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Give soccer a chance Posted: Monday June 17, 2002 4:53 PMUpdated: Tuesday June 18, 2002 3:29 AM
If there were justice in the sports universe, the players from an amazing spring would momentarily step aside today. Zenmaster Phil and Shaq . Scotty Bowman . Barry Bonds . Curt Schilling . War Emblem. Lennox Lewis . Venus and Serena Williams . All would understand that what is taking place in the World Cup is just a little bit better than what they are doing or have done. Yes, even Tiger Woods should momentarily descend to the second step of the podium. The basics anybody should know by now: The U.S.'s 2-0 victory in the small hours of Monday morning, our time, put the American side in the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in 72 years. In a vacuum, this performance is staggering. Soccer is the province of other nations, where it is played and observed with passion. The United States has thrown numbers at the sport for several decades but failed to reach the grand stage. Now the national team is in the final eight of the biggest event in the world. The problem is, the World Cup is taking place in a vacuum, in many ways. The U.S.-Mexico match began at 2:30 a.m. EST; it was replayed at 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon. The World Cup has competed for airtime and column inches with the likes of the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup finals, U.S. Open golf, French Open tennis, Lewis- Mike Tyson , the horse racing Triple Crown. It has often been lost, and that is a terrible shame. There is, of course, a bigger problem, and that is the whole Soccer Issue.
Did you see the Letters section of the current Sports Illustrated? One guy thanked SI for doing a World Cup preview because it provided paper for his fireplace. Another said that there are three things that America can do without: socialism, the metric system and soccer. I am amazed that people can work up such a dislike for a game. Other letter writers complained that SI wrote too little in advance of the biggest sporting event on the planet. I understand the debate. Many Americans (OK, most Americans) dislike soccer (to varying degrees, ranging from apathy to anger) because it's a European/South American game with too little scoring, a flow of action that's not easy to understand, and, well, because it's not the NFL. Other Americans see the geometric beauty of the game and the athleticism required to play it well, albeit by normal-sized human beings (a nice plus, you've got to admit). American youth soccer is another matter altogether -- that works largely because soccer is a great game for kids, whether their parents want to watch it on television or not. I don't think the Like Soccer/Hate Soccer debate will ever be resolved. I don't think soccer will ever attract huge mainstream audiences on a regular basis in the U.S., for two reasons: 1) See above; 2) All sports in America are suffering a decline, as interests are spread thinner and the public turns away from millionaire superstars. TV ratings are shrinking everywhere. Agreed, the NFL is a machine. But after that? Never mind soccer -- if you want to see a struggling sport, check out Major League Baseball. On the day of such a monumental victory for Team USA, I don't think we should try to solve the soccer riddle. There are many great sports in the world at which Americans occasionally excel and bemoan the lack of knowledge and interest by the mass U.S. audience. Skier Bode Miller is a hero in Austria, a fringe athlete in his own country. Sprinter Maurice Greene can't go out in public in some European countries, but he can easily go to Wal-Mart in his hometown. None of that should diminish what these athletes do. I wouldn't ask NFL and golf and NBA and baseball fans to suddenly embrace soccer for life. That's a losing battle. But open your minds just a little. This is a very cool story and a very big accomplishment. Remember Lake Placid in 1980? Maybe that's where we're headed, and the parallel holds. Take a little bite of the forbidden fruit. You might like it. Then go back to eating steak if you want. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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