Why Americans Should Appreciate Football
Seeing football in the title may be confusing when you saw it. We all know that Americans love football, but that is not the sport that is being discussed. The football that I am talking about is the game we call soccer. The game of football is loved worldwide. Currently, the world is in the middle of Continental Cup season. Each continent is holding a to determine a champion of that said Continent. The competition that most Americans have seen over the past few days is probably the Euros. That competition has been all over ESPN and their family of networks. The past two days have produced some great games. All the games have been intense and down to the wire. Some games were decided in the final minutes, and you had other games that had to go to penalty kicks. One thing that was consistent over all the games was the crowds. You can see so much passion on the fans’ faces, and I am so enviable of that. I wish Americans had that passion for our men and women national teams. Our men’s national team is young and upcoming. They recently just won the CONCACAF Nations League. Our women’s national team is a powerhouse. They are four-time winners of the FIFA World Cup, which means they are the champions of the world. The problem is that most Americans do not follow the sport enough to have pride in our national teams. If you ask most Americans their favorite sport, soccer would probably not crack the top five. As a casual fan, football is hard for me to watch, but it does have its exciting moments. One of the biggest moments that I remember, is the Landon Donovan rebound goal versus Algeria in the 2010 World Cup. I did not know much about soccer, but I could feel the intensity of the moment. I understand why most Americans do not watch soccer. With the best leagues being overseas, that means the games come on at weird times for us Americans. It does not make it better than our soccer league is not the best. In America, we have high school soccer, but in other countries they have academies. These players are dedicated to training from early teen ages. High school does not allow for the same training that an academy does. That is why our best men’s players are outsourced to other countries to hone their skills. We will never be able to compete with European football, but we should establish academies here in the states to try to keep our talent home. Watching the talent grow will create a sense of pride. We will grow to create a bond with these players. This could be the first step in creating a bigger fan base for our nation towards the sport of football. We can start our national support with the upcoming Gold Cup tournament.