Dougherty: Soccer, the American Way

By Joe Dougherty

“Are you going to watch the soccer game tomorrow?” the twenty-something son said to his dad at the restaurant, empty plates and glasses scattered about. Above them floated a television showing the Boston Celtics winning game four of the NBA Finals.

“Soccer game?” the dad asked, a hint of mockery in his voice. “This is America!”

Thus, the conversation ended with a round of laughter.

What’s so funny? I thought to myself a few tables away. I was hoping for a healthy conversation about the opener featuring Mexico against South Africa, or the much-anticipated match between the United States and England.

But no.

Such is the daily battle American soccer fans face on a regular basis, but never so much as during the World Cup. While the world celebrates the greatest sporting event on Earth – yes, even greater than the Olympics – many American sports followers scoff at a sport they don’t understand. And don’t care to understand.

One argument frequently on the lips of people – such as the dad in the Santa Monica restaurant on the recent Thursday evening – is that soccer is a foreign sport. “We Americans love our football, our baseball, our basketball and our hockey. Real American sports!”

That line of reasoning just makes me laugh.

Take this roster, for instance: Evgeni Malkin, Alexei Kovalev, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Andrei Markuv and Zdeno Chara.

Starters on the Russian national soccer team? Nyet. They’re members of the NHL all-star team.

Or how about this one: Pedro Feliciano, Jenrry Mejia, Fernando Nieve, Francisco Rodriguez, Johan Santana, Jesus Feliciano, Fernando Tatis and Jose Reyes.

Members of the Mexican World Cup team that tied South Africa on Friday? Negative. They’re members of the New York Mets.

Alright, then what about these guys: Dalibor Bagarić, Gordan Giriček, Mario Kasun, Damir Markota, Dražen Petrović, Zoran Planinić, Bruno Sundov, Goran Suton, Žan Tabak, Stojko Vranković, Roko Ukić? The starting 11 for the Serbian national soccer team, right?

Nope. All 11 play “America’s game” of basketball – in the NBA.

Call globalization, call it a New World Order… call it whatever you want. The fact is, sport is international. And the American soccer hater needs to look no further than his own sport – American football being the lone exception, and that’s only because nobody else wants – to realize there are athletes beyond the borders of the United States.

The good news is that it is getting better. Not that long ago, soccer fans could only rely on Soccer Made in Germany – a one-hour program featuring a shortened Bundesliga match – for our international fix.

Today we have FOX Soccer Channel, GOL TV and ESPN, which is providing outstanding coverage of the World Cup. On any given day, Americans with a decent cable package can watch a soccer game, whether its MLS or WPS in the states, La Liga in Spain, Italy’s Series A and England’s Premiership.

Indeed, perhaps the best example of how far soccer has come is the equivalent of the AAA rating – a soccer highlight on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays of the Week. It happens, and not infrequently.

Will soccer ever jump ahead of The Big Four in American sports? Probably not (except, perhaps hockey). But for me, the real question is: Should we care? I argue no.

There’s no need to compare ourselves to the other sports. The only thing we should care about is doing what it takes to help our beloved sport succeed: go to games, buy and wear soccer clothing, and if you have children who play, instill a love of the game (not winning the game) that they will carry with them their whole lives.

Meantime, when someone tells you soccer will never be an American game, ask them where Pedro Martinez, Alex Ovechkin and Tony Parker were born.