Can Beckham bring Football to America.

[woodwardjnr]

I'm of the view that he can not, you already have your own sports and its like someone trying to introduce Baseball in the UK no one would be interested (even though we invented baseball in the first place, we just called it rounders) . Infact American football is a bastardised version of Rugby. though in rugby you dont wear pads and you can only throw the ball backwards

[the girl next door]

I was in Washington DC a few Weeks ago and went to two Games DC against New York and DC against Chicago..It was great,i was really surprised..Everybody goes 4-5 hours before to the games and have a BBQ outside and all drink Beer together (No fighting or trouble at all) and after the games they do the same again...
There are not so many fans as in England of course but loyal all the same
I hope Beckham gets more Americans into the sport

[Tone Deft]

I'm of the view that he can not, you already have your own sports and its like someone trying to introduce Baseball in the UK no one would be interested (even though we invented baseball in the first place, we just called it rounders) . Infact American football is a bastardised version of Rugby. though in rugby you dont wear pads and you can only throw the ball backwards

you're quite wrong, I grew up playing soccer, from about 8 years old (that was 1980) in city leagues through highs school and I still get into pickup games here and there. the MLS has been going on for over a decade and the US has had some kind of presence in the World Cups for decades. pull your head out of your arse, it's already here. in the parks around my neighborhood there's almost always a soccer game going on, people at my work play at lunch, there are weekly games in Golden Gate Park (the big city park) and the adult after work city leagues have waiting lists to get onto a team.

I watched the 'Beckham' game, there was mass media coverage for weeks prior to that match. Oh, and did the visiting England teams win all the friendlies?? NO.

american football is not rugby, there's not that many similarities.

you can keep baseball, or rounders, whatever you want to call it, and darts too.



I have to say that first loooong crossfield pass Beckham did from ~18 to ~18 was beautiful, spot on, slight bend, amazing touch...

I love the beautiful game.

[kramerica]

This thread seems like someone's trying to instigate a "my nation's sport is better than your nation's sport", but I'll express my thoughts nonetheless.

I went to the Chicago Fire v. Glasgow Celtic friendly yesterday to see Blanco (MEX) debut for the Fire - he was traded under the new MLS 'Beckham Rule'. As some of you may know, Ronaldo (BRA) and Ronaldinho (BRA) are both rumored to be in talks for future MLS trades as well. We have the money, so it shouldn't be surprising.

The game yesterday was awesome, the stadium was filled but not sold out and the spirit of football and all of the celebration that comes with it was in full force. The MLS has been steadily growing and isn't in any danger of collapsing like the old NASL of the late 70's. Further, the US has the largest youth football (soccer) organization in the world - not to mention 300 million Americans - a pretty large pool to pull from. We simply lose too many of our top athletes to American football, baseball, and basketball (an American export which is currently the fastest growing sport in the world). In addition, TV coverage is increasing - the lack of it killed the NASL and has hurt hockey much in the same way as the MLS historically. Fox Sports World and other satellite networks are finally bringing football to Americans, who until at most 5 yrs. ago, never had the ability to watch a Premier League, La Liga match, Champs League, or Euro-Cup match.

Unrelatedly, we also have a giant influx of Mexican and Latino immigrants which bring their love of the game with them to the US. Blanco's arrival in Chicago will only magnify this as he was/is a legend in Mexico. The Latino minority will likely continue to grow at an exponential rate (they just unseated blacks as the largest US minority) as their birthrates are the highest. I could reasonably predict that within 1-2 generations, football (soccer) could be the biggest sport in the US or at least comparative to our other leading sports.

What Beckham, Blanco, and the others coming over will do is keep the immigrant communities interested in the MLS instead of having to watch their old national leagues. It will also keep the youth players interested. I quit soccer b/c their was really no future in it (no MLS, I never saw another nation's league play a game nor could have I). And like Tone Deft said, nearly every child in America plays soccer as a kid - it's truly massive. Now there is a future for American players; there is an ability to see other nation's matches and their players allowing us to emulate those players and see how big the sport really is.

