We’re quite sure soccer will never be the USA’s sport; at the same time, we can’t help but feel the attitude toward “the beautiful game” has changed for the better — and in a way the sport should embrace and build on. See, for the past 20-30 years, soccer enthusiasts in this country have so desperately wanted the sport to be a mainstream success. What they’ve found is that people don’t like being told what to like. Combined with average fans’ short attention spans and a thirst for more direct violence, soccer never became “the sport of the future,” no matter how indefinite the timetable became.

Our take is that soccer was going about it all wrong. Instead of diving into the middle, the sport should have been working the corners. Instead of courting families and Joe Sixpack, soccer should have been embracing the hipsters, “misfits” and wandering 20-somethings who are finding their way into watching the sport because it’s trendy to like something that the “establishment” dislikes. Once the underground takes hold of something — which has happened now, based on the swelling Euro 2008 chatter we hear, just as one example — the mainstream wants a piece of it. In other words, don’t tell a 40-year-old he needs a pair of Chuck Taylor’s. Instead, sell them to his kid and make his dad feel uncool for missing out.

That’s what soccer seems to be doing now, and doing well. The sport is, well, trendy in its own way. That’s a powerful thing.
(Does this make sense?)

Your thoughts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.