It looks like Americans won’t have to pretend to be interested in soccer for the next five years. With a shocking loss to Trinidad and Tobago last night, the US Men’s National Team fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
That means no lengthy on-line stories about how a deep run in the World Cup will “finally be the spark we need to make America a soccer mad country”. There will be no TV features about local chapters of the American Outlaws (Team USA’s official fan club) meeting at sports bars at 4:30 in the morning to watch the game, chant their chants and sing their songs. There won’t be any commercials with soccer stars endorsing products and viewers having to ask “Who is that?” ESPN won’t have to take time away from discussing controversies killing the NFL to break down action on the pitch.
There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media last night about how missing the World Cup “will set back US soccer for decades”. I have to ask “Set us back from what?” To put soccer’s place in society in perspective, last night’s crucial qualifying game was on Be In TV. It wasn’t on ABC or ESPN or Fox Sports 1 or even Fox Sports 2. It was on Be In TV. Even if I had wanted to watch the game, it would have taken me almost an hour to first find out who was carrying it–and then somehow locate that network in my channel guide–if it’s even included in one of the cable packages I get.
I’m old enough to remember when the formation of the North American Soccer League was going to make the US a “soccer country”. And then the signing of aging international stars for NASL was going to do the trick. Then it was hosting the World Cup in 1994 that was going to ignite soccer-mania. Then it was the formation of Major League Soccer that was going to up our game. Then it was the US Women winning their World Cup several times that would do the trick. Then it was a long run in the World Cup a few years back that “announced our arrival on the international stage”. Now a few years later, we are back to square one–unable to beat tiny Caribbean island nations who had nothing to play for.
As I’ve mentioned here before, it is okay if we suck at soccer. There are a lot of other sports we aren’t good at–and nobody goes on five minute long rants on national TV to complain about it. Has the US ever qualified for Olympic Team Handball? What’s our world ranking in field hockey? A couple of years ago, Soldier Field in Chicago was sold out to watch the New Zealand All Blacks destroy the US Eagles in a rugby “friendly”–were there calls to completely overhaul US Rugby after that?
Let’s all agree that the United States has moved on from rudimentary sports like soccer. There is a reason that everyone’s kids play it–it’s easy. You run around for awhile, you kick the ball a few times, everyone goes home with a trophy–that’s why little kids like it. But once you grow out of that phase, you learn to appreciate the difficulty of hitting a round ball with a round bat in baseball, or you enjoy watching men collide at full force and get back up to do it again in football (as opposed to acting like you have been shot when someone steps on your foot). Or your find the speed of hockey intoxicating.
So let the rest of humankind get all worked up about the World Cup next year. That will give us more time to focus on our fantasy football drafts.
