Today, according to The American Youth Soccer Organization, it has more then 50,000 teams and more than 650,000 players. Since 1971, AYSO has been developing the soccer culture in suburbia, resulting in multitudes of soccer moms and little soccer stars. With so many people contributing to the soccer phenomenon, shouldn't professional soccer be on par with sporting powerhouses like baseball, basketball, and football? It's not, and it never will be.
A major aspect of soccer in Europe is the total devotion of fans to their teams. A quick glance at any English newspaper will result in pages of insight into the beautiful game. This loyalty is missing from Major League Soccer (MLS). In Europe, it is not uncommon for fans of teams to travel to away games to see their beloved team play. In fact, stadiums often devote whole sections to fans of the opposing team. European countries like England, Italy, and Germany are much smaller than America, which allows fans to travel easily from stadium to stadium. But without fans being totally dedicated, it is hard for teams to gain a following of staunch supporters. Traveling to follow their teams a feature absent from most major sporting events in America. Teams play almost every day in baseball and basketball, which would make traveling economically unfeasible. Sports like hockey and football have teams that only play once a week, like soccer, but there are aspects in these sports that appeal more to the American mentality than soccer.
Soccer does not respond well to advertising. For 45 minutes, 11 men chase a ball around. Then they take a 15-minute break. Then those same 11 men, now possibly with a few changes chase a ball around for another 45 minutes. Where is the chance to advertise? The 15-minute break in between halves is usually partially filled with some sort of commentary. In a world where Super Bowl commercial spots fetch millions of dollars, there is just no room for soccer in the commercial landscape.
In most cases, sports are about putting the winners on a pedestal and the total dismissal of the losers. This is true in soccer, but soccer features a unique feature rarely seen in the American sports arena: a draw. We Americans crave excitement. If a winner is not decided by the end of regulation play, we require extra innings or overtime. This only occurs in soccer in championship matches that are vastly outnumbered by the more common league matches. Hockey follows this same paradigm, but is more successful than soccer. Why? Because hockey utilizes more contact and is a sport more closely related to football then soccer in terms of the stature of the athletes: football and hockey players are rewarded for being strong and brutish, whereas soccer athletes are rewarded for being quick and agile. Also, although it is more popular than soccer, hockey is still not as celebrated as baseball, basketball, or football.
With a grassroots system like ours, why hasn't the American national team dominated the international arena? Our youth is not being taught the correct way to play the game. In Europe, soccer is a much more technical game that puts an emphasis on passing and fancy footwork. It is all about controlling and creating space, then finding an opening for an incisive pass. In America, it is more about who can muscle the ball off of an opponent better. The addition of such physicality should make the game more appealing to Americans, but instead of satisfying our society's need for action, it just results in a mongrel of a sport that tries and fails at Americanizing a beautiful sport. So when the US men's national team (USMNT) faces off against Brazil, they cannot keep up with the fast pace of Brazilian players.
If one looks at the club teams that members of the USMNT, one would think that the nationality of the players were anything but American. Out of the 17 players named for an international friendly match on November 17th against South Africa, 11 play for teams outside of the United States. With what small homegrown talent we have, a major portion of it gets shipped over to Europe. The MLS just isn't competitive enough, and when these players are in England, they rarely get on the major teams, and they rarely perform well.
Supporters of the MLS will argue that American soccer is not doomed to fail. They will argue that already the MLS is on the rise, thanks to megastars like David Beckham. One person cannot reenergize a whole league, and Beckham has done everything but. He spent the majority of his games in the trainer's room with a hurt knee and appeared in only 8 games for his new club.
The MLS is going to fail mainly for one reason. It already has. The North American Soccer League (NASL) existing from 1968 to 1984 failed miserably. Managers tried bringing in big name foreign stars, but these players were only big names in their respective countries and did not have the same effect on American audiences. Despite the best efforts of David Beckham and soccer fans everywhere, the MLS is certain to fail just like the NASL. The sport simply isn't suited for American audiences.
