Guardian Optimistic About US Future

Great article. I wasn’t even bored once reading it.

Daryl, I’ve perused several (most) of the other blogs here at WCB.com, and I’ve got to hand it to you - you pick out the best stuff. Keep up the good work.

Posted from  United States

i think Steve Wells of The Guardian had more than a few before he wrote his article. Just because football games in the US are already better attended than in most European countries while the grassroots game continues to explode” does NOT in any manner indicate “that the US will soon be a soccer superpower”. One swallow does not make a summer.

Posted from  Australia

Do they play football in Australia? And I don’t where you get your info, but a swallow usually makes my summer.

Cheers and good luck beating out Croatia and Japan to advance with a solid seconf place finish in the group!

One more thing. Do you consider Australia a country or a continent; it’s just something that has bothered me for a long time, mate!

Typical American, Mike, you have to ask if Australia is both a country and a continent? Knowledge of the world, for Americans, is limited to their country. Australia is both, for your information, and it definitely is not the centre of the universe as most Americans think of their country. Just in case you don’t know, like most Americans I have met, the name America comes from an Italian explorer, mate! PS. One swallow does not make a summer, is a saying, and it appears you didn’t get it. Look it up and learn something.

Posted from  Australia

Enzo,

Take it easy there. If you read Mike’s post he wished Australia good luck, and then asked you a friendly question. Definitely no need to attack him and the entire country of America.

Australians and Americans should stick together. We’re two of the very few countries in the world that have to call it soccer.

Posted from  United States

Hi Daryl,

I appreciate your conciliatory letter but Mike has brought it upon himself. His letter is sarcastic in many parts, and sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Why open with an idiotic question: “Do they play football in Australia?”. If we didn’t play football we wouldn’t be playing in the World Cup. The question was nothing but a show of contempt. I do not consider the question “Do you consider Australia a country or a continent” friendly. It either proves Mike’s ignorance, which I don’t think he is, or it’s just more contempt.

Posted from  Australia

Enzo,
I think he was joking about a “swallow” making his summer… think about it. And yeah, he was trying to be nice. There’s no need to wish ill on anybody in the tournament, much less a team that’s never even come all that close to winning it.

When the Americans go out, whenever that may be, I’ll be happy to root for someone else, probably whoever has the worst shot of winning, just because I love an underdog. Maybe it’ll be Australia.

The speed of your response is appreciated. And, if as you claim, Australia is both a country and continent, where, may I ask, does your sense (grasp (?)) of history - historiography, if you prefer - come from? May I remind you mate, or good buddy, as the poorly educated American truck divers and union construction workers prefer, the concept of continents is derived from a European (read, western) perspective. Your simple, yet simultaneously invigorating response, speaks to your own “typical” nature and/or lack of any sense that most, if not all, other nations/countries feel strongly for their homeland and are offended when a “typical” outsider, as you are, voices his/her antagonism towards my place of birth. Australia, may I remind you, was founded as a hiding place for English criminals, convicts, and others whose families wished to forget about them. If that is not something to be proud of I don’t know what is. If this, as I’m sure most other historical misunderstandings I hold onto, stems from my inherent stupidity as a “typical” American citizen than I apologize. Perhaps I would be better served to concentrate on some of the highly intellectual exports of your native land: “aussie rules football”, a poorly constructed cricket team, or, perhaps the greatest achievement of your founding brothers, the beautiful and highly charismatic, Dame Edna. If my statements lack the intelligence that your unnecessarily rude response contained or, which is probably more likely, you simply don’t appreciate my writing, than, I hope, you will at least give credit to the American soccer team and, I hope with even more veracity, that you will rethink your opinion of me and the other “typical” Americans who peruse this site.

That being said, I still have a few “typical American” questions for you. 1) Does the water really flush in the opposite direction in Australia? 2) What ever happened to the aborigines? 3) Forget golfing ability, who do you think is better looking; Aaron Baddelley or Greg Norman? 4) Do you really enjoy that nasty black stuff on your toast? 5) Do you drink a sixer of Fosters and throw your boomerang at your girlfriend?… Sorry, if this bothers you, I only ask because I am just a “typical,” uneducated American who views the rest of the world as his stomping ground.

