Jens Deju
Daily Egyptian
I had a pretty startling inner revelation while battling insomnia Sunday night.
Soccer isn't all that bad.
As I watched the ol' red, white and blue whoop our neighbors to the south in the World Cup, it hit me that the U.S. can actually be good at this sport.
Growing up, I thought of soccer as nothing more than glorified kickball, and while I still don't really understand the sport, there is clearly more to it than just kicking a ball.
You have to run a lot too.
Parents almost always steer their children more toward baseball, basketball or football, which are thought to be America's sports.
"Futbol" is the rest of the world's sport.
In other countries, the best athletes become forwards, midfielders and goalies.
Here they become shortstops, running backs and point guards.
This lack of caring in the United States is one of the main reasons why other countries regularly mop the floor with us in soccer.
Until now.
This latest edition of the World Cup is the first time since 1930 that the United States has won two games.
In fact, the states only had two wins from 1934 to 1998.
America didn't take part in the Cup from 1950 to 1990, but since its return, it has gone a combined 1-8-1, including an embarrassing last place finish in the 32-team field at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Even though the U.S. may seem to be an overnight success on the global scene, our improvement has been coming along in local spheres for a while now.
Taking Mexico as an example, America was 0-21-3 against our neighbors from 1937 to 1980, but has gone 9-6-5 since 1991.
While surfing the Internet at work on Monday, I came across an article titled, "Time to Take the Yanks Seriously?"
That headline made me think, and I realized the rest of the soccer world respects us about as much as we respected Jamaica when they first started competing in the bobsled.
It also made me realize that Team USA's success will probably just piss off those countries that don't already hate us anyway.
The reason why is simple.
Soccer is the one major sport that we're supposed to suck at.
At the Olympics, the United States is almost always at the top in the medal count, but the rest of the world could always take solace in the fact they'd get back at us and then some on the soccer field.
Until now.
Yeah, the Unites States has yet to win anything major, but it has knocked perennial soccer powerhouses Portugal and Mexico out of the World Cup and started to earn respect from their peers in the soccer world.
The new and improved Team USA's biggest test will come in its next game against three-time World Cup champion Germany.
If the Americans can keep their hot streak alive and knock off Germany, they will have proved they are now a force to be reckoned with in soccer.
And if the team can't get past the hump that is Germany, the World Basketball Championships begin Aug. 29, and Team USA can go back to dominating in every sport that isn't named soccer.
Reporter Jens Deju can be reached at jdeju@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
