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Rambling About Soccer

Posted on June 29th, 2009 9:57am by Bob Sturm
Filed under Soccer, Sturm

us_soccer_ball2-736935 Me: My Name is Bob, and I love soccer.

All of You together: Hi, Bob.

No, not the soccer that you think you know. Not the soccer that your 6 year old plays because you don’t want them to get hurt in “real sports”. Not the soccer you roll your eyes at when someone tells you for the millionth time it “is the next big thing”.

I am talking about the soccer that every freaking country in the entire world lives for. The sport that is so consuming that most other countries do not require other sports to fill the off-season.

Soccer, when done properly – which our country has never really done with one of its domestic leagues – is as intoxicating an athletic endevour as you will find. And don’t tell me its boring. “It’s boring” is what your wife told you about baseball, and you knew that she might never know what she was missing.

And yesterday, was one of those moments when I thought that just for a brief moment, soccer might become mainstream.

Playing in its first FIFA tournament final EVER, the United States gave it all they had to try to take down the most legendary foe of them all on the world soccer stage, Brazil. Brazil is the only country in the world to have won the World Cup 5 times, and also the only country to have played in every World Cup ever played. When it comes to having an win to brag about, beating Brazil in a FIFA final (even if it was just the Confederations Cup) would have lasted for a long, long time.

But, alas, after holding a stunning 2-0 half-time lead, the magic flipped to the Brazilian side, and a clinical 45 minutes which included 3 goals, 1 goal that was not allowed due to a bad call, and several other close calls showed that the Brazilian’s had a switch they could flip that our young Americans (and 98% of the rest of the world) had no answer for.

After the win over Spain, and the close-but-no-cigar effort against Brazil, it is clear that the United States is playing pretty well. Or is it? Before going to South Africa for the Confederations Cup, their last 2 World Cup Qualifiers were very disconcerting, with a loss at Costa Rica, 3-1, and a Houdini-like escape in Chicago from Honduras. World Cup Qualification is certainly not a given, and with a trip in early August to Mexico, things might be awfully tricky in the final wave of qualifiers if they don’t build on this tournament and next month’s Gold Cup.

Obviously, I have presented two different ideas in this entry: The micro-view of making sure the Nat’s head back to South Africa next month for the World Cup, and the macro-view of wondering where soccer is going in our United States.

The micro-view should be fine.

What of the macro-view?

Guys like Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, and Clint Dempsey performing so well on the top level is a wonderful product of steady growth in this country. We now routinely have players playing professionally overseas in the top leagues in the world. The one thing we lack is the superstar on the world stage who can take on Kaka, Robinho, Ronaldo, or Torres on a regular basis and win his share.

Our domestic league, the MLS, continues to slowly grow, and it would seem that it has helped greatly with development of many young American players. But, the grip it has on the American sports fan and media remains largely comparable to the WNBA or perhaps the senior golf tour. It exists, and it apparently gets sponsors, but as far as generating waves of new fans…not so much.

The growth of soccer in the United States in the last 10 years, in my opinion, has more to do with the growth of English soccer on television and on the web. Many of us now closely follow Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, or Arsenal with far greater conviction than the MLS team in our own city. It is not an insult to FC Dallas, it is merely listening to our inner desire to see the best. Just as if we grew up in a city that had a minor league baseball team, but still cheered harder for the major league team that was hundreds of miles away. Many of us enjoy FC Dallas, but are obsessed with a team across the ocean.

Where am I going with all of this? Good question. I was going to write about the game yesterday, but instead decided to kind of give you my feelings about where soccer is going. A win yesterday over Brazil would have been monumental, but since most people have no idea what the Confederations Cup is, I suppose it would have been the same short-lived story that the women’s team had when we saw the famous Nike Sports bra 10 years ago.

For soccer to ever be as big as many of us who love soccer want it to be, we will need our Tiger or our Lebron to come along and carry the sport. And not in Columbus, Ohio, but rather in London or Barcelona. On the biggest stage. Dirk Nowitzki made basketball much bigger in Germany, but not because he stayed and played in Berlin, but because he went to play in Dallas.

