Support Your Soccer!

I was talking to my girlfriend today about Fox winning the broadcast rights to the 2018 & 2022 World Cups over ESPN (who’ve held the rights to every World Cup since 1994). She caught me off guard when she said she didn’t care about the World Cup and found it annoying last year when people were sucked into the excitement. I chalked it up to her general non-interest in sports but enough people claim to not like soccer that I wanted to better understand why.

Yes, I grew up playing soccer and played it through high school; Yes, I was at the perfect youthful age to be heavily invested in the 1994 World Cup that was played right here on US soil; And, yes, I did win a free workout with the New England Revolution when I was a kid. But I feel like I have a pretty good handle on most people’s complaints about the sport: it’s too slow, there aren’t enough goals, MLS sucks and the foreign leagues are too difficult to follow due to TV rights and cable packages. Fine, if that’s the case then these people should also be uninterested in baseball (slow) and hockey (not enough goals). Yet baseball is America’s pastime and hockey is a popular niche sport that certainly doesn’t get ragged on like soccer does. So, why the hate?

To Americans, soccer is a European sport. Football and baseball are pure Americana; Basketball is urban; Hockey is Canadian. Americans haven’t cared much for European things since 1776. And the biggest thing that has carried over that distaste is flopping. Soccer players are known for flopping, which is a terrible but true distinction. But even all the European basketball players in the NBA flop constantly. It’s just what they do. So the manly American men chop it up to soccer players being weak – “It’s not as physical as football” – as their reason not to watch. Of course, that feeling has become so pervasive that people will just use it as an explanation without ever actually giving soccer a chance.

The World Cup is different though. It’s more like the Olympics; a must-see event that captures the world’s attention and cultivates national pride. Is there a better chant than “U-S-A!” “U-S-A!”? I ended up sending my girlfriend the reaction video to Landon Donovan’s goal heard ‘round the world against Algeria. I rest my case.

ESPN – The E is for Entertainment

Entertainment & Sports Programming Network. Sometimes I forget that fact because unlike MTV, which no longer plays music*, ESPN still shows sporting events. But they are also in the entertainment business. Perhaps that is why their ESPN ScoreCenter app sent me breaking alerts regarding the death of Steve Jobs and the killing of Osama bin Laden. Things I would never expect to be reported on by ESPN I am first hearing about via their app. I'm not complaining -- I think it's awesome, albeit weird. How do they decide which non-sports stories are momentous enough to be pinged?

ESPN is clearly trying to broaden their appeal by becoming a go-to resource for more than just sports, but they're not there yet.** For example, when I received those alerts and went to the app for more information there was nothing to be found. No story, no details, nothing. I had to Google it and check Twitter to find out what was going on. And that is where the problem lies. Yes, ESPN is breaking the news but there's no follow up on their end. I have to go to other resources to get any information about what happened. If they are serious about taking that next step into the mainstream consciousness for anything other than sports then they need to go in 100%. Otherwise, they will continue landing the first punch but getting pummeled for the rest of the round.


*That '70s Show? Really?
**This sentence includes there, their and they're. *Bows*