For years an outsider, the United States suddenly finds itself a major
player in the world's game.
But will the world's game ever be a player in the United States?
We speak of football, of course, or soccer as we insist on calling it in
America, where many regard it as fine exercise for children who aren't
ready for real sports – baseball, basketball, tackle football, even
hockey in cooler climes.
With Monday's unexpected victory over Mexico in the World Cup, though,
soccer may be close to breaking through as a major sport in America.
Who would have believed it?
Certainly not the members of the U.S. World Cup team.
When the president called a few hours before the Mexico match with his
best wishes, "We were thinking, 'Which president?' " U.S. star Landon
Donovan said.
Turns out it was George W.
"The country is really proud of the team," the president told them. "A
lot of people that don't know anything about soccer, like me, are all
excited and pulling for you."
And with that statement, the president summed up the promise and
problems facing U.S. soccer.
With each improbable step in the World Cup – the U.S. finished a
statistical last in the 1998 competition – the American team wins more
fans for the sport.
But even though a zillion American kids play soccer these days, it has
steadfastly remained a second-tier sport. The biggest fans of Major
League Soccer, the pinnacle of the game here, are first- and
second-generation Americans, immigrants from soccer-mad nations.
At a Dallas Burn match, most of the fans are from Mexico or Central
America, said Rob Romero, a soccer coach and club player.
"The game is part of their life. It's important to them," said Mr.
Romero, a Dallas architect. "In a lot of countries, soccer is the only
thing they have. But we have a lot of other diversions here, and we get
distracted."
That apparent lack of interest earns the United States the enmity of
football aficionados around the world, who treated the Americans' win
over Mexico as a global disaster.
"This is a dark day for our beautiful game," one British fan lamented on
an Internet soccer site, accusing a "group of mainly marginal players
from a country that has no respect for the world game" of violating
every sort of rule.
But among certain age groups, soccer is amazingly popular, as Mr. Romero
saw last week surrounded by young players at the Lake Highlands YMCA's
soccer camp.
That's the future of the sport, he said, and success in the World Cup
will help it grow.
"Now that we're playing at a higher level," Mr. Romero said, "that might
awaken some people."
Accelerated popularity
Horst Bertl, coaching director of the Comets of Dallas youth soccer team,
said U.S. success would accelerate soccer's popularity.
"The sport arrived a long time ago," said Mr. Bertl, who played
professionally in the Bundesleague in Germany.
"The bridge from playing on the youth level to watching a professional
game is where the difficulty is," he said. "Hopefully, this will awaken
that interest."
Zeph Badii, general manager of the Inwood Soccer Center in Addison, said
World Cup success could give the sport legitimacy, even if only to
American parents.
"When parents see there's a higher level for their kids to play at, now
they're willing to put their kids in the sport," Mr. Badii said.
But he wasn't nearly as confident that soccer would match traditional
American sports in popularity.
The World Cup will bring a spike in enthusiasm for soccer, much as it
did in 1998, Mr. Badii said, but that's likely to be a fling rather than
a long-term romance.
"I think what World Cup does for soccer in America is, it gets people
excited," he said. "How long does that excitement last?"
Long enough for Soccer City in Richardson to sell almost all of its U.S.
World Cup gear. Buyers grabbed the last of its $70 replica jerseys in
two hours Monday. In all, the store had sold about 30 jerseys since the
tournament began.
"I'm glad they're gone," said J.J. Nouri, the store's co-manager.
"Because if [the United States] lost, they would be here for months,"
exactly what happened after America's dismal finish in 1998.
Mexican jerseys, however, sell briskly all year long, he said, with
tournament sales pushing 50. Of course, about 70 percent of Mr. Nouri's
customers are Mexican or Mexican-American, and they're rabid about
soccer.
It could take Americans decades to discover that passion.
"I don't know when soccer will compete with the other sports ... maybe
20 years," Mr. Romero said. "It's hard to break past the traditional
sports."
The next generation
But more and more kids stick with soccer these days. And the U.S. cup team
features several charismatic young stars, including Mr. Donovan and
DaMarcus Beasley, both just 20 years old.
That could inspire the next generation of soccer players, kids like
9-year-old Andrew Leask of Richardson, who has played the game for
almost five years.
Jolene Davidson, who picked Andrew up from the Dallas Sidekicks' youth
soccer camp at the Inwood Soccer Center, said soccer had grabbed a
toehold in America, even in the most unlikely places – including her
hometown, Lincoln, Neb., the stronghold of the Cornhuskers.
"Being from Nebraska, if soccer can catch hold with all the football, it
must be an up-and-coming sport," Ms. Davidson said. "I think nationwide,
it's catching on big time.
"Everyone I talk to is playing soccer instead of football."
E-mail myoung@dallasnews.com
and cfrates@dallasnews.com
