Why it's the world's game.

By this time if you're not into soccer, your probably sick of my articles. Sorry. Just ignore this one and we'll have something for you tomorrow.

Soccer is the world's game because all it requires to play is a ball and a field. These is one of the reasons basketball wins out over baseball in inter-cities. Basketball requires less equipment and a smaller field, granted soccer requires a pretty large field, but the fundamentals can be practiced almost anywhere When I was in the army I saw kids playing on a rocky uneven cow pasture. And they were brilliant. It's one of the reasons Africa's teams compete so competently in the World Cup despite the fact they do not have the training, equipment, or facilities of the powerful soccer nations.

So what will it take for America to join the ranks of the powerful nations. Well in my opinion the big soccer nations have passion, money, training and a large population. A country need not have all of these things, Uruguay and the Netherlands have both had a history of success at the World Cup without a huge population. Brazil has won 5 titles and they were not the richest country in the early days, in fact their success helped their country and teams get richer. America has a large population, but in soccer we are still improving in the other 3 categories.

The establishment of youth programs and a major league for soccer have been moves in the right direction. The real reason soccer's popularity waned (once again in my opinion) is first America's 40 year hiatus from the World Cup. From the end of the 1950 tournament, until the 1990 tournament America did not qualify for the World Cup. Mostly because Mexico was better at the sport and our region did not get many spots due to not being a powerful soccer region. 2nd Soccer is not the cash cow that the big four are (Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey). Say what you will but a sport which wouldn't stop for commercials and doesn't have billboards all over the playing field is going to be avoided by advertisers. Sadly it does seem like money drives most modern day sports.

America has made great advances in the game, but we still have a lot to improve upon. The guys playing now would have been the first ones influenced by the start of MLS, the youth leagues, and our return to the World Cup. The kids that are coming up will hopefully continue the improvement. Hopefully someday soon, we will see America get into the final four or beyond.