Is the US finally going World Cup mad?

[Loki]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10422361.stm

Is the US finally going World Cup mad?

Millions in the US will watch as the national team takes on Ghana in the second round of the World Cup, so has the usually football-ambivalent nation changed its mind?

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48181000/jpg/_48181174_ldjaal_getty_226.jpg

Landon Donovan's fame is growing

Football fans are really starting to wonder whether this is finally "it".

The "it" in question is the moment that the US finally embraces football.

There are plenty of clues that World Cup fever is spreading to the US. Go to places like New York or Washington DC and bars have been opening at 0700 to cater for thirsty fans.

In New York, business at bars showing the football has been brisk. Jack Keane, owner of Nevada Smiths, a specialist football bar for 20 years, has been packing them in throughout the tournament.

"The World Cup brings mainstream America into the picture. There are people coming in here who have never watched football before."

There have been big crowds at outdoor screenings. Thousands turned up for the US-England clash at Dupont Circle in the centre of Washington.

And the viewing figures certainly seem to suggest that interest is intensifying.

More (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10422361.stm)

[Eldritch]

After the US beats Ghana today the interest will only intensify, but then end just as suddenly when the US is knocked out. Thus speaks Swami Eld.

Mainstream Americans just aren't that interested in international sports, if the ice hockey world cup is anything to go by at least.

[Cato]

Only because the U.S. is doing well. Otherwise, what interest would there be?

[Amapola]

I have that sense :D; most of my American friends comment about it and bring the topic up often but then they don't admit "they are starting to enjoy the exciting feeling of "football".

It cracks me up :)

[Norse Sword]

The Sports fans of the USA are Fickle. Even if they won the whole thing, It will be a forgotten memory in two weeks. The same thing happened to their European Culture, after it Forged one of the Greatest Nations on Earth, it was cast aside for hedonism and excess.

[antonio]

Modern football is to be providentially saved by three important "tribes" :D of our little world:

1) Women
2) Yankees
3) Charlies

And what a pity it will be!

Ps. Id say that there's no world cup match till now I've watched entirely . :coffee:

[RoyBatty]

There are plenty of clues that World Cup fever is spreading to the US. Go to places like New York or Washington DC and bars have been opening at 0700 to cater for thirsty fans.

In New York, business at bars showing the football has been brisk. Jack Keane, owner of Nevada Smiths, a specialist football bar for 20 years, has been packing them in throughout the tournament.


The answer is in the section of the article which I highlighted. The answer is NO, the USA is not going World Cup Mad.

The coastal metropolises and immigrant magnets like New York / BosWash or Miami or LA are not really that "American" imo. The real test would be to determine whether the locals in Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, Alabama and such places are going football ("soccer") mad.

I sincerely doubt that they are.

[antonio]

I have that sense :D; most of my American friends comment about it and bring the topic up often but then they don't admit "they are starting to enjoy the exciting feeling of "football".

It cracks me up :)

Maybe it's hard to admit you had been wasted valuable time of you life with boring when not claustrophobical sports like baseball, american football, basketball, hockey, volleyball (and a long etcetera)...when you could had been admiring cracks like Van Basten, Gullit, Platini, Cruyff, Giggs or Rummenigge playing the real McCoy of team sports. And just for being born on a particular and peculiar place called USA. :D

[Eldritch]

The answer is in the section of the article which I highlighted. The answer is NO, the USA is not going World Cup Mad.

The coastal metropolises and immigrant magnets like New York / BosWash or Miami or LA are not really that "American" imo.

Don't forget Atzlá ... eh, California. Bocanegra, Torres, Goméz ... ;)

[antonio]

Don't forget Atzlá ... eh, California. Bocanegra, Torres, Goméz ... ;)

Just wishful thinking: just check out French or England national teams. In fact, at France comparison, USA got a fair number of AngloSaxon-Germanic selected. Nice try, boys! :D

[Cato]

I have that sense :D; most of my American friends comment about it and bring the topic up often but then they don't admit "they are starting to enjoy the exciting feeling of "football".

It cracks me up :)

I don't like soccer and I'll never like soccer.

In fact, I don't care about any sport at all.

