Soccer fans continue to rise up across the United States, and as we continue to see great strides for our sport on the national sports landscape, Michael Mathes writes of how our nation embraces soccer-
As they prepare to watch the United States compete in the next round of the planet's biggest sporting event, Americans are asking: has the country finally embraced soccer?
Some see the US performance at the World Cup as a new make-or-break moment for soccer in the United States and its competence in the beautiful game.
Don Garber, commissioner of Major League Soccer, said a "great wave of passion" was sweeping the United States as the team raced into the second round, carried by Landon Donovan's now-famous goal against Algeria.
"I think he raised the hopes and dreams of our entire country, leading up to this game on Saturday," Garber said Friday on ESPN.
But many experts and observers argue that soccer had been steadily gaining a fan base long before Donovan scored the stoppage time goal that secured a 1-0 victory over Algeria and a place in the round of 16.
"It was a big day for football in the US," said Martin Vasquez, a Mexican-American who played in the inaugural Major League Soccer season in 1996, and who now is head coach for MLS team Chivas USA.
"The coverage that the US national team has got here has been incredible," he told AFP.
An average of 11.1 million Americans watched English and Spanish broadcasts of the first-round matches -- 68 percent more than in 2006 -- including 17.1 million who tuned in for United States-England, according to the Nielsen television ratings firm. By comparison the NBA basketball finals earlier this month averaged 18.1 million, Nielson said.
Experts say coverage of the tournament by US sports broadcast giant ESPN has gone from amateurish in 2006 to top-rate this year. "They are treating this like the Olympics," said soccer blogger Max Bergmann.
Americans are used to seeing their teams and athletes win big, so a stale performance such as the one that saw USA crash out in the opening round in 2006 could have soured Americans on the sport.
But Bergmann, who blogs for Association Football, thinks the game is flourishing as a result of a "demographic reality" decades in the making.
More US kids play soccer than any other sport -- including American football, baseball and basketball -- thanks to youth leagues that took off in the 1980s, he pointed out in a phone call Thursday from South Africa, where he is blogging about the World Cup.
"The older generation that grew up without any interaction with soccer, they are moving offstage, and younger kids are now into it," Bergmann said.
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