It would seem to me that the same would be true for Landon Donovan. Watching him play on that level during this past week has me thinking that he should consider another move across the ocean. Dominating in San Jose or Los Angeles will not capture the hearts of the US sports fan – we want to know if he can beat those Euros. He tried Germany twice before, but he was young and missed his girlfriend. Now, he is older and richer, and perhaps he is ready to not only play on a team in England, but to play well as one of their key players. Or, maybe it will be Jozy Altidore, who at just 19 is already in Spain playing professionally and seems to have all sorts of potential.

Brazil does it that way. Almost all of their national team stars play in Europe. Almost none of them play in Brazil. Then, they all reunite to represent their country and do it quite well. Brazil still has domestic leagues, but it is more to provide development for the youth and entertainment for the locals rather than to be a destination point for their best.

That is the template for US Soccer in my estimation. And it is happening. Many of our best are playing roles in Europe. We just need that superstar to come along and capture our imagination. Trouble is, in the USA, the superstar athlete has football, basketball, baseball, and many other choices that may lure his gifts from soccer. Brazil is looking for soccer stars, we are looking for running backs, point guards, and center fielders. Sometimes, soccer just gets the left-overs. Can you ever be a national power if you are only harvesting left-overs against the best from Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Germany?

Yesterday showed us progress is being made. But in the big picture, our journey continues on. I am curious where it shall take us.

38 Comments to “Rambling About Soccer”

Doug Fu @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:02 am

Awesome stuff. Great to see soccer getting some run.

I agree that I would love to see Donovan make a move. I know he has recently mentioned Spain as a possible destination and I think he has built enough capital where he would get a fair shake to get regular playing time and not relegated to the bench.

That is the key, is getting the regular playing time.
Doug Fu @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:03 am

Also, with his performance against Spain, I’d expect to see Altidore getting some regular playing time in Spain as well.
dave @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:15 am

Great point about Dirk. Makes sense.
Gastronome @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:38 am

Thanks for the insight – well put.
Cnote @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:43 am

Great stuff thanks for the soccer love, YNWA!!!
GL @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:58 am

Bob. Give it up. As long as there is paint drying somewhere in America, no one is going to watch soccer on TV.
Adam D @ June 29th, 2009 at 11:05 am

au contraire, GL… after the win against Spain, I had my entire family watching the Brazil match. granted, some of them were asking stupid questions, but they were certainly interested in what was happening.
tmw80 @ June 29th, 2009 at 11:12 am

Winning at the highest level will increase American interest in soccer. Once there is an interest in the highest level, it will grow more at the lower levels, ie MLS.

If the Americans can keep playing well and advancing in tournaments consistently, the sport will grow.
MP @ June 29th, 2009 at 11:51 am

Altidore may have lots of potential, but he was completely worthless yesterday. The defense desperately needed him to control some balls, and it didn’t even seem like he was trying.
Xanthippas @ June 29th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

“Bob. Give it up. As long as there is paint drying somewhere in America, no one is going to watch soccer on TV.”

Is there a stupid comment of the day award?
Rob @ June 29th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

I agree with your superstar opinion. Look at Lance Armstrong and cycling.

If a country of 10M people can produce Christiano Ronaldo I don’t see why the US can’t have a soccer superstar in the future, either. Sure, the best athletes will gravitate to the big 3 sports but at some point one will decide to stick to soccer and make a difference.
Josh @ June 29th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

At some point people will realize that soccer is not a fad sport in the US. I think it will be about the same time they sit down and try to understand the game, rather than say it’s boring. Baseball is boring, yet I still love it because I get all the intricacy and what not. Soccer is the same way, but at least there is constant motion, and you don’t see guys playing with a mouthful of chaw, or their belly hanging out.
Jim @ June 29th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

Excellent article. I agree with the Dirk analogy. When we start seeing some Americans as stars on the biggest stage we will start to have more interest.
Boomer @ June 29th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

There was about 300 or so people at Trinity Hall watching the game yesterday…there wasn’t even standing room in the place and they opened up a theatre in the Angelika to watch it as well.
Mike @ June 29th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

Soccer certainly has room to grow but I don’t think it can ever pass up one of the big 3. I don’t think Americans will ever truly embrace a sport where our best athletes have to perform overseas. MLS will never be equal to the NFL, NBA or MLB. I think the inability to watch players in person will limit its popularity. That said, I can see soccer becoming more popular than hockey (which it might be since I haven’t seen TV rating from yesterday yet).
djcahill @ June 29th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

I remember in the ’70s when Pele played in the NASL and I first heard that Soccer would be the next big American sport. Here we are 30+ years later and I’ve heard that crap in pretty much every year inbetween.