I’m going to ignore the personal debate that is going on here and actually address the article. I have to agree with Enzo, Wells must have had a few pints before he wrote this. The article is well written but he doesn’t offer any proof about his hypothesis. “A glance at the stats (pro-soccer in the US is already better attended than in most European countries while the grassroots game continues to explode) tells you that the US will soon be a soccer superpower. And when that happens this intensely patriotic country will - for the first time ever - have a men’s sports team that can consistently kick international ass (the US women’s soccer team has been doing it for years). And that’s not going to be pretty. There’ll be nothing ‘plucky’ about it. Just the brutal application of raw demographic power.” This is as close to proof as he offers. Football teams win games based on players not fan interest. The US has certainly improved over the last twenty years or so, but the bottom line is the US is still quite a few yrs away from having a realistic chance at winning the WC, much less kicking ass or dominating. They have some very serious structural hurdles to overcome before they can even hope to live up to his predictions. Just to give a couple of examples, until the pro teams have “junior” teams and youth teams have former pro players as coaches instead of parents, the US is at a huge disadvantage. For all their on the field “progress” look at just how many world class players they have produced in the last 20 yrs. I could go on but I will leave you with this question, who is the greatest US player EVER? That should make you realize just how far they need to progress…
-Tony

Forca Portugal!

Posted from  United States

Well, Mike, your last paragraph in your letter of 3.22am proves my point. It’s full of puerile sarcastic questions. No need to go further with this, really. We have clearly demonstrated we sit on opposite sides of the fence.

Posted from  Australia

Soccer in German-American Relations

1. Celebrating German-American Friendship!The Berlin chapter of the Fulbright Alumni invites everybody to a German-American Soccer World Cup Game Watching Party for the match USA vs. Italy. The party will start on Saturday, June 17th, 8:00 pm at Rock Berl

Posted from  Germany

I don’t see the necessary cultural shift taking place for the US to become like Brasil in football. I do see us becoming more competative at the international level to the point that we are always favorites to advance from group play and well into the knockout rounds at the World Cup. I just hopw that we can begin to conduct our international affairs in a manner that would allow the rest of the world to appreciate a high-quality US side if and when it arrives, instead of being for whomever we are playing just because it’s us involved.

It’s pretty interesting being a soccer fan in America. It’s like carrying around this great secret or speaking a wonderful language that noboby else knows. I’m on pins and needles waiting for the U.S.’s first game on Monday and I would venture to say that a good 95% of the people I know are not even aware the Cup starts this Friday. I like that our team is hard working, modest, and real without a lot of the pomp and overblown ego you find in more-established American sports. But internationally, soccer is where the money is at, and America will come to feed at the trough…

Posted from  United States

Tony O,

You’re right that the US is still a few years away from seriously competing for a World Cup, but isn’t every country with the exception of about 5 or 6 at least a few years away from competing for a world cup. In fact, I think there’s only ever been 6 countries to win the tournament in history. The point of the article is not to say the US is going to begin its domination now or in 2010 or even 2014, but the US will emerge as consistently one of the top 3-4 teams in the world, and legitamately compete for the World Cup every four years. I don’t think the US will ever dominate world soccer, just like I don’t think Brazil or Italy or Germany or England will ever dominate world soccer over an extended period of time again. Parity will continue to increase as more countries and more people continue to play the game.

However, the fact that attendance for pro soccer is up is important to the growth of the sport in this country. It will attract better players to the league and in turn attract a greater portion of the large number of great athletes in America to play soccer. Junior teams will come, right now they’re trying to build the foundation for a competitive league and restricting teams with money from dominating and destroying the league. The reason youth teams have parents instead of former players as coaches is because so many less people played soccer 20-30 years ago than now in this country. When this generation are the parents there will be an abundance of experienced players coaching the youth teams.

No country has improved over the past 20-25 years as much as the US has. Some teams have had some amazing runs out of nowhere in the World Cup, but the US is clearly the next major player in the international soccer world and there are too many people who are afraid or unwilling to admit that.

