America: the New Football (Soccer) Frontier
Better than Beckham - for American Football?
Well the World Cup is here and as much as I was loathe to write on this topic, I seem to be focused on the idea that football REAL FOOTBALL has finally arrived in the United States of America. Long the product of the rest of the world the sport that requires you use your feet to move the ball may finally have enough momentum to actually have a sustainable existence on these colonial shores.
If you needed validation of this point you only need look at the overall investment of ABC/ESPN of $400 million for the broadcast rights for World Cup. And the two organizations have poured their heart and soul into. Sharing home page prominence on ESPN.com with the likes of the Lakers and Celtics are the likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Franck Ribery, and Landon Donovan. The networks are going all out to cover the world’s most popular sporting event. It is truly a world series. Not one named after a newspaper. And this time the US really seems to be taking notice.
The beautiful game has graced the front pages and covers many of the major US publications. The Wall Street Journal has covered the sport and to top it off the authority on what is news in America, the Drudge Report has given substantial coverage as well. If football weren’t really here and really a topic worth covering, Drudge wouldn’t cover it. Regardless of the man’s politics his site has shown a propensity of identifying what the nation wants to know about.
To top things off I was driving to the train station this morning when even my favourite radio talk show host was talking about the football. He had lots of questions and admitted that he is totall hooked ont he game. So being the talk show host he is he got access to a pundit – none other than former EPL referree Graham Poll. After lots of plesantries and Graham Poll blushing over the introduction he got, Philadelphia syndicated talk show host Michael Smerconish went into a list of questions he had about the game in order to understand it better. At one point Graham out loud wondered if this was all a joke – Michael assured him he wasn’t leading him on and was generally curious. The questions varied on how many men can play (minimum of 7 must be on the pitch), what is a striker, why the gloves on the keeper (ball travels at speeds of 70 mph), and what is the difference between red and yellow cards. It really was a football 101 and I loved it – except when Michael called Graham, Grant. It can’t all be perfect.
Besides these things I’ve mentioned maybe football was reaching a ground swell before the World Cup and maybe the World Cup is just the vehicle to address it. Everyone thought 1994 was going to be the tidal wave that sparked interest in the sport. It ushered in the era of MLS but the enthusiasm didn’t take. But kids did start to sign up for their developmental leagues in droves and now 15 years since the world cup here in the US we have spend a decade and half cultivating the sport where it matters most with the kids. Those kids are now older. They are the ones who are watching the EPL on Fox Soccer and ESPN. They are buying the kits and they are making up the majority of the supporters clubs following the MLS clubs.
There are still ways to go. MLS has to expand beyond its current model and attract young European talent to fill out its ranks. Sure, the product improves year to year but it lacks the overall excitement of the European game. Many of the games still seem to trudge along. But again, year over year the product improves. Many of the new clubs, like my own Philadelphia Union are selling out their new stadiums before the buildings are even open. If you could have seen the crowd at the unveiling of the Union logo in Philadelphia you would know that the this sports town is going to get behind its team.
The model for success isn’t so much the MLB or NFL model – its the NHL model. A largely followed sport that has loads of rabid fans but is still loosely considered a fringe or specialty sport. But if you saw the crowds at the bars and parties around the cities during even the regular season, you’d know that hockey is anything but fringe. But what hockey did as it expanded was spending the time to educate their fans. The made sure the rules were explained via the broadcasts. Expansion teams tried to bring the right talent and made sure the fans were part of the experience.
That is happening but maybe not at the breakkneck speed we footie in america fans would like. This is a great sport, regardless of what the unitiated morons say. Finally, I think football has arrived – why – on Friday when I walked around my office there wasn’t a computer that wasn’t watching France vs Uruguay. Just saying.
Some Thoughts About US v England:
This match has already been disected enough. Needless to say England should take heart from the fact that they played to a 0-0 draw in their 1966 winning campaign. The US should take heart that even on a wonky goal, they hung in and played with a football powerhouse like England. Many of my English friends were predicting a shellacking. Their arrogance was a little too much to handle but if you had watched the US and England play you knew this match was going to be tighter than national pride dictates.
By the way Robert Green should absolutely start again. Yeah he did his best Almunia and Flapianski imitation but for much of the season at West Ham he was as solid as he could be with such a weak defence. His best match – the first meeting against a Man City side that were rolling over lesser teams. He absolutely kept West Ham in the match and allowed them to stay with the stronger team.
Soccer v Football
You may have noticed I stayed away from the term soccer. I was purposely avoiding the English yelling at me saying it’s “football”. However, I wanted to remind my English friends that the term is an English term originating at Oxford:
The term “soccer” came into use in England during the 1880’s by university men from Oxford and Cambridge. The use of “association football” as distinct from “rugby football” was already in practice and “soccer” became a colloquialism formed by extending the second syllable of “association”. Today it remains a primarily journalistic or conversational term in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, but in the United States, Canada and Australia its use is the rule.
In its early days soccer in the United States was known as football and when the national governing body of soccer in the United States was formed in 1913, it was known as “The United States of America Football Association.” In later years that gave way to “The United States Soccer Football Association” (USSFA) and then to day’s “United States Soccer Federation.” Many of the state associations in the U.S. contained “football” in their title when they were formed in the early years of the century.
In Australia the national team is known as the “Socceroos”, while one of the world’s best known soccer magazines “World Soccer” is published in England. Consequently soccer is not a term unique to the United States as many people seem to think.
And now for some Arsenal News:
The new away kit has been announced – while it should be its own story I figured I would put it up here:
The Yellow Is Back!!! - I like it!
So what do you think?