I think GL said it best in this post.
Dylan @ June 29th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

I was surprised to find that Shane from the Shield is an elite American soccer player.

Oh, that was Donovan.
GL @ June 29th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

“Bob. Give it up. As long as there is paint drying somewhere in America, no one is going to watch soccer on TV.

Is there a stupid comment of the day award?”

Go easy on Bob – he’s got a lot on his plate. Besides, I’m sure he wouldn’t want to accept such an award…
RedArmy @ June 29th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Liverpool for Life!!!!!!! and its futbol bob not soccer.
RedArmy @ June 29th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Yea i agree with GL though, BoB is the toats mcgoats!!!!
Clinton V. @ June 29th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

I don’t how a sport or fans of said sport get attacked personally like soccer fans do.

I mean if you don’t like it then that’s cool but trolling someone because of it makes no sense to me.
Alan Morris @ June 29th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

When can we expect the EPL teams to make investments in developing our talent. The NBA and MLB are making big investments in the development of talent in Europe and South America. The youth soccer programs in the US are fantastic, with top-notch coaches and alot of money. But an investment from the EPL would send a message to players and their parents that lucrative career after college (or before) is possible. Otherwise, our best talent will continue to become RB’s, CB’s and WR’s.
gabbo @ June 29th, 2009 at 9:50 pm

While there is phenomenal money at the highest levels, there just isn’t the infrastructure to support the elite tier of athletes pursuing a soccer career.

Although the odds are long of becoming a professional athlete in the big 3…they seem a lot more attainable to an promising 13 year old than being the first breakthrough US soccer player.

It’s an admirable dream – but the rest of the world has their top athletes pursuing a soccer career since the time they are 7-8. Soccer is an afterthought to our best athletes by the time they are 9. The US team is made of up good players…but until our best athletes play the sport with proper training from a young age – we’ll always be a huge underdog.
Xanthippas @ June 29th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

BTW…enjoyed the soccer segment on the radio today. But I sure wish you didn’t have to spend half the time justifying why you should be talking about soccer to your co-host.

I really like your point about Dirk. I haven’t heard it articulated that way, but I agree completely. And I think it’s important for soccer fans like myself (who actually does follow our little domestic league) to be reminded that in about 3/4 of the nations of the world, their best players go to Europe as well, even in a soccer power house like Brazil. I think MLS has a lot of room for improvement, but it’s certainly unlikely to rival any major European league in our lifetimes.

Also, the conversation about whether soccer is going to take off in this country is moot. It HAS taken off, and is doing quite nicely. It doesn’t need to rival football, basketball or even hockey to succeed.
Justin Ransom @ June 29th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Bob, you are spot on! Hopefully ESPN buying the rights to EPL and La Liga matches will help to expose more American sports fans to the beautiful game at its best. I’m try to keep my expectations in check for 2010, but when I laid my head on my pillow and closed my eyes last night I kept hearing…USA USA!!!
JD @ June 29th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

I understand soccer is not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m not crazy about soccer myself – the flopping and diving and bellyaching of teams like Italy and Argentina really turns me off. But anyone who has to post here just to make fun of soccer or soccer fans is a loser.
Dave @ June 30th, 2009 at 9:55 am

I have long wondered what premier US athletes in other “major” sports would make soccer superstars. I have a few for you, Lebron as the next Pele, Juan Pierre as the speedy forward, Jason Varitek in his prime as the dependable defenseman, and Rick DiPietro in goal.

