World Cup Soccer - 2014! (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

I'm actually thinking about checking out the Union, the Philly MLS team, sometime after the World Cup ends, and see if I will become a fan of the sport that way.

I think the sport will grow a little in this country, but not even close to the levels of the 4 major sports. For starters, there are no TV timeouts, which makes it less attractive to the major networks. I doubt the MLS final will ever air on prime time on the major networks.

And, ironically, those lack of TV timeouts help make the sport more appealing to spectators. Watching an NFL or college football game in person can be torture at times with all those commercial timeouts.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Watching an NFL or college football game in person can be torture at times with all those commercial timeouts.

It might be why American Football ( as we call it over here ) has never really taken off in a big way in the UK, we have our main sports and i guess you have your main sports, i know i cannot get completely involved in a sport which has so many breaks for television adverts but other people may get different mileage on all that, i used to love NBA basketball, less so these days.

 

[Richard Travale]

I highly recommend checking out some MLS games if you are in, or live near a city with a team. I have seen The Vancouver Whitecaps play, and it’s a good time. Plus the more you watch, the more you will develop an understanding of the subtleties of the game. MLS games are also extremely affordable.

 

[Sumnernor]

Awful decision to award Holland a penalty, i think Robben is a diver, Mexico should have won that game.

I agree that Robben is a diver-

 

[Jay H]

I highly recommend checking out some MLS games if you are in, or live near a city with a team. I have seen The Vancouver Whitecaps play, and it’s a good time. Plus the more you watch, the more you will develop an understanding of the subtleties of the game. MLS games are also extremely affordable.

Yeah and if you're around the Harrison/Newark NJ if you can catch the Red Bulls/Metrostars at the new purposefully build soccer stadium there, that place is really cool. Unlike American Football, the seats are fairly close to the pitch and it's also covered (the seats, not the field/pitch). It's a great soccer venue!

Jay

 

[andrew markworthy]

I hate to agree with the "haters" - but the USA will likely never be a competitive soccer power (in the sense of being really able to win the World Cup absent of a series of flukes like top teams being eliminated early on in the tournament). Why? Because all of this country's best athletes play in the high revenue sports. NFL. NBA. NHL. MLB. All of those athletes make way more money than MLS.

Competition for places in the big league European teams is even more vicious than that, since a relaxation of the rules a few years ago meant that players didn't have to be naturalised citizens. The result of this is that over half of the big teams like Manchester United consist of foreign nationals.

On the subject of the USA - I'm no great fan of soccer, but I think you guys are being too hard on your national side. They were totally committed to their play and as far as I can gather, the comments in the European press were overwhelmingly favourable. Just a little more practice playing other national sides in friendly matches, and a bit more endurance training, and you could have at least a semi-final chance next time round.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Andrew, I think most of us were referring more towards the popularity of the sport in the US than the performance of the national team with our comments. I do agree that the team does pretty well under the circumstances.

 

[Malcolm R]

I think the US could win the World Cup, and soccer would remain a fringe sport in the US.

 

[andrew markworthy]

I think the US could win the World Cup, and soccer would remain a fringe sport in the US.

It's odd how some sports just resolutely remain minority activities in one country but in another they are huge. For example:

rugby (big in the UK, France, Italy, and bits of the UK Commonwealth)
ice hockey (USA, Canada, Russia, a couple of Scandanavian countries)
field hockey (Asia in the main)
weightlifting (Turkey, Bulgaria, a few bits of the former USSR)
cycling (France, Italy and increasingly, Britain)
handball (a few central European countries)
cricket (England and a few bits of the UK Commonwealth)
badminton (Asia)
table tennis (China)
baseball (USA and Japan)

I think it's down to overcoming a kind of inertia. For a sport to become really popular, it has to take attention away from other sports with loyal fan bases. And that just doesn't happen easily. E.g. cycling in the UK was a minority sport for decades, and it took the Great Britain team winning practically every Olympic gold medal at two successive games *plus* having two Brits win the Tour de France to make it a more popular sport getting significant air time.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I think the US could win the World Cup, and soccer would remain a fringe sport in the US.

I think you are right, Malcolm.

 

[Carlo_M]

As everyone has pointed out, there are a lot of things for soccer to overcome in America. The largest of which is the combination of history, higher earnings potential, and ability to stay in the USA for major athletes in NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB. Sure the highest paid soccer players can earn as much, but you're going to have to play overseas. The key to excelling in any sport is for a country to commit its best athletes from childhood on up. Well if you're a USA parent and your child is athletically gifted, you likely want to be able to see him play and stay in country, and will want to maximize his earnings potential. That's why our best athletes are funneled into those four major sports, coupled with the ingrained history of the greats of each sport in this country. Think of all the great players in those sport, and the USA's greatest soccer player, Donovan, likely wouldn't rank in the top 50 in terms of historical, social and cultural importance of the average USA sports fan. Compare that with Brazil, where every kid grows up wanting to be Pele (or a host of their other greats since).Or Argentina (Maradona and now Messi).

However, Americans love a winner, and will back it. I'm in Los Angeles, the ADHD sports capital of the world. The NFL hasn't come back here, and USC learned it can become a champion (60s-early 80s) to irrelevant (mid 80s-early 00s) to champion (mid-00s) to nearly irrelevant again. If they're winning, they're selling out the Coliseum (known as The Mausoleum when they aren't). Hockey was an afterthought. Then Gretzky came and made the Kings relevant and hot for half a decade, then it fizzled again, and now stores can't stock enough Kings jerseys.

