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The Soccer Gap: What conservatives are missing.
National Review Online ^ | May 31, 2002 | Robert Ziegler

Posted on 05/31/2002 9:28:33 AM PDT by xsysmgr

The most-watched sporting event in the world has begun, and most of my fellow conservatives in America are going to miss it.

While some of you no doubt are thinking that the Super Bowl and World Series are both months away, the event I'm referring to is the World Cup of Soccer, watched by an estimated 3.5 billion people around the world, including millions in the United States, almost all of whom are apparently liberals.

As a movement conservative and rabid fan of the beautiful game (that's soccer, by the way), I find myself as something of a de facto missionary for the sport to the political and cultural right. What is it about soccer that makes it (in America) the nearly exclusive domain of liberal sports fans?

Growing up in Ohio, I started following the game at age 12 via the weekly PBS program (should have tipped me off right then) Soccer Made in Germany, which featured a condensed match segment accompanied by English commentary. Youth leagues were just getting started in our part of the state, and my interest grew as I started coaching kids and playing in high school, but even then it was made clear that I was involved in an outsiders' game in a conservative area.

When I took an announcement of a big victory to my high-school principal one morning, I was greeted with a dismissive glare — it's not a real sport, after all. When my coach, the parish priest in a mostly Catholic town (and thus the only person for whom it was acceptable to be a fan) threw a party to view the 1982 World Cup championship match, only three players showed up. Once, before an afternoon match, my mom informed me that if I didn't cut the grass beforehand, I couldn't go to my own game. Does the high-school quarterback have to mow the lawn before his games?

As I became a more avid follower of the game during the '90s, I started wondering why all the soccer fans I was meeting were political and cultural liberals. I had moved to Washington, D.C. in 1994 to work for a member of Congress, and even the fans from the midwest, south, and west I was coming across via the vast and intricate underground soccer network (it exists, trust me) tended to be liberals. With conventional media coverage of soccer not abundant in America, soccer fans turn to the Internet for information. But a casual survey on the preeminent web gathering place for American fanatics — bigsoccer.com — again demonstrates an overwhelming presence of liberals among the rank and file. If I deign, on the other hand, to ask a fellow conservative about the game, I am treated to the usual pejorative responses.

For the uninitiated (those of you who don't persecute soccer, but just tolerate those who persecute it), such responses include "Soccer is not a real sport"; "Soccer is for girls"; "Soccer is a Commie game"; "Soccer is boring"; and the most damning of all, "So… you watch soccer… ?"

It is fair to note that soccer has had very mixed reviews from the American public in general, not just from conservatives. While the sport as a national youth activity has grown by leaps and bounds (an estimated eight million children are playing this year), the professional game has struggled to catch on. The U.S. went for almost 15 years without a top-flight professional league, and only time will tell if major-league soccer, the well organized and energetic effort to establish such a league here, will become an American institution. Soccer's TV ratings in the U.S. are low. While the women's national team attracted a lot of attention when they won the Women's World Cup in 1999, fan interest in that appears to have been quite specific to that event, much as it was for the Men's World Cup held here in 1994.

The main drawback to soccer for "traditional Americans" is that it is a game requiring some patience to appreciate. Baseball, the thinking man's game, has been affected by this national attention-span deficit to some degree, and traditionalists bemoan how the channel-surfing highlight culture has hurt the game. Turn on a soccer match and you are not likely to see something spectacular immediately (it's kind of like a Rembrandt in that way). While the seasoned fan can recognize the difficulty and artistry of a lengthy and complex buildup to an attempt at goal — often unsuccessful — much of modern-day, sports-viewing America wants feverish action, and wants it now.

There is, of course, huge interest in the game among many of our immigrant communities. Fans follow their homeland teams via satellite and cable telecasts of matches from abroad. In some cities, thousands of fans will gather at a theatre or recreational center to watch a closed-circuit pay-per-view match from South America, Africa, or Asia. Go as an American to a viewing place with a predominantly foreign clientele and you will still draw looks of surprise that a "Yank" or "gringo" would be interested in "their" game.

This perhaps touches near the heart of the issue for a lot of conservatives. Americans have typically come up with their own games to dominate. We invented football (even taking "soccer's" proper name and redefining it to an almost Orwellian degree), basketball, and baseball and made those our major sports. To the degree that these are played and/or followed elsewhere, they are American exports. While baseball is popular in Japan and parts of Latin America, and basketball in Europe and Australia, they are still "American" games first and foremost. Soccer will never be that. In fact, American football in part began, as legend has it, when a game of "soccer" became too boring, prompting a player to pick up the ball and begin running with it, and the rest is gridiron "pointyball" history.

Golf and tennis are also "foreign" in their origins, but they are not linked as closely to their international roots as soccer, and at any rate already had made deep inroads in the American cultural establishment by the early 20th century.