[Piparskeggr]

My favorite sports involve:

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/images/graemlins/default/711_smiley_shooting_rifle.gif

http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Leisures_and_Sports/archery-095.gif

http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/misc/smiley-vault-misc-027.gif

[Norse Sword]

My favorite sports involve:

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/images/graemlins/default/711_smiley_shooting_rifle.gif

http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Leisures_and_Sports/archery-095.gif

http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/misc/smiley-vault-misc-027.gif


Fencing is awesome.

[Piparskeggr]

Fencing is awesome.

As with all of my athletic endeavors, I was a good fencer, but by no means a world beater :D

I did make it to the New England regional championships my junior year in college; missed going to the Junior Olympics qualifying round by 1 bout. I was our "A" epeeist, converted from saber just 2 months before.

Also participated in SCA "heavy combat" for the better part of 20 years...my favorite combo was Roman scutum and single-handed axe.

[la bombe]

Well, I know I just watched a full soccer game today for the first time ever in my life.

I doubt the US will ever go truly "mad" over the sport, but if the US made it fairly far, there would definitely be heightened interest. I know I would watch.

[poiuytrewq0987]

Considering how the US was just eliminated I would say no. :)

[Austin]

No. U.S. just lost. Watch the viewership dwindle to under 20% of what it was in the U.S.

It was hyped here as a sort of "global feel-good" thing to watch but other than that most in U.S. still view it as amusing at best.

Like my brothers who are sports junkies watched it because the U.S. was playing. They payed close attention to it as did my dad, then the instant U.S. lost they flipped the channel and that was the end of that. They really had no interest in soccer, just the idea of the U.S. playing. Sports zealots in the U.S. have so many native sports to choose from and monitor that it is hard for them to dedicate themselves to a game which is not domestically popular/supported in the slightest.

[Eldritch]

I doubt the US will ever go truly "mad" over the sport, but if the US made it fairly far, there would definitely be heightened interest. I know I would watch.

That's just the problem in my opinion. If Americans support their team only when it's doing particularly well, they might as well not support it at all. It's just not possible to maintain constant interest of that kind in football, which is a sport that just about every country in the world plays. It would be healthy and edifying for some Americans to get a taste of the outside world even if it's via world cup football, but again, I doubt it'll happen in any significant scale.

[la bombe]

That's just the problem in my opinion. If Americans support their team only when it's doing particularly well, they might as well not support it at all. It's just not possible to maintain constant interest of that kind in football, which is a sport that just about every country in the world plays. It would be healthy and edifying for some Americans to get a taste of the outside world even if it's via world cup football, but again, I doubt it'll happen in any significant scale.

I honestly don't see the tragedy in the idea that soccer will never be national sport here in the US. We're a huge country so there are of course millions and millions of people who ARE interested in it (although many, if not most, are Latin American in my personal experience). But if most people aren't, there isn't much that can be done about it, and I don't view that as a "problem". It's just not a part of our national identity, nor do I see why it would need to be.

[Beorn]

Bit cheeky in saying it, but, the Yanks will never adopt football as the game of the masses because the word 'world' actually means THE WHOLE WORLD in football. :D

[Piparskeggr]

I prefer to get my "taste of the outside world" by conversing with folks across the globe, rather than "watching" grown men play at children's activities upon a nicely mown lawn.

[Austin]

It has a lot to do with what sports have been emphasized in United States high schools throughout U.S. history and even today. Those are #1 American football, #2 Baseball, and #3 Basketball with soccer/tennis/golf coming in a very distant fourth and being largely trivial in American high school culture.

Everyone goes to football games primarily, with mixed attendance at basketball/baseball games and very little interest in the other sports altogether. Tennis and golf are more avidly followed than the soccer team at most high schools among whites. Mexicans are the ones who prefer soccer and popularize it here in the U.S., most whites could care less.

[Eldritch]

I honestly don't see the tragedy in the idea that soccer will never be national sport here in the US. We're a huge country so there are of course millions and millions of people who ARE interested in it (although many, if not most, are Latin American in my personal experience). But if most people aren't, there isn't much that can be done about it, and I don't view that as a "problem". It's just not a part of our national identity, nor do I see why it would need to be.

I didn't mean that it's a problem that football isn't popular in the US, I meant that the US team will (probably) never be succesful enough to maintain the type of mini-surge in popularity we've seen recently all the time.

[Beorn]

I prefer to get my "taste of the outside world" by conversing with folks across the globe, rather than "watching" grown men play at children's activities upon a nicely mown lawn.

