When Fernando Torres out-hustled German defender Philip Lahm and flicked the ball over goal keeper Jens Lehmann, it would have been easy to mistake my Valley Center apartment for a villa in the heart of Spain.
I admitted it last week; I’ve become a soccer fan, thanks in large part to the thrilling action in the European Championships. The tournament featured fantastic goals, stellar goal keeping, upsets galore and heroes in abundance.
But after the thrill of watching Spain win their first international championship in 44 years (and the writing thrill of getting to use “Spain” as a plural noun for the last time in a while), a collective yawn seemed to issue from the general public here in the U.S.
Now, don’t get me wrong; there are soccer fans in this country. This is probably more true here in San Diego County than it is in a lot of other places.
But given the magnitude of the championship game, the Hollywood-script-like unfolding of the tournament itself, and even the charisma of stars like Torres, I can’t imagine a better opportunity for casual fans to become hooked on the sport than Euro 2008.
All of this got me thinking about why professional soccer is so popular internationally, but has never really caught on here in the States.
I think it all begins with how different American culture is from that of the rest of the world.
It’s no secret that we in America enjoy, on average, a fairly affluent lifestyle. That plays a part, I’m sure, especially when it comes to the choice between buying hundreds of dollars worth of hockey gear versus some shin guards and socks, but more of what I’m talking about is the traditions and pastimes of our people.
The United States of America, as an independent nation, are only 228 years old, which is still infancy compared with so many other nations, especially those in Europe. History here is tri-cornered hats and muskets; history in Europe is knights and castles, or even gladiators and chariots.
Part of the independence process, as any teenager will tell you, is finding a set of unique interests. Nobody listens to the music their parents listened to, unless you really enjoy not having any friends.
In the case of a nation asserting its independence, a lot of the traditions of the old regime are cast aside as the citizens seek to create a unique culture. It doesn’t happen overnight, but after a while, people stop drinking tea with crumpets and start downing half-caf lattes with their luxury almond croissants. We have to look cool in front of all the other recently liberated countries, after all.
It carries over into the sports world, as we shift from following the games of our forebears to watching the competitions we see as fresh and challenging. Why watch a bunch of sissies in shorts kick a ball around and flail on the ground at the slightest hint of contact when we could have muscle-bound behemoths strap on a set of pads and wallop each other in the mouth over and over again? For the record, I’m referencing the NFL, not American Gladiators. Although there really isn’t much difference anymore, is there?
Americans are notorious around the globe for being, stereotypically, loud, obnoxious, blood-thirsty buffoons, especially when it comes to sports. I hate to admit it, but look at the image differences between our NASCAR with their IndyCar series; as much as he’d like to try, I don’t think that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has quite the same sophistication of Helio Castroneves.
But in reality, we’re just trying to be innovative. Baseball started out as an updated, more challenging version of cricket. Basketball took the intricacies of soccer and added the challenge of using your hands to score a goal. Hockey took goal-based sports to another level, adding ice, skates, sticks and little slabs of vulcanized rubber, as well as giving a nice little boost to the orthodontic field. The NFL… Well, the NFL just figured that rugby needed a little less chaos. Or, at least, some time between plays to figure out how best to maim the other team’s star player.
And so as the new, challenging sports become more and more popular, the younger generations gravitate towards athletes that personify the attributes they themselves wish they had. No longer are skills like endurance, patience, grace and quick feet in such high demand; today’s American athletes are praised for toughness, improvisation, and the ability to silence the critics at every opportunity.
In short, we like athletes who stick it to the competition, even if we catch ourselves and say that winning isn’t everything and there’s no “I” in team. I admit it; I enjoyed watching Eli Manning beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, even though the Giants had no business winning that game. The Patriots are old school, the old regime, and they got taken down by some hot shot quarterback with a chip on his shoulder. Who doesn’t love that?
One of the negative aspects of this sports independence is that the players seem to have a hard time generating national pride within their respective sports. Soccer players in Europe, and even in South America and other parts of the world, play for their club teams as a job. But when international competition comes around, the players seem to get a little more fire in their bellies. They realize that they’re not just playing for a coach, or for a logo; they’re playing for their country. Michael Ballack may play for Chelsea during the season, but European soccer fans know that he plays for Germany when the important trophies are on the line.
