You just cannot resist Football forever
I remember the scenes during the 1994 World Cup that was hosted in the unfamiliar confines of the United States. College Football and NFL stadia hosted the event; the country still did not have football specific grounds, despite the NASL that was created back in 1970 and the pull of international stars such as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer.
The display of the USMNT in the 1994 World Cup helped lay the framework for football to take root in the States.
Even before the ’94 Cup, the USMNT already had a handful of noteworthy results on their dossier, including a famous victory against England. Football had a launchpad in the States that many did not realize. In a country so dominated by American Football, Baseball, Basketball and even NASCAR and Hockey, the increasing immigrant populations crossing into the nations boarders and the spread of youth football around the country was beginning to lay the framework.
All that was truly needed in the States for the game to begin to take root in full effect, was the exposure to the best of what the game had to offer – at that time, that was the World Cup. Not only was the tournament a massive success, but the performance of the United States in the tournament aided the seeds that were to be planted.
Alexi Lalas; a true American pioneer of the sport, was one of many popular players to play in the MLS from it’s beginnings.
If ’94 was a huge forward step, the abysmal showing that the US put in during France ’98 was a backwards step if there ever was one. Just two years prior, the MLS kicked off its inaugural season in a bid to build on what the NASL hoped to achieve over two decades prior; names such as Gionvanni Savarese, Jorge Campos, Carlos Valderrama, and American’s Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and Tony Meola, amongst others, were to the games first true ambassadors in the country. But 1998 served as a reminder to so many Americans that perhaps the nation just was not ready to truly adopt the game the same as the rest of the world has.
But not to be denied, football would surge forward yet again. The Women’s World Cup in 1999, hosted by the United States, would signal the rebirth of it’s growth. The tournament would be won by the hosts, in front of a sold out Rose Bowl crowd of 90,000 that saw the US win on penalties against powerhouse China. Just three years later, the USMNT would progress to the quarterfinals in Korea/Japan and very nearly beat Germany in the process – it was then, that football finally sunk it’s teeth into the American sports framework; it would not let go after that.
Landon Donovan, golden boy of the USMNT and the face of football in the States; no one in the history of the country has done more for the sport than him.
2002 saw the United States put a face to the game that still exists to this day; Landon Donovan. The incredible career and both club and international level by the California native would be a rallying cry for so many youth players around the country. By this time, I was already a senior in High School, I had captained every club team and school team I had ever played for and I was already obsessed with the game; my close group of friends, all whom I met through the sport, were equally as obsessed. But we were still somewhat outcasts in the sporting community, despite our talents – if only I had that same age in this day in age, right?
The biggest influence for the sport in this country, without question, was the exposure of the Premier League and Champions League to mainstream television networks. When FOX gained TV rights for the Premier League, years before that it had already aired highlight shows for the Serie A and Bundesliga; these were the days when Kaiserslautern was a dominant force in Germany, Stefan Effenberg was being admired, and when Alessandro Del Piero was just coming into his own with Juventus.
Ronaldo was at Inter, Zidane was also at Juventus and many other of the games greats had already been observed by the small but loyal American following, but the weekly exposure to affairs in England and the worlds top club competition (Champions League) would have the biggest effect on the game to date.
In my college days, I can remember gatherings of people in our dorm rooms to watch Premier League matches on Saturday and Sunday, college club teams and intramural leagues were incredibly popular to the point where people who were not playing in them would still go to watch – the habit and excitement of watching the game had truly taken root, but the love of playing in this country was still a few years away.
Chicago’s main viewing party for the USMNT during this summer’s World Cup; such scene’s would take place across the country.
Fast-forward to the present, and all you have to do today is go into many parts of cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, San Francisco, D.C., and countless others, and you will see just how this game has exploded here. Men and women, boys and girls of all ages, shapes, sizes and colors are obsessed. This past summer, the American Outlaw’s would show the would that the United States was a hotbed for football if there ever was one; no other nation was more heavily supported in Brazil, other than the host nation, Argentina and Chile.
You cannot take fifty steps in New York City now without coming across a kick-about, pickup league or tournament. Walk the streets, and you’ll see people wearing club jersey’s that hail from over thirty different nations; and no, not all those that don the colors of a club team they support are foreign born…so many of them are American born and bread.
Football specific pubs, many of which are geared towards a single club, have also popped up all around the nation. National supporters groups for clubs have also taken up residence in most major metropolitan area, as well as the traditional hotbeds for the sport in the Pacific Northwest, California, the Mid-West, Texas and North Carolina.
It has been in the past four or five years that the love of watching the game has naturally progressed to the love of playing the game; youth football programs are the most popular sport for kids growing up in the United States, a fact that will no doubt help the USMNT in years to come. All you have to do is look at players such as Gideon Zelalem, Julian Green and DeAndre Yedlin (all three between the age of 17 and 21, and grew up playing during the explosion of the sport in this country) to know that this game is loved and taken seriously now.
Thierry Henry; nothing short of a legend at Arsenal and for France, now plies his trade in the MLS with the New York Red Bulls, along side other former Premier League and international stars who also call the States home now,
With the growing popularity, investment, growth of the MLS and the quality of American players all on a steady uphill track, the country has seen an influx of international stars to the league that has helped further the development of the sport in this country. Starting with David Beckham back in 2007, European superstars began to see the potential that the nation has to offer.
The 2015 MLS season will boast names such as Frank Lampard and David Villa (both for NYC FC), Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill (both for New York Red Bulls), Kaka (Orlando City FC), Robbie Keane (Los Angeles Galaxy), Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC), and rumors surrounding the potential arrival of Ronaldinho and Robinho; that list only stands to grow if history is to be believed.
With the annual American tours by elite European clubs having been a huge success, smaller clubs are beginning to do the same; but you know that when German giants Bayern Munich take an interest in tapping into the football euphoria that has gripped the nation, that the only place the sport can go in this country is up. Not only has the Bavarian club established a corporate office in the United States, but it’s friendlies to take place in the States, one of which will be against the MLS All-Stars, is only the beginning of German interest on these shores.
"European clubs that played friendlies in the United States this summerArsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Swansea City, Tottenham, West Brom, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, AS Roma, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Olympiakos, AS Monaco, Paris Saint Germain, Fulham, Rangers"
The Bundesliga has long been staunchly against massively lucrative TV rights deals, but with the nations premier club side leading the way, it may not be before long that we see the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and other German sides taking a jaunt to the states in their pre-season schedules as well.
United’s pre-season tour touched Denver, Colorado along the way; the reception received there mirrored every other city they featured in.
What has transpired in the United States in the fifteen years (just half of my lifetime) is truly remarkable. With the ever shrinking nature of the world and the increased globalization of sports, football is just a click of the remote away from every household in the country if the occupants wished it so; with the Premier League being far and away the most popular league amongst football fanatics in the United States.
Football truly is the worlds game, and it may not be before long that it becomes America’s game as well. All I have to do is it back and look at my Facebook feed, and see so many of the people I know, who once hated the sport, now are becoming borderline obsessed with it at the very least.
It may be just a simple game, but there is always beauty in simplicity; a notion finally understood, loved and celebrated in this country. Football is here to stay, and you’ve seen nothing yet.