Welcome Aboard the Soccer Bandwagon, Team USA Fans
Bill Saporito
This longtime soccer nut extends a cautious greeting to the World Cup's new American fans
Sure we have a good chance to beat Belgium, the
guy was saying. I was eating dinner in a pub near my apartment, trying to pay
attention to the Yankee game, when this expert was offering his considered
opinion. Name a Belgian player, the soccer snob in me wanted to ask him. Name a
Belgian. I doubt he could. But then I realized what this really means. For
years, U.S. Soccer, MLS and other soccer organizations have been trying to coax
sports fans to become part of the global game. Now the light has gone on.
After years of interest ticking up, American
fans are rushing aboard the USA bandwagon, and I’m trying to get used to it.
Office work is stopping dead in its tracks when the U.S. plays, just like it
does in other countries when the World Cup is on. And in gyms, bars, and on web
sites, the chatter has turned to Jürgen Klinsmann’s lineup selection as well as
Clint Dempsey’s broken nose and Jozy Altidore’s wonky hamstring— as if those
guys were LeBron and Kobe. At the same time, it’s brought out a new group of
naysayers who love to bash the game—including my fellow columnist Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA great who says soccer doesn’t match our democratic ideal
that anyone can be a star. (In hoops, that means anyone who’s seven feet tall.)
As someone who has been deeply involved in the
game for decades as a player, coach and journalist, the newfound popularity of
the U.S. national team—19 million viewers for its last game—is a bit like
Charlie Brown finally kicking the football. (Yeah, that football. ) Now what?
It’s great to see that so many more people are appreciating the beauty of the
beautiful game. And this World Cup has been fantastic to date.
But it has always been so. In 1994, when the
Cup was here, the U.S. advance to the round of 16 was absolutely unprecedented.
That Colombia game? Amazing. But even though the stadiums were filled, most of
the country wasn’t paying attention. The killer win over Portugal in 2002? Hey,
we beat Portugal’s Golden Generation. And that 1-0 loss to Germany in the
quarters—we was robbed by that stinkin’ blind ref, remember? Nah, you don’t.
The game was broadcast at 4 a.m ET. Only the nuttiest of soccer nuts watched.
How about Landon Donovan’s last-gasp goal to sink Algeria in Pretoria, South
Africa in 2010? You were working that day, not watching.
And now you’re watching, not working. Bravo!
For me, the sea change began in the World Cup in Germany in 2006. When the U.S.
played Italy, the eventual champion, to a bloody 1-1 standstill in
Kaiserslautern, I watched the game from the stands with a large and noisy group
of Americans, who behaved like a large and noisy group of Europeans. Later, in
Nuremberg, I sat stunned at an outdoor cafe as Sam’s Army, the rapidly growing
U.S. fan club, paraded by toward the stadium for the game against Ghana. It was
doubly freaky—a march by U.S. soccer fans in Germany, but also along the same
street the Nazis had paraded along in 1937. Strange new world, indeed.
Part of me wants to go backward. Although I
grew up with the game—I lived in an immigrant-rich soccer hotspot as a kid—it
became apparent that I was part of a sporting cult rather than the mainstream.
Now that the tables are turning, I’m going to shut up and be happy listening to
people who don’t know anything about soccer talk about the World Cup as if
they’d actually seen more than one.
And as it turns out, the U.S. does have a
decent shot at beating Belgium. “We’ve been able to open some teams up,” said
U.S. goalie Tim Howard. “We’re not world-beaters yet, but we’re standing
toe-to-toe with some big teams.” After three difficult games, the Americans are
certainly pressure-tested. And as Howard has also noted, Belgium plays a style
that is fairly similarly to the Germans’. The Belgians are loaded with talent
such as Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City) and Marouane
Fellaini (Manchester United) . But they have hardly impressed in their group
games against Russia, South Korea and Algeria, three very ordinary teams.
The key will be possession. The U.S. gave the
ball away way too many times against Germany, which is why it often came back
down their throats. When that happens, it’s just a matter of time before you
surrender a goal. The same will be true against Belgium. The U.S. midfield, and
especially Michael Bradley, has to get locked on to the ball. The availability
of Altidore, a possession-minded forward, will help that cause, although he is
most likely to come on as a sub. But you know that now, don’t you? Welcome to
the bandwagon. Enjoy the game.
Bill Saporito, TIME,
June 30, 2014
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