Miracle on grass?
You are either a soccernista, or you are tired of listening to one. You either are part of the full blown (and more sizeable than critics want to believe) cult of American soccer fans, or you have been getting badgered half your life by one of them about how you just don't get it.
In an event that clearly defines the two camps, the draw for next summer's World Cup was announced Friday. You either cared, grew concerned when the United States got put into one of the "Groups of Death" and wondered how we'd deal with three-time champion Italy – or you were more interested in Colts-Jaguars, Duke-Texas or if Roger Clemens is really retiring.
No matter how much the soccernistas preen around, no matter how arrogantly they dismiss non-fans for their lack of understanding, no matter how they discuss the Premier League like it is the AL East or call the NFL "American Football," the reality is that the majority of fans here just don't want to follow soccer.
Not only was Friday's draw not shown on network television, ESPN didn't even deem it worthy of preempting "NFL Live" and instead shoved it to ESPN2 right after the lumberjack competition.
That's reality. That's America. Just one thing and one thing only can change that.
We win.
The soccernistas have been promising a tidal wave of interest in soccer to overwhelm the country for decades. All it was going to take was getting Pele to play in the Meadowlands back in the 1970s. Or having a generation of kids weaned who played in youth leagues to become adults. Or the World Cup coming here in 1994, or the MLS, or Mia Hamm, or Freddy Adu.
Or even a nice effort in a World Cup, like the U.S.'s quarterfinals appearance in 2002.
None of it has worked. In fact, none of it has come close to working.
Virtually every kid in the United States has kicked a soccer ball at one point or another. Suburban fields are overrun with the sport by both boys and girls. In cities, immigrants play on tennis courts and dead-end streets.
People love to play soccer in America. They know the rules. They've seen the game. They still don't care about it in big numbers.
And they won't unless we are contending to be the best. That means winning it all. We finished in the final eight at the last World Cup. The final eight! Not bad. But no one outside of the soccernistas is aware of this. No one even knows that the United States is any good at all. Ask a random guy on the street and he wouldn't know we even qualified, let alone the name of a U.S. player.
Just having people play the game means nothing. Virtually every American has played table tennis, but do you know anyone who follows the pro level of the sport, which in Asia is bigger than just about anything? Me neither.
It's because no American wins on the world level (not to mention it is a little silly watching grown men play Ping-Pong), but mainly we aren't going to watch foreigners play sports.
This is the USA, where being No. 1 is expected. We have the richest economy, the most powerful military and the most influential entertainment industry. Eighth place doesn't cut it. Moral victories are meaningless.
We, like most countries, enjoy the sports we are great at. Because we are America, we export them around the globe. Baseball is an international phenomenon. Basketball is the world's single-fastest growing sport.
"Basketball is my generation's soccer," said Lamar Odom at the Athens Olympics where U.S. pros finished third because other countries fielded better teams.
Odom is a bit ahead of himself. The July 9 World Cup final in Berlin is expected to attract a television audience of more than one billion people. Basketball can't do that. Yet. But that is the U.S. mentality. We have our games. The rest of the world can take it or leave it.
Winning the World Cup will change that. If the USA makes a deep run next summer (semifinals at least), the nation will be enraptured, Miracle on Ice style.
It might not be probable. But for a change, it is possible. Our team is better, more experienced and more determined. Our best young athletes may not play soccer – wouldn't Michael Vick or Allen Iverson make brilliant attackers? – but we undoubtedly have excellent talent and world-class training.
No longer should success be qualified. If U.S. soccer wants to be taken seriously, it needs to deliver serious results.
The draw, yes, is very difficult. Group E contains heavyweight contenders such as Italy and the Czech Republic, meaning the U.S. is going to have to beat a great team to advance to knockout play.
But it is telling that the U.S. has improved so much its group would likely be considered the "Group of Death." We are the Gonzaga of the World Cup, the nasty mid-major no one wants to face. The question is when do we become Duke?
"I think one year we will win the World Cup," U.S. midfielder DaMarcus Beasley told ESPN2.
The sooner "one year" comes, the better. It might not be 2006, but this team needs to prove that the 2002 quarters was a stepping stone, not a destination.
"I think the advantage that we have is that we've been through a fairly successful World Cup," U.S. manager Bruce Arena said. "(We need to) apply it to this time around. I think I've learned a few lessons."
They'll need them. The soccernistas can keep trying to tell the rest of the country about what they are missing, about how their sport – the world's sport – is the best one and about how 1-0 games are more exciting than you'd think.
But nothing has ever changed the minds of the masses. Not Pele. Not the World Cup final in L.A. Not a professional league. Not any amount of soccer snobbery.
Only winning works. Which is why it is time for the U.S. to make it happen.
