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Basketball’s NBA Finals and pro hockey’s Stanley Cup mercifully ended in mid-June. Hal-le-lu-jah!
During the two months before football season starts in August, sports fans are sampling a smorgasbord of offerings.
To fill the summertime sports gap, golf provided the US Open in June with The (British) Open coming up in two weeks. After that concludes, golf starts to fade in relative importance.
NBC’s coverage of the upcoming Paris Olympics in late July should lure a large number of viewers, too. With temperatures around the US at their summertime peak, watching the world’s top athletes should make for excellent TV ratings.
Soccer anyone?
In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed an abundance of soccer games on television. My personal interest in the sport hasn’t really changed since junior high school. When the coaches gave us the choice of running a mile or so around the school’s perimeter fence in 90+ degree May heat or playing soccer, most of us opted for soccer.
Our PE class soccer games were quite laughable. Most of us didn’t care for the sport’s odd rules such as not using your arms (at all) while using your head is considered to be just fine (well, at least until you get checked for CTE in your 40’s). The goalie was allowed to use of his arms, legs, head, and overall athletic skills. It looked to be the one “fun” position on the soccer field.
None of us wanted to be one of those other ten players.
The scoring in soccer is generally minimal. The games (two 45-minute halves) seem to drag on and involve far too much running up and down trying to score a goal. A hard earned goal in soccer is rewarded with one lowly point as compared to six points for scoring a touchdown in football.
What a rip off!
Our junior high gym class soccer games were quite improvised and generally unsupervised. After quickly tiring of running in the heat, we decided to give each player on both teams one penalty kick at the opposing goalie. It was much more fun to rack up the points rather than run yourself to death and hardly ever get to kick the soccer ball downfield.
Enter Fatherhood
About 20 years later, my own two sons wanted to play soccer at the local YMCA. When my younger son’s group didn’t have a coach, I volunteered to handle the 5-year olds.
I quickly learned that the primary job of a soccer coach at this level was to make sure the kids had fun and to have tasty snacks ready for them after the games.
My personal hope was that all of youngsters would come back to play again next season when they (perhaps) might have a knowledgeable soccer coach!
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of watching those little kids playing soccer, it’s like one giant moving scrum going up and down the field. Never one to play much (if any) defense during my basketball career, I taught my young troops to surround the soccer ball as they tried to kick it down the field and (perhaps) into the opposing team’s net for a goal.
One of the parents asked me, “Have you ever played soccer?” When I answered “No”, the response was “That’s what I figured!”
Prior to becoming coach of the pee-wee soccer brigade, I had zero knowledge of the rules or strategies for a soccer team. However, our little team seemed to enjoy the season – especially those post-game snacks!
That coaching experience failed to peak my interest in soccer, though.
It still involved a lot of running for very little personal reward. Both of my sons would continue play soccer under much better coaches for several more years and have remained lifelong soccer fans (unlike their Dad).
Why does SwampSwami still harbor an anti-soccer attitude?
For billions of people around the world, soccer remains one of the cheapest sports to play. All you need is a ball and a couple of goals (which can be makeshift), and you’re on your way.
Then again, basketball requires about the same amount of equipment and allows players to use their legs and arms. Plus, who’s ever heard of a 0-0 basketball final score?
Soccer games are played over two halves and for more than 90 minutes. Yet, some games end with a final score of 0-0.
How can any sport end a game without having a victorious team?
The soccer players must get the ball past the only person on the field allowed to use their arms and legs – the goalie. Other than the few shots made on goal, the majority of soccer games finds the players running up and down the field trying to pass the ball to each other using only their feet. A few creative types utilize their head in an attempt to direct the ball downfield or toward an open teammate.
Though many sports fans find soccer to be athletic, strategic, and artistic, I still find it boring – at least to watch.
Younger generations, though, have grown up playing soccer. Once the king of summertime sports, baseball has been suffering from a diminishing number of young people playing the sport. As the older generations continue to dwindle in size, a larger number of younger television viewers clearly prefer soccer over baseball.