Posted from  United States

Excellent article but I don’t think the “US as world soccer superpower” movie will be released in my lifetime or beyond. Soccer, in this country, will always be a niche sport and simply by virtue of TV money will not be able to compete with the big three established American sports. Soccer will continue to grow and we will be have a better professional league etc…but it’s going to take a REALLY long time before we become a superpower (see–win the World Cup) regardless of Sunil Gulati saying we will win one in his lifetime. And God knows I hope we do but I’m being realistic.
Enough of the Aussie - Yank disputes. We are much more similar countries than different. Australia is the only other country besides the US to have it’s own version of football and at least their entire country has gotten behind the Socceroos — here most people STILL don’t even know the World Cup is happening or don’t care and can’t name one player on our own team. My attitude toward these fellow Americans of mine is not to explain (again) what it’s all about but rather f*#k em. They’ll come along or they won’t — it really doesn’t matter.
The blog comment is right on - this is the best one I’ve come across. One blog in particular that illustrates this American soccer-antisoccer battle is at ajc.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) where it’s reduced to “I hate soccer/soccer is a pussy sport” versus “shut up you stupid rednecks”. Unfortunately that’s still where the debate lies in this country and probably will for some time.

Posted from  United States

The article is a great article. The Guardian is by far (in my opinion & I lived in London for 2 years) the best newspaper in the UK. Their writers are excellent.

This article is at times a little tongue in cheek, a little sarcastic but I think he is not far off the point. It’s just about breaking the mentality here in the States (and this may not be easy). I am pumped for this WC, I’m an Aussie (lived here in US for almost 2 years) and I can’t wait to watch my country participate in this great event. But when I talk to my workmates they are like, what, the WC, what’s that. Or soccer, that’s a sissy sport or how can you watch a game that scores once every hour or not at all. And interestingly, some of these comments are from people who have played soccer before.

In general, it does not feel like a WC is upon us. I know back home people are going nuts for the Socceroos. Here, most people in general don’t want to know about it. The only people I can talk to about the WC are foreigners like myself.

My point is, I reckon if the mentality here in the States changed and people started to become more familiar and associated with soccer, USA could really become a big player in world football. They will always be in the WC and have a decent national league (MLS). At the grassroots level there are more people playing soccer.

And guys, I understand both Enzo’s and Mike’s side of the story. Sometimes it’s hard to understand if someone is really taking the piss out of you or serious (when it’s in writing) as you don’t always know the tone its written in. And Mike, your end questions, I still don’t know if you’re taking the piss or want a serious answer (on at least some of those questions) because I do get asked some of these questions in all honesty. And you know, it’s cool that people here are interested in Australia. Compliment.

But Deano is right, we should stick together as we both love the underdog and this we are.

Good luck to USA (in such a tough group).

Posted from  United States

I understand why the Socceroos decided to leave the “Oceania” region, and join another confederation.

You guys should have joined CONCACAF instead of Asia, though… that would have been neat!

Isn’t flying from Australia to LA about the same distance as flying from Australia to, um, Bahrain?

Good Luck — here’s hoping we can square off against each other in the knock-out round!

Posted from  United States

Chuck, interesting point. I never thought of it that way (joining CONCACAF). would’ve definately made that confederation stronger. FIFA might as well amalgamate OCEANIA into another confederation.

I guess we are in Asia due to business reasons. Comes down to money again now innit.

A second-round showdown would be good, although, I don’t know too many people other than us supporters who would pick that.

The popularity of professional American soccer is not as important as some may think. The quality is good but we should never hope or expect to attract players on the level of the European Premiere Leagues. The best talent belongs in Europe. Allow me to compare soccer to baseball. They both are played professionally in many countries throughout the world. Great talent emerges from every end of the globe and, in baseball, that talent plays in America. The best soccer talent goes to Europe. We just experienced our first World Baseball Classic. Who won? Japan. The Japanese have a good professional league but their best talent comes to America. The US soccer players have, will, or could play in Europe. Our interest in professional American soccer is not what we need to improve upon. It is our interest in professional European football that needs to improve. The Japanese take vacations to Seattle to simply watch Ichiro play live. How many of us have gone to see a Fulham or a PSV game? When Americans see the name ‘Henry’ and think of a last name – or when Americans see the name ‘Ronoldo’ and wonder, “which one” – or when ‘Messi’ is no longer an adjective, we will be on the road to being a great soccer country.

Posted from  United States