What World Cup 2010 Means for Soccer in America

June 25th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

donovan

As a football fan living in the US, I’m familiar with the mixture of antipathy and apathy that sometimes faces the beautiful game here. Or rather, I was familiar with it. Because all of a sudden everyone loves the World Cup and loves Team USA.

Two major reasons for this, as I see it. First reason is the success of the USA team. I don’t want to resort to cliches like “America loves winners”. Because that’s not helpful. But a successful team at the World Cup creates buzz and attention in any nation, and the US is not exempt. That’s why Landon Donovan’s late goal against Algeria was enough to make Donovan himself burst into tears. It didn’t just put USA through to the Round of 16, it also kept the nation interested in the World Cup and the beautiful game for at least another few days.

Second reason I see for the lack of apathy is that ESPN has – to quote Diego Maradona – put all their beef on the grill in broadcasting World Cup 2010. Hardcore soccer fans may not enjoy Alexi Lalas’ ramblings or Bob Ley’s refusal to pronounce Ruud Gullit’s name correctly. But at least there’s a pre-game show to complain about, and complaining about your broadcaster is a key part of being a soccer-crazed nation anyway. Every (or almost every) game is not only televised, but promoted too. I caught 30 minutes of the NBA Draft last night and at various points about 20% of the screen was dedicated to making sure viewers knew the USA vs Ghana and England vs Germany games were coming this weekend. This is serious.

Apparently 6.2 million people in the US watched USA 1-0 Algeria on ESPN, a record for a soccer match on the channel, plus a record number of online and mobile device viewers. Donovan and co. could be seen somewhere on the front page of most US newspapers the next day.

Throw in the power of social media like Twitter, which I’d argue is many times more disposed to covering soccer than mainstream outlets like newspapers, and you’ve got a recipe that smells like success for soccer in the USA.

But here’s the problem: The World Cup will be over in around two weeks time. Grumpy-pants like CNN’s Roland Martin are already making the argument that the World Cup is like the Olympics, where the US cares, but only once every four years.

To some extent, Martin is correct. Many Americans who have watched and enjoyed the World Cup will go back to ignoring the beautiful game until Brazil 2014. But some won’t. There will be many many people who were exposed to soccer because of the USA’s exploits at World Cup 2010, and will go on to watch MLS, the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and others.

So even if the USA’s run at World Cup 2010 doesn’t magically see soccer replace the NFL, NBA, baseball, hockey and NASCAR in the heart of Joe Six Packs, it’s still a massive stride forward for the sport. The length of that stride will depend on just how far the US goes in this tournament, starting with Ghana on Saturday. It’s like the Nike Write the Future ad come to life, except it’s the future of an entire sport at stake. No pressure then.

For more on the USA, visit USA World Cup Blog.

International Football News – World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Squizza

Why do you spend the entirety of the blog stating that football in the US is making slow but steady progress this World Cup then claim in the penultimate sentence that “it’s the future of an entire sport at stake”?

Given football has done fairly well without the US's marketing genius for some considerable time and that it is unlikely to die out even if the US are knocked out by Ghana, a good blog is undone by a bit of hyperbole.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Squizza, the slow and steady progress will continue, but surely World Cup success accelerates that progress?
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Also, to clarify, I don't mean to imply that soccer in America dies out if the US loses to Ghana. Just that the further the US goes in World Cup 2010, the more it benefits the sport. So it's all about making that upside even bigger by going even further.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CN75PY2YNV2VT5AN2GP6JRVAHQ Insomniac

ESPN and the majority of Americans seem to hate football (what Americans call soccer). The rest of the world likes it that way, let them stay focus on NFL, NBA, MLB, etc., anything that's only played in America.
Squizza

Thanks for the clarification, that's how I read it :)
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

No problem Squizza. The “future of an entire sport at stake” wasn't a great choice of words in hindsight. I'm happy to know someone's reading closely enough to take issue with one of the finer points like that.
http://inter.theoffside.com Johonna

