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Words on the World Cup,
Plus Solutions for Soccer in the USA
The World Cup is one of the world's greatest
sports spectacles. Soccer is not.
First, the World Cup. From this American's armchair, it's the rest
of the planet's version of college football – intense, emotional
and a can't-lose-more-than-once (then not at all as it progresses) situation.
There is tradition, controversy, even legendary plays – the "hand
of God" lives forever in World Cup lore. And extremely questionable
officiating.
The crowd at World Cup '06 looked like an American college football
game.
Fans dress in their country's colors, paint their faces, sing fight
songs and tailgate before and after games (in the case of World Cup
'06, this meant German beer halls. In South Africa for 2010, it means dancing in the streets). Any American used to Saturday afternoons
at The Grove in Oxford, Miss., The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail
Party in Jacksonville, FL.; or the "backstop" at the Rose
Bowl before USC-UCLA, should absolutely love the World Cup atmosphere.
The skill level of the players is amazing. How they can maneuver
that ball through a crowd of defenders using nothing but their feet
is an amazing feat. The spins on kicks are like fades and draws from
a pro golfer. In one amazing moment, an Argentina player during a match stopped a ball
with his chest and knocked it to his foot and then into the goal in
a single motion – after playing for nearly 100 minutes, no less.
It's one of the most mesmerizing athletic feats of all time, almost
right up there with Michael Jordan's mid-air hand switch in the NBA
Finals against the Lakers for the Bulls' first championship.
And, of particular note, there's virtually no hot-dogging or
"me me" actions by the players. This is a team game, a welcome
relief after seeing the chest-thumping and touchdown celebrations far
too prevalent in American professional sports. Heck, they even penalize
players for arguing with the refs. Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson would
barely make it out of the locker room. An MVP for "Hot Doggin'"
Hines Ward? I don't think so!
For these reasons, I enjoy watching the World Cup. So much so that when Mexico
or a Latin American team play, I tune into Univision, the national
Hispanic network. The announcers are so emotional and it's much more
exciting. For what to expect at the 2010 World Cup, click here.
Do not doubt that
Americans enjoy the World Cup experience.
So why can't Americans embrace the World Cup and soccer in particular?
Here's a few reasons:
• America is, for the most part, a stick-and-ball country (congratulations
to NASCAR for breaking through and making such a huge impact with a
different sport).
• Soccer is played only with the feet. Americans excel at hand-to-eye
coordination, so it stands to reason if you take away the hands, you
take away the coordination.
• Like the Olympics, the World Cup comes only once ever four years.
Unlike the Olympics, there is no massive marketing buildup. There's
so much going on here, we require oversaturation to realize something
of significance is about to occur. I'll argue that most Americans will
not even be aware the World Cup is happening until they catch a few highlights
on SportsCenter.
• Unlike the Olympics, the World Cup has no "chick sports"
like figure skating to draw in the female audience. What TV should do
instead is show more than the game – hot girls in the crowd, the
party beforehand, groups of fans at the bars and places about town and
the emotions surrounding events, thereby creating a "I wish I was
there" atmosphere. (This approach should be applied to ALL sports, by the way.)
The Beckham Factor
David Beckham's presence with the LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer
has barely made a dent in America. Perhaps that would be different if his wife, Posh Spice, had taken the field.
While this has been a PR and marketing dream for the sport and league,
it's failed to have much of an effect on mainstream America.
In a way, it was almost a do-or-die gamble for professional soccer. Because if the
biggest name the sport has to offer can't turn it around, what's left? That teenage "sensation" Freddy Abu that entered the league a
few years ago initially received national media attention but in the
end did nothing for soccer or the MLS. In fact his coach would not even
play him,
Soccer is one of the most popular grassroots sports in America but once things reach the high school level, it's back to baseball, football and basketball. You know, the stick-and-ball sports.
Soccer as a Game
Soccer needs more of this - not just scoring but shots on the goal.
Here are soccer's biggest battles for
popularity in the USA – and they are not head-knockers:
• It's not on TV. If Americans don't see a sport on TV on a regular
basis well, it pretty much doesn't exist.
• There's no particular region in which it's popular. Soccer is
undeniably huge among the Hispanic community – just watch Deportes
during the nightly newscasts on your local Hispanic station and about
all you'll see are soccer highlights – but not elsewhere. Hockey
has the upper East Coast, NASCAR has the South (while it has grown to
be popular elsewhere it's still biggest there) and beach volleyball
has Southern California. Where is soccer's regional pull? Nowhere.
But the main problem with soccer and why it will never catch on
in America is the game itself.
Here's the reasons for that statement:
• They pass the ball backward too much. That's it in a nutshell.
