The 2010 FIFA world cup may have ended in July, but it has left a lasting impression on the American audience and has become a defining moment in the history of U.S. soccer. For the first time, soccer took center stage as the nation’s premier sport — capturing the hearts and minds of many Americans along the way.
The vocabulary of the average American sports fan expanded from free-throws and touchdowns to offsides and penalty kicks. A nation that prides itself on patriotism, finally, got behind the national soccer team and ultimately, changed the landscape of U.S. soccer.
With basketball, football and hockey not in season and baseball season in its early stages, soccer took the lead in what was a summer of change for American sports. As World Cup fever gripped the nation, more and more Americans jumped on the soccer bandwagon. Dressed in red, white and blue, the country took soccer under its wing and embraced it as its newest son. There are fans who simply tuned in to watch the U.S. play with that funny-shaped ball because there was nothing else to watch. However, other fans believed in the spirit of soccer and joined the world’s biggest party.
If soccer can retain just a fraction of the millions of Americans who embraced World Cup fever, it will have made progress. The World Cup may have been just a splash in the ocean, but those ripples will generate interest in the sport.
It is crucial for the development of U.S. soccer that the fans who tuned in over the summer continue their interest. It would be crazy to suggest that Major League Soccer will surpass the National Football League anytime soon. Monday Night Football fans will not be sitting down with a six-pack and some wings to hear, “Are you ready for some soccer?” anytime soon. However, if soccer is able to maintain the love affair of 2010 then it may have a place alongside the nation’s beloved Big Four.
Since the World Cup, a number of high profi le soccer players have traded European soccer for a chance to play in the U.S. Granted, players like Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez are in the twilight of their careers, but the publicity that they generate and the furor that surrounds their trades can only benefit the profile of U.S. soccer.
There are a number of U.S. soccer fans who embraced the game long before it reached the shores of South Africa. However, they are now joined by the hardcore beer-slugging football fans in bars across the nation who have opened their minds to the possibility of accepting soccer.
The U.S. needs soccer just as much as soccer needs the U.S. The U.S. needs to be a part of the world’s biggest game and soccer needs to be loved in one of the world’s biggest countries. Soccer will survive regardless of whether or not it is accepted in the U.S., but for the development of the game, it is crucial that it joins the Big Four. If the U.S. can embrace soccer, its sporting infrastructure will only enhance the sport.
Soccer needs to exist in a country where sport is the cornerstone of everyday life. Soccer needs to exist in a nation that exemplifies the winning-at-all-cost ethos. Soccer needs to extend its stay in the minds of the American sports fan long after the summer of love ended in South Africa.