I was pretty proud of my town because the local color ESPN kept switching to was a bar in Seattle. The place was PACKED at 7 am with fans. At least here in the Northwest, we like our football, er, soccer. whatever.
http://liverpool.theoffside.com EdLFC

But Daryl, without hyperbole how are we supposed to know if something's important?
Dzedo

Once American parents figure out how much $$$ the pro players in Europe make it will be all over. It will not be a game you have your kids play until they are old enough to play football, baseball, or basketball anymore.
Hockey was once a stupid game played by Canadians and the northern border states of the US…in 1980 that changed forever. 20 years later there are barely any Canadian teams left in the NHL.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

CAPS LOCK?
http://taoofbachelorhood.com/ Michael

If only ESPN could put SOME “beef on the grill” for MLS.

Let's hope there's at least a little “World Cup bounce,” coupled with a new-found attitude at Bristol.
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org sscouser

And then there is Jim Rome. Today he just gave another reason why he hates soccer. He said that now that it's win or go home some games will be decided by penalty shoot-outs.
mtlyons

The difference between now and previous World Cups, of course, is that the American public now has an opportunity to follow all those players we're seeing in the tournament once they go back to their clubs. Sixteen years ago, we all had a chance to watch great players in a great tournament on our home soil, but once the Cup ended we were left with nothing but a fledgling MLS (featuring no World Cup players outside of the US team) to tide us over for the next four years. Obviously, interest was going to wane. After this Cup ends, though, we'll be able to keep watching all of these players every weekend on Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN, GolTV, and all the various internet streams we're not supposed to know about.
mexico_Al

It's wonderful that nowadays I can have a conversation about the World Cup with just about anybody. I'm indifferent to what the US team does but many people that I know who never liked the sport before described the Algeria match as “amazing” because they felt the rush of a last minute winner in footie. Out of all these millions that watch, you'll have a chunk of them that will tune in to EPL matches and begin following a team (usually it's Man United, unfortunately).
http://www.mcalcio.com Marco P.

Bit by bit, USA are making baby steps towards becoming a “soccer-crazed nation” as Daryl put it. In effect, I don't believe it will become quite that (soccer will never outshine NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL etc.) but the progress is comforting.

This is a global, long-term phenomenon. The more youngsters start to practice the beautiful game, the more the quality of US soccer will increase as these kids reach ripe age, get drafted into the MLS, and then go on to Europe to further their careers. However as Daryl suggested, this trend is no doubt amplified proportionately to Team USA's progress at World Cups. Women's soccer history strongly suggests this: everyone remembers Team USA's 1999 win (and associated Brandy Chastain black-top celebration) and the soaring effect it had on the development of women's soccer in the United States. Well, nothing's stopping the same thing from happening for men's soccer.

The only obstacle obviously, is Team USA's own technical limitations against the more technical and more experienced soccer nations of the world. But for the very first time in years (thanks also to a favorable playoff bracket), the US have a strong strong chance of achieving at least a semi-final berth. So who knows… one can dream.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/DLEDMMPQL4UWF2PRY3UFL4H6PU Dick

i am a Ghanaian living in USA, as much as i'll like to support Ghana in the coming Ghana vs USA Game. I'll rather USA if that means Soccer will be patronized little bit more in USA. people in this country are too Ignorant about the beautiful Game and it time. it about that time.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ENTL3EDELYGWKEHHZT25N3IF2E Jason B

What does this world cup “success” mean for USA soccer?

NOTHING. don't forget that we had similar TV ratings in 2006 world cup. in the last game when USA played, Nielsen reported a rating of 17 million (on ABC only, not including mexican TV channels). this compared with 2010 USA/Ghana's 19 million. the increase is not significant.

reality is, we have heard this over the last 35 yrs that soccer is “up and coming”, or “it is getting very popular”, or “USA will do better in the next world cup”… all these for 35 years. like Frank deFord said on NPR/PBS, most kids played soccer when they were teens but once they grew up, they “moved on” to other sports and totally gave up soccer. just like T Ball. you don't play T ball once you grow up. soccer is like T ball in US.