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World Cup Thoughts
Before I start I want you to watch this video. At 34 seconds they show a bar in Lincoln, Nebraska. Watch the guy with reddish hair in the bottom right. Notice the timing of his reaction.

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He's watching the non-HD TV at the bar.

Of all the sports I watch and play, soccer is the one I am least equipped to analyze. I took about a 9 year break from playing soccer after high school to when I started playing indoor a couple of years ago. Most of what I do on the pitch is defensive minded - being in the right position, chasing balls down, sticking with a scorer. I find myself at a disadvantage because I never really learned the finer points. Foot skills and touch aren't my strong suit. I'm more about pushing the ball out in front of me or passing it out into space. On defense I can't shake the muscle memory I have from playing man to man on the court. So watching the World Cup is a lot of fun but I only gleaned a couple of main insights. One, the US defense was way too timid at the start of games. Two, given some of the bad goal tending in the tournament, offenses need to pull the trigger on shots quicker.

Make sure you watch that video though. I've watched it probably two dozen times since I saw it on Cursed To First. I get goose bumps every time. The reaction the US Men's team got this year was the best it's ever been. I've been in Boston for 3 World Cups now and each time the excitement grows a little bit. Everyone was intrigued by this "soccer" in 1994 but America's performance in 1998 really dampened the spirit. Then in 2002, as we were waking up before dawn for games in Korea, some of the excitement came back. In 2006 I remember watching the opening round in the cafeteria at work and then being at a packed Government Center in Boston for the final. This year, everyone is talking about the World Cup and people are psyched about the United States. Forget 1950, the US-Algeria group stage match was the biggest in American soccer history.

I know every four years we're fed a line about soccer taking off in the United States. I don't think it's ever going to "take off" though. It's going to slowly build until it's a major force in this country. Take a look at who bought the second most World Cup tickets in 2010. Slowly the haters are going to sound more and more lame with their retread jokes from 1998.

The game is going to make concessions to the American audience. I think it's already happened with the emphasis on stopping diving and fake injuries. Some American fans believe, because of the two goals eradicated by phantom offsides calls, there's a conspiracy against the American team. Maybe a ref or two is biased against the United States but there is no way FIFA is on board with that. FIFA's number one priority should be increasing the sport's popularity in this country. It's full of lots of relatively rich people with access to all sorts of liesure time and entertainment options.

Some of the problem is that Americans are arrogant sports fans. That's what happens when you win. (Guilty.) It's tough to stomach a loss in the round of 16 when you're used to the Dream Team, Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis, and a rich history of domination on the international sports stage. The US should be proud of the their effort but they missed a golden opportunity to get to the quaterfinals this year. At some point we have to most past moral victories. Sports fans with a sense of entitlement to winning are not going to accept loses to countries like Ghana.

Finally, it's going to be tough to turn this team into a consistent top ten program. We have a 330 million citizen pool to choose from and great incentives for people around the world to emigrate here. Still, the top 3 spectator sports are football, basketball, and baseball. That's where the money is, that's where the fame is, and that's what little boys and girls grow up wanting to be. So that's where the athletes are going to go. And it's probably not going to change as long as the best soccer league in the world is not in the United States. Again, we're arrogant sports fans and we demand the best. So it's almost like a chicken-egg situation. We're not going to get the best footballers here until the MLS pays the most. The MLS won't pay the most until people are willing to pay it. People won't be willing to pay it until we have the best players in the world. Bill Simmons has a good take on this as well.

You can see it in the athletes each team put out for each World Cup. The Europeans and the South Americans are trotting out the best in their country. They have sick skills and make amazing plays. The US grinded it out. No one blasted a set piece over a diving goalie or broke a defender's ankles or bent one around a wall. We're just not there yet.
 
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