Hell, the US team was ranked 9th in the world last time I checked. We're a world class contender now. And the current players grew up without MLS and without any ability to watch the best players in the world. Imagine LeBron James being as good as he is without growing up watching Michael Jordan (I apologize if you don't know these US athletes). It simply wouldn't have happened. Now it can for American footballers.

All of this has really just happened in the last 5 yrs. Writing soccer off in America is naive and uninformed. We can only go up my friends.

.02

[Tone Deft]

I went to the Chicago Fire v. Glasgow Celtic friendly yesterday

I'm very jealous, I watched that match on TV, there was some good play on both sides of the ball. Blanco was a lot of fun to watch.

I liked the tone of the friendlies too, few to no cards given so players weren't rolling around on the ground grabbing their ankle waiting for the 'magic spray of healing' to come in from the sideline, hoping they can draw a foul.

[kramerica]

I went to the Chicago Fire v. Glasgow Celtic friendly yesterday

I'm very jealous, I watched that match on TV, there was some good play on both sides of the ball. Blanco was a lot of fun to watch.

I liked the tone of the friendlies too, few to no cards given so players weren't rolling around on the ground grabbing their ankle waiting for the 'magic spray of healing' to come in from the sideline, hoping they can draw a foul.

Well, flopping is really more of the Italian method of soccer playing. You won't see that pussy shit in the States.

[pix]

I've been in the US for 3 years now and I think that it has the potential to become a powerful team (national wise) very quickly. The main reason is because of the amounts of money these guys have and the amount of scholarships these guys can give to kids to play.

Another thing pointing in this direction is that most kids play soccer when they're young. That's really good because that's when you learn better. So they have that already. Kids love to play it - they know what's really good for them.

Now the main thing stopping soccer from growing here is the "gay factor", and until you lose it it'll never gain much popularity. Thing is, soccer is for kids, or for girls, and if you're in high school and play soccer you're probably going end up joining the "unpopular" crowd and be considered a human failure.

A friend of mine says it's also because of the low amount of breaks during the game which makes it difficult for TV advertisement.

But I think it's mostly the "macho man you got to be tough otherwise you're nothing" attitude that invades the mindset of the average american (male) teenager...

[Tone Deft]

I went to the Chicago Fire v. Glasgow Celtic friendly yesterday

I'm very jealous, I watched that match on TV, there was some good play on both sides of the ball. Blanco was a lot of fun to watch.

I liked the tone of the friendlies too, few to no cards given so players weren't rolling around on the ground grabbing their ankle waiting for the 'magic spray of healing' to come in from the sideline, hoping they can draw a foul.

Well, flopping is really more of the Italian method of soccer playing. You won't see that pussy shit in the States.

lmfao!!!


you know how the Italians play


mcbride said he didn't feel a thing, he already has a steel plate in his face from years of playing soccer.


/sorry for getting nationalistic... just taking the piss.

[kramerica]

I've been in the US for 3 years now and I think that it has the potential to become a powerful team (national wise) very quickly. The main reason is because of the amounts of money these guys have and the amount of scholarships these guys can give to kids to play.

Another thing pointing in this direction is that most kids play soccer when they're young. That's really good because that's when you learn better. So they have that already. Kids love to play it - they know what's really good for them.

Now the main thing stopping soccer from growing here is the "gay factor", and until you lose it it'll never gain much popularity. Thing is, soccer is for kids, or for girls, and if you're in high school and play soccer you're probably going end up joining the "unpopular" crowd and be considered a human failure.

A friend of mine says it's also because of the low amount of breaks during the game which makes it difficult for TV advertisement.

But I think it's mostly the "macho man you got to be tough otherwise you're nothing" attitude that invades the mindset of the average american (male) teenager...

And the more American kids see footballers with Posh-like wives and celebrity A-list parties, the more they will want to invest in soccer practice. The "gay" factor will disappear in the near-term.

