July 1, 2014 will go down in my personal history as quite a
bitter-sweet day. When it comes to
international soccer, I cheer for two teams.
First and foremost, the United States, because it is my home
country. But only slightly behind the
USMNT I cheer for Argentina, the country where I spent some of the best years
of my life and where I truly feel in love with soccer (futbol). Yesterday, both teams played in the round of
16 of the World Cup. Both matches went
into extra time. Argentina, thanks once
again to Lionel Messi, scored the game winner in the 118th minute to
advance to the quarterfinals for the third straight World Cup. Three hours later, the USMNT gave up 2 goals
in extra time and in the end came up short losing to Belgium 2-1. They had their chances to win, but the
writing was on the wall from the first minute of the match; Belgium was the
better team.
So the World Cup dream for this set of American players has
ended. For some it may be their last
chance to play on the world’s biggest stage, and for others, their international
careers are just beginning. I saw
something here in the United States that I don’t believe I had ever seen
before. Over the past 2+ weeks I saw an
entire country come together and cheer for the same team. I saw pictures of entire stadiums filled with
fans who took the day off from work to watch the USMNT play. I saw people wearing the US jersey (which was
rather hideous) on the streets accompanied with a red, white and blue scarf in
the middle of summer. I saw people who
not only really cared about the United States, but people who really cared
about soccer.
I am someone that is called a GFOP. If you follow the English Premier League here
in the US you might know what I am referring to. If not, I will explain. There is a weekly soccer podcast called Men in Blazers hosted by Michael Davies and Roger Bennett. Those of us who listen to the podcast (some
might even say religiously) are known as Great Friends of the Pod (GFOPs). These two men have one main belief, that
soccer is America’s sport of the future.
I have always loved
soccer. I played it as a kid and I truly
fell in love with the game while living in Argentina. I remember watching the World Cup for the
first time in 1998 when I was 10 years old and have watched every World Cup
since. But I was always kind of a loner
when it came to my love of soccer. This
country's attitude for soccer certainly has changed since that World Cup in
France 16 years ago, but we still have a long way to go. Yes I along with the brilliant Rog and Davo believe
that soccer is America’s sport of the future, but I still don’t believe that
future is directly ahead of us.
It was great to see the crowds of people watching these
games, but what happens now? Today the
USMNT is no longer in the World Cup, so what will all these supporters do? Will the excitement of soccer die off for 4
more years until we are reunited in Russia? The images of the USMNT supports
paint a picture of a soccer crazed country, but the daily life inside the work
place paints a completely different picture.
During the World Cup I had several co-workers say things
like “Why would you like a sport that can end in a tie?” or “Why is the US
still alive after losing to Germany?” A
couple of days ago one co-worker asked another “Would you rather see the United
States win the World Cup or see the Mariners make the playoffs?” Without hesitation the answers was “Mariners
make the playoffs.” I also heard lots of
negative comments about soccer from people like, “When is the Boring Cup over?”
or “If I wanted to watch people try and
score for 90 minutes I'd rather take my friends to a bar!"
Yes it is true, there were a lot of people supporting the
USMNT during their run in Brazil, but if we want to become a soccer powerhouse,
we need to become year round fans and not simply fans of the game for one month
every 4 years. This sport needs to be
something that we really care about. We
need to be able to walk into a pub in England and carry on an intelligent
conversation with a Football obsessed Englishman. I am not saying that every single American
needs to love soccer, but as a whole, we certainly need to care about it more
than we do now.
If we want to win the 2034 World Cup, we need to get Soccer
on our televisions throughout the entire year, teach our kids to love the game,
watch our kids grow and play and then enjoy as they raise that golden
grapefruit-looking trophy in twenty years.
Why do all our kids wanna play football and basketball? Because that is
what they see on TV. What if they saw
soccer on TV and went to MLS matches? They would have a love for the game and
want to play it throughout their lives.
If we watched MLS matches on TV and went to the stadiums, the teams
would increase their revenues which would allow for them to purchase higher
profile and more expensive players from the best leagues in the world.
I have 3 simple lessons I learned during my time in
Argentina that we as Americans could apply to our lives if we want to take the
next step to become soccer proud country:
1) Support the MLS. This is something that I
too am guilty of. Until recently I did
not live in a city with an MLS team. I
have supported my favorite English team for years but never cared much about
the MLS. The biggest reason was that the
level of play was not on par with what I was accustomed to watching in
Europe. But as I watched the World Cup,
I was delighted to see the MLS players shine against some of the world’s
biggest stars. And like I mentioned
above, if we begin to support MLS, money will come into the league and the
quality of the soccer will soon follow the money. I am not suggesting that we all become season
ticket holders, but we can go to a few matches each year. We can watch the games when they are on
TV. We can buy our local team’s
jersey. We can actually care.
2) Follow
other leagues around the world. When
I first started really caring about soccer as a teenager it was almost impossible to
follow the leagues over in Europe. I had
a favorite team but I knew little to nothing about that team because I could
never find the games on TV and the internet was not quite what it is now. Now, thanks to NBC Sports Network, every
single English Premier League match is available to watch on TV or stream
online. Every single match. That’s incredible. If you want to fall in love with soccer all
you need to do is pick a team and follow them throughout the season. There is something special about waking up
first thing in the morning on Saturday and watching two matches before my wife
wakes up (that probably won't work if you live on the east coast). You can pick a title
contending team or a team that has an underdog story. You can watch your team fight for the title
or try to claw their way out of relegation.
It is important that we support our local MLS teams but the quickest way
to fall in love with soccer is to watch the best soccer the world has to offer
in the different European leagues.
3) Make
soccer a part of your year round lives.
I am not saying that we need to go get the logo of our favorite team
tattooed on our body, but soccer should become more a part of our lives than it
currently is. Here are some simple
things that we could do.
·
Put a bumper sticker of your favorite team on
your car
·
Wear your favorite team’s jersey
·
Play FIFA, the video game
·
Have soccer related conversations at work and
with friends
·
Have an emblem of your favorite team on your
desk at work
·
Get sports updates from different teams and
leagues sent to your phone
·
Read a book or two about soccer history or your
favorite team’s history
·
Most importantly, become a GFOP and listen
weekly to Men in Blazers (If you like MiB, and can't get enough soccer podcasts, also check out Caught Offsides)
I am not suggesting that soccer
become the most important aspect of our lives.
I know that there are many things in our lives that are much more
important than any sport. But if we want
to one day witness our country win the World Cup, it all starts with us, the
supporters of the USMNT (side note, our team needs a REAL name).
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