We have a new writer, boys and girls: Adam Berger. He has a little something to say about the World Cup and all you haters out there. So be nice and enjoy.
Stop Being a World Cup Hater
by Adam Berger
Sports fans in the United States are spoiled, plain and simple. The U.S. is home to the top professional leagues for football, baseball, basketball and hockey.
Consequently, we here in the United States are not accustomed to watching an inferior product on the playing field, and there are very few instances in our sports-conscious life when a fan will ever have to do so, even if you're a member of Raider Nation.
Nevertheless, once every four years sports fans in the U.S. receive a collective slap in the face and are reminded that American sports are not the center of the universe. The FIFA World Cup is that reminder, and that reminder is happening right now.
Soccer just isn’t popular at the professional level in the United States. Every year it seems like there is a new report saying that soccer is on the brink of taking the country by storm.
In reality, the MLS is to the Premier League (England) what Double-A Baseball is to the MLB here. This quality of soccer might be entertaining and have a niche of fans, but as was previously alluded to before, sports fans in the United States are not used to or open to watching anything less than a top notch product.
One of the biggest problems that stems from this line of thinking is the subsequent attitude that springs up from sports elitists here in the United States when the World Cup starts. We’ve all heard it before. Soccer is stupid, they say. It’s boring and it’s a dull sport. This coming from people that can sit through a four-hour game of baseball, at the edge of their seats the entire time, never once taking a moment to glance at a watch.
It’s not that soccer is a dull game, and its not that it is somehow “below” the four major sports covered in the United States. It’s that sports fans here are not used to soccer, and it is therefore somehow acceptable to look down upon the game. This is by no means everyone’s view, but there certainly are a large portion of American sports fans who share this elitist sentiment towards soccer.
This is a call for sports fans in the U.S. to keep an open mind to the World Cup and embrace it for what it is. No one is asking you to buy MLS season tickets, or to wake up at seven in the morning to watch Germany play Serbia. The World Cup is a tremendous opportunity to watch soccer, one of the world’s most popular games, at an elite level that we here in the United States have come to expect from the sports that we watch.
The MLS may never get to this level, but for the next month and every four years that follow we get a chance to see what all the fuss is about, and have a vested rooting interest at the same time, Not a bad deal. So watch the cup.
Soccer just isn’t popular at the professional level in the United States. Every year it seems like there is a new report saying that soccer is on the brink of taking the country by storm.
In reality, the MLS is to the Premier League (England) what Double-A Baseball is to the MLB here. This quality of soccer might be entertaining and have a niche of fans, but as was previously alluded to before, sports fans in the United States are not used to or open to watching anything less than a top notch product.
One of the biggest problems that stems from this line of thinking is the subsequent attitude that springs up from sports elitists here in the United States when the World Cup starts. We’ve all heard it before. Soccer is stupid, they say. It’s boring and it’s a dull sport. This coming from people that can sit through a four-hour game of baseball, at the edge of their seats the entire time, never once taking a moment to glance at a watch.
It’s not that soccer is a dull game, and its not that it is somehow “below” the four major sports covered in the United States. It’s that sports fans here are not used to soccer, and it is therefore somehow acceptable to look down upon the game. This is by no means everyone’s view, but there certainly are a large portion of American sports fans who share this elitist sentiment towards soccer.
This is a call for sports fans in the U.S. to keep an open mind to the World Cup and embrace it for what it is. No one is asking you to buy MLS season tickets, or to wake up at seven in the morning to watch Germany play Serbia. The World Cup is a tremendous opportunity to watch soccer, one of the world’s most popular games, at an elite level that we here in the United States have come to expect from the sports that we watch.
The MLS may never get to this level, but for the next month and every four years that follow we get a chance to see what all the fuss is about, and have a vested rooting interest at the same time, Not a bad deal. So watch the cup.
Its good for you.
I'll tell you right now, he's no Dylan Murphy, but he's still damn good. Berger is Kobe to Murphy's Jordan.
ReplyDelete-Tender Lover
I'll tell you right now he's no Dylan Murphy, but he's still damn good. It's like Berger's Kobe and Murphy's Jordan.
ReplyDeleteTender Lover
Someone give this writer a contract...this article blew my mind
ReplyDeleteGod is soccer boring. I keep waiting for a bench clearing brawl to break out.
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