Why the USA has failed at soccer.

Why the USA has failed at soccer.

As we have discussed in class, soccer has deep roots in American sports. But in a more modern sense, soccer has a reputation as a sport played by “grass fairies.” But why is this? Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, but in America it may be classified as the 5th most popular, or even lower.

For the past four years, I have been following European and American soccer teams on a near religious level. There are HUGE differences in the style and structure of soccer in America and Europe. For the most part, all the European leagues follow the same rules, but Major League Soccer, the US league, has rule like no other league in the world.

First we will explore players between leagues. In Europe, players are traded, sold, and bought from other teams like the MLS, and free agency is also the same. Trading deadlines are similar to the transfer windows between the two league styles. But what the MLS has is a draft. A very “American” sports tradition, the MLS draft is how teams obtain new young talent. Most Europeans, at least from what I have read and seen on TV, laugh off this idea. In Europe, nearly every club team has what’s called a “Youth team.” This youth team is made of 11 to 18 year old kids who play football more as a fun sport, but some of the bigger clubs, take youth teams very seriously. Because the talent can be harder to see at a young age, if a team can see the talent early enough, then the payoff will be higher. Drafts aren’t a bad idea, but it almost promotes losing. Now hear me out. How does it make sense for the worst team of a league be able to get the most “talented” player of a draft, it’s just never made sense to me.

Another thing to look at is the league structure. In all European leagues, after a season is over, the bottom 2 to 4 teams are relegated to a lower league. Similar to the Minor leagues in baseball and hockey, but US sports don’t have a relegation system, because of the lack of teams for multiple levels of leagues. The MLS barely has enough teams to support a full league, so I have to cut them some slack for this reason.

In Europe, football is sometimes considered a “sexy” sport. With high profile players, speed, agility, and fancy footwork seem to dominate the game’s tactics. I think the US plays a more enjoyable football. There a few superstars, but mainly there are just some young players trying to make a name for themselves. Its not about the money with MLS players, its about pride.

Secondly we can look at the other sports played around the world. In America we have the big 4 sports; baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. In Europe, the Soccer is the top sport. But basketball, rugby, cycling, and Formula One racing are all second sports due to the large following of soccer. When we discussed in class about why nearly every one of us played soccer as a kid, was because it was the most available sport to play. Despite a huge drop in popularity, the United States has more numbers of youth soccer players than any other country. But because more sports become available to play as kids grow older, soccer is usually abandoned to play other sports like football or basketball.

I think regional has another thing to do with soccer’s success. In all US professional sports, teams are allocated by the economic market they might succeed in, or by the private investor who wishes to own a team. In Europe, nearly all the teams were once founded by small local groups, and some built their way up into being the giants we see today. England alone has over 7,000 teams in their 24 level, 480 divisions of soccer. That’s right, I know its Wikipedia, but this explains it best. (My jaw really dropped when I saw this.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_league_system

Part of me wants to say that the opportunity to play other types of sports is the reason why soccer isn’t as loved in America. But part of me thinks that it is because soccer is not American. Soccer was created by the Britain’s in the 1800s. I still think by then the American mentality by our newly founded country was to not act like the British. It seems like our nature is to not do what the rest of the world does, but that we should play the sports that we want to play. Many people consider soccer a “foreign game.” A term I consider unfair to the sport.

But this actually gives me hope that soccer will become a bigger sport in the US. The United States hosts the best sports leagues for baseball, American football, basketball, and hockey in the world. And you might also add NASCAR to that list for arguments sake. But soccer is left out of the equation. The United States has won some sort of international title is hockey, baseball, and basketball. (American Football is not an internal sport to the extent of internal competition.) Soccer is left out of our trophy case. The US Women’s national soccer team has won 3 Olympic gold medals as well as two Women’s World Cups.

The Men’s national team has not had the same success. They did finish 3rd in the 1930 World Cup, but that can’t be good enough. I personally think that the US has a shot to win the F.I.F.A World Cup in South Africa this summer. The US beat Spain in the Confederations Cup this past summer, and they were ranked #1 in the world. I’m not saying that we are guaranteed to win the World Cup, but it seems that the World Cup would be the last trophy the USA would need to complete the collection. Soccer is the final frontier for American Sports. If we can learn some methods of our European counterparts, maybe we can become reputable in this sport.

Should college players be paid to play?

Should college players be paid to play?

Collegiate sports can be the highlight of some peoples’ lives. The atmosphere and environment often harvests an excellent group of athletes. But unlike their professional counterparts, these young athletes don’t see a penny for their effort or success. But is it fair? Should college athletes get some sort of compensation for their efforts?

Now I know it might sound kinds ridiculous, but there needs to be some light shed upon this on both sides. Athletics are most college’s number one source for revenue, with ticket sales, concessions, and merchandise. In many cases these college athletes are more popular than any professor on campus. They can sometimes be larger than life. But does this warrant the requirement for paying athletes?

First let’s look at the current perks of being a collegiate athlete. For the most part, most athletes are on some sort of athletic scholarship. And that basically means that are attending college for free. Although they are often required to maintain a certain G.P.A. for the most part they have a free ride. Scholarship athletes usually get a good setup with their exclusive meal plan, when they can schedule classes, and usually athletes are put up in nicer dorms if they still live on campus. When teams travel, the schools pay for all of their traveling and room costs. In football, if the team is good enough to play in a BCS bowl game, every player on the team receives a gift package which is sponsored by the bowl sponsor, some of these gift packages can range in the thousands of dollars for each athlete.

But something else comes to mind when it comes to the athletes getting paid. Who deserves to get paid what? Would football players automatically get more money than soccer players? Should cheerleaders get paid? It just doesn’t seem ethical to pay all players the same because obviously certain players have longer seasons opposed to others. But would male athletes get paid more than women? So should these athletes be paid despite getting all these perks?

I know a lot of people will agree with me, but I have to say no, athletes should not be paid to play in college. The point of college sports is not to make a living; it’s supposed to be for fun. Yes there are some players in college that will go pro in different sports, but just because a fraction of the players are pro potential, that doesn’t give the reason for everyone to get paid like professionals. Not everyone is a professional athlete, so we as a society shouldn’t prematurely treat these athletes as something that they are not, regardless of their potential.