The World Cup for soccer, or "futbol" as many nations call it, has ended with Germany taking the top prize with a narrow 1-0 victory over Argentina. Of course, in World Cup soccer, a game that is not a narrow victory is a rare thing indeed.
The Germans hadn't won since 1974 and were quite ecstatic about their victory which led to a lot of car honking, yelling and perhaps the spilling of some brew on Bier Haus floors across Deutschland. One thing for certain, their home country didn't spend the day after cleaning up after massive celebrations involving violence, the destruction of property and mass arrests. Argentina, on the other hand, suffered through a night of violence and vandalism as rampaging fans smashed windows, set fires and overturned automobiles.
As far as I can tell, after the U.S. lost to Belgium to be eliminated last week, there wasn't a single irate fan arrested, window knocked out or car set ablaze. America truly is behind the rest of the world when it comes to that sort of thing.
I guess we kind of have it backwards in the U.S. When Connecticut won the NCAA basketball title last winter, many storefronts were trashed, cars, overturned and light poles damaged or destroyed, with dozens of arrests. The U.S.A. has not been unscathed by violence after a championship game of some kind, but it is only the WINNING side's fans that make their way onto police blotters. When fans of a sports entity lose in America, they usually just get a bit depressed and then go out to eat and talk about something else.
The many American fans who made the trek to Brazil to watch the games were observed by the other nations' fans with Ecuadorian travel agent Luis Murillo making a kind of odd statement. "For not having very much experience with soccer, they are very well behaved" said Murillo. I couldn't say if Murillo was praising American fans or insulting them.
The good thing about Argentina, and this was unusual by world standards, is that there were private citizens who came out to chase the hooligans when they started their destructive behavior this past weekend. It seems a lot of Argentines came out to voice their support of their team in spite of their loss, and when they saw the rioters, they went after them. Lots of stores were damaged as well as parked automobiles, but it could have been a lot worse.
So the World Cup is over until 2018. So how did America do?
The USA-TODAY newspaper had a kind of review of the U.S. team's performance, and it was glowing to say the least. Many described the American team as "marching through the tournament," and sportswriter Nancy Armour remarked that "the U.S.A. came to a standstill for two hours as die-hard fans and bandwagon jumpers alike stayed glued to the American's game against Germany." Armour went on to say that multitudes of soccer fans from coast to coast crowded around screens everywhere to finally make this country a soccer nation.
First of all, I would like to note that the U.S. played four games and won a total of one game. One. They drew some pretty salty competition and actually played well, but I would hardly call it a "march." I would also cast some doubt on the "country coming to a standstill" remark. I happened to be out in Bentonville and Rogers during the Germany/U.S.A. match. True enough, the match was on the TV monitors in the restaurant I patronized as well as several stores I passed through, but I didn't observe a single person paying any attention.
The USA-TODAY article further lauded professional soccer in the U.S. saying that the sport was thriving, indicated by the league topping six million in combined total attendance for the last year. I would point out that the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, in one of the smallest baseball markets in the U.S.A., always tops three million in home attendance every year. In all likelihood, I would think that counting all home and away games, close to six million attend games the Cards are playing. Pro soccer attendance is probably up, but not even remotely close to the mainstream American professional team sports.
Personally, I think the U.S. did well in the "Cup" all things considered. Their biggest accomplishment was the close loss to Germany. After all, the Germans won the whole thing and the U.S. could have conceivably beaten them. Still, they played four games and came away victorious just once.
It will be hard for the U.S. to ever match the world at large in soccer due to several conditions. Most importantly, nearly every soccer country in the world gets their countries best athletic talent. In the U.S. the most talented athletes will gravitate to football, basketball, baseball and, to some degree, track. That happens because that is where the prestige lies. Secondly, televised football and basketball will always secure the most advertising money with baseball bridging those sports from spring to fall. In contrast, when "futbol" is on in most of the rest of the world, everybody watches but mostly because that is all there is.
American kids who delve into sporting programs generally want to win and above all, they want to matter. Whatever sport they can best boost their own self-esteem and invite community approval, that will be their favorite sport.
Ms. Armour stated in her article that soccer is now the second most popular sport in the United States, trailing only football. She of course cited statistics to back up her claim. This brings to mind a remark uttered by Mark Twain in the 1800s.
The Missouri sage and humorist once said "there are lies, then there are ... lies, then there are statistics."
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Editorial on 07/23/2014