USA Earn Point at Estadio Azteca

It is not often in soccer that a 0-0 draw means anything; tonight in Mexico City it does. The US Men's National Team earned their second ever point at the Estadio Azteca in World Cup qualifying (the first having been earned in 1997). This game brings the USA's record to 0-13-2 against the Mexicans at their home stadium.

Historically, this is a huge result for the USA but it also moves the Americans into third place in their region. The USA is behind Costa Rica in only goal difference and sit a paltry one point adrift of Panama. The Mexicans had plenty of chances to earn all three points, the foul committed by Maurice Edu should have been a penalty, but the Americans defended well even with newcomers Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez in the center of defense (the former having only one cap and the latter with three).

The US Men's National Team can relax and enjoy this achievement as they do not play another qualifier until early June against Jamaica. Hopefully, by that time, they will not have to worry anymore about conditions akin to those in Denver.

Snowmageddon On The Pitch

I would be remiss if I didn't have this on the blog from last night. Yes, the World Cup qualifier between the US and Costa Rica stole time away from March Madness because of all this snow on the pitch in Denver. This was an important match since the US team needed to get a win on home soil; by doing so, they jump from last into 2nd in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying. They get ready for Mexico on Tuesday, which they will have to deal with similar altitude, but pretty sure likely not the same weather.

Team USA Shows Hockey Still Exists

If you're a hockey fan like me, I hope you woke up at odd hours in the morning here in the Western Hemisphere for the World Junior Championships, being held in Ufa, Russia. We saw the last four gold medals in the final four for this year's championship: Canada, USA, Russia and Sweden. Led by John Gibson in net, Seth Jones, Jake McCabe at the blue line and John Gaudreau and Rocco Grimaldi up front, the USA were able to beat Canada 5-1 in the semifinal and defeat Sweden today 3-1 to win the gold.

The most noticeable thing about the World Juniors is that it gave many people on Twitter a chance to tweet about actual hockey games. Aside from a couple tweets about an OHL, AHL or NCAA game, all the hockey tweets include discussions about the lockout. There are still plenty of people who do care enough about the sport that continue to be upset with all the posturing by both the NHL and NHLPA throughout this negotiation (this is my first mention of the lockout on the blog). There is a window of one week where the hope is for the NHL to resume playing and the focus goes back on the ice. If not, we will have the second cancelled season in 9 years.

Should the season get cancelled, us hockey fans will have to think of the World Juniors, the NCAA Tourney and the Memorial Cup as the biggest events that could bring hockey fans together, aside from their hatred of Gary Bettman. For that, I will thank the USA team for making me care about hockey again and demonstrating how great the game is when bickering isn't involved (unless the bickering is like this).

What's the Future of Soccer in America?

Once the NBA and NHL season's end, sports tends to slow down with a bunch of tedious regular season baseball games being the bulk of sports; thus we as American sports fans look for something to take our attention. Obviously, the Olympics are the best example of a distraction for three weeks, but that only every leap year. We want the last three golf majors and Wimbledon to be that, but it only occurs if Tiger is on the leaderboard in golf, and if the Williams sisters, Federer/Nadal or an American player in general go to the final. It gets pretty desperate that the Little League World Series is regularly treated as an important event.

Well, for the past week, soccer proved to be the latest distraction. The United States went on a run that has been unparalleled in the history of men's soccer. They reached the final of a FIFA event for the first time ever, beating powerhouse Spain along the way and giving Brazil a run for their money before bowing out 3-2 after a Brazilian comeback. The end result of this defeat can go one of two ways, either we are encouraged by the fact we can hang with the best in the world and start to follow the sport greater than ever. Or we are disillusioned because the team choked away victory.

The best way to look at the future of soccer is to gauge the past to see where there were opportunities for the sport to make it's splash here. Despite appearances in three of the first four World Cups (including a memorable upset of England in 1950), soccer didn't make any headway on the American sports scene until 1975 when Pele starred with the New York Cosmos in the NASL. His influence would prolong the league another nine years, but couldn't keep it from eventually folding. However, the framework was there for a grassroots effort to bring the U.S. team back to respectability and back to the World Cup.

1990 would be the year the U.S. would return to the World Cup and lost all three games. However, they were chosen to host to the 1994 World Cup and that would set up the second opportunity for soccer to grow in the States. I should know, it was the first time in my life I was into soccer, and USA-Colombia served as an appetizer to Knicks-Rockets Game 7. That was the first USA victory since 1950 and we realized how serious people take this sport when Andres Escobar, the man responsible for the deciding own goal in the U.S. 2-1 victory over Colombia was killed ten days later. The U.S. advanced to the knockout stage and a meeting on July 4th against Brazil, losing to the eventual champs 1-0 after a goal in the 72nd minute. The success of the World Cup led to the creation of the MLS, which is still in business, even though it is a minor league when compared to European club teams. 1998 was a forgetful year as the USA finished 32nd or 32 teams in France, but 2002 would see the greatest success in the modern era of U.S. soccer. They would beat Portugal and tie South Korea to advance to another knockout stage, then beat Mexico 2-0 to advance to the quarters, before losing to Germany 1-0.

At this point, it seemed like soccer only would become important every four years for the men. Women's soccer, however seemed to also grab some attention during the late 90s when the U.S. Women's Team won the 1999 Women's World Cup. Of course, most of that attention was due to Brandi Chastain's celebration after the game-winning goal including her taking off her shirt, revealing only a sports bar. Unfortunately, women's soccer peaked at that time as they could get a professional league off the ground and has been marginalized as of late.

Soccer, it seems has started more of a push since the 2006 World Cup, despite the U.S. not faring well. Part of the reason is because that was the first time I spent the bulk of the World Cup working in Manhattan, and saw more games on TV's in bars and restaurants. Still, it was being watched and not only the USA matches, but matches involving Brazil, Spain, France, etc. The Italy-France final was a great match and based on the Italian-American population in New York, it was treated as it should be and certainly is in the rest of the world. I believe that since the 2006 World Cup, there is much more soccer that's watched here than ever before. Whether it's the annual Champions League tournament, Euro 2008 or this years Confederations Cup.

The ratings for the match was a 2.7, around the same as some USA World Cup matches and that doesn't include those who watched it on Univision (both for Spanish-speaking individuals and for those like me who wait for the announce to say GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL). However, this was due to a belief we had a chance after beating Spain and that Brazil was the opponent. Without the USA in the final, the game stays on ESPN2 and maybe gets 1/3 of the audience. The fact about soccer is that it is the fifth team sport in this country and now that the NHL is starting to regain the lost attention that occured from 1995-2005, it seems like fifth is where soccer will stay. However, as long as baseball is the only sport from June-August, there is a place for soccer to grow, since most of the high profile tournaments happen in those months. Plus, tennis isn't what it used to be, NASCAR is starting to decline and the WNBA is lucky to still be in business. Now if only Tiger Woods left golf, soccer would be fifth overall.