Anybody wanna take a crack at the Dream US Soccer Team lineup?
Barega @ June 30th, 2009 at 10:42 am

Well written, Bob, and very accurate in your line of thinking.
Gravypan @ June 30th, 2009 at 10:44 am

“Hopefully ESPN buying the rights to EPL and La Liga matches will help to expose more American sports fans to the beautiful game at its best.”

Just as a point of clarification, ESPN bought the UK only rights that Setanta used to hold. Setanta International still holds the international rights. And unless they go under, the only legal way you can watch the EPL here in the states is through Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta.
Gravypan @ June 30th, 2009 at 10:53 am

And I also agree with Alan Morris. I’m a little surprised that none of the English teams have setup any kind of a training program to develop the talent over here. I guess they’re content with using the MLS as their own developmental league considering the likes of Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey honed their skills there before heading overseas.

The reason that more people, like myself, follow the EPL and the European leagues and teams such as Real, Barca, AC Milan, etc. is because that’s where the highest quality of play is being found. Americans, by and large, won’t follow a particular sport unless we get to watch the best players on the best teams playing in the best leagues.
enderjed @ June 30th, 2009 at 11:43 am

A few things I hope don’t get written off as pure pedantry:
Bob, our American 1st division league is called MLS, not the MLS, just like baseball’s leagues are not collectively called the MLB. And the Nike Sports Bra Incident was an incident because Brandi Chastain removed her shirt to help market HER OWN BRAND OF SPORTS BRAS, not Nike’s.
GL, people in America already do watch soccer on teevee. So many of them do that MLS has several highly profitable contracts with various teevee providers, with names like ESPN, ABC, and Fox Soccer Channel, not to mention the Spanish-language stations (yes, Spanish speakers have money to spend, too). You might, if you’re a proud NTX native like me, be pleased to hear that FC Dallas is the first profitable pro soccer team in U.S. history, and their business model is being copied around the country to good effect. Check the attendance and teevee ratings in Seattle, where they have some other forms of sporting competition, if I’m not sorely mistaken. Building their own stadiums has been the key to profitability, something the old NASL never did.
Columbus Crew Stadium was the first, followed by naming-rights-sold stadiums Home Depot Center (home to LA Galaxy AND Chivas USA), Pizza Hut Park (FC Dallas), Toyota Park (Chicago Fire), Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (Colorado Rapids), BMO Field (Toronto FC), and Rio Tinto Stadium (Real Salt Lake). Red Bull Arena (New York Red Bulls) is under construction, opening next year along with expansion team Philadelphia’s Chester Stadium (Philly Union), and the Kansas City Wizards (named before the Washington basketball team) will be playing at Trails Stadium the following year.
This just in: MLS is both profitable and quickly expanding.
As for the defeat to Brazil on Sunday, don’t anybody sweat it. It was the first time our team has ever been on the same freaking field as a big trophy, so just to make it that far is an improvement over anything we’ve ever done. And I treat it like Michael Jordan’s Bulls losing to the Pistons. Jordan had to learn not only to be great, but also how to win. By beating Egypt and Spain, and being up 2 goals on mighty (MIGHTY) Brazil, the Nats learned that they CAN play with the big boys, and Brazil just showed them how to win. It was a lesson learned exactly on time to lead into next year’s tournament. You know, the big one.
More strong showings like this during WC qualifying might propel the US team into the top 8 of world rankings, and give them their best draw in South Africa 2010. Something to hope for, at least.
Gravypan, through the greatness of ESPN360.com, those games are available to anyone with a broadband internet connection to their computers. And to anyone with even a slight bit of technical know-how, from their computers straight to their HDTV’s.
Everyone: find a team, any team, anywhere in the world, and follow them. Finding a rooting interest, as Bob has done with Liverpool(?), is the quickest way to learning and loving soccer. And it’s not futbol. The UK is the only English-speaking nation in the world that does not call it soccer. And the next time a Brit gives you crap about it, remind them that word soccer was invented in England.
Justin Ransom @ June 30th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

“Just as a point of clarification, ESPN bought the UK only rights that Setanta used to hold. Setanta International still holds the international rights. And unless they go under, the only legal way you can watch the EPL here in the states is through Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta.”

