Soccer Fever – Could it stick!?!?!
It was pretty rough to spend an entire month completely surrounded by the sights and sounds (BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ) of theWorld Cup and not get swept up in the “this is the year that soccer will be here to stay” hype that happens every four years. But I held out. I wanted to see how well it’d stick when America’s heart rate got back down after Donovan’s late winner against Algeria, and after the tears dried up after that heartbreaking exit to Ghana.
I must admit, I’ve been pretty pessimistic about soccer sticking in American culture for some time now. It’s not how we work. We can barely watch TV shows without DVR anymore, because the two minutes of commercials is too much of a break from the action we’ve come to need from our televisioning experience. So how can we be expected to watch 90+ minutes of soccer. Yes, soccer, that sport where any team has a chance, so long as you play 100% defensively and hope for a miracle (2010 Switzerland et al. v Spain). That boring ol’ game. It’s just unrealistic.
But if New Meadowlands stadium had a vote in this, it’d say that soccer is here to stay! Oodles of fans, and 11 unlucky American soccer players packed the not-yet finished stadium to watch Brazil put on a clinic. And if you think it still might be a quick remission from World Cup Fever, I suggest you start taking a look at the side stories that ESPN is running on their website.
Sure, Lebron and Favre will always produce enough news to keep an entire newspaper staff busy, and they’re always going to take the front page story, but have you noticed that you can now find news reports and opinion articles about the goings-on of some of Europe’s best leagues? Every once in a while, headlines will pop up – “Fabregas to Barcelona?”, “Robinho wants out of Man City”, “Liverpool resign Torres” “Fabregas to Barcelona? The saga continues”, “Mourinho eyes treble in Spain”. Now, I don’t know how much of this is driven by actual fan support, or how much of it is ESPN trying to impose its will upon America, trying to make some money by tapping into what can be a very very large market for them. But the fact remains, soccer isn’t fading away so slowly just yet.
And MLS seems to be picking up some steam. I recently saw a Real Salt Lake game against Philadelphia Union – on TV. Now that would never have happened in years past. First, the game wouldn’t have even been on TV. And also, as a self-respecting soccer fan, I wouldn’t have been able to watch the crappy MLS teams perform the comedy of errors that I’ve grown to so fondly associate with MLS. But I did it. Yeah, I’ll admit, its not the same as watching Man U face Chelsea, but it wasn’t all too bad. Better yet, the fans seemed to be LOVING it. Over the microphones you could hear the swell of emotion as a team was nearing the goal, the jeers at the ref for blowing a call, and the pure orgy of excitement when a goal was scored. People weren’t just watching – they were caring! It wasn’t a soccer game – it was a soccer experience.
I guess only time will tell, but from what I’ve been able to see, I think soccer is making deeper and deeper inroads in American culture. People know and care about what the UEFA Champions League is. People watch the Euro competition and the Confederations Cup now, not just the World Cup and a Premier League game or two every once in a while. You don’t ‘follow sports’ without having something to say about soccer; without having seen a game or two recently.
People are starting to ask better soccer questions. No longer are people watching games and asking, “why didn’t he shoot?”, “can’t he just score it?”, or “isn’t there basketball on?”. People ask questions that are actually worth asking. “Why did they start Ricardo Clark instead of Fielhaber?”, “Why do our defenders just boot it up, haven’t they heard of possession?” etc.
Now that we’ve got a strong(er) fan base – Americans made up the majority of the travelers to South Africa this summer – it seems there’s only one thing left to do: win something. That’s what will glamorize soccer and really catch the nation’s attention, and capture its imagination.
“No way, nobody will ever care!” Really? Lets take a look at an example that’s a bit of a gamble for me, but that I think makes a decent example… hockey. Following “The Miracle on Ice”, hockey became a mainstream sport for a good while. I remember growing up (in South Florida, mind you) playing hockey on the street with the neighborhood kids. This was all part of the aftermath of that resulted from Team USA’s historic win over the Soviet Union and eventual Gold in the Winter Olympics of 1980. Unfortunately for hockey the bureaucracy and the NHL falling apart ruined their hot streak. But they’re getting back on track and things are looking good again.
