Allow me to Re-intorduce myself...

Can we diagnose this embarrassment in the World Cup a failure for the US? I am not so certain. Sure they were ranked 5^th in the world in the FIFA rankings, their highest ranking ever. Sure they lost to Ghana, a team that has never qualified for the World Cup before 2006. However, this is a US team that finally earned its first World Cup point with their pathetic tie on Saturday to Italy, when the US couldn’t even score their own goal. This is also a US team that plays its games in a country that doesn’t care about soccer, or football depending on which American you are talking to. That can really be a factor in this story. Imagine yourself on a team that trains for 4 years for a tournament that is so popular throughout the world yet no one in America cares. When I tell people I watch the World Cup, or when people see that I am watching the World Cup people always say “why are you watching soccer, it’s so boring”. Is it? I find it very exciting and so do more and more Americans who slowly but surely are coming to terms with this international uber sport.

But back to the real topic... the games being played. The US opened up the 2006 World Cup with a loss to the Czech in which they looked completely flat and a team that didn’t deserve to be in the World Cup. In their second game they played to a tie with usual powerhouse Italy. In their third game they couldn’t handle Ghana, when everything else fell into place and all they needed was the win to advance out of group play. It’s sad, it’s upsetting, and it’s disappointing. The only reason why I don’t categorize the United States showing in the World Cup a failure is because you can see the seeds being planted for the future. The sport is growing in popularity and many more kids are playing the sport. Come 2010, the next World Cup, the US should be ranked even higher than 5^th in the world and they should have a better showing than this year.

It’s strange, normally Americans are used to dominating every sport we play, but it isn’t the case with soccer. The rest of the world has a leg up on us because soccer is the only sport they play. And sure this World Cup would have been different if it weren’t for the Ref’s. It’s ironic, Americans are new to this sport and yet we still are quick to blame the ref’s. Now I’m not saying that the ref’s didn’t screw up a ton of calls, because they did, but I am saying that the refs don’t play the game and we need to stop blaming the refs.

The refs in international soccer are also known for taking bribes and fixing games. I am not accusing anyone of anything, but I think it is a very big coincidence that the ref who officiated the US-Italy match, the ref who made a ton of bad calls, was found guilty of taking bribes and fixing matches. How can FIFA let this guy ref? again I am not saying he is still accepting bribes or fixing games, but if a ref were ever found guilty of doing that in the US he would never ref again, not even little league.

I think one of the main reasons soccer hasn’t been widely accepted as a sport in America is because of the rules. The refs are really quick to call red cards which mean you are out of the rest of that game as well as the next. Imagine getting a double technical foul in basketball and then you are done for the next game too. Now imagine that happening during the NBA finals. Does that make any sense? Not really. Another strange rule is the double yellow card. It’s fine that two yellow cards equals a red card, but it doesn’t make sense for yellow cards to carry over from game to game. Finally, you can only sub 3 times? Are you serious? What is the reason for that? Imagine playing hockey and telling the coaches, oh you can only sub 3 times in a game. Would people care about hockey? However, there are some rules I love about soccer. I love that the clock never stops. It makes the game much more intense and more fun to watch. Also well actually that is pretty much it, but I love soccer.

Although the US has been eliminated I will still have vesting interest in the World Cup. I personally thought England would win the Cup, but now that they lost one of their best players, it will be tough for them to make the finals, so I will love to see Brazil just dominate the rest of the World Cup. And I hope that Americans who watched the World Cup know the valiant effort the US gave and applaud them, and I hope the Idiot Americans that didn’t watch, who say soccer is a dumb sport, learn to love the sport and realize it is a great game to watch.

Ways to make Soccer in the US more popular

There a few ways that we, as Americans, can make soccer as big in America as it is for the rest of the world..

Firstly, we need a big name marketable star. We have tried in the past to bring some European soccer stars over to America, most famously with Pele and trying to lure him to the US for a 10 year $110 million dollar contract. However, I don’t think this strategy is a good one. We need a homegrown soccer superstar. We have a guy named Freddy Adu. Sure he is just turned 17, but this kid can play. Now I know he wasn’t born in America, ironically he was born in Ghana, but he is an American citizen, circa 2003. Right now he is rotting away on the bench for DC United. Why? How come this kid isn’t given a chance to play right away? If the kid has talent, which he does, he should be given the opportunity to play right away no matter what his age is. Because of this there is talk of him going to play oversees. This will be a huge mistake. Granted he will make boatloads more money in Europe, but this is what all our good players do. We need to bring the Americans back to America and let them play in our league. We need to build up a solid league with American superstars that the American people can relate to. If this happens we can help the sport grow.

Secondly we need to get MLS a major network TV deal. I don’t even know where you can watch a soccer game. I don’t think I have ever seen a regular season game on TV. If a network, let’s say ESPN, who no longer has Hockey, and doesn’t really show anything but Baseball on TV over the summer. (The MLS season run from the beginning of June until the end of October.) If ESPN picks up TV rights for MLS starting for the 2007 season that will give America 3 years of prime time exposure until the next World Cup in 2010. And of course along with a big network TV contract comes more advertising money that can be pumped into the sport allowing teams to spend more money on stars which will then allow teams in the MLS to keep the few superstars we have.

Now I don’t know what it was like when any other major sport was first introduced to the mainstream, (I’m only 22), but I’m sure they faced some of the same hardships that MLS does. People don’t fully understand the rules of soccer and until they do people will remain uninterested with the sport. I’m not too sure on how to fix this problem with American viewership other than the onus in on the fans to learn the sport, and the only way to learn all the rules is to watch the game of soccer.

No sport can grow in popularity without a big time TV contract. The fastest growing sport, the Arena Football League, didn’t start to boom until it received a TV deal with NBC. Once the AFL received its TV deal it was exposed to mainstream America and people learnt the rules of the sport, and learned to love the fast paced alternative to the NFL. Why can’t this be the case with MLS? Well it can. I beg ESPN to pick up TV rights to this great league.