Blame it on Beckham

9 thoughts on “Blame it on Beckham”

1. Good Morning From Omaha,

   I wouldn’t go out buying time on any soccer games televised in the US just yet. Its always fun to cheer on the American’s in any event where its an us against them atmosphere. LIke hockey against Canada. They will always skim more viewers, the real fans, from the top of audience. In the long run they have been trying to get soccer, or hockey on grass, to be a big sport with the public in the United states.The game of soccer is probably like watching baseball on t.v. or golf, most people would rather be out playing the game than sitting inside and watching it on t.v.

   That’s not a knock on the game of soccer,, its a fine game , but people only watch when its an us against them game like the world cup.

   strive for excellence, nothing but your best.

   Gene

2. Around 170 million watched the Champions League final. That is a more fair comparison to the Super Bowl. The World Cup is between national teams. It’s just one month in 4 years (and 3 years of qualification). But the bread and butter of soccer is the 9-month long club leagues, with the best ones in Europe. That’s where the soccer players earn their million dollar wages. And hence a fair comparison to American sports leagues should be the Champions League, the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A and the German Bundesliga.

3. Great comments Guys. I actually wanted to blame the whole thing on Posh Spice.

4. Well Drew, at least I could actually spend two hours out of the day watching Posh Spice 🙂

5. Drew, I think you really wanted to blame Beckham for marrying Posh Spice.

6. Blame it on or thank (pick one: Jim Rome, Jay Mariotti, John Feinstein). They hate soccer so much and told us to hate it so much, the rest of the country decided to watch it out of spite. Next thing you know, the U.S. is a soccer nation.

   Go USA! They should beat Algeria on Wednesday.

7. Beckham was a flop, but then he wasn’t; his failure over here showed how far US Soccer had come, and that unlike the old NASL, MLS wasn’t a retirement league, but rather a development ground for upcoming talent. If you want local proof, his one and only visit to Denver was a 4-0 win for the Rapids and had his former roomate in Manchester score twice on him.

   The World Cup success isn’t so much about Americans liking soccer, but rather any sport played at the top level, which also explains why interest in the Big Four Euro Leagues is growing. Basketball, baseball and hockey are all truly international sports also, but Americans are blessed to have the world’s top players in each in our domestic leagues. And, of course, the Yanks’ rise over the past two decades from laughing stock to dark horse helps with interest.

   Beckham didn’t save soccer in America. Soccer saved soccer in America.

8. How about we blame the rise of soccer on Landon Donovan, he really is a lot of fun to watch.

9. Especially today against Algeria!