[OvertoneZero]

Soccer is for women and children!

[kramerica]

Soccer is for women and children!

And the Red Sox are for homos:

[woodwardjnr]

And the more American kids see footballers with Posh-like wives and celebrity A-list parties, the more they will want to invest in soccer practice. The "gay" factor will disappear in the near-term.[/quote]

Thats a great pooint

[Tone Deft]

And the more American kids see footballers with Posh-like wives and celebrity A-list parties, the more they will want to invest in soccer practice. The "gay" factor will disappear in the near-term.

Thats a great pooint

sure, in the redneck parts of the US where they still call straight people gay because of their limited vocabulary, homophic culture and dislike for anything they don't understand.

where I grew up in suburban bay area soccer was the 'alternative' sport, fuck baseball, fuck football, basketball was common but mostly pickup games in the park, soccer was european, cultured, different and later in high school more associated with carribean countries, bob marley and all that. it was also tied to 'hacky sack' (do europeans call 'footbags' that?) which added to the alternative culture aspect of soccer. the term 'soccer mom' has been an american term for many years, I don't think I've EVER heard 'football mom' or 'baseball mom'.


anyway, someday we'll get there, the EPL is still the most amazing play on the planet, IMO.

[lesterdiamond]

two words:

Hell No

I would like to see it but it won't happen

Nascar is the sport on the rise right now in America

[leedsquietman]

I'm a Brit by birth and therefore very passionate about soccerlfootball, call it what you will. But I now live in Canada and have been to some Toronto FC games and the atmosphere is way better than back home, tailgate parties with barbecues, no fighting going on (it helps that the opposition fans are hundred and thousands of miles away, so not many travelling fans come, if any) and fans who actually back the team (no booing of your own players). Back in the UK, the fans would sometimes fight between themselves, let alone the away fans, too many idiots who start off their breakfast with a few cans of beer and then hit the pubs for a few more before going into the match.

Although Canadian's first love for TV is Hockey, soccer is the most participated in Sport for kids and their are plenty of good facilities for playing indoor too. The difference compared to Britain is the concept of house league, 80% of kids play at house league which means they have to rotate positions and get equal field time, no matter how good or bad they are. The other 20% play rep which is the competitive environment used in the UK. House league is just seen as 'good fun' for everyone.

Beckham has already brought multi million dollar sponsorships and contracts to the Galaxy and with all the hype, it's been calculated that he already earned his salary even before he kicked a ball in a competitive match, so it's very promising.

Why is soccer not bigger in the USA. IMHO 2 reasons.
1) Commercials are very important to US networks *and Canadian*, who show more commercials on regular TV than the UK's big network channels. Hockey, Basketball, Baseball and especially Football (American Football) have a stoppage regularly which allows for commercials to be added in. In football, it can be one commercial in between every play and multiple during a timeout. Soccer is a continuous game which has no time outs except for injuries and that is unpredicatble. Some channels did run soccer games a few years ago and every minute the screen would split into 2 halves and a commercial would run on the bottom half of the screen, it was automated so this would occur whether it was an injury break or a penalty kick. Obviously, this sucked and people didn't want to watch under those conditions. Several head honchos at TV networks have complained that soccer isn't financially viable.

2) Americans like winners. Their World cup team has done relatively well (and the women have been champions many times) but they don't have any big name stars of their own (at least on the level of Beckham or Ronaldinho etc) and recently the team is in transition and results not consistent. The USA entered the Copa America as guests. If they were to win a contest like the Copa America or The World Cup then everyone would go mad for the game. Having players such as Beckham who has played for 2 of the biggest teams on the planet and represented his country 80 times can only help the other players he trains with. However, most MLS imports are the likes of Danny Dichio and Andy Welsh etc at Toronto who were playing in the Championship (2nd tier) in Britain. So if they can afford to attract a little more quality and star power that can only be good for the development of the natives. It also helps having Americans play in Europe, which is happening more regularly.