Fox Sports announcer John Strong said what was on a lot of our minds as the final moments of the USMNT’s 4-1 loss to Belgium played out last night.
“If you’ve enjoyed what you’re seeing, well, support your local team,” Strong said. “This doesn’t have to be the last soccer you watch for the next four years. It’s a beautiful sport.”
It is a beautiful game, indeed, and one that I learned a lot about watching the past few weeks – the approach to ball control, sending runners down the wings to create passing lanes, attacking the box to put pressure on the back line.
There’s so much going on at any one time.
A goal is like Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane in a jam session, finding perfection.
The constant flopping, I could do without – and the political corruption, I mean, that probably didn’t need to be said.
ICYMI
But, sorry – as a casual, didn’t grow up playing the game, don’t have a team nearby with a guy with the last name Messi, soccer is like track and field.
I love track and field during the Olympics.
I got into curling with this year’s Winter Olympics.
Not going to watch until the next Olympics.
Now, with soccer, we don’t have to actually wait four years to get our next fix.
The Women’s World Cup is next year – June 24-July 25 in Brazil.
And if you found yourself swept up in the patriotic fervor this summer, wait ‘til you get a gander at our women’s team.
The USWNT is ranked #2 in the world, behind Spain, and has four World Cup championships to its credit.
Our women don’t have to play their asses off and have the president cheat for them to have a faint glimmer of a hope.
ICYMI
If they don’t hoist the cup at the end of the tournament, it’s a disappointment.
The problem for U.S. Soccer comes after the Women’s World Cup, because that’s when the casuals, like me, fade back into the woodwork.
I’d like to see the U.S. embrace the world’s sport more, but we’re still transfixed by our brand of football that scrambles dudes’ brains and renders them unable to walk past the age of 45.
It’s inevitable that our football will eventually go the way of boxing and cockfights, but we’re probably a good 20, 25 years from that happening.
Imagine then, though, when the guys who are playing outside linebacker, safety, tailback, slot receiver, right now are roaming the midfield and backline.
Sometime in the 2040s, that Men’s World Cup will be ours, I tell you.
Until then …
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Chris Graham
