Once every four years, 32 nations send their soccer team to compete for the World Cup. When it happens, the entire world pauses – it’s a truly global event.
For comparison, this year’s Super Bowl was the most watched TV event in American history at 111 million viewers. More than 30 million people even tuned in to an internet stream to watch the game. By contrast, 715 million people watched the 2006 World Cup final. That’s roughly seven times as many people that watched the Super Bowl and that was eight years ago.
Here in the USA, soccer is divisive. There are plenty of soccer Moms that shuttle youngsters to games, and lots of folks that pay money to go to MLS games. There are also more than a few doing their best McKayla Maroney impersonation.
So, which is it? Does soccer matter?
Is it football season yet? – Sean Adams
My kids played soccer as their first sports. It was great for their feet and great for their introduction to fitness. Children get a great start in team sports from soccer. Then, as they grow and develop, they move on to other more popular, fruitful and ‘scholashipping’ sports. I would dare say that most families view soccer in the same vein.
That is where soccer ends for me. Make no mistake, I’m going to watch the World Cup if for no other reason than ‘our boys’ are wearing red, white and blue. There is a reason that I watch curling during the winter Olympics. It is us against them. It is the red, white and blue versus everybody else. But let’s not pretend like I care about some lady sliding around in her lulu lemon jog pants while her friend sweeps the ice.
Right after football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, volleyball, golf, track and field, softball, swimming and few other sports, Americans get behind soccer. Oh you won’t be able to find an open seat at a sports bar when America is playing in the World Cup, but that’s way more about this particular event than the sport.
American’s supports what is popular and what we excel at doing. To that end, soccer and MLS are good in pockets. David Beckham increased soccer’s popularity in America about 1%, but let’s be honest…his wife’s former group ‘The Spice Girls’ was a way bigger hit in America than soccer.
I’ll be the first one to let out a loud cheer when the USA team scores a goal when I’m with my boys or family watching it but who feels the same way I do – it is all just a placeholder until football season starts at the end of August. Still I am practicing in my best voice…… “Gooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllll!”
The beautiful game – Matt Cotcher
When I was young, I used to show my collection of tiny porcelain animal figurines to my neighbor every time she came to her house. And I mean, every time. I’d like to think that she found them all as valuable as I did, but now that I’m older, reality has set in – she was being polite.
America needs a lesson in global relations from my neighbor. Soccer reigns supreme on the world stage and America is being a bad neighbor.
TV stations, newspapers, politicians and professors all claim that the “world is shrinking” and that a true global economy is on the rise. If America wants to be perceived as something other than a bully or the class clown (depending on who you ask), then a good place to start would be to show some interest in the sport that the rest of the planet is passionate about. Nothing eases tensions and creates instant bonds as easily as sports do, and even though it sounds preposterous at face value, the USA needs to add soccer to our diplomatic toolbox.
Along the way to becoming conversational on soccer, hopefully America will see what the rest of the world sees – a fantastic sport, played by immensely talented athletes. Soccer makes for boring TV until you have an appreciation for what all is transpiring on the pitch.
Hopefully a country that is captivated by stock cars turning left for five hours can see the athleticism and strategy in team sport?
If you’re not motivated by highlights, the only truly global game, or being a good neighbor, then consider the word ‘dominance’. America dominates in the Olympics and team sports. With all this country’s resources and talent, there is no reason that soccer shouldn’t be in the same category.
You may not personally like the game, but shouldn’t America dominate it on the world stage, thereby reinforcing the position as the leaders of the free world?