This sort of thing can happen with soccer. If we knock off a superpower (Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands) and actually win something big, we can make sure soccer stays. Then we can start thinking about the scenarios in which the sheer athletic talent we produce in this country can turn to soccer. People have long asked, “Could you imagine if Lebron or Adrian Peterson played soccer?!” But only after a big win can we start asking, “Why did Reggie Bush pick football instead of futbol?”
Soccer’s day is finally here, now we need someone to carpe this diem…
Group C wraps up
Tomorrow morning, Group C of the 2010 Fifa World Cup will finish up. England will face Slovenia (who currently leads the group with 4 points) and USA will face Algeria. Both games take place at 10 am EST.
Here are Group C’s point totals and the scenarios of how this tightly contended group could play out:
-
Slovenia: 4
USA: 2
England: 2
Algeria: 1
Scenarios by Team
Read More
Bob Bradley returns home to Princeton
The US Men’s National Soccer Team began their week-long pre-World Cup training session this morning at Myslik Field in Princeton, NJ. After weight training and conditioning yesterday, the 30 man team took the field under cloudy skies and continued their march towards South Africa this summer.
There were three notable players missing from this morning’s practice. GK Tim Howard (quad strain), D Jay Demerit (abdominal strain) and F Eddie Johnson (hamstring) were all out with injuries, though none are thought to be serious. Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle and Jose Torres were still getting physicals, and four other players had yet to arrive from Europe.
US coach Bob Bradley ‘80 was kind enough to speak this morning about the two burning topics that he was clearly growing tired of: America’s first match against England and Charlie Davies. Bradley spoke first about the American’s chances in Group C of the 2010 World Cup (Also in the group are Slovenia, Algeria and of course England). Bradley wanted to emphasize that the result of the game against England will not decide whether the US team will move past the group stage. Still, it was hard to not notice “the great storylines” of the England-US matchup. Bradley feels that his team is prepared but wants his players to know “it’s not about grudge matches.” A win against England could cement America’s place in the top tiers of national soccer and provide valuable bragging rights, but so would a knockout round appearance and that is what this team is focused on. Bradley summed up the team’s focus on the group stage by saying that the first round is like the NBA playoffs. Every team knows there are going to be small victories and setbacks. The important thing is to “regroup, adjust and come back just a little bit better each time.”
Bradley also addressed the Charlie Davies situation that has been the biggest story since the 30-man national team roster was announced and the rehabilitating forward was left off. Coach Bradley and his assistant coaches were in fairly constant communication with the coaching team at Davies’ French club team Sochaux. Bradley saw Davies’ progress through video of his training sessions and sent assistant coaches to France to get further information. Bradley said he understood Davies’ frustration, after the speedy forward had expressed frustration with Sochaux’s role in being left off of the national team roster. Still, Bradley said that he spoke to Davies in February about the possibility of his rehab not going fast enough despite the extremely hard work Davies has put in to recover from a life-threatening car crash. “What’s most important is that [he] can get [himself] back to that level [he] was playing at before the accident.” And it was too wrong that it “seems like a failure because the timing just doesn’t coincide with the World Cup.”
Finally Bradley talked about the importance of holding this week-long training sessions at Princeton. Bradley, who led the Tigers in scoring in 1979 and coached the team from 1984-1995, expressed his happiness about Myslik Field. Coach Bradley was glad to be around all the “friends and family at Princeton” and that the are brought back fond memories. Coach Bradley’s brother Scott is currently the head coach of the Princeton Baseball team, and Bob Myslik was the Athletics Director that hired him in 1984 and he wanted to reiterate that he was “proud of this stadium.”
As the team looks forward to a May 25th game against Czech Republic, and a May 28th game against Turkey, Bradley hoped that the team would be down to its final 23-man roster before team travels to Philadelphia to take on Turkey next week.
WPRB will have continued coverage of the soccer team’s practices throughout the week here on WPRB.com/sports and on Timeout this Friday at 5:00 PM on 103.3 FM.
UEFA Champions League Redux
The UEFA Champions League is the most unique sporting competition in the planet. No other sport has the sheer number of teams to be able to field a competition that is so large and so well contested. At first glance, it may seem that its simply the best European teams play each other in a tournament with some funky rules regarding home and away games, and determine who reigns supreme. But its more, its called the Champions League for a reason. It’s not a tournament, but rather a near year-long quest to be crowned champion of Europe. Who gets to play? Why do we make such a big deal about it every year? Why is it going to be great this year, and who’s going to win it all?