Like L.A., America loves a winner. If we win a WC, no soccer will not suddenly become the NFL or NBA overnight, but I think it would elevate itself into nearly the same level as the NHL, just outside the cusp of the "Big Three". I mean the MLS really took off after the 1994 World Cup, which USA hosted and had a "great" result (in reality 1-1-1 with Colombia needing to score on itself, tragically, for us to win) and suddenly soccer's popularity increased. If simply hosting and getting out of group play, along with middling results every 4 years, could keep the MLS solvent for 20 years since, I thought it would fizzle out in the late 90s, early 00s, imagine what would happen if we actually won the darned thing!

IMO, what the USA needs for soccer to take off are:
1. A great WC result with victories over great teams. It would be ideal to win it, but I think even a Finals appearance, maybe beating a Messi-led Argentina, or a Brazil or Germany on the way to that final, would help to elevate the sport.
2. A compelling player that kids want to become. I don't know many kids who want to be Landon Donovan, don't get me wrong he's a great guy. I know a ton who want to be Kobe, LBJ, Kershaw, Russell Wilson, etc. US soccer needs a transcendent talent, a Messi, Ronaldo figure. It would help if he's attractive too. Because if there's one thing America loves more than a winner, it's a handsome superstar of a winner.

Until those two things happen, soccer will always be on the outside looking in.

 

[Walter C]

2. A compelling player that kids want to become. I don't know many kids who want to be Landon Donovan, don't get me wrong he's a great guy. I know a ton who want to be Kobe, LBJ, Kershaw, Russell Wilson, etc. US soccer needs a transcendent talent, a Messi, Ronaldo figure. It would help if he's attractive too. Because if there's one thing America loves more than a winner, it's a handsome superstar of a winner.

I thought David Beckham would have filled that role, when he came over to play in the MLS. Not sure how it worked out for him or MLS, as I am a novice when it comes to it.

 

[Carlo_M]

I should have been more clear, Walter. My #2 point also needed to lead the USA to accomplish #1 (winning or getting to the Final of the WC). Beckham was borrowed aging talent from England who won on the MLS level (which no one outside of L.A. really cared about, and not even all that much of L.A. cared) and of course he never played for our national team.

In order to change the USA soccer mindset from childhood on up, with the focus being to get our best athletes wanting to be soccer players instead of football/basketball/baseball/hockey/etc, the talent will also have to be home-grown. USA kids want to become handsome, charismatic, rich, US athletes, not an imported British one.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I thought David Beckham would have filled that role, when he came over to play in the MLS. Not sure how it worked out for him or MLS, as I am a novice when it comes to it.

I don't follow the MLS, but I do not believe Beckham had much, if any, impact over here. Didn't he get hurt?I thought Pele, Beckenbauer, Trevor Francis and others had a bigger impact in the '70's with the NASL. The league drew huge crowds and had a network TV deal. I remember watching Francis play for the old Detroit Express in the Silverdome.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Hey anyone see the Brazil-Colombia game? The NY Times had an article today saying the Brazilians were primarily to blame for Neymar's injury for having played a super dirty game (I'm in a corner of Italy where our hotel doesn't have a single TV and the local bar doesn't have cable...). Thoughts about the game?Some other comments about this thread: Weight lifting I assure you is not a popular spectator sport in Bulgaria. People watch soccer - period. Sure the Olympics are popular, and probably Bulgarians were following the weight-lifting very closely because we won a bunch of gold medals during the steroid era -- but that happens(ed) once every 4 years. Maybe wrestling, which has a far longer tradition in Bulgaria -- but generally sports other than soccer people pay attention to when some home girl or boy is winning and then forget all about them again. And that's on TV: they only actually go to soccer games. Shamefully I have never been to the Red Bulls new stadium. I saw a bunch of Metro Stars games at Giants Stadium, but stopped watching when they became the Red Bulls -- I cannot bring myself to cheer for a wretched energy drink. I still don't understand how nobody is reviving the NY Cosmos?!? Best. Team. Name. Ever. (the LA Galaxy got the idea) New York FC? Another opportunity lost though I will certainly go and see them play.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Hey anyone see the Brazil-Colombia game? The NY Times had an article today saying the Brazilians were primarily to blame for Neymar's injury for having played a super dirty game (I'm in a corner of Italy where our hotel doesn't have a single TV and the local bar doesn't have cable...). Thoughts about the game?

Both teams were committing a lot of fouls and the referee wasn't very good and should have clamped down on it all earlier.

 

[Jacinto]

Hey anyone see the Brazil-Colombia game? The NY Times had an article today saying the Brazilians were primarily to blame for Neymar's injury for having played a super dirty game (I'm in a corner of Italy where our hotel doesn't have a single TV and the local bar doesn't have cable...). Thoughts about the game?

I pretty much agree with that assessment. During the first half, just about every time James Rodriguez got the ball, he got absolutely hammered by Brasil. The ref handed out no yellows to stop that kind of play, so the Colombians responded in kind by going after Brasil's star player. I feel bad for Neymar, but I do believe that Brasil and the referee created the on-the-pitch atmosphere that led to his injury.

Pretty gutsy move by the Netherlands coach to switch goalkeepers for the shootout – and it worked amazingly well!

 

[FoxyMulder]

Pretty gutsy move by the Netherlands coach to switch goalkeepers for the shootout – and it worked amazingly well!

That was an excellent game, i was rooting for the little team, Costa Rica, but Holland were ruthless with their penalties.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Pretty gutsy move by the Netherlands coach to switch goalkeepers for the shootout – and it worked amazingly well!

I missed the game, but saw the replay of the penalty kicks. That was an amazing save to win the match for Netherlands.

 

[Patrick_S]

Saw that Brazil is appealing Thiago Silva's suspension. Let's hope the officials do the right thing and uphold it.