FIFA World Cup 2010: Are Americans embracing the beautiful game?
As they enjoy a brilliant victory that fires the US into the next round of the largest sporting event in the world, footballers are asking if the US has finally embraced soccer, or will it forever be the game of the future. Some are seeing the ongoing World Cup as a make-or-break moment for soccer in the United States, and their squad's performance in South Africa is a show case for the country's competence in and appetite for the beautiful game.
Many experts and observers argue that soccer had been steadily gaining a fan base in America, long before US hero Landon Donovan scored a stoppage time goal in a 1-0 victory over Algeria. And the US, 14th in FIFA's rankings, has put the world on notice that they can play with the powerhouses.
The US with their win over Algeria was a crucial moment for Americans in the world of football. The coverage that the US national team got was incredible. An average of 11.1 million Americans watched English and Spanish broadcasts of the first-round matches which were 68 percent more than in 2006, including 17.1 million who tuned in for US-England. By comparison the NBA basketball finals earlier this month averaged 18.1 million. Experts say that coverage of the tournament by US sports broadcast giant ESPN has gone from amateurish in 2006 to top-rate this year.
Americans are used to seeing their teams win, so a bad performance such as the one that saw USA crash out in the opening round in 2006 could have put Americans off the sport. More US kids play soccer than any other sport even if one includes the big three (American football, baseball and basketball). This is thanks to youth leagues that took off in the 1980s, the older generation that grew up without any interaction with soccer, are moving offstage, and younger kids are now into it. But creating a soccer loving nation is a long process.
It began with hope in the 1970s, when US soccer officials began luring global superstars such as Pele and Johan Cruyff to the ultimately doomed North American Soccer League. Prior to Donovan's thriller, the shot heard around the world was Paul Caligiuri's miracle strike in November 1989, which gave the US a victory over Trinidad & Tobago to make its first World Cup in 40 years.
Four years later, the United States were the hosts. Faraway as it seems, that 1994 tournament proved vital for America's soccer standing. It sold more than 3.5 million tickets, a record which still stands, and precipitated a professional rebirth with the launch of MLS in 1996. The 10-team league has grown to 16 today, and despite the worst recession in decades, MLS will expand to 20 teams by 2012. It claims stars like Donovan and his LA Galaxy teammate David Beckham, and even France's Thierry Henri is rumored to be making a move to MLS next season.
Former US president Bill Clinton, who as honorary chairman of the bid committee to bring the tournament back to US soil sat next to FIFA chief Sepp Blatter during the US-Algeria match. "I think they believe we're serious about it now," Sports Illustrated quoted Clinton as saying, referring to world powers like Brazil and Germany. He was reportedly so inspired that he juggled his work schedule to be in Rustenburg Saturday to watch USA play Ghana.
Not all Americans are warming up to the world's game though. Many football negative personalities such as talk-show host Glenn Beck say that it doesn't matter how the football promoters try to sell and it doesn't matter how many celebrities get in to it, people like him just don't want the World Cup. Yet many signs suggest that he and a merry band of soccer sourpusses are increasingly in the minority. Let’s just hope this is the right time for the US to be making its moves in the world of football.
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