Sorry, guess I needed to get my facts straight.
Scott @ June 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm

I agree that it is becoming increasingly obvious that international success is required to attract domestic interest in soccer. So here’s hoping that the US does well next summer, but I’m not holding my breath for an American superstar anytime soon. To appreciate how difficult a thing that is, realize that soccer is played on the world stage, with not one but several domestic leagues. So to be one of the very best players in the entire world is extremely rare. I think the US already had a very good field player in Claudio Reyna, who experienced a great European career. But you’d have to be one of the ten best players on the planet to break through to the US mainstream.
Jeff @ July 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am

I like your line of thinking on copying the Brasilian model. You mentioned the major sports getting the best athletes here in the US and soccer getting the leftovers. I think a big part of that is the money. If an athlete has a choice to make $5.3 million in the NBA a year (average) or make $120,000 in the MLS a year (average), most would choose the NBA.

Most Brasilians don’t have a chance to make much money locally. Brasil doesn’t have many professional sports either. Playing soccer overseas is their ticket to financial success. There is good money in the European leagues that can challenge the salaries in the NFL, NBA and MLB. Given a chance to play soccer abroad and make similar money to playing locally in one of the three major sports, most would choose to stay home and play.

Once MLS can improve their salaries to gain more national interest, we may start getting more athletes choosing soccer and potentially playing over in Europe. The problem is how to improve the salaries. I think you identified it in your column. The US needs a Tiger Woods/Michael Jordan/LeBron James for soccer similar to Kaka, Ronaldinho, Robinho, etc. for Brasil.
Kyle @ July 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 pm

I think the key to it becoming popular here is to develop a rooting intrest in a paticular team. For me it is Liverpool like Bob.I agree that Americans only like the highest form of anything, so if little by little people can find a Euro club to watch on FSC or the Champions Leauge on ESPN and care who wins then you get hooked pretty quickly.Obviously the USMNT doing well would help alot.As far as the amount of money that can be made by the top level players you might not can make that mush in MLS but just look at the extreme amounts the likes of Ronaldo and Kaka just signed for.
Daniel @ July 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am

Bob, I think you hit it dead on. I know I was a casual soccer fan, enjoying the MLS and the national team for several years. Now having FSC and Setanta, I have become a huge EPL fan. I have decided to be a Gunner for Life and I find myself reading soccer websites and following the beautiful game. Maybe ESPN or FOX Sports will start featuring weekly international soccer if the demand rises.

Keep up the good work. Love your stories.
Adam @ July 10th, 2009 at 7:17 pm

Great article.

Born and raised in Dallas, I couldn’t care less about soccer for the majority of my life. But after seeing a couple of Champions League matches a few years back, I’m now a diehard Gooner. My love for Arsenal has even surpassed my love for the Mavericks which makes no sense since I have no physical connection to Arsenal.

From personal anecdotes, I know a ton of people who have gotten into soccer just by catching Champions League matches or Euro 2008 last year. Soccer can grow exponentially more if ESPN manages to get the rights to broadcast the EPL in the states.

As for developing the youth system, here’s a recent article from a FANTASTIC soccer blog:

http://www.thisisamericansoccer.com/us-mens-national-team/where-have-you-gone-brad-friedel/
hattrick @ September 12th, 2009 at 9:23 am

Short story on why someone who LOVED the sport decided to give up on the MLS. I was at the Cotton Bowl on opening day back in the mid-nineties when the MLS get atrted. I only missed a couple games that year (cinco de mayo that year was an incredible experience). However, the next season, MLS decided to put their games on PAY PER VIEW! I couldn’t believe it, here’s a sport that struggles to make new fans in this country and what is their plan for growing the sport? PAY PER VIEW! So now a die-hard fan like myself had trouble keeping up with his home team’s games, how the he** did they expect NEW FANS to get on board?

I broke down and took my friends to a game a few years ago, but other than that – I have not beern to a game since the day MLS went PAY PER VIEW. If they are so short sighted (see: GREEDY) to have done something as stupid as that, then the sport has very little chance for growth in the US.

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