While eschewing anything deemed international or, worse, "European" suits the isolationist streak among certain conservatives, it seems to me that a much more proper Ameri-centric response would be to embrace the game for the purpose of demonstrating American superiority through it. For instance, doesn't saying "We play the best football in the world" kind of have a hollow ring to it? I mean, who else is there? But if the U.S. were to produce professional soccer leagues that rivaled those in Italy, Spain, England and Germany, and a national team that could defeat the likes of Brazil, Argentina, and France, how much crow would the internationalists have to eat then?

To be honest, my attraction to soccer is just that I like the game. But if the lure of American superiority is enough to get you interested in the game (kind of like when Americans get interested in things like bobsledding and Greco-Roman wrestling during the Olympics), so be it.

The time is ripe. Following the explosion of youth leagues, the quality of the American player development system has improved exponentially. We are even making some inroads on the rosters of clubs in England, France, Germany, and Holland. If American conservatives dedicate themselves to backing American soccer, the resultant energy and optimistic buzz might just push the U.S. men's national team to the final rounds of this summer's World Cup, or at least lower the percentage of the fans sitting next to me who voted for Mondale, Dukakis, and Gore. Help a brother out already! Strike a blow for federalism, apple pie, and the gold standard, and make a commitment to watch the World Cup this June.

By the way, the matches, played in South Korea and Japan, are airing live at 2:30 a.m., 5 a.m., and 7:30 a.m. EST. Happy viewing.

— Robert Ziegler lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and children, and directs media relations for a nonprofit public-policy group.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:
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To: Dr. Frank
If you think this piece is proselytizing, then you have a pretty low standard for the same. To justify all the "soccer is lame" remarks on the notion this solitary opinion is pro-soccer propaganda is downright silly.

In a similar vein, why does every thread even remotely related to France generate "cheese-eating surrender monkey" responses? Would those posters argue that the writer is trying to shove the French down their throat? Of course not. The response is just what yours is also, completely and utterly, knee-jerk.

281 posted on 05/31/2002 3:25:32 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Dr. Frank
Where are you picking up on this "arrogance?" Certainly not in the piece at the top of this thread. As for the "arrogant" responses, what would I expect from those that disagree with me if I posted "Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is a fag?" Compassion? Understanding?
282 posted on 05/31/2002 3:30:46 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Clemenza
The author spent his time trying to figure out why conservatives and most of the American people don't care for soccer. He doesn't spend one line on figuring out why among Americans only liberals care for soccer.

Clemenza, you nail it of course. I would just take your analysis further. To be a liberal is to hate America. There's only one major sport that American's don't care for. So, what sport do you pick to show your own superiority to the Great Unwashed? Soccer of course.

BTW, volleyball was invented in America too, but taken up around the world. I think the Japanese really perfected the high level playing of that sport. I watched Olympic volleyball in 1984 in LA and that was an exciting sport.

283 posted on 05/31/2002 3:42:15 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: 1rudeboy
"And I agree with an earlier reply that the assumption that soccer is 'Liberal' is completely off-target. What do liberals hate the most? Overt displays of patriotism or nationalism. Now, what does the World Cup represent?"

American soccer is Liberal, not the rest of the world. That's the flaw in your argument.

284 posted on 05/31/2002 3:47:39 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: ohioman
Don't let your daughters play soccer after puberty, it's 100% to screw up their knees.
285 posted on 05/31/2002 3:59:03 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: xsysmgr
I see no point to a sport, where a person cannot use his best tool, his hands.


286 posted on 05/31/2002 4:00:29 PM PDT by razorback-bert
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To: Cacophonous
I used to like going to professional baseball games (Detroit). It was a beautiful game to watch and if the weather was nice a very enjoyable day or evening. However, in the last 10 or 15 years they have plastered the formerly beautiful field with advertising banners, play loud rock music before each batter comes to the plate, and have a loud-mouthed announcer shout out the name of each batter in an exaggerated manner. Apparently some marketing genius has told them that the game is too boring and that they have to do these things to make it seem more exciting and to make more money. I went to one game at the new field that opened last year (Comerica Park - named after a local bank -soon to be merged away). It was even more commercialized than the last few years at Tiger Stadium. I decided that it would probably be my last game. I won't go back.
287 posted on 05/31/2002 4:03:36 PM PDT by Edmund Burke
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To: Hotspur
Try "Congress" that applies to both the House and Senate.
288 posted on 05/31/2002 4:32:37 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: xsysmgr
"Soccer is not a real sport"; "Soccer is for girls"; "Soccer is a Commie game"; "Soccer is boring"; and the most damning of all, "So… you watch soccer… ?"

Yep...'bout sums it up. Soccer is a good sport for women and those "men" who can't play football.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

289 posted on 05/31/2002 4:35:26 PM PDT by wku man
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To: Nonstatist
I think you owe a well deserved apology to the millions of people behind the iron curtain who had soccer to vent their anger against the communist system and to express their nationalism.

I think you owe an apology to the tens of thousands of fans who booed and yelled anti-communist chants the Soviet Dynamo teams during the early 50's.

