Whether this is stepping point, remains to be seen. Any US citizen can get behind their country to support a team in action. The trouble is with the minor sports, attention is only received on the big stage.
The United States women captured the attention of the country while persevering and entertaining sports fans with their World Cup run.
Not having won the cup for 12 years, this was a big deal that the women had a shot at the ultimate prize in soccer around the world.
Americans can easily rally behind Team USA basketball in the Olympics. But much like soccer, hockey, gymnastics and volleyball are only popular during the Olympics and when there is cause.
This tremendous run absolutely made progress in the exposure of soccer but it won’t be making heavy strides anytime soon. For some reason, unlike other countries, soccer just hasn’t caught on. Sure, we all played it when we were younger because that was the thing to do. Maybe it’s the long game, or little scoring. But when four players on the US world cup team play in a venue with the capacity of 1,500 and it’s rarely filled, there is a problem.
It’s a great thing that so many people were involved in outraged by the US women’s national team losing to Japan in the finals by way of penalty kicks. But does it mean they actually care about the sports or there is nothing else on in the summer?
People were buzzing on twitter, to the record tune of of 7,196 tweets per second. The previous record was just after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day at 6,939 tweets per second.
And there’s more.
ESPN announced Monday that the 2011 Women’s World Cup Finals was the network’s most -viewed and high-rated soccer match ever. The US-Japan final was seen about approximately 13.458 million people. Compare that with 17.985 million who watched the 1999 final that was on ABC.
Just the fact that Indy sports radio, major websites and various blogs are chatting about it is a great thing. The interest level is certainly there. But will it stick?
Right now, soccer much ride the wave. Put these players in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Ultimately, I don’t see a big change in interest level unless rules are changed.
A major change I’d like to see happen is the way a game ends. Like many others have said, how can you end a tie game with penalty kicks? After running around the field for 120-plus minutes, everything is decided by five penalty kicks…I’m not a big fan of that. It’s like ending a basketball game in free throws, or a football game with field goals. Heck or auto racing with a pit-stop challenge. It ultimately doesn’t gauge the better team.
Nonetheless the viewership on ESPN was there and fans were very active throughout the game on twitter. Unfortunately, it may just be a matter of American pride and rallying behind a team than an actual interest in the sport.
Either well, great run ladies.