Where American Soccer is Going

Ahh. I’ve finished my exams. I can say it’s been a very long week, and I’ll be getting my grades back tomorrow. Fingers crossed, people.

But, beside talking about me, I want to point out that this was an immensely significant week for American soccer, and one that really gives us a glimpse into where it’ll be going in the near future. As a minority group in a nation that isn’t always so friendly to what is “new”, American soccer fans are always worried about their future. We see growth, but we see distance. We see improvement, but we see constant disrespect. Whether from the general public, to whom soccer itself is a very literally foreign concept, or from eurosnobs, for whom MLS is peanuts to the European elephants, MLS has barely been able to get the respect we remain convinced it deserves.

I submit to you now that three actions in the past week indicated just how bright soccer’s future is in America. But I also want to draw emphasis to my wording: I said soccer, not specifically MLS. In the past week, an American finally scored a hat trick in England, and a batch of young American talent assured us that the USMNT will be in good hands come 2014, and a Premier League matchup of giants was aired on basic American cable.

It’s only fitting that we start with Clint Dempsey, given his remarkable “first” this week. On Saturday, Dempsey found the net three times in a span of 30 minutes for his club, Fulham, as they went on to smash Newcastle 5-2 in Premier League play. This is the first time any American has notched a hat trick in the EPL, and I’m sure few are surprised that, of all the Americans to have gone across the pond, Dempsey was the one to do it. It’s almost funny to think that Clint wore a New England jersey only a few years ago, especially given his smashing success with Fulham, whose fans named him Player of the Year in 2010-11. He is really the soccer-embodiment of the American dream: his skill, hard work, and dedication to the game have carried him from a trailer in a town where a third of the population lives under the poverty line to the headlines of American soccer. And this has a lot to do with where American soccer is going. It’s going across the pond. Sure, it may not be anything new to think that Americans are choosing to play in Europe over MLS, but it definitely shows where we are. MLS still doesn’t compete for the hearts and minds of players. Look at our youth talent: Tim Ream, Brek Shea, Juan Agudelo, and Teal Burnbury are all being linked to Europe. But maybe this isn’t too bad. I mean, it beats nothing. We’ve learned that MLS’s improvement curve is one that is going to have to follow slow, consistent growth, not overnight success. So if talented American players want to go across to Europe, (and thus prove to the world that Americans can, in fact, play soccer) while the domestic league continues its gradual learning curve, so be it. As long as MLS keeps improving, I’d rather our youth go out and prove what American can do than not play to their full potential in our league. And one day this will stop, and they’ll choose America over Europe, but until then we’ll just have to wait.

But this week also proved just how strong that youth talent is. The US’s victory against Venezuela was definitely a close one: we missed a boatload of chances, and our victory-sealing goal was lucky to have happened at all, given that it took place four minutes after the game was supposed to end. But the talent on the field was undeniable. Besides goalkeeper Bill Hamid, defender A.J. DeLaGarza and midfielder Graham Zusi, who were made their first appearances in the match, Brek Shea, Teal Burnbury, and CJ Sapong were all huge. We have to face the fact that these are the kids who will be representing us in Brazil in 2014, but I don’t think we have to do that with a frown. We have a sick team. My friends and I literally spend twenty minutes debating whether Graham Zusi is a poor man’s David Beckham, or if David Beckham is just a rich man’s Graham Zusi. Shea is an absolute beast, and once Agudelo joins the lineup, I have little doubt that any “problems” the US has had with scoring will be solved. And what’s even more important to see is that most of these players are coming out of MLS and the American player development chain. Even if not through formal MLS academies, these players went through PDA or ODP programs, played in college, and are now ready to represent the US. The fact that they’ll probably spend time in Europe is irrelevant, as their success only proves that America’s means of player production are, by now, more than viable. So in terms of American Soccer’s future, we can be very sure, and very proud, that we are finally a consistent producer of soccer talent, something that will definitely only become more true as time goes on.

And then there was today. At eleven this morning, Fox aired Arsenal’s match against Man United. I want to put this into perspective: in the 1990’s, you’d be lucky to find any soccer on TV that wasn’t World Cup related. Sure, there was the occasional European game, and MLS fought hard to make its way onto the airwaves, but soccer was clearly a commodity on TV, even with MLS’s initiation of a pay-per-view all access pass called the MLS Shootout Package. Fast forward to the 2000’s. In 2005, DirecTV adds GolTV to its repertoire; that same year, MLS Shootout Package becomes MLS Direct Kick; and in 2006 Fox Sports World drops all non-soccer programming, becoming the Fox Soccer network. With a bit of effort, and an open wallet, the soccer-oriented can now keep up with their teams. But then there’s 2011: MLS has a contract with NBC, sports channels ranging from FSC Plus to ESPN brim with soccer, and the Premier League is available on basic freaking cable. People, this is monumental. Even if it may not be MLS, people’s demands for soccer on TV have gotten loud enough for the people at Fox to hear it. I know, I know, there’s a big difference between getting high ratings on EPL matches and MLS games (and a recent report showed that a Chelsea- Liverpool match up had higher ratings than the MLS final. Ugh) but it’s definitely a start.

So, with those three things in mind, this is where I think American Soccer is going: our nation will continue to produce more talent than ever, and a good amount of it will move abroad after some time in MLS. But, as the league improves, this will happen less and less. America’s interest in soccer will start with Eurosnobbery, and then slowly spread to MLS. People will go out to Livestrong Park to see Sporting on Saturday night, then wake up early to watch their European teams on Sunday morning. And that’s where it’ll be. The distant future is far too much to predict, and a lot of that depends on how true what I’m saying now turns out to be, so I’m not going to shoot that far ahead. These predictions really only encompass the next 5-10 years, but I really think they’re pretty accurate. Soccer is growing in America. Period.