I think you owe an apology to the dozens of Polish fans who unfurled flags saying Solidarity during the Poland-USSR World Cup game in 1982.

I think you owe an apology to the 1956 World Cup Finalists Hungary team. Many of their players lost their lives in the short-lived revolution against the Soviet Union.

290 posted on 05/31/2002 4:38:08 PM PDT by ChicagoRepublican
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To: Minn
Yeah, the only way soccer can be televised is on State-owned tv. What's that, if not socialism?
291 posted on 05/31/2002 4:41:21 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: razorback-bert
My best tool ain't my hands!:^0
292 posted on 05/31/2002 4:46:17 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: BIGZ
Have you lived in a communist country!? What you're doing is almost equivalent to Arabs telling Jews that Israel is a Nazi country. YOU DISGUST ME!!!!!
293 posted on 05/31/2002 5:04:04 PM PDT by ChicagoRepublican
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To: BIGZ
Sorry, I just got really angry for a few moments. Disregard my last post.
294 posted on 05/31/2002 5:05:30 PM PDT by ChicagoRepublican
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To: 1rudeboy
To justify all the "soccer is lame" remarks on the notion this solitary opinion is pro-soccer propaganda is downright silly.

Yes, it probably is. Of course, I didn't "justify" "all" such remarks on this thread in the first place. But your point is taken.

In a similar vein, why does every thread even remotely related to France generate "cheese-eating surrender monkey" responses?

I don't know and haven't spent a lot of time pondering this question. Let me know if you figure out the answer. I don't know what it has to do with this thread though. Best,

295 posted on 05/31/2002 5:29:57 PM PDT by Dr. Frank fan
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To: 1rudeboy
Where are you picking up on this "arrogance?"

Well, in the posts of Hotspur, to name but an example. (Hotspur, you will recall, is the poster to whom my #277 - which you are responding to here - was actually directed and to whom the word "arrogance" was used.)

Remember Hotspur? He's the one who said that

Soccer is just one of many examples where silly, annoying American "exceptionalism" displays itself.

In other words, he knows how annoying we Americans can be.

But don't blame him because even though he's presumably American, he's not one of the "annoying" ones who doesn't watch soccer (and how "annoying" that is, indeed!). You see, he's wise enough to know how Americans are seen by "the rest of the world":

It's the disconnect between our global pretensions and the lack of worldliness of our citizens that makes the rest of the world anti-American

Ah, that's what makes "the rest of the world" "anti-American"! Got it! I understand it all now. Hotspur's got it all figured out!

In addition, recall that (still as part of this whole soccer discussion, apparently...) he holds a percentage of our "parliament" in rather disdain for (gasp!) never having had a passport:

How can a nation deign to dictate to the world when something on the range of half of the members of its parliament have never held a passport?

No passport! My word! Well you can be sure that Hotspur is not so provincial as our backward "parliamentarians". Surely he, in his eminence, has a passport.

That's what I was calling "arrogant", 1rudeboy. Understand now?

296 posted on 05/31/2002 5:39:01 PM PDT by Dr. Frank fan
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To: ChicagoRepublican
After 300 posts my opinion remains the same--Soccer Still Sucks. It is terminally boring. It is NOT a religious experience. It did not create peace. It did not tear down the Berlin Wall. What it does do is cure insomnia. It babysits unattended kids. And it helps INS gather up people. Other than that give it a rest, because Americans don't care, will never care for soccer.
297 posted on 05/31/2002 6:34:01 PM PDT by bfree
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To: lasereye
I'm always hearing about all the gay baseball players. What's gayer than a bunt?

I don't watch baseball, hockey rules.

298 posted on 06/01/2002 5:14:48 AM PDT by Intimidator
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To: Dr. Frank;
I'm sorry you missed my point about the French, I was trying to point out the similarity between some of the responses here and the "CESM-type" comments. In any case, my comments were not specifically directed at you.

You have to admit that this food-fight was fun. Like most age-old arguments, it fell along predictable lines, and I don't begrudge Hotspur for his comments.

I maintain that this writer (describing himself as a "missionary'), attempted to explain why conservatives should like soccer. The fact that so many dismissed his attempt makes it all the more valuable.

So are soccer players "gay?" Ask your wife or teen-age daughter what they think.
Is soccer boring? Is baseball exciting?
Is soccer liberal, or communist? (the point of this piece) Well, now you have heard the arguments for "no."

Incidentally, can someone point out a "free-market, conservative sport" to me? I'm looking for a sport that has no protected markets, taxpayer-support, or barriers-to-entry.

299 posted on 06/01/2002 5:14:49 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Kermit
I remember when the US beat Columbia, the players ran to the stands, the fans gave them US flags, and the players proceeded to run around like banshees. It was enough to make a liberal weep.

Come to think of it, the best way for American soccer to become less "liberal" is for the team to win more often.

300 posted on 06/01/2002 5:20:29 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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