Go to an away football tournament, or an away game, and see who you can meet before judging it so harshly. The sport means life and death to some, and to others it is simply an excuse to see the world and experience a part of the local culture. To most it is both.


most whites could care less.

It's 'couldn't care less'.

[Eldritch]

I prefer to get my "taste of the outside world" by conversing with folks across the globe, rather than "watching" grown men play at children's activities upon a nicely mown lawn.

Notice that I said "even if it's via world cup football". ;)

[Eldritch]

It has a lot to do with what sports have been emphasized in United States high schools throughout U.S. history and even today. Those are #1 American football, #2 Baseball, and #3 Basketball with soccer/tennis/golf coming in a very distant fourth and being largely trivial in American high school culture.

Everyone goes to football games primarily, with mixed attendance at basketball/baseball games and very little interest in the other sports altogether. Tennis and golf are more avidly followed than the soccer team at most high schools among whites. Mexicans are the ones who prefer soccer and popularize it here in the U.S., most whites could care less.

Now that we're on the topic of other sports ... where on that map would ice hockey fall? I'm assuming it isn't super popular anywhere in Texas, but afaIk in other parts of the US it's among the main team sports.

[Austin]

Now that we're on the topic of other sports ... where on that map would ice hockey fall? I'm assuming it isn't super popular anywhere in Texas, but afaIk in other parts of the US it's among the main team sports.

No it isn't popular here really, I know it exists up north but still doesn't come close to the big three football/basketball/baseball.

[antonio]

It has a lot to do with what sports have been emphasized in United States high schools throughout U.S. history and even today. Those are #1 American football, #2 Baseball, and #3 Basketball with soccer/tennis/golf coming in a very distant fourth and being largely trivial in American high school culture.

Everyone goes to football games primarily, with mixed attendance at basketball/baseball games and very little interest in the other sports altogether. Tennis and golf are more avidly followed than the soccer team at most high schools among whites. Mexicans are the ones who prefer soccer and popularize it here in the U.S., most whites could care less.

Soccer is the sport from all you cited, where pure physical strength (being determinant) (and excluding resistance for being a mainly unrelated quality) is more easibily overcoming by mental skills like inteligence, mental speed or...trickery. No wonder Mexicans dispise the others. In fact, I did it too: I never practice with joy other sports from soccer, running and road bking. SOB teachers at High School tried hard to favoured handball, basketball, even rugby...with little success for what I remember and for the primary cause I cited: soccer is the more inclusive (being physically demanding too) of the games you cited.

[la bombe]

It has a lot to do with what sports have been emphasized in United States high schools throughout U.S. history and even today. Those are #1 American football, #2 Baseball, and #3 Basketball with soccer/tennis/golf coming in a very distant fourth and being largely trivial in American high school culture.

Everyone goes to football games primarily, with mixed attendance at basketball/baseball games and very little interest in the other sports altogether. Tennis and golf are more avidly followed than the soccer team at most high schools among whites. Mexicans are the ones who prefer soccer and popularize it here in the U.S., most whites could care less.

I wouldn't put tennis down so far on the list. It's not as huge as the Big 3 American sports but it's definitely still fairly popular. Most Americans would be able to name far more tennis players than soccer players I think.


I didn't mean that it's a problem that football isn't popular in the US, I meant that the US team will (probably) never be succesful enough to maintain the type of mini-surge in popularity we've seen recently all the time.

Personally my interest in any team sport outside of basketball only goes as far as the hotness of the players. So if the US keeps producing really attractive players a la Carlos Bocanegra, then I will keep watching :D

[Eldritch]

Personally my interest in any team sport outside of basketball only goes as far as the hotness of the players. So if the US keeps producing really attractive players a la Carlos Bocanegra, then I will keep watching :D

What about the coach, Bob Bradley?

At least if he ever loses his job, he could get another one playing SS officers in WW2 movies.

http://associationfootball.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/bob-bradley-usa-soccer-coach.jpg

[jerney]

What about the coach, Bob Bradley?

At least if he ever loses his job, he could get another one playing SS officers in WW2 movies.

http://associationfootball.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/bob-bradley-usa-soccer-coach.jpg

I thought the same exact thing

[Piparskeggr]

Good afternoon;


Go to an away football tournament, or an away game, and see who you can meet before judging it so harshly. The sport means life and death to some, and to others it is simply an excuse to see the world and experience a part of the local culture. To most it is both.

