Two good articles in today's New York Times, both by Jere Longman, speak to the state of professional soccer in the United States. One discusses yesterday's 1-0 victory over Italy, which qualified the U.S. women for this summer's Women's World Cup. The other predicts an increase in soccer interest in this country is the United States is awarded the 2022 World Cup.
On the men's side, Longman notes that the United States staged the most successful World Cup in history back in 1994 and that there were are sufficient existing stadiums with supporting infrastructure that public money would not be required. Top competitors appear to be Australia and Qatar, neither of which has hosted a World Cup.
The Women's World Cup will be in Germany this summer and the Americans barely qualified. Yesterday's victory gave them a 2-0 aggregate win in the home and home play-off for the 16th and final spot. The fact that the United States came down to the wire before qualifying demonstrate what Longman calls "growing democratization of women’s soccer" around the world. He points out that while more countries around the world are spending more money on women's soccer, the United States has stagnated. Its U-17 team did not qualify for the world championships and the U-20 squad lost to Nigeria in the quarterfinals. Add to that the fact that the Women's United Soccer Association - founded in the glow of the 1999 World Cup victory - folded in 2003 and the current league, Women's Professional Soccer, is struggling financially and for recognition. Three of its top teams - St. Louis, Los Angeles and the California-based FC Gold Pride, have folded in the past year or so.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment