This being world cup season I’ve been having a lot more conversations about Soccer than normal. I live in the DC area so there’s a pretty big international community that loves soccer (football). But the regular everyday Americans don’t seem to get it. Worse than that they don’t want to get it. I’ve come to the conclusion that arguing about why we don’t like Soccer is futile, It’s like arguing about which language is the best. The fact is that Americans don’t like Soccer because Americans don’t like Soccer. It’s not that the rules of the game are silly, or that diving influences the game too much, or that it will make our children into communists. It’s that not enough people like it for you to talk about it at a neighborhood BBQ. If you moved to Canada and all your friends were into Curling then you would talk about curling. There are a small number of Soccer fans in America and I think they’re growing.
For the last few weeks I’ve been hanging out with people who like soccer. Talking about formations and strategies. Discussing why we never seem to get any goals off corner kicks. Talking about whether Shaq could play Soccer, verdict:NO. It’s been awesome. Friends from High school and College getting together to support the US National Team. I was at a baseball game and the crowd cheered when they saluted the US team’s win over Algeria. A big cheer too! My only regret is that it ended too soon. With the level of competition, I don’t think they were going to make the final or anything. It would have been nice to see them advance. But I do really think that Soccer has made the next step in the US, at least World Cup soccer. I’d like to see if the MLS can get a bump from all this attention on some of their best players. I know I’m going to try to get to a DC United game this summer.
The 2014 World Cup Finals are in Brazil, which is much better for the US in terms of time zones. The games should be played in the afternoon or around prime time, I can’t wait for the excitement. It’s going to be BIG. But with the US eliminated I’ll have to find a new team to cheer. I think Germany looks good.
You can’t watch all these videos and tell me that something hasn’t started brewing.