SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN! The sport of soccer in the U.S.

A proclamation:
Watch out world and more importantly watch out America! You can't stop it, the wave is building! Soccer is slowly but surely on the rise in this country and I believe the Men's National team will win a world cup before I die. Now I am not claiming to be an expert but I sure am trying to get there through coaching, playing, education licensure, reading and logging as many hours of footie as my loving wife and dvr will allow me to. Here in the U.S. we have many years of catching up to do with the game, but I am confident that we will.

Dissidents:

1. If you are an ex-pat living here, please don't bring on the you're an "ignorant American" and "you don't understand argument" because that is getting old and a little to predictable. I contend that if the U.S ever does win the cup and you are truly a lover of the game then you would be happy that they win. I think it would only lead to an increased level of play because it will set forth another challenger on the world stage. Is that not the ultimate prize for all football fans?-- The game going to yet another level?

2. If you are an American who thinks the sport is boring, soft or whatever, I would encourage you to go out an play it more, watch the EPL and definitely watch the World Cup. I will be illustrating in later blogs about why the game will be viewed differently here in the states with the hope of converting a few non-believers. As always I believe we are all entitled to an opinion, but you are in the extreme minority if you do not understand the game. Notice I did not say "like the game".

A little history for the uninformed:
During the 18 W.C. tournaments that have been held 7 nations have won the title. Brazil is the only team to have played in every tournament and have won the World Cup a record five times. Italy is the current champion and have won four titles, and Germany is next with three. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.


Pride and Belief in your country:
The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 final. I just turned 35 and according to statistics I will most likely pass from this world around the year 2050. That will allow me to witness just shy of 13 more world cups. We can do this!

The Real Question:
The question is will the United States win the Jules Rimet trophy before I am done here?

Answers: (This will be the first of my contentions supporting my "Belief". I will share more in future posts.)

Whether you are from Brazil, England or the U.S., don't you believe your country can win? I would like to think we have just as much of a shot at it as any country. We just need to figure out how to get over some hurdles. I don't think there is a need to completely travel down the "quantitative analysis" path, but some numbers are important to bear in mind.

DOES SIZE MATTER? It sure does- both auspiciously and negatively.

According to our last census the U.S. population was 304,059,724 - Jul 2008. This has the potential to be favorable for the U.S. One could argue that we have a larger pool of athletes to choose from than all of the previous winners and many other countries.

However- one issue is having a system that will allow us to choose the final 23 players allowed on the W.C. roster (including goalies) out of 300 million!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:

Our current National Team system along with the 15 years of MLS and some decent college players is producing real solid football players. There are currently many "Yanks" playing professionally in the toughest leagues around the world. Some are doing quite well thank you.

But the physical size of our country and huge population coupled with a severe lack of game exposure is an enormous burden on developing and selecting a team worthy of the Best in the World!

The Good: Amongst many others, here are 3 great things about football in the U.S.

1. American goalies are considered among the best in the world.
2. The "A" squad of the U.S. has been challenging stronger teams outside of their region and recently played very well in a major tournament- The Confederations Cup against the world's elite teams.
3. Many youth in the U.S. can add Soccer as a possible profession. Although game exposure is limited here, we now have many more "great" games to watch available to us. Even ESPN is getting in on the game. Although it is not where it needs to be exposure to the game is on the rise here and the market is the biggest sports market in the world. It is a , the global game.

The Bad Our lack of playing and knowledge of the game is on the rise, but need it to increase. Kids love the game because it is a player's game and can be played very easily in your back yard. They lose interest usually around the age of 12 for reasons that would take a whole different blog to explain. But one of the major reasons is that they are usually being taught the game playing against other players of their age who don't know how to play and by coaches who have never played themselves. This is unlike most other sports in the U.S. like baseball, hoops or football where most youth coaches have a fair idea of the game as well as playing experience.

The Ugly Although we have capable players coming up we are also losing great players to other countries believe it or not. Giuseppe Rossi is a New Jersey native with Italian citizenship. He is an outstanding professional player currently playing for Villa Real in Spain, guess who he plays for nationally? We need to find a way to keep player like Rossi in our system as he is a game changer.