United States trails in soccer fervor
Photo by: Reuters
By Liz Reichart, A&E Editor
With the monumental World Cup Win of the US Women’s Soccer Team this past summer, it seems the sport has reached new heights of popularity within the United States. With new Major League Soccer Teams popping up in every city from coast to coast, including one in New York and Orlando just this year, it seems everyone wants to get in on the soccer action.
If you’ve been living in the United States during the past 20 years, you will know that this kind of fervor around soccer hasn’t always been the case. According to a Harris Interactive poll, soccer ranks about seventh or eighth in Americans favorite sports, behind both NASCAR racing and golf. A mere two percent would say soccer is their favorite sport. Puzzling figures considering the sports widespread popularity internationally, particularly in Europe and South America. Football on these continents is a way of life. Fans live and die with the successes and failures of their football clubs. When you compare the data collected by FIFA on number of soccer players to each country’s population, Costa Rica, Germany, and Guatemala come out on top. The United States doesn’t even make the top 10. Not to mention that the US Men’s World Cup team hasn’t been to a World Cup Semi-Finals (let alone the finals) since the very first World Cup in 1930. And there were only 13 teams competing that year, a drop in the bucket compared to the 53 teams that compete in qualifying rounds today.
This begs that rather obvious question as to why exactly has soccer not taken such a stronghold in the United States? Why is it that we Americans can’t muster up some spirit for soccer? Perhaps soccer just arrived in the United States too late in the game. As a game that developed in the English school system, soccer afforded cheap play and simple rules. The sport only grew in popularity as European cities grew and English Imperialism dominated in early twentieth century. By 1910, soccer was branded as a game for the workingman, and was associated with socialism. Deemed an unfavorable reputation by Americans, soccer may have never had a chance to get in on the ground floor. “In the United States, football, basketball and ice hockey compete with each other and it is difficult for soccer to gain any momentum in this crowded sports space,” says Stephan Schindler, PhD and Washington University professor who teaches a course on the global culture of soccer. Because soccer never had time to put its roots down, Americans don’t feel attachment to the pastime.
Some assert that it has to do with the American lifestyle not being conducive to the sport. Whereas Americans are thought to love violence, brute domination, and displays of physical prowess, the aim of soccer is to show dexterity and grace. Furthermore, as a society accustomed to the instant gratification of every want and need, America perhaps is bored by the 90-minute timed play where at the end of the match, the score can still be zero on both sides. It seems illogical that a country that favors golf over soccer could find the action-packed play lackluster. Moreover a sport’s popularity is rarely determined by the merits of the game itself. A sport’s popularity is above all cultural. Who among Americans identifies with the cultural experience of soccer? Compare the sport to America’s pastime- baseball. Everyone knows that when you go to a baseball game, you order peanuts and cracker jacks and a hot dog. You try to catch a foul ball, you stand up for the seventh inning stretch, and you wear the hat of your favorite team. We need soccer traditions. They do not come overnight or over many nights. It will take generations to build lifelong fans and make soccer more than a laughable sport in the US.
Only time will pull the MLS out of obscurity and international shame. Hopefully changing demographics, like the influx of immigrants from Latin America, and increased globalization will allow the United States to fall in love with soccer. But until that happens, Americans should be content to watch their Men’s World Cup Team barely scrape by in the preliminary rounds.