Soccer In America: World Cup Success Equates to American Soccer Success

Fellow B/R writer Alex Karden and I are starting a new writing feature here on Bleacher, one in which one of us will look at a trending sports topic of the day/week while making cogent arguments (if it is me, if it’s Alex, let’s just say he’ll make educated mistakes) on the topic.  The other will post a counter-opinion, such that there is a point-counter-point debate. 

We hope to publish fairly regularly, and we will try to cover every sport and any hot button sports issue.

Today, with the close of the World Cup on our doorsteps, Alex wrote an article entitled “Soccer in America:  Why World Cup Enthusiasm Won’t Translate to MLS Success” and gave five “reasons” why that statement was true.  

While his attempt was noble, below are the same reasons, yet this time showing how the American success at the World Cup has piqued our nation’s interest just enough to allow soccer to enter the mainstream.

5.  Counting up to 90...ish

For some reason, people seem to believe that soccer's running clock, and that the exact end time of the match isn’t known, takes away from the final frantic push at the end of the game.  Claiming that there are no Hail Marys or hook and ladders clearly ignored the final minutes of the Holland-Uruguay game, wherein Uruguay was pushing with just about everyone, throwing themselves at the ball the goal to try and keep their World Cup hopes alive.  Same thing with Spain and Germany, and every other elimination game.

Just because there’s no known end point does not mean the excitement, the nervousness, and the stress of American sports that have set times is absent.  Rather, I think it’s an advantage, as instead of switching back from the play to the clock to the play to the clock etc., we can just enjoy the nerve-wracking final minutes in “peace”.

4.  Penalty Kicks

Penalty kicks are amazing.  Penalty shootouts to conclude a match are even more so.  A "Sports Science" special prior to the US-Ghana game examined PKs and found that a goalkeeper had a roughly 20 percent chance to save, while great goalkeepers can move up to roughly 30 percent.  Yes, it is easier to make than miss, but that doesn’t translate into reasons why Americans wont watch it.

What’s America’s past time?  If you guessed playing the “Where will LeBron James go this hour?” game, unfortunately it’s only a close second to Major League Baseball.  And how do we measure success for hitters in baseball?  That’s right, batting average.

When some of the greatest ballplayers of all time have career .300 BA, we think it’s phenomenal.  Yet, if a goalie saves 3 out of 10, apparently it’s absurdly easy to score and the entire metric should be shunned?  

Puh -leaze .

The PK shootout is one of the most fascinating and exhilarating events in any sport, and the small percentage of times the goalkeeper does his job, it’s a rush unlike what any base hit can produce.

3.  No Commercials?

Are you kidding me?  Really...that’s a point on why something won't catch on in America? Americans are the single greatest users of TiVo, DVR, and whatever other time-shifting recording they can get their hands on, so instead of watching a show at 9:00, they’ll tune in at 9:15 so they can skip the horrendous commercials.

It’s a lesser extent for sports, as I know I have several friends who if I tried doing that would purposely text me the score to the game, but the point still stands.  Commercials do not in any way, shape, or form provide benefit to sporting events.  Sure, Peyton Manning produces some of the best commercials ever, but how many times can you take about the same Cialis commercial over the water cooler?  For every one good commercial, there’s 10 spots that make you want to rip out your hair.

And that’s the beauty of soccer.  Running clock means less time for commercials and more need for sponsorship of the field, game, television rights, etc.  There is still money to be made in soccer, even without commercials.

Running clock also means games take significantly less time.  The average NFL game lasts three hours, with 60 minutes of actual game time.  The NBA, two hours with 48 minutes of game time.  The average soccer game, 110 minutes from 90...ish minutes of game time.  The way I see it, no commercials, more action.  Sounds like a winning formula to me.

2.  It’s, Uh, Boring

Sure, soccer isn’t the most entertaining of sports in existence.  But if Americans can get behind watching a guy hit a little white ball 200 yards down a fairway, walk to the ball, then hit it again, our tolerance for less than entertaining must be high.

And there’s a problem with getting drunk before a sporting event to enjoy it?  Yeah, with the amount of Bud Light, Miller Light, and random Tequila of the day commercials saturating our sporting events, it’s obvious American sporting fans do not like drinking and watching.  That’s just absurd.

1.  Ties

You see, in soccer, the necessity for a tie....You know what, even I can’t defend against this.  Ties are boring.  Ties are wasteful.  Even without the long drawn American games, after watching a tie I feel a little cheated.

How hard would it be to have a shoot-out, golden goal, extra periods...the same thing they have in the Knock-Out stage for the World Cup?  It would cut down on the chance for the insane tie-breaking scenarios, as well as the anti-soccer mentality of teams knowing that they can play for a tie.

So while Alex is, mainly wrong, he happens to be just like a sub-par goalkeeper during PKs.  

He’s about 20 percent right.