This is a pretty interesting
time of the year if you are a sports fan in the U.S.
Not only do you have college football nearing the end of its season, but in the pro ranks, you have basketball, football and hockey all right in the middle of their seasons and generating lots of interest.
And even baseball is sizzling right now, with the “Hot Stove League” generating as much interest as when the games are actually being played.
And then we have another sport, which is supposedly the most popular sport in the world, holding its every-four-years tournament to declare which country’s team is the best in the world …
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ … .
Yes, The World Cup is right in the middle of its competition, and while perhaps the rest of the world foams at the mouth while this competition takes place, Americans are generally not very interested in the outcome … in particular when our nation’s team is out of it, as they are now.
The media so wants Americans to be as enamored with soccer—or football in most places—as we are of baseball and our football, and they have literally been trying for the past 60 years to get us interested … but we simply aren’t.
The game is boring, there are fewer scoring chances than even in hockey, and with so little actually going on, we are led to believe that this is more of a “thinking man’s game” than the other sports, with finesse trumping any real action.
When my family was on our cruise, they had the World Cup games playing incessantly on the big screens on the boat, and in the bars and restaurants that dotted the ship.
I watched some of the proceedings, and it is as boring as watching paint dry.
Sure, it gets exciting when a goal is scored, but otherwise, the ball gets kicked around, the ball goes out of bounds, the ball gets kicked around, the ball goes out of bounds … incessantly.
And quite frankly, the only people on the boat who were getting a thrill out of all of this were the international cruisers, who watched the games with rapt attention.
Few Americans were even paying attention, and I got more interest from other guests when I wore my New York Yankees hat than anything having to do with soccer.
Yes, interest in soccer is increasing in this country, what with myriad youth leagues and the increasing ethnic population, and the media—mainly television—is relentless in pushing “the next big thing,” but honestly, soccer is kind of like pickleball, which is the current “next big thing” that TV is pushing … but they have been trying to sell the American public on soccer since the days of the New York Generals and the Cosmos, he NASL and Pele, and it simply has not worked.
And to those Americans who somehow are interested in all of this hooey, it is sort of like their feigned interest in the Olympics.
Sure, when the games are going on, you know the players and the stats and the goals and everything about what is happening … but once your team or the games are over, can you name me one player?
It is all phony nationalism and phony politics, and that is what soccer, and the Olympics, really stand for … and do we need even more politics in sports than what we already have in these athletics?
I think not.
But if you think this phony interest is bad now, wait until 2026 …
When the World Cup, and soccer in general, will make its major push into our consciousness, as the tournament will be hosted by Mexico … Canada … and—
THE UNITED STATES!
You just know that we will be engulfed in World Cup madness in four years that will make the current push look like a senior moving around with a walker.
World Cup propaganda will be everywhere, and you won’t be able to escape the madness—
Unless you are like the majority of Americans, who could really care less about this tournament no matter what television might say or do to get us all hopped up about it.
I am sure that interest will reach its height here then, and newspapers will continue to give it a bit more coverage, but still on the par with the WNBA (unless Beverly Greiner is somehow involved with the tournament as she plays out her nine-year sentence in Russia).
Sorry FIFA—the governing body that oversees this tournament—the vast majority of Americans will be too preoccupied with the 2026/2027 football, basketball and hockey seasons, as well as the baseball “Hot Stove League” to really care about guys licking a ball in and out of bounds with regularity, and soccer will remain more of a niche sport than anything else.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ … .
Not only do you have college football nearing the end of its season, but in the pro ranks, you have basketball, football and hockey all right in the middle of their seasons and generating lots of interest.
And even baseball is sizzling right now, with the “Hot Stove League” generating as much interest as when the games are actually being played.
And then we have another sport, which is supposedly the most popular sport in the world, holding its every-four-years tournament to declare which country’s team is the best in the world …
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ … .
Yes, The World Cup is right in the middle of its competition, and while perhaps the rest of the world foams at the mouth while this competition takes place, Americans are generally not very interested in the outcome … in particular when our nation’s team is out of it, as they are now.
The media so wants Americans to be as enamored with soccer—or football in most places—as we are of baseball and our football, and they have literally been trying for the past 60 years to get us interested … but we simply aren’t.
The game is boring, there are fewer scoring chances than even in hockey, and with so little actually going on, we are led to believe that this is more of a “thinking man’s game” than the other sports, with finesse trumping any real action.
When my family was on our cruise, they had the World Cup games playing incessantly on the big screens on the boat, and in the bars and restaurants that dotted the ship.
I watched some of the proceedings, and it is as boring as watching paint dry.
Sure, it gets exciting when a goal is scored, but otherwise, the ball gets kicked around, the ball goes out of bounds, the ball gets kicked around, the ball goes out of bounds … incessantly.
And quite frankly, the only people on the boat who were getting a thrill out of all of this were the international cruisers, who watched the games with rapt attention.
Few Americans were even paying attention, and I got more interest from other guests when I wore my New York Yankees hat than anything having to do with soccer.
Yes, interest in soccer is increasing in this country, what with myriad youth leagues and the increasing ethnic population, and the media—mainly television—is relentless in pushing “the next big thing,” but honestly, soccer is kind of like pickleball, which is the current “next big thing” that TV is pushing … but they have been trying to sell the American public on soccer since the days of the New York Generals and the Cosmos, he NASL and Pele, and it simply has not worked.
And to those Americans who somehow are interested in all of this hooey, it is sort of like their feigned interest in the Olympics.
Sure, when the games are going on, you know the players and the stats and the goals and everything about what is happening … but once your team or the games are over, can you name me one player?
It is all phony nationalism and phony politics, and that is what soccer, and the Olympics, really stand for … and do we need even more politics in sports than what we already have in these athletics?
I think not.
But if you think this phony interest is bad now, wait until 2026 …
When the World Cup, and soccer in general, will make its major push into our consciousness, as the tournament will be hosted by Mexico … Canada … and—
THE UNITED STATES!
You just know that we will be engulfed in World Cup madness in four years that will make the current push look like a senior moving around with a walker.
World Cup propaganda will be everywhere, and you won’t be able to escape the madness—
Unless you are like the majority of Americans, who could really care less about this tournament no matter what television might say or do to get us all hopped up about it.
I am sure that interest will reach its height here then, and newspapers will continue to give it a bit more coverage, but still on the par with the WNBA (unless Beverly Greiner is somehow involved with the tournament as she plays out her nine-year sentence in Russia).
Sorry FIFA—the governing body that oversees this tournament—the vast majority of Americans will be too preoccupied with the 2026/2027 football, basketball and hockey seasons, as well as the baseball “Hot Stove League” to really care about guys licking a ball in and out of bounds with regularity, and soccer will remain more of a niche sport than anything else.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ … .
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.