Can Soccer Survive in the US?

As Mid-Summer approaches and most Americans are wrapped up in baseball season, Nascar, or the fast approaching football season, there are yet another group who are eagerly awaiting the arrival on the US soccer stage of David Beckham. A thirtysomething soccer star whose best days are behind him has sparked an interest in soccer Stateside the likes of which hasn't been seen since Pele signed for the New York Cosmos back in the 70's. It's tought to tell though whether the interest is sports related, or if the celebrity manic US public just loves the idea of Beckham and his Posh Spice wife Victoria moving to their part of the world. Only time will tell.

This current interest got me thinking about the sport of soccer in the US. I grew up in Scotland where soccer, or football as just about everywhere else in the world call it, was about the only pastime my friends and myself engaged in. Literally from the moment I could walk I had a soccer ball tethered to my feet or stuck under my arm in search of a group of kids to play with. My passion for the sport was forged very early on but took a serious jolt when I moved to Canada at the age of 19. Soccer was almost non-existent there. You never saw anyone play, couldn't find a game to watch on TV, or any mention of it in any of the papers. I was stunned that a country of that size wasn't interested in soccer. It only got worse upon moving to the US where there seems to be a general disdain towards the sport even though they have a national team that is very much on the rise.

The general impression amongst most North American is that soccer is boring. This is amazing to me when you consider the number of people who'll watch baseball for 3 hours with almostnothing except spitting, scratching, and chewing tobacco going on, or NASCAR which draws hundreds of thousand of spectators to their events to watch grown men driving around in a circle ad nauseum. Another complaint seems to be the lack of scoring in soccer. Lack of goals does not always indicate a dull game and the sam people who complain about that will wax poetic about the "epic pitching duel" in baseball where maybe only 2 or 3 balls are actually put into play. It boggles my mind.

Looking back on the recent history of soccer in the US there seems to be a number of ebbs and flows. This can be traced back to the early 70's with the creation of the North American Soccer League with teams like the New York Cosmos and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The league reached the peak of it's success in the mid 70's after major stars like Pele, Beckenbauer, and Cruyff where tempted by huge paychecks to finish out their careers there. But by the mid 80's the poularity had waned to the point where the league had to fold.

The next swell of soccer success came in 1994 when the US, much to the chagrin of the rest of the soccer loving world, hosted the World Cup. The tournament was a huge success and the next American based soccer league, the MLS was born on the heels of that success. The league has somewhat sputtered along since then and Beckhams arrival is a shot in the arm for a struggling sport. Whether that can be sustained in the long term remains to be seen

I have passed on the love of the sport to my son and he now plays in a Saturday soccer league. I was amazed at the number of kids playing the sport and the passion and support of, not only the kids, but their parents too.This also applies to the over 35's indoor league that I play in. Sure there are the usual mix of Brits, South Americans and Europeans but also a surprising number of Americans playing the sport. As a fan of the game, it is my hope that these kids, parents and players will continue to support soccer and develop a passion that is seen in just about every other civilzed nation in the world. If that is the case then soccer may just be here to stay this time.