Give me liberty or give me... Megan Rapinoe singing "Born In The USA" after scoring a stunner against Colombia last weekend in the World Cup in Germany. This followed the team saluting U.S. soldiers stationed in the country, who showed up to support the team in the 3-0 victory that took the USA through to the upcoming quarter-finals.
U.S. soccer is serving up some choice splashes of spontaneous patriotism not available via the country's bigger sports. Singing the national anthem at every game during the baseball, basketball and football season reduces that patriotic moment to a predictably dull whoop when "the land of the free" hits the high note. American teams versus American teams, there's little chance of USA! USA! breaking out as it did last year when Landon Donovan's last second winning goal against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup shot millions of Americans into an unselfconscious explosion of national joy. Smart, the Women's team are. Rapinoe's rendition of The Boss's classic anthem spread through the tubes of the Internet, suddenly everyone at home knew the USA was playing in the World Cup. As the team progresses, more viewers will be tuning in to witness our women winning, beating the world at the world's game. Some dour critics expressed negative comments about the team's choice of celebration -- get with it chumps -- the World Cup is all about national pride, which is not the same as political nationalism. That's what makes it so damn powerful and popular!
By contrast, the Men's team endured the unsettling reality of facing Mexico in last week's Gold Cup Final in Los Angeles with 80,000 Mexican fans cheering on El Tri. Outnumbered 8 to 1 in the stadium -- why so few American fans? This was a big game, an important beacon. Few soccer teams endure such a fate -- the home game that feels like playing away. It is not good for morale, or results. Mexico won.
So, it is high time for a national soccer stadium to be built with red, white and blue cement. A public works, patriotic project that everyone could get behind. A place for U.S. soccer to call home. Maybe New York, possibly Washington or Philadelphia, start the debate. Put an end to the endless wandering all over the country to different fields, the gypsy team. Settle our national teams down in one place and after a generation the seats will be filled with home fans drowning out the visitors. U.S. Soccer can take control of the ticket sales. Two to us, one to them. Visitors are always welcome but it is our house, our decoration, our place of pride. USA! USA! Call your senator. They buy patriotism at the right price. Winning.
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But we don't. And why should we; watching a bunch of wimps faking injuries in the hope of drawing a penalty is not something Americans do. We like baseball, football, basketball and hockey. Even in those sports, the government should NOT be spending money building stadiums. It certainly should not do so in the case of a foreign sport like soccer.
If you keep sticking your head in the sand your going to miss some great moments in the history of American sports.
CONCACAF is a regional tournament, they want the stadium to be someplace that non-Americans can easily reach (and sell out).
U.S. World Cup qualifiers against Mexico, you notice, are never played in L.A., because we know that will be a pro-Mexico crowd.
New York, Philly and Washington already have stadiums. So does Seattle. And Chicago. And Columbus. All places the U.S. National team can get very partisan home crowds. There is no need to spend money (that we mostly don't have) on something we don't need.
And "Put an end to the endless wandering"? WHAT? You notice America is a somewhat large country, and 90% of the fans couldn't get to a 'National Stadium' by train in a few hours like they could for someplace like Wembley, right? Of course we're going to play in more than one venue, we have fans in more than one time zone.
Welcome to U.S. Soccer though, now that you're following it maybe you can get up to speed.
Where would you put it? In the middle of the country? How many seats would it hold? Who would use it when the US wasn't playing World Cup qualifiers( which is only a handful of games every four years)?
This country is too big for a National Stadium, this isn't Mexico where you have one GIANT city in the center of the country. Do you really think there aren't going to be any Mexican/Honduras/Costa Rican fans in the midwest? Really?
We have soccer specific stadiums all over the country now, why would you deprive great US fans the opportunity of watching their National team play? What about the weather? I don't want to play teams we know we can beat in crappy weather conditions, it only helps the lesser team( don't want to play Canada in a snow storm, don't want to play Trinidad in 100+ degree heat).
US Soccer had nothing to do with the location of the Gold Cup final, that was a CONCACAF decision and they knew they would sell the most tickets at the Rose Bowl.
We must remember the tactical positives of having stadiums all over the country ( just ask Mexico when they are playing their World Cup qualifier in 20 degree temps).
I have a radical idea - any community or governmental agency that wants to throw public funds at private professional sports teams should do two things first - A. Explain why this form of socialism is acceptable and B. Prove to the public that all ESSENTIAL services like education, police, fire, roads, infrastructure, etc. are all fully funded and at a level that truly reflects what this country should be providing for its citizens.
Here's another wild idea - let all the real soccer fans in America - all 52 of them - dig into their own pockets and pay for this boondoggle themselves.
The public money spent on the soccer specific stadiums in the United States is tiny compared to the rest of the sports in the US.
just 52 soccer fans in the United States eh?
Gold Cup Final.......92000 +
Average attendance for the Seattle Sounders 37264
Average attendance for the LA Galaxy 23067
You truly have no idea what you are talking about.
Ok, so I was wrong about the 52 soccer fans in America but I'm sure that I'm still pretty close. (Understand the concept of sarcasm, anyone?)
As to your attendance figures - Gold Cup final - 92,000 in attendance with about 91,850 who were there supporting the Mexican team - the balance - reporters who had to be there and a handful of American team supporters. Don't know about the Sounders but when the LA Dodgers only draw 23,000 plus at the Ravine - the McCourts file for bankruptcy. The greater LA area has over 11 million people and the Galaxy averages 23,000 WITH David Beckham - pleaseeee - USC football draws more people and they are on probation.
Soccer is not and will never be a dominate sport in America - they will always lag far behind Pro football, college football, arena league football, Canadian football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, golf, NASCAR, bass fishing, and
1. This is a big country, and I want to see my national team play every once in a while. I can't afford to hop on a plane every time I want to see the national team play. Even small countries like the Netherlands split home matches (friendlies, Euro/WC qualifiers) between cities like Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Rotterdam.
2. US Soccer/CONCACAF care about money. They don't care what fans come. 90K is 90K. If they wanted a pro American crowd, they would have gone to Columbus or Kansas City.
3. I think the National team should more around MORE. LA/NY/Washington/Philly seem to get the majority of the matches, and the city with the largest MLS fan base (Seattle) hasn't seen the national team since 2009 Gold Cup.
Further, it's centrally located so people from either coast can travel to it easily (the same cannot be said about LA, DC, NY, etc.)
Lastly, and think before you call this racist or anything else, unlike NY, LA or Washington DC, the population has not been overwhelmed by recent immigration (which I think is GREAT for the U.S. as a country, just terrible for homefield advantage in soccer) to prevent another embarrassment like what happened in the recent Gold Cup.