Nobody Likes Us, We Don’t Care
By Max J. Rosenthal • Jun 23rd, 2007 • Category: American soccer • 4 responsesIn a couple of hours I’m going to throw on my DC United jersey and scarf and head to a bar, making sure to get there extra early to watch the insipid pre-game show (without sound) and let pessimistic thoughts bubble over a Smithwick’s. On Sunday, when the US plays Mexico for our regional championship, I’ll probably be sleeping.
The reasoning for a tiny group of US fans isolated in a cavernous stadium is pretty obvious: soccer, for all our efforts, is still unpopular. But that same group is also a surprising minority in the world of American soccer fans in general. In a stadium of American soccer supporters dressed in their team colors, a Argentinian group would probably outnumber Sam’s Army by good margin.
The face of our diverse culture of support is usually the Latino immigrant, probably first or second generation, clutching a Mexican or Honduran flag and ignoring his adopted country’s team for pretty obvious reasons. And of course, this face is accurate but highly misleading. Being a newcomer in the arena of serious sports in America, soccer has multiple points of entry in a way that football or baseball doesn’t. Teams aren’t passed down through generations or supported from birth. The quintessential opener to a life of rooting for soccer in the US? “Help me pick a team.” No tribalism here, no fathers and sons bleeding for the shirt, at least not yet. And so in the aforementioned stadium of American soccer fans, the Argentinian group is pretty likely to be made up white suburbanites named Jim and Dave.
The truth is that today’s traitorous American soccer fan is the white guy with AYSO kids and disposable income. At some point (like me) he got intrigued by this sport in the constant periphery of his life, fell in love with some game or team or player, and (unlike me) had the cash to shell out for the dish and the broadband that allowed him to stay connected. If that moment was seeing Thierry Henry or watching Brazil demolish someone, why break allegiance with the things that brought you to soccer? And why settle for Landon Donovan when you’ve got Germany-Italy on the DVR?
Thus, the irony of the Great American Soccer Boom: in an intensely patriotic country, American fans are enthusiastic free agents seduced by Euro 2008 on ESPN, English sports pages on the Internet, and a Vegas buffet of games on Fox Soccer, Setanta, and GolTV. Had the boom somehow happened in the late 80s, before satellite TV and The Guardian Online, fueled by a long-awaited grassroots explosion of impatient high school soccer players, things might have been different. But as well-off America discovers that soccer is good for more than a kid’s distraction, the US national team is merely a lesser option in a readily accessible sea of greatness.
Max J. Rosenthal is
Email this author | All posts by Max J. Rosenthal
I think that you might be shortchanging MLS a little bit. At least at some of the more well-established clubs, the rabid support base is there (like the Sons of Ben in Philadelphia who already have a supporters club in preparation for an expansion team). MLS is never going to be the equivalent of the major European leagues, or seriously compete with the NFL or MLB, but I think that it still has the potential to develop into an entertaining product.
I suppose I am one of those stereotypical upper class white kids who fell in love with the game watching Thierry Henry, who roots for the club of his European ancestors harder than for the U.S. in the World Cup, and who gets thrown into apoplexy at the thought of watching Landon Donovan beat up on inferior talents rather than trying his hand with the best. But, even I have gotten roped into watching the Thursday Night Match in HD (even if I can’t name half the players).
I totally agree. I actually had written a bit about the how this phenomenon doesn’t hit MLS nearly as badly that I ended up leaving out. I think MLS has a lot of institutional advantages over the Nats (defined schedules, local stadiums, beat writers, etc.) and that ignoring them is more widespread than ignoring the local MLS side. But I am one of those national team refuseniks while still being a committed MLS fan, so that may easily be bias.
While I think that the majority, the vast majority, of American soccer supporters have this sort of no-brain, pick-a-team-at-random attitude, it’s not everyone. I’m one example.
I started out that way, watching any soccer match I could on Fox Sports World in high school, and openly mocking the few minutes of MLS that I saw. Then came my year abroad. Through conversations during those nine months (not to mention living in Nottingham, where the people have never really gotten over the late Seventies), and culminating in the group stages of the World Cup last summer, I was introduced to that die-hard, hereditary support that I had never seen before.
Now, I’m confused when my friends say that they use MLS to fill the months between the European leagues’ seasons, and I truly do not understand how an American soccer fan can do anything other than live and die with the national team. We’re not great, but dang it, there are hardly any great teams in the world. Even good teams are in short supply. I just want to shout at people: Get your heads out of your asses and support the Yanquis! It’s uncharacteristically pathetic of Americans to support another nation’s soccer team.
[...] fashion of web 2.0 evangelists? Possibly, but given we discussed here both the lack of appeal of the national team to soccer fans in America and the overwhelming dominance of Mexican fans at Soldier Field in the final, it’s worth [...]