UpperTone said:
Serious question....
did anyone in the U.S. really give a shit about the world cup, or was it just a matter of rooting for the home team? Let's face it, most North American kids play soccer but give it up (if they're so athletically gifted) for a real sport (no offence intended to the rest of the world... I know "football" is a big part of your culture).
to answer your question,,YES, alot of americans follow soccer and support the US team in the US,,,,great article in the NYdaily news: (here it is)
Here's the deal: If you hate soccer, if you want it to go away and leave you alone, keep the opinion to yourself.
Don't tell me about it. Don't write about your animosity, trying forever to tilt the scales. Don't brag about your ignorance — not until you find a fresh, entertaining way to make your point.
And I don't think that can happen, because it's been done, and done to death, until it is now the worst cliche in American sports journalism.
Don't "nil-nil" me. Don't "immigrant" me. Don't "suburban white kids" me. Just don't do it anymore.
Because you're making a fool of yourself — on the radio, on the television, in the newspapers. You really are. The derision sounds stale and stupid. No matter what happens this morning between Germany and the U.S. — even if it turns into the dullest, zero-zero, penalty-kicking fiasco — the time for mockery is done.
Soccer wins. You lose. Shut up about it.
.
Take a look at the U.S. team at this World Cup. It is a montage of diversity, of different paths taken. There are the immigrants, like Pablo Mastroeni and Carlos Llamosa; the first generation players, like Claudio Reyna and Tony Sanneh. There are suburban kids, like Landon Donovan, and city kids, like DaMarcus Beasley.
There are blacks, whites, Hispanics. There are Christians and a Jew. There are big guys and little guys. Soccer is an egalitarian activity, reaching across both race and gender.
The U.S. national team is filled with New York locals. Llamosa lives on Long Island and survived the first World Trade Center attack nine years ago. Chris Armas, out with an injury, is Bronx-born and is living in Brentwood. Reyna and Tony Meola are North Jersey products. Clint Mathis plays for the MetroStars.
The coach, Bruce Arena, is Brooklyn-born and Long Island nurtured.
The sport has wormed its way into the vocabulary, inside the athletic-equipment stores in New York and elsewhere. Soccer moms. Handballs. Brazil jerseys. It is on cable channels, brightening the programming hours that would otherwise be filled with dangerous trashsport.
Cable networks, more than the World Cup or any youth league, are what have boosted spectator soccer, what will keep it alive. You want to make fun of the World Cup ratings? Go ahead. They're breaking records in the middle of the night, even if they aren't going through the roof.
Millions are watching at 3a.m. That's enough.
Here's another thing: You don't have to be afraid of soccer. Really. If you just go out and learn a few names, a few rules, you'll become one of America's great experts. As Mathis says, "If it's jumping on the bandwagon, who cares?"
Soccer isn't morally reprehensible, like boxing. It's not exploitative, like women's gymnastics.
It's not going to steal your NFL Sundays. It won't wreck the Mets vs. Yankees. Soccer is a niche sport in this country, like hockey or tennis or golf.
Do you really think every newspaper in New York should have four hockey writers, and zero full-time soccer writers? That will change, too. The MetroStar matches are drawing five-figure crowds. Those fans read newspapers, watch the TV news, buy merchandise, just like the hockey fans.
The MLS is losing money. There isn't enough coverage. But the journalists who won't get near the sport, who can't stop celebrating the Brooklyn Dodgers or reliving Ali-Frazier, will not be setting the agenda in 20 years.
"I hate to put it this way," said one soccer official in Seoul this week. "But basically we have to wait for these media gatekeepers to die of old age and be replaced by those who get it."
I like to think they can change sooner than that, at least enough to stop stomping on the game.
Not everybody likes every sport. As I grow older, I find myself enjoying frenetic events like hockey and pro football less and less. My metabolism fits best now with baseball, tennis and soccer.
I don't expect that to be true of everybody. There is nothing wrong with finding soccer dull and dreary. Some people need more of an adrenaline rush, a more concentrated fury. Others really do require more scoring. They don't have the patience for the cathartic goal.
Fine. Just don't complain to me anymore. After the U.S. successes at this World Cup, after the women's championship in '99, after the last 20 years, I shouldn't have to hear or read about it.
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