"Experts" can argue about a lack of scoring but the real issue
is the lack of an attempt to score. Americans are used to going
forward in sports, to attack the basket or go for the end zone. Even
Woody Hayes' old "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense
was designed to move the ball forward.
In soccer, it's a pass backward here, another pass backward there,
then another, and so on. "Boring!" Americans say. In three
games in World Cup '06, Team USA had exactly one goal and only two shots
on goal. Think about that for a second – two shots on goal
in 4 1/2 hours of play. In the final moments of the win-or-go-home game,
supposed USA star Landon Donavon had nothing between him and the goal
other than a falling-down goalie and a patch of grass the size of a
country club fairway only to literally pass on the potential game-tying
goal. One could just feel the clicks of the TV remotes.
Soccer players make more passes than Bill Clinton.
Surely some savvy coach can come in and apply the principals of other
sports to soccer and revolutionize the game. Spread the field to create
better spacing and more open lanes like a fast break in basketball.
Constantly strive to get players in scoring position, then go for the
big hit, as in baseball. Overload one side of the field and run the
equivalent of a power sweep, or suddenly swing the ball back to the
weak side as in football.
And shoot, shoot, shoot. Eventually the defense will fold and the goalie
will wear down. Our national soccer cheer could be "Fourth quarter's
ours!"
What about attempting to block the kick from the opposing goalie before
he sends it to midfield or beyond? (I'm not even sure if this is legal,
but blocked punts and field goals are a constant possibility in American
football.)
Purists will scoff at this notion, claiming I don't understand "the
intricacies of the sport." That's true to a degree, but when you
are going for a mass audience you must focus on the big picture. And
the big picture is that players need to shoot more and pass less.
And not only do the players run backward, but so does the clock. Rather,
it runs forward, and that's backward to Americans. Even after the game
is apparently over, it continues to run. It's
interesting to note that when ESPN televises a soccer match there was a "time remaining"
box on the screen to indicate the anticipated conclusion while on Univision
there is no such graphic. That's a true distinction of the different
expectations of the two audiences.
Hockey, by the way, suffers from the same "going backward"
problem as does soccer.
So if soccer wants to go forward in the USA, it literally needs to
go forward.
The Bartender reported sports for three Southern newspapers and
covered college football, baseball and basketball; PGA Tour and WTA
events; the NFL (if one could call what the Atlanta Falcons played at
the time professional football); and the CBA as well as a number of
prep sports. He also played a little soccer in college.
He an be reached at bartender@pubclub.com
– FROM THE GRANDSTANDS –
• Liked most of your points about soccer not really breaking in (more objective than I thought it would be.) Here are what I think are the most important reasons:
1) The continuous clock- this causes:
0 No opportunity for commercial breaks during halves- making it much less attractive for TV stations depending on ad revenue. I think people end up liking sports they see on TV when they are young- if it were on TV more it would have a built-in following.
- Since its continuous and there's no chance for resting the players (especially those not with the ball) seem to mostly move at a jogger's pace instead of the all-out sprinting that's American football's strongest suit.
2) No star power on American teams. I know the US has lured both Pele and Beckham to the US but both were failed experiments. Since its a total team sport, a single player is only responsible for 1/11 of his teams success. No MLS team can afford to bring over 11 stars especially at the going rates of stars like Kaka.
In baseball, basketball, football and hockey at the highest levels in North America - they have the best players in the world in those leagues. In soccer they all play in Europe.
In other words, if you want to see the world's best soccer players- turn on your TV at 2 in the afternoon.
30 No hands - I've always thought how can it be the best test of athletisism if you can't even use half of you limbs. I think a result of this is also that most soccer players have upper bodies that look like those of marathon runners. Not the awe-inspiring muscle you expect to see on the world's best athletes. I know they have legs like tree trunks but can't they do a few push-ups?
40 Violence and racism that seem to follow soccer everywhere. In North American sports there may be the occasional obnoxious jerk at the game but there's nobody rioting with police (except LA Lakers fans,) no seig-heiling and waving neo-nazi banners and nobody throwing live flares or bags of urine at the opposing goalie.
I think most parents would feel like taking there kids to a soccer game a dangerous proposition while the other four are always family-friendly.
5) Guys acting like they're going to die on the field- and then when they see the ref won't call anything they get up and are fine. Americans probably have a bigger problem with this than any other aspect of soccer and it is the but of many jokes about the game. The thinking is soccer = Euro = sissy.
6) Settling a world cup final with a :Penalty" Shoot-Out? Are you kidding me?! The world's "greatest sporting spectacle" decided with a glorified game of rock-paper-scissors?!
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