Re: isa women are winning big in the world cup final
In 20 years, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the two most popular sports - by a decent margin - were Football and Futbol, aka Soccer. Of course, the only way any sport would ever surpass football in popularity would be for lawyers and politicians to basically if not literally banish the sport due to safety concerns. There will always be a big gap between football and everything else in this country.
(Trying to remain calm....)
We have been hearing about this coming soccer boom since THE 1960S!!!!! It hasn't happened, and it likely never will. I had a guy make this same prediction to me back in 1995 - "in 20 years soccer will be bigger than baseball." Well, it isn't. And everyone can always give me the very same anecdotal evidence every single time, and it never happens.
And I say this as one of the Americans who actually LIKES and can appreciate soccer. (I have to admit that since I was introduced to soccer in England in the mid-1970s, I have a greater appreciation than the average American and I'm sorta glad England lost because I feel a strong sense of loyalty to the island where I learned the game. I probably would have been pulling for England over the USA, patriotism be junked).
In 1979, several of us came back from tours in England and Germany. All of a sudden military housing was playing soccer when they never did before. Five years later, the NASL went out of business. The boom was gonna happen when we were sort of successful in the 1990 World Cup - wrong. When the World Cup was held in the USA in 1994 - wrong. When the women won the 1999 Cup - wrong.
I hear the same predictions every time something like this happens. I'm not ripping the girl's team, the sport, or even the defenders, it's just that I've heard the same thing over and over for 35-plus years now, and it hasn't happened. We had a tennis boom in the 1970s......how many of you even watch it much less play it nowadays? We had a bowling boom - and you'd think that would drastically increase at least in personal popularity since: a) you can play it year round; and b) it doesn't exactly require physical conditioning - much anyway.
Yes, the ratings were impressive. But it wasn't all that long ago that NASCAR was gonna be the next big thing. It had a boom period. In 2004, in fact, they were trying to figure out how to expand to have races overseas......and then the sport suddenly crashed (if you'll pardon the pun, ha ha). NASCAR Driving School in Atlanta used to have more folks wanting to go than line up for free food - now, nothing.
The NBA - correct - is a personality driven sport, it's sort of like boxing/wrestling with a bouncing ball. And Tim Duncan - as good as he is - is a gentleman who isn't overly quotable. There's no Shaq vs Kobe going on right now, Bird and Magic, Jordan and everyone else.
I could, of course, be wrong. Perhaps someday at some time the sport of soccer will become huge. But you'd think given how many get started at a young age and have for years that NOW would be this big boom time on the professional stage. I just don't see it happening. Part of the problem is that in MEN'S soccer generally speaking, ninety percent of the games end with one of three scores: 0-0, 1-0, and 1-1 (with penalty kicks). There's just not a lot of scoring (excluding Germany drilling Brazil a year ago). That scoring in fact is part of why the ratings went up the first hour as the US punched in four goals.
The LSU-Alabama 2011 regular season game was a masterpiece of defense - most fans of neither team whined about that game. Why? Because we LIKE offense in our sports. At Alabama we have a long history of enjoying a dominant defense but it's hard to get everyone on board for such a team AND such a sport. In CFB, folks can always watch Oklahoma vs Kansas if they want to see a lot of points. Or a baseball game at Coors Field.
Soccer doesn't offer that option.
