- Get ready to see this picture a lot.
The “why America doesn’t love soccer” story is about as cliche as the “why Manchester United gets all the calls” story. They both might be based in fact, but there rarely is anything new in them.
So if you’re CNN, you think you’re being new by having a Brit write the story. He even tries to avoid condescension!
Sure, he hits all the bullet points — colonialism, the need for distinct American sports, the busy sports landscape, the growth of baseball and the pigskin game — but he also gives the obligatory history lesson about the 1950 upset over England.
There’s even an interview with one of the players, and I did learn a couple things from that piece, including the rematch at Yankee Stadium in 1953 that England won 6-3.
I have no real problem with these stories. We’re sure to see tons of them in the run-up to the June 12 battle royal. At the end of it all, though, soccer will still be a niche sport in the States, England will still remain the self-proclaimed heir to the soccer throne that hasn’t won anywhere but on home soil, and the match will have the appropriate scoreline for the day.
And when it comes down to it, some coverage is better than no coverage and way better than this coverage. So enjoy it.
wow, really makes some great arguments on that website
Not sure if the CNN article hurts or helps the cause. Got to love that last line from Bahr though.
Also, can’t help but begrudgingly respect the time and effort that went into the soccersucks site. The bad hair page wouldn’t be out of placer on a proper soccer blog.
@Daryl: agreed on both counts. I think the sucks site would actually be funny if done right. But it’s too vulgar and too homophobic to keep my attention.
I’m just glad no one linked to Jim Rome….I used to like him, and then I heard his opinion on soccer, and now I can’t stand him.
From the soccersucks website:
“Soccer apologists say the reason it is not popular in the US is because the US is not any good at that activity.
The US soccer team won the World Cup in 1991 and 1999. Better find another reason.”
way to cite the womans team’s victories…. and a “world cup” that has been around since 1991… 61 years after the mens world cup has started….
in conclusion… your soccersucks site sucks!!
The NCAA. Very rarely mentioned, yet the single most infuential of all the current factors position of soccer in the US sports landscape. Its the funnel for most American athletes into pro sports, and as long as scholarship and program money is apportioned based on revenue, kids will be attracted to/pushed/or guided into the big three, where the leap in revenue among NCAA sports is, obviously, quantum. In the endless debate, people often point to the fact that kids who are great athletes often drift away from soccer in HS. But that has little to do with some sudden loss of love for the game. If your best hope for getting into — and more importantly paying for — a good college, is your sport, I can’t fault them, or the coaches and guidance counselors that are advising them for thinking about their futures. In sports, money really is the root of all evil!