America wants nothing more than to win the World Cup -- for about one week out of every four years. Granted, the World Cup takes longer than a week, but the media buzz that "this might be the year for America" has a significantly shorter shelf-life than the tournament itself. Team America's predictable failure on the world's largest stage can be attributed to many aspects of their game -- the absence of a true superstar, the weak competition that the American players face in their year-round leagues and a coach that can't draft a coherent offensive strategy or motivate his players to compete on game-day. It's a vicious cycle: America doesn't care about soccer because we're terrible at it, and the United States won't be a first-rate team until America cares.
On a Saturday afternoon, the United States team played a game against powerhouse Italy, a game crucial to their standing in the tournament. The game aired nationally on ABC at 2:30 p.m. EST for an audience smaller than that of the weekend's Nextel Cup NASCAR race. More Americans tuned in to see Kasey Kahne do 360 miles around a speedway in Michigan than did to watch the game that would decide America's fate as it fought to save face in the world's game.
It's easy enough to complain about the United States' inevitable failure. If you poke around the Internet, you'll find plenty of articles bashing American soccer. Reuters had a good one saying that we were "football-hating" in a World Cup that is drawing record TV ratings around the globe. I, however, think the notion that Americans "hate" soccer implies that we care enough to have an opinion on the matter.
Furthermore, I'd argue that our love of American football has permanently stunted the growth of soccer. Football, in the sense of the pigskin, has it all: high-scoring battles with last-minute miracles, hard-hitting tests of strength and grit on a weekly basis and charismatic superstars with off-field personalities and problems that could (and do) inspire prime-time TV series.
The focus of American culture rubs off on young athletes. Football was for the kids who were tough. Soccer was for the kids (like myself) whose parents didn't want to see their fragile sons at the bottom of a human dog-pile. Also, I was not alone when I gave up on soccer after middle school -- there just wasn't any drive to excel at soccer. The biggest, best athletes in America are football and basketball players because those sports get attention. Imagine LeBron James taking a free-kick for the American soccer team or Terrell Owens heading a cross into the back of a 24-foot wide net. Inconceivable. On the other side of the globe, Italian striker Luca Toni is the ideal size for a wide receiver, but the thought of that conversion would be as outrageous to the Italians as one of our superstars switching to soccer.
The American way of doing sports does not translate to soccer. We embrace 80-yard touchdown tosses, ally-oops and walk-off home runs. The US soccer team's offensive equivalent -- sending Landon Donovan on impossible one-man runs down the field, hoping to find him on a 30-yard prayer pass or shooting for the corners on the rare shooting opportunities that the US did see -- is a different game plan than the patient offensive attack of the European teams that are still fighting for the Cup. The results speak for themselves -- the US team was able to put only 10 shots on goal and score only one goal in three games.
It's easy enough to complain. My addition is this: if we don't care about soccer in the three years and eleven month span in between World Cups, we shouldn't cry outrage when the United States posts an embarrassing showing at the World Cup. The apparent dichotomy of caring about our team's success in a sport we don't care about cannot exist. We either care or we don't care, and as for my prediction... how much longer until the NFL season starts?
