Soccer: Neglected, but INCREDIBLE!!!

Passion, skill, excitement, and empty; all words that describe soccer in America. This afternoon I took a 2 hour lunch, not to go get a hair cut, visit an old friend, or even take a nap. I drove as fast as I could, weaving in and out of traffic to make it to Lamppost Pizza by 11:45 for kickoff. Not the opening kick of an NFL or NCAA the kickoff of the UEFA Cup Quarterfinals between Chelsea and Liverpool. Lamppost is a place that is full of people on weeknights for basketball and Sundays for football but on a Wednesday afternoon there is enough people to count on two hands. When I got there in my Chelsea jersey one could have thought the place was closed except for my three friends sitting in the middle of restaurant in odd jerseys with SAMSUNG and Carlsberg across the chest. As I took my seat with great anticipation of the hour and a half of soccer that I was about to watch, I couldn’t help but think where are the sports fans. The UEFA cup features some of the greatest athletes in the world doing things with a soccer ball that could only be thought up in movies. How has a sport like soccer not caught on in America? The fan support at Lamppost consisted of the four of us, a group of moms getting a few slices of pizza, and a man reading A BOOK!!! Seriously this is how Americans appreciate the world’s most popular sport. Wow. America needs a reality check. I know that we like sports that were good at, sell hot dogs, and have cheerleaders but the eyes of the American sports world need to be opened to the amazing playing ability of English soccer.

I have over the last 2 years become a strong Chelsea supporter and avid soccer fan dreaming of watching a Chelsea home game at Samford Bridge in London. I have been to numerous NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB games but none would come close to a Chelsea game. We Americans go to games to socialize, relax, and hear our favorite hit songs played as our athletes walk into place across the field or court. In the English Premiere League, chants, yelling, and the crowd on their feet is a typical match atmosphere. I just recently went to two MLS games, one of which was the LA Galaxy home opener, the combined crowded was less than 30,000 people. Actually on Tuesday night my friend Jordan went and the attendance was 6,500. I understand that in comparison to England and other nations in the world the MLS is like comparing a high school football team to USC. The high school team might be good, but when faced with the players of USC they look like a group of uncoordinated boys. The truth is that when the lights of the Home Depot Center turn on to welcome in the LA Galaxy and there are only 6,500 people in the stands who would want to play in that atmosphere? The Galaxy might have the most popular player in the world when he feels like showing up but it still doesn’t help bring soccer to America. Soccer and America seem like a combination that will never find the key to success.

As I sat there watching the Mighty Blues win a HUGE match at Annfield 3-1 I wished that I were there or at least watching it with a group of Chelsea supporters. There is no true passion in American sports. We see the Raiders fans dress in spikes, Browns fans dress like dogs, and Jets chant “J E T S JETS, JETS, JETS”, but Chelsea fans have websites dedicated to informing fans of new chants such as this one,

“I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
They fly so high they reach the sky
But like West Ham they fade and die
Tottenham always running, Arsenal running too
We are the Chelsea boot boys and we're coming after you”

Even at the conclusion of the match groups of fans fight over the result of the game and pure hatred for one another. Compare the movies that portray each sport, The Green Street Hooligans and Any Given Sunday. The difference in support and passion is night and day. To us Americans sport is recreation and fun, to the supporters of English Football it is life. They live for Saturday afternoons and the chance to spend the day cheering on their club to victory.

All this said, I loved the ability to cheer on Chelsea FC, Drogba, and Lampard to victory even though it was the cheers of just Jordan and I. Our excitement and jubilation seemed to echo in the emptiness of Lamppost as Stuart sat silent, the group of moms enjoyed an afternoon glass of wine, and the man with the book just kept on reading.