Yesterday, our President replaced his top general in a war we can't seem to win,
thousands of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf, and housing sales and the stock market continued to slump. Yesterday was a rough day in the life of America, but it was also a day that began with people across the country waking up early to watch their soccer team play a do-or-die match against Algeria in the World Cup.
They dominated the game, they built careful attacks that almost succeeded several times, and they were thwarted by another good goal disallowed. But then, just three minutes away from World Cup elimination, they got the miracle goal that millions of tense fans were quietly praying for -- advancing into the knockout rounds as the leaders of their group for the first time since 1930.
One of the most interesting things about watching the World Cup is how the personalities of the different nations are visible in the way they play the game. Brazilians seem to almost dance with the ball, the German team passes with perfectly ordered, precise movements, Brits have collars on their jerseys, and South Africa's team celebrates goals with song and dance. As for America... well, we have a peculiar gift for resilience and last-ditch salvation.
Our children count the last seconds of game time in their heads when they shoot hoops in driveways. When they swing baseball bats in backyards, they say to themselves, "Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded." We learn it young because it isn't something we have to learn; it's something that is just in us. As Landon Donovan said in his post-game interview, "this team is what America is all about."
Last week, in my hometown of Los Angeles, the Lakers won the National Championship. There were movie stars in courtside seats watching the millionaire players close a 12-point deficit to win the game. It was a fine display of athletics, but what it possessed in glamour it lacked in purity. After the game, Lakers fans vandalized their own city in "celebration." They burned cars and they assaulted a bus driver, among others.
Perhaps the very fact that soccer has not been widely embraced by America until now has preserved it as one of the least tainted of American sports; maybe its purity lies in its obscurity. These men on our National Team mean so much more to us now because they meant nothing to us a month ago. They are not celebrities, they are not multi-millionaires, and we don't read about their lives in grocery store checkout lines. So, when we see them out on the field, we don't see our vain ambitions in them. We see ourselves in them. And what we saw yesterday filled us with pride and self-respect at a time when we really need it.
We are in perhaps one of the most challenging eras of American history. With a Gulf Coast in peril, an overseas war with no end in sight, and an economy still in the grip of an historic financial slump, it's hard to face our realities. But yesterday, the young men of our National soccer team showed us something that affirmed the inner greatness of a troubled people. They showed us why we must always continue to believe that great things can happen to those who work hard and refuse to give up.
However far we go in this World Cup, we have already won a glimpse of the strength at our core. Perhaps soccer will become huge in America one day. But let's remember it as it is now, while what makes it big is that it is still small. While one little tap of a ball into a net by a young man a few thousand miles away has the power to make us see the greatness in soccer and remind us of the greatness in ourselves. So of all the things that happened yesterday, let's remember it as the day when the sport that didn't matter showed us what matters most.
Varun Soni: A Miracle in Pretoria: Field Notes from the U.S. World Cup Games
If soccer is indeed a religion and the World Cup its church, then the U.S. has finally taken its seat at the pew.
1) The returns aren't immediate, and they aren't obvious enough. Who cares how much skill and physicality goes into scoring one of those goals? I WANT POINTS NOW, AND I WANT LOTS OF THEM.
2) No advertisements. While some might like their coffee black, I like mine watered down and milky. While some might like watching 45 minutes of uninterrupted action, I'd much rather spend just as much time watching a stream of flashy commercials, in between trips to fetch my Krispy Kremes.
3) Watching soccer would require a certain level of awareness of the rest of the world. That means knowing that both other countries and other points of view exist, which is clearly in conflict with our infamous U.S.-centric worldview.
To address the first issue, as someone pointed out earlier, we should just scale scores up by some arbitrary factor. Ideally, a prime number, even. I suggest 7.
As for problems 2 and 3, well...there are no solutions, to my knowledge. Commercials are here to stay in American broadcasting. So is our great American ability to imagine that the rest of the world should only be so lucky as to hear our voiced opinions, as evidenced by the number of repetitive posts about how one "cannot imagine how ANYONE watches such a boring sport". Never mind that millions evidently do.
Reading such comments has brought out the patriotic best in me.
I rest my case
Sorry. but soccer IS here, it is growing every year, it's only boring if you have no concept of the game (personally I find football amd baseball to be snoozefests - that doesn't mean I'm threatened by those who find merit in watching the sports), and as for "not wanting it here"? Competitive club soccer is HUGE in this country. The skill, dedication, and athleticism on display is humbling.
As for those who deride the scores? 0-0, 1-0 ... those scores imply a helluva lot went on for 90 minutes between two very talented teams. And what's wrong with a 3-2 score? Not supersized enough for you? On a football field that would translate to 21-14. That make it better?
Just because you aren't paying attention or are for some inane reason threatened by the concept, doesn't make it disappear.
end of argument
The main sports we have grown up with - football (American), baseball and basketball - are stuffed with opportunities to run advertising... time outs everywhere; for football, team changes when possession changes hands; for baseball, the end of any inning (top and bottom); and yet more timeouts for basketball. Run an ad in the middle of a soccer match and the audience might miss a crucial goal (and will forever hate the sponsor of said ad that led to such an omission).
Having said that, it is simply amazing to see us come together in a display of national unity and pride as we cheer on our lads over there. Soccer has given us that grand opportunity. Savor the moment!
BTW.why do you need lots of adverts? Doesn't that dilute from the merit of each individual add. Its worth looking at ITV in the UK. They have two or three ad breaks before the game, a couple at half-time and a couple at the end. The amount they are able to charge for each seperate advert is huge. Its demand/supply economics.
The Olympics bc rights cost NBC something like $15 Million, as I remember.
And I have not seen any play being interrupted for a commercial. Not like Football (referring to the American version of Rugby) or Baseball.
http://daynepost.blogspot.com/
BTW - the rest of the world desn't hate America in soccer, they just to ignore it or patronise it. Even if they did hate America surely that would be a motivation for beating them.
I think it is fairly well understood that Americans are not revered in other countries. Never mind the fact that everyone wants to come here to live and work.
Sorry, soccer simply does not stack up. As for people congregating in bars at 9:00 a.m., well I can just tell about the political protests I went to as a young man. Was I an activist, not really, it was just a great way to meet girls.
http://daynepost.blogspot.com/
1. The refs are terrible
2. Scoring is pathetic
3. The players flop to the ground at the slightest pretext.
The solution:
Get more refs on the field
Widen the goal
Give red cards for flopping even after the game.
Until these problems are fixed soccer will always be an unwatchable game.
Poor refereeing doesn't make the game unwatchable, it adds to the spice.The most iconic goal ever scored was Maradona's hand of God against England, a refereeing error.
"the Brits have collars on their jerseys"
I don't know what kind of stereotype that is. Its worth noting that a few years ago most teams had collars on their shirts (watch highlights of the 94 World Cup). The British often tend to be slight ahead with soccer fashions, so collars are probably making a comeback. By the next WC everybody will have them.
Parents know it: futbol became an American sport some time ago.