Heck, if the US military couldn't get me "rah-rah," I don't see me getting excited over following a team of athletes.

It is not the sort of community dynamic, which reaches me.

I have never been very into being a fan, either of watching sports or being part of a large crowd. I prefer my interactions to be on a scale were I can actually converse with the folks around me.

The closest I come to being a fan is my preference for the music of Blue Öyster Cult. But, even there it is more a personal connection. I have become acquainted with Don Roeser, their lead guitar player. I will not call it friendship, but we have conversed several times over the past 30-some years.

I feel no commonality with anyone who ties up their self so much that the outcome of a sporting event is "life and death;" isn't feeling like that just a little pathetic? ...and pitiable?

I have enthusiasms, but they are centered around family and friends, and things, which have an actual effect upon my life.

An anecdote might help. One day I was leaving the store where I work at the end of my shift. I heard my name; two of the 20-something cashiers were talking in the next aisle (our shelf racking is almost 12' [4 m] high). One young woman asked the other if I were married. The reply was; "Married, Steven is beyond married. Ask him about his wife, he glows when he talks about her."

It was a nice double boost: a cute, 20-something woman was interested in me (who had just turned 50 at the time), plus the attachment I felt and demonstrated for my wife was appreciated.

So, there is were my enthusiasms lie...

[Piparskeggr]

Notice that I said "even if it's via world cup football". ;)

I did notice :p

It's like, in my view, telling Europeans that they can get the true flavor of the US by attending one of those useless NASCAR races.

[Austin]

I can get into watching a particular game if it has significance, yet I agree wholeheartedly Ullar.

Sports have become a drug for the the masses to forget and ignore all things of relevance to their actual lives. Sports breed moderateness and indifference among the masses to such an extent that most care about nothing in particular other than their trivial stupefying sport which robs them of their identity on every mental level.

[Beorn]

I feel no commonality with anyone who ties up their self so much that the outcome of a sporting event is "life and death;" isn't feeling like that just a little pathetic? ...and pitiable?

Us English have been booting balls from one village to the other in attempts to have the right to be distinguished as the better village. All that's changed today is the rules, the overbearing Middle Class culture creeping(creeped) in side-by-side with the vast amounts of money, and the fact that it isn't villages anymore but whole towns and cities and, from the 30s onwards, whole nations.

Football, and the deep emotions it inspires, go hand in hand I'm afraid. That's football. The beautiful game. The funny old game. The only game.

A win or loss tomorrow means so much to so many millions in England. For 90mins you could invade us and we wouldn't care less. :D


Sports have become a drug for the masses to forget and ignore all things of relevance to their actual lives.

'Become'? It has always been a drug for the masses.

[Tony]

I remember in the late 80s they broadcasted even here the MISL (Major Indorr Soccer League) , it was very entertaining.
BTW it's now more than 30 years they've been triyn' to bring soccer into USA , the traditions of the Big Four is really strong but I'm optimist , look at how big the soccer female movement has became.
Sooner or later the men will follow.

ps Austin and Ullarskald take it easy , there's a difference between being a regular supporter who enjoy a good soccer match and a maniac fan or a hooligan.

[Austin]

Even though this guy is a conservative guy big-time, his analysis on Americans and soccer is accurate.o66SwDndUTU

[Svarog]

People are going way to far, love it or hate it, football in Europe is beyond just sport, and being the fan of particular football club or a national team is not about jerking off on those 11+3 players that will run on the pitch but what they represent. Sacredness of your team colour, pride they give you and emotions they carry - players change, they get and lose an honour but the colours are still there. And.. to be honest I don't expect you to understand it but that's how it is and we love it.

Often through football two sides got to compete in way more than just a ball game, take Celtic and Glasgow Rangers for example; battle between Catholicism against Protestantism packed in so much nicer picture than blood spilling, just a win in old firm fills hearts of thousands with indescribable joy I had luck to witness, for me it was weird but for them it makes perfect sense and means more than one not from there can understand.

Examples are dozens, Basque Atheltic Bilabao or Catalonian Barcelona vs Royal real Madrid for example or 'class' difference teams, rich vs working class ones, examples are numerous in England or France.

Civilized way to beat your opponent in a fair ball game and go home happy, celebrate or cry, either way have strong emotions most people could not even imagine, it builds up character to honorably take and overcome the defeat and not to get carried away with a victory.

My team, Partizan Belgrade, have 75+ years of tradition, some clubs have 100+ years of tradition, my father and grandfather supported the same club, my children may or may not do it but it's not childish, it's part of the life style.

[Piparskeggr]

Just a point of clarification...I wholly understand the connection that folks can feel towards a sports team, especially if they have been a facet of family and community interest for 2,3 4 or more generations.

My grandfather Harold was a lifelong Red Sox Fan, having been a boy of 11 when they won the "World Series Championship" of professional American baseball in 1918. He lived and died with their win-loss balance. We buried him with a Red Sox hat and a ball signed by his favorite player, Ted Williams (the Pele of baseball ,-)...he died at age 82, never having seen them win another championship like that.

I have long posited that man is by nature a tribal animal and that being able to identify with a team (its history, achievements, colors and so forth), fills a need not met by modern society.

The metaphor implied in Svarog's latest post is apt; sports HAS become surrogate warfare; gaining bragging rights instead of territory, treasure, slaves or security.

[Cato]

I still don't get this world cup stuff. When I went to the local gas station/min-mart for the daily beer run, I overheard Ali, the Pakistani clerk who's always chatting with me about Walmart deals, getting into it with some old, bearded white guy wearing gold chains and a green wifebeater about how the U.S. goalie is slow compared to the Italian goalie. Or somesuch, I forgot as soon as I left the store.

[Eldritch]

When I went to the local gas station/min-mart for the daily beer run, I overheard Ali, the Pakistani clerk who's always chatting with me about Walmart deals, getting into it with some old, bearded white guy wearing gold chains and a green wifebeater about how the U.S. goalie is slow compared to the Italian goalie.

It was actually the midfielder Ricardo Clark who was rubbish today. ;)

[Hrolf Kraki]

A lot more people here in Kansas City are watching it and everyone is pretty excited about Manchester United coming next month. If y'all watched the US v. Ghana match yesterday, they showed a clip of the party district of KC where thousands of people were watching it on the big screen. I had to watch it at work..

[Falkata]

People are going way to far, love it or hate it, football in Europe is beyond just sport, and being the fan of particular football club or a national team is not about jerking off on those 11+3 players that will run on the pitch but what they represent. Sacredness of your team colour, pride they give you and emotions they carry - players change, they get and lose an honour but the colours are still there. And.. to be honest I don't expect you to understand it but that's how it is and we love it.


I agree with everything you´ve said. In the USA the sport is more like a "show" , here football goes way further, it´s a passion and a tradition. In the US there aren´t movements like the ultras, you can see teams that change the city that they represent (Grizzlies, Hornets...). Can you imagine that Partizan Belgrade was Partizan Novi Sad the next season? :p

[Guapo]

Can you imagine that Partizan Belgrade was Partizan Novi Sad the next season? :p

Lol.

I think soccer is more popular in the US than most think. At least the MLS have more spectators than in the Serbian league. there are always over 20,000 spectators at Toronto FC games.

[Austin]

It isn't popular here. It has it's devout followers but they are a minority within a minority among the masses.

If it was popular I would admit it, but it simply is not. It is only being mentioned here with casual disdain because of the world cup and even then most don't really care.

[Hrolf Kraki]

It isn't popular here. It has it's devout followers but they are a minority within a minority among the masses.

If it was popular I would admit it, but it simply is not. It is only being mentioned here with casual disdain because of the world cup and even then most don't really care.

Well you are in Texas.. ;)

[Allenson]

No, we're certainly not mad about futbol here. Our interest was piqued by the World Cup and the American team doing fairly well but it will probably end there.

Soccer is very popular as a youth sport here--as I've said before. Many kids play it. I did. And I mean I played team soccer--not just kicking the ball around the backyard. I started when I was seven or eight and played up through my senior year in high school (18) but that was the end of it for me.

As a spectator sport, it's never really caught on here. There is tremendous competiton for viewership with handegg, baseball, hockey and basketball. Soccer/World Cup here is sort of the like the Olympics. It's a once every four year novelty that we ramp-up for a bit before and during the event, only to have it fade away after it's over.


and everyone is pretty excited about Manchester United coming next month.

I heard about that.

Around here, there's a friendly match between Glasgow Celtic and Sporting Lisbon at Fenway Park in Boston sometime in later July....