Despite my personal opinion, interest in soccer continues to rise
Soccer’s World Cup is played every four years. This summer, national teams from Europe and the Americas have been participating in a couple of separate tournaments to stay sharp.
EURO 2024 had 24 teams primarily representing European countries along with a few teams from Asia (Russia did not get an invitation). Spain will face England in the EURO 24 finals on Sunday afternoon, July 14 on Fox.
Meanwhile, the Copa America series features teams from the United States and 15 other national teams representing countries in North, Central, and South America. The games have been played entirely within the United States. Host sites have generally been in NFL cities with sizable stadium facilities.
Unfortunately, the US team was quickly eliminated from the Copa America competition.
On Wednesday, the coach of the US national soccer team since 2018 was fired after the American team failed to make it out of the initial stage of this biennial event.
The dismissal of Greg Burhalter as the American soccer coach may be seen as a panic move before the US, Canada, and Mexico host the World Cup games two years from now in 2026.
Regardless of who is coaching Team USA, the Americans still haven’t reached the semifinals of the World Cup since 1930. The US soccer team has played only made it into the quarterfinals one time (2002) since 1930.
Don’t get your hopes up two years from now.
On Wednesday night in Charlotte, North Carolina, Colombia beat Uruguay 1-0 and advanced into the finals against Argentina. After turning on the game on television during the second half last night, I was surprised to see more than 70,000 fans in attendance.
Columbia held onto a one-goal advantage for the entire second half despite having only ten of its eleven players on the field. That’s because one of Columbia’s players had received two “yellow” penalty cards during the first half and was ejected from the game.
How does a team with just ten players on the field able to beat the team with 11 players?
Even the winning coach was surprised that his outmanned team held on for victory.
“We always talk about multiplying the efforts. Sometimes 10 can make the effort of 12 players,” said Colombian coach Nestor Lorenzo (who is either bad at math or forgot that only 11 players can be on the field)
Alas, I find watching most soccer games to be as exciting as watching two old guys playing checkers down at the park. For Wednesday’s 90-minute game (which tacked-on 7 more minutes of “extra time” – however that is calculated), the two teams featured a total of six shots on goal – for the entire game.
That would be the equivalent of two NFL teams playing to a 3-0 final score. Other than a first half field goal, the football game would have been a defensive struggle (in perfect weather) as both teams’ offenses failed to cross midfield for the majority of the game.
Zzz…
The finals of the Copa America soccer series will be played in Miami on Sunday night, July 14th at 7PM Central with Fox handling the television coverage. Argentina will face Colombia for the title.
Regardless of my disinterest in soccer, the television ratings for this summer’s international matches have been better than expected.
Fox averaged 3.57 million viewers for last weekend’s quarterfinal round. That is 89% higher than in 2021. For the entire tournament, Fox is averaging 1.50 million viewers. That’s 42% more than the total from 2021.
Look out, baseball! The soccer train is slowly chugging past you.
While soccer’s television audience remains small compared to college and NFL football games, the ratings are on par with televised regular season Major League Baseball games.
More importantly to advertisers, the average age of today’s soccer viewer (35) falls right in the middle of the prime “buying” demographic (25-49). Advertisers are quite willing to spend a significant part of their budget trying to reach this age group.
By contrast, Major League Baseball’s average television viewer is now 57 years old. Looking ahead at future sports viewers, soccer is now the second most popular sport in the US among young people under the age of 24. Baseball has dropped to fifth.
Sunday is a big day for soccer. Will you be watching?
The EURO 24 championship game starts at 2PM on Sunday afternoon, while the Copa America finale is at 7PM (both games on Fox). American television viewers will find very little competition from other major sports this weekend. If either of these two games attracts ten million or more viewers on Sunday, soccer will continue its quiet ascent up the American sports ladder.
But if you happen to need a good nap on Sunday…