By contrast, it’s hard to find that level of national pride here. Look at the difficulties in selecting a U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team; it always seems like a series of minor injuries keep some of the big names from competing. A European soccer player would probably get attacked by a crazed hooligan if he missed the World Cup because of a strained calf, but if Tracy McGrady’s back is a little stiff, he’d rather not risk any further injury in the off-season.
Because of this national apathy, sports that have a more international appeal tend to go all but unnoticed here in the States. And because they don’t get as much coverage on ESPN (much less the endless debates on Sportscenter, Pardon The Interruption, Around The Horn, Mike & Mike In The Morning, or any of the other innumerable sports talk shows), fans don’t have the ready access to the ins and outs of the game.
For example, if a casual sports fan in America decides that he or she wants to follow the NFL more closely, there are a number of outlets available to learn the intricacies of the game. Want to know how to look off the safety to find the open receiver? Ron Jaworski breaks down offensive strategy every week on Sportscenter. Want to figure out the best blitz package to run against a west-coast offense? Tom Jackson will show you how it’s done on NFL Primetime. Want to find out how Michael Vick is doing in his prison football league? There’s a better-than-average chance that Trey Wingo will have that update on the next episode of NFL Live.
But if a casual fan wants to become a serious soccer fan, it’s a considerably more difficult proposition. I watched at least six international soccer games in the past two weeks, and I can barely explain what necessitates an offside call. I do know that soccer is actually called “football” in Europe, and that the field is actually called the “pitch,” but I don’t know what plays work best on a corner versus what plays work best on a free kick from outside the penalty area. I’m still not even sure why a play for the ball can be called a foul in one instance, then a seemingly identical play can be ignored by the referee. It seems kind of arbitrary.
That’s another thing that is likely keeping Americans from becoming die-hard soccer fans: the weird rules of the game.
For one thing, the clock doesn’t count down to zero from a pre-determined time; it starts at zero and the viewer is expected to know when it’s going to stop, if at all. Then, the clock doesn’t stop when the ball goes out of play, it just keeps going.
At the end of the half (which I managed to figure out is at the 45-minute mark), somebody (I’m still not sure who) decides how much “stoppage time” to add on. It’s usually between one and four minutes, although I don’t know if they’re keeping track or if they just ballpark it. When this stoppage time is over, the referee blows his whistle twice and the players walk off the field. Sometimes he blows the whistle with one minute gone, sometimes with 2:47, sometimes with 3:09. You never really know when it’s coming.
This happens again at the end of the game (the 90-minute mark), and possibly again at the end of both overtime periods (which are apparently 15 minutes each). The crowd doesn’t get to chant “five…four…three…two…one…” or anything like that. They just wait until the ref blows the whistle. It’s kind of anti-climatic.
It also brings up some controversy, as in the Euro 2008 quarterfinal game between Turkey and Croatia. The Croatians had scored late in the second extra period to take a one-goal lead, but Turkish forward Semih Senturk scored with just over a minute gone in stoppage time to tie the game. Croatia’s coach, Slaven Bilic, argued that the game should have been over, since the stoppage time was only to be one minute. According to the clock, one minute had expired before Senturk’s goal went in. But since the game ends on the referee’s whistle, and not on the expiration of time on the clock, the game went to penalty kicks and Turkey advanced to the semifinals.
Americans are generally not in favor of totalitarian rule, especially not in sports, so it’s easy to see how this could be a problem for the average fan. We like the rules to be objective and the outcome to be clear; we don’t like a guy in knee-high socks, shorts, and a shirt with a chest pocket to arbitrarily decide who wins and who goes home.
So given these things, will soccer ever have a true following here in the United States? I think it will.
At some point, the NFL will become the old standard and younger fans will have a hard time relating to it in the same way their parents did. It’s happening with baseball, and it most certainly can happen in football.
But until then, soccer will need to keep proving to American fans that it’s just as exciting and relevant as the “popular” sports that dominate the headlines.
And this year’s European Championship was a great start.
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In the meantime, I’m going to miss the excitement of Euro 2008, and I’m looking to keep this soccer buzz going.
If you’re a soccer fan, drop me a line or two about why you love the sport, and I’ll put it in next week’s issue of The Roadrunner.
Write me at sports@valleycenter.com and tell me what makes soccer fun to play, fun to watch, or even just fun to talk about, and why you’re a fan.
And while you’re at it, see if you can explain that whole offside thing to me again.
I’m still not sure exactly how that works.
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