I love that more people in the US are starting to pay closer attention to the game of soccer. ABC’s coverage of the U.S. loss to Ghana attracted some 14.86 million viewers, making it the most-watched men’s World Cup match ever in the United States. The 1999 women’s World Cup final, in which the U.S. defeated China, is the only match to average more U.S. viewers (17.97 million). Those numbers sound impressive at first glance, until one realizes that in comparison, a regular-season episode of American Idol this year pulled in 6 million more viewers than the men’s game; in a down year for Idol.


Another dose of reality check was kindly delivered by a friend of mine who grew up in London and now plays for the LA Galaxy (Landon Donovan‘s team). We spent six hours today watching tens of YouTube videos of soccer games played in England and Europe this past year and I realized soccer is like a religion for the fans in those countries. The same can probably be said of soccer fans everywhere else in the world other than the US; and probably Canada, but let’s leave the Canadians out of this. 


Other countries’ fans live, breathe and literally bleed soccer to the point that I think soccer means more to the rest of the world than even American football may mean to us in the States. Having realized how little fan support the US team receives in comparison to other teams across the world, I am now even more proud of all that the US Men’s World Cup team was able to achieve this year.


Would love to hear what you all think about this? What will it take for soccer to gain wider acceptance in the US? Will the US ever be able to win a World Cup? Thoughts?