Where were you that memorable Sunday in June when the USA soccer team almost beat the Brazilian football team for the Confederations Cup, an international competition en route to the FIFA World Cup, to be held in South Africa in 2010?
If you are a football fan like me, then you were glued to the big screen, with your eyes wide in wonder. And if you are an American, than you were most likely outdoors enjoying the balmy summer, oblivious to the fact that we were teetering on the brink of football history that Sunday.
If this were the football team of any other country, the nation would have come to a standstill, literally. But not in the USA. And the reason for the passive response from the American public is because soccer is just not football in the USA. Don't get me wrong, the Americans love their football, just not the football that the rest of the world understands to be football. Soccer, although played at schools, colleges and even professionally, is not big money in the USA. There are no million dollar contracts to be signed, advertisements to be made or products to be endorsed and soccer stars are definitely not celebrities, on par with Michael Jordan, Alex Rodriguez or Tom Brady.
Yet, throughout the world and over the centuries, soccer/football has been the great cultural unifier. In 1915, during World War I soldiers from England and Germany put down their weapons and took up the football, and for a brief moment, forgot that they were enemies. In the dusty streets of Soweto in Johannesburg, little kids play the game by dribbling a coke can or a ball made of string, and in the slums of Brazil, kids practice the game daily with the hope of being the next Pele. And who can forget the emotional support and welcome home that the Iraqi people gave their football team after the World Cup 2006, despite the violence and conflict raging in their country, or the same unifying emotions and camaraderie displayed week in and week out by fans supporting their local leagues or national teams.
When we watch football, we live the game to the point that we create a new culture, the culture of football. In this culture, the game is all that matters.
So, if David Beckham's move to Hollywood could not rally Americans around the culture of football, then what's it going to take? The answer is simple. Americans love to win and the first time that the USA soccer team hoists a World Cup trophy in jubilation, then soccer will become the new football.
I say this because when the USA was leading Brazil 2-0, those few Americans who were watching the game reacted in the same manner as football fans do, from England to Spain and onwards. My American boyfriend jumped for joy and cheered his team on as if he was watching the Super Bowl. The American commentators on ESPN were talking in excited tones, filled with pride and anticipation. And even the host of one of the popular American late night shows, Steven Colbert of the Colbert Report, dedicated a segment of his show to discussing the performance of the USA team.
Seemingly, sports fans are sport fans everywhere in the world, and there are no bigger sport fans than the Americans, so it's just a matter of time before the world of football ignites the Americans.
Go USA for the 2010 World Cup. Bets, anyone?
