I've been following U.S. soccer for about 50 years...and the "something big" always seems to be around the next corner.)
Good luck guys!
No?
You're not alone.
Other than a small but vocal subset of futbol fans, America has greeted this upcoming match the same way it always has treated soccer: with vast indifference. Most of the sports fans I know are much more invested in the Jets and Giants games this Sunday; the rest are wondering if Aaron Judge will re-sign with the Yankees.
To be fair, it's not like the U.S. national team has ever given American soccer fans reason to be excited about World Cup play. In the past four decades, the U.S. has only escaped the round of 16 once (in 2002). From 1954 to 1986, the men's team didn't qualify AT ALL.
But that doesn't mean Americans will only back a winner. American sports fans have a history of following plucky losers for decades, anticipating a long awaited moment of triumph. (It's practically the life story of the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox...)
So what's the explanation? One possible reason for our indifference is that soccer hadn't planted roots in American soil until very recently. The first attempt to start a professional soccer league in the US was the North American Soccer League in the 1970s. The New York Cosmos brought over Pele--maybe the biggest star in the sport--in the hope of jumpstarting a sports organization on a par with the NFL. But without a steady supply of home grown talent from a well stocked minor league system, the NASL gradually withered and blew away...
But even now, with a new soccer league and a minor league system, the best American players aren't always on display for hometown fans. Just like how East European hockey superstars play for the NHL (then go home for the Olympics), American soccer superstars get poached by Europen teams--because that's where the money is. Christian Pulisic may be the star of the U.S. national team, but he regularly plays for Chelsea in England.
At the moment, the U.S soccer system can't compete with England's Premier League in either prestige or money.
Then, of course, there's the matter of the sport itself.
If you watched the U.S. vs. England match a few days ago, you know it would be a tough sell as a recruitment poster for soccer. 0-0. Ninety five minutes of frustration. You could practically hear the TV sets shutting off all across America. "But wait," you say, "baseball and even American-style football have these excruciating exercises in futility." Yes, they do. But it only happens once in a while. A few weeks ago, the Jets and Patriots played nearly an entire game and scored only six points between them. It was a mind boggling, painful slog of a game. But that's a rarity. A 1-0 or 0-0 score happens frequently in soccer. For Americans accustomed to a fast-paced game that gets results, soccer has a distinct disadvantage.
(And as for baseball... a pitcher's duel has its own type of excitement--a battle of wits between the men on the mound and the batters at the plate.)
So, until all of these factors can be overcome (and Americans can get used to low scoring games), soccer will remain a minor sport in America, I'd say around.... eighth in popularity:
Baseball
Football
Basketball
Auto Racing
Golf
Tennis
Hockey
Soccer
But if the U.S. wins tomorrow, who knows? Maybe this will be the start of something big. (Unfortunately, I've been following U.S. soccer for about 50 years...and the "something big" always seems to be around the next corner.)
Good luck guys!
