The men’s World Cup is kicking off in North America. Hype in the U.S. doesn’t feel as manic as expected.
Maybe because the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico. Americans don’t share well.
Maybe because the U.S. team has no chance. Never has, never will.
Maybe because ticket costs are onerous. FIFA, soccer’s governing body, is using “variable pricing” depending on demand for each game, enabling FIFA to act as its own scalper. But with a reported 180,000 tickets left unsold, resale prices are dropping. (That includes 4,400 ducats still available for Friday’s U.S. opener vs. Paraguay at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles.)
Maybe because ESPN, not being a media affiliate, offers little support and instead sticks to its year-round saturation of NFL minutiae, the NBA Finals are happening, and the NHL is getting more out of the Worldwide Leader than usual. (Being a broadcast partner, and all the better to ignore the World Cup.)
Maybe because, having expanded to 48 teams, it’s a badly diluted tournament that features few intriguing matchups in the group stage.
Maybe it’s all of the above.
Maybe FIFA needed to cut a side deal with Pat McAfee, the sports media king. McAfee played soccer at Plum High School. He should be on the U.S. roster.
Not much can be done about the quality of the U.S. team.
The U.S. has a male population of 166.9 million. Paraguay, the U.S. team’s first foe, checks in at 3.3 million men. Appreciably less.
But the best male athletes in Paraguay play soccer. The best American male athletes do not.
As a prominent local high school football coach told me, “Soccer will catch football when the head cheerleader would rather date the soccer captain than the football quarterback.”
Cristiano Ronaldo is 6-foot-2, 183 pounds. All power, muscle, speed and athleticism.
If the Portuguese star had grown up in America, he’d have been a strong safety.
The development of soccer players in the U.S. has been compromised and made exclusionary by elite pay-for-play programs, much like other sports. It’s profit-driven, not soccer-driven.
The U.S. team has lots of talent: 13 of the squad’s players compete in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
But it has no stars. No game-changers.
Forward Christian Pulisic continues a tradition of Americans convincing themselves that their top player is a lot better than he is.
Pulisic plays for traditional Italian power AC Milan. He’s got tools.
But when he scored for the U.S. vs. Senegal in a May 31 friendly, it broke a 27-match goal-less draught: 19 for club, eight for country.
The U.S. is ranked No. 17 in the world. Its Group D opponents are No. 22 Turkey, No. 27 Australia and No. 41 Paraguay.
Given home-field advantage, the U.S. seems a decent bet to win its group.
It won’t.
Here’s betting the U.S. goes 1-1-1 and finishes second.
That very roughly projects to a knockout-round game against Iran. Played on July 3. The day before America’s 250th birthday. Winner gets the Strait of Hormuz.
If you think it caused a fuss when Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals, wait till he shows up for a soccer game vs. Iran. That might be when the hype kicks in.
Right now, the World Cup is a bit light in that department.
It’s nothing like when the U.S. hosted its first World Cup in 1994.
But a lot has changed since.
European soccer leagues are all over U.S. television.
The more we see that, the more inferior the home-grown product looks: Both the national team and Major League Soccer.
I don’t need hype to love the beautiful game. I’m a lifer.
I’m attending my first-ever World Cup match June 19 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.: Scotland vs. Morocco. One of my favorite (now ex-)Liverpool FC players, Andy Robertson, is Scotland’s captain.
I bought a so-called “hospitality” ticket direct from FIFA.
It cost $2,850. That had better get me a lot of hospitality.
Between that, inflated hotel costs, flight and car service, I’ll be spending over $6,000.
But I think I get to sit next to Rod Stewart, noted Scotland fan. “You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul…”
