Did anyone else even notice the U.S. soccer team nearly beat the famous Brazil team that is the best in the world?
Didn’t think so.
Not many Americans pay attention to what goes on in the world of professional soccer. There’s too many other, more entertaining sports to watch. It isn’t easy to put a chink in the armor of the sports empire created by football, basketball, baseball and hockey (yes, plenty of people care about hockey, and they should).
What can soccer do?
Many thought the problem was a lack of star power. David Beckham joining the Los Angeles Galaxy was supposed to be the start of tackling that issue.
Yeah, that hasn’t made a dent.
Is it the lack of scoring? People like to see offense. And points. And lead changes. And comebacks. It’s hard to do that when soccer doesn’t see but a few goals a game. Hockey addressed that issue by opening up the rink and allowing two-line passing for a faster-paced game. That has worked. But short of making the field smaller or changing the amount of players allowed on the field, there’s nothing to alter in soccer.
And those probably wouldn’t help bring new fans to the game, anyway.
The NBA has become a more relevant game around the world the last 20 years, and a side effect of that is an increased international flavor in the NBA. Plenty of European players have given the NBA a new style. Hockey obviously is Canada’s national past time, like baseball is in the states.
But again, with soccer, it seems the talented players stay in their countries. The United States can’t get enough prominent faces.
Beating Brazil might have helped get the U.S. team that landmark win it desperately needs. The U.S. hockey team’s win against the great Russia team in the 1980 Olympics is still talked about today. People started caring about the women’s soccer team when it beat China.
Then again, maybe the fans have spoken, and that’s all there is to it. We prefer the United States’ version of fútbol.
Speaking of, when does football start again?
