Will U.S. Men's Recent Success Promote the Sport?

The U.S. Men’s team’s recent near upset of Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup was the most-viewed non-World Cup game for the American team on ESPN, according to the Associated Press. Last Sunday’s game received a 2.6 cable rating and the audience was the third largest to watch the team on ESPN, trailing the audience for the 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Germany at the 2002 World Cup and the 2-1 victory over Colombia in the first round of the 1994 World Cup.

The success of the men’s team in upsetting Spain in the semi-final and leading Brazil, 2-0, at the half, generated quite a bit of press and has again raised the debate as to how soccer can become more popular in the United States.

New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden addressed this in two columns the past week.

Last year, the Los Angeles Futbol Club formed an alliance with Chelsea, a club in the English Premier League that has an alliance with two other youth clubs in the United States (including Matchfit in New Jersey), Rhoden reported on July 3. Chelsea will provide additional financial support as well as coaching and, for some, an opportunity to train in England once a year, he wrote.

Rhoden continued: “This is all well and good, but the key for soccer to be what it really can be in the United States is local initiative.

“’We’ve got to build those leagues in the communities,” [Los Angeles youth soccer organizer] Sheppard said, “run by people that they trust, coached by people that they trust but supported by people like L.A.F.C., who want to help them get into soccer.”

Read the column here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/sports/soccer/04rhoden.html?ref=soccer

Andy Tansey of Malverne, NY, responded to the column with a letter to the Sports Editor on July 5:

“The Americans may do better on the world stage if the United States Soccer Federation can attract more great athletes. But until our children’s first choice for fun is to play soccer unshod in the streets simultaneously toughening their feet and softening their ball touch, with no structure imposed by grown-ups, we are years behind the competition. How likely is it that the United States will change its sports culture to that extent?

On June 28 Rhoden discussed another facet of the “make soccer more popular” debate:

“The more difficult challenge is to cultivate a broader consumer appetite for soccer in the United States. Debates continue about changing the nature of the sport to fit the American mind-set.

“Please, no.

“Soccer does not need to be dumbed down to accommodate our Twittered attention span. The sport does not need more scoring or more commercial timeouts. ”

The last paragraph is music to the ears of this soccer purist. Soccer is pretty good the way it is. Some rule changes over the years have been good, e.g. prohibiting a goalie from using hands on a pass from a teammate. But we do not need rules that would detract from the athleticism or skills of the game. We do not need to eliminate offsides, make the goals larger, allow more subs (in the professional game) or, God forbid, allow specialists along the lines of the DH, the placekicker or the long snapper. (There are some who submit it would help soccer’s appeal in this country if someone particularly adept at free kicks, such as David Beckham, could be inserted into a match simply to take a shot on goal and then pulled back out to rest up for the next opportunity.)

This column is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/sports/soccer/29rhoden.html?ref=soccer

According to Rhoden: "United States soccer officials say the sport’s time is finally here. The question is, do they know how to seize the moment?" Didn't we hear this after the U.S. Women won the World Cup in 1999?