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Reflections
Fans care about the World Cup
By MARY BURRELL
Article published on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 |
It’s a sad day in the wide world of sports when I am the only one in an editorial department who cares to write about soccer.
So I feel I must step up to the plate – whoops, wrong sports metaphor – because The World Cup is going on. The U.S. is still in it as we begin the second round. And let me tell you, they are none too shabby. It’s fun to watch any professional soccer match. The footwork, the ball control, the intricate plays, the saves – if you think it’s easy, go try it yourself.
And, when it is the U.S. team playing, it does a person proud to see how well we match up to other countries that live and breathe the game from an early age, the way we do football or baseball.
Of course, more and more Americans are going the way of the rest of the world.
When the U.S. team played their first game June 10, ESPN2 reported that 2.14 million American households had the game on, the most for any one program this year.
And I’m sure even ardent baseball fans heard about how badly the American soccer team did. Bad news travels fast. But it earned its respect over the weekend, with the 1-1 tie against Italy. In soccer tournaments, it’s not elimination. A tie earns a team a point, and against a respected team such as Italy, a tie is grounds for celebration. A win gets three points. The actual score factors in the results, as well.
So thanks to the results of other games in the U.S.’s group, we stayed alive for the next round. How we do against Ghana should be interesting – Ghana is all heart. These games are so much easier to follow than the Olympics, where you have to follow a lot of different events at once.
The World Cup, as a matter of fact, is said to be the most popular game in the world – and that includes The Olympics.
These international games are truly representative of our future, in which a global economy will change the way we think about ourselves as Americans and people who live and travel around the world.
In soccer, the U.S. is not No. 1. It is not the strongest, or even the favored. It is a competitor, and the players run on the field and shake hands as equals with players on the other teams – many of which play with different countries’ teams throughout the year. That cockiness is just not there.
Click on the Cup Web site and you have several languages from which to choose – English is one of them, but not the only one.
We in America tend to think of ourselves as being the only game in town. And I personally believe that if the next generation is going to be competitive in the business arena of the New World, it needs to come onto the playing field with a different mentality than we as a country have had in the past. The children playing on the computers today are the people who will be more acceptant of new possibilities. They will not conquer – they will need to coexist.
And they will accept the international sport of futball.
Given another generation, the millions of kids playing soccer today will be in the positions of corporate decisionmaking and they will be putting their sponsorships and advertising money behind soccer. This will come naturally – companies already are sponsoring soccer teams, products and tournaments – locally, nationally and abroad.
It’s funny to see Taco Bell advertising on the sides of the Cup field in Germany.
Back home, youth soccer involves millions of kids from age 4 and up every year, it “actively” involves them. It’s a natural for young children who lack the focus to stand alone in an outfield, getting yelled at for not paying attention. For those kids who play hard at other sports, soccer makes great cross training during the off season.
It’s a good sport.
Why, then, are daily newspapers not giving it better coverage? The Cup coverage in our Tampa Bay dailies are usually placed on page 8 of the sports section. There is no correspondent assigned to the games – all of the coverage has been compiled from wire services.
Did we have correspondents at The Olympics?
Just makes me wonder.
Guess it’s just going to take some time for soccer mania to spread to the far corners of America. It’s going to take some attitude changes, the first of which is the thinking of some fans that they would be committing a sin to love baseball and soccer at the same time. It’s not like a person is married to one sport, is it?
I know someone who likes baseball, basketball, soccer AND football. And he hasn’t been struck by lightning yet. And oh, hockey too.
Like those great games, soccer is simple or complex as the players in it. It is a game anyone can play. And it’s definitely not for the lazy or the impassioned. If you never witnessed a soccer game, you must round out your life experience and attend one, any one, on any level. If you happen to know a player, all the better.
Just try to watch a soccer match and not yell and jump up and down. I dare you. Low scores mean high excitement (there’s definitely higher scores on the younger levels). But young or old, inexperienced or professional, it’s one exhausting spectator sport.
The U.S. plays Ghana Thursday, June 22, 10 a.m., on ESPN2.
Mary Burrell is managing editor and editor of the Beach Beacon and Seminole Beacon.
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Article published on Wednesday, June 21, 2006
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