Has the US finally fallen in love with football?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
Today, how Americans fell in love with football, even if they still insist on calling it soccer.
For a long time now, most Americans have not really got the world's most popular game.
Guess what starts tomorrow? The World Cup? You excited? Not really. Hey, Dad, how come you never taken us to see a soccer game? I don't know.
How have Americans historically viewed soccer?
The Canada Soccer Association is coming to Springfield. It's all here. Fast kicking, low scoring, and ties. You bet.
Let's just be honest. The reality is, when the World Cup is over, soccer's not going to be a dominant sport in the United States. Boring! Come on, you schnorrers! Do something!
But with a home World Cup in full swing, some Americans at least are being infused with the spirit of football.
People love soccer, they just don't know it yet. And the thing is, we have good players now. We didn't even know we had good players!
Okay, their chants need a little work.
Because we support the US, the US, the US. And that's the way we like it, we like it, we love it.
But finally, it seems, the USA is waking up to the majesty of the beautiful game.
But for the United States of America, the dream continues. Their World Cup ambitions very much alive.
From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in Focus. Ole, ole, ole, ole, USA. Jeff Reuter, welcome to Today in Focus.
Hi Helen, thanks for having me.
So you're a reporter at The Guardian and your official title is soccer correspondent, which of course for us Brits is football correspondent. Can you just start by telling me, when did your love for the beautiful game begin?
I'm very fortunate to have grown up in a rare sort of 1990s American soccer family. My aunt was a goalkeeper who would often advance deep into state tournaments in Minnesota, but usually would run into shootouts and lose to Brianna Scurry, who went on to be the starting goalkeeper at the 1999 Women's World Cup.
Oh, wow. Save Scurry!
And at that point, I vividly remember faces painted and everyone cheering for my aunt's old rival, who obviously then becomes a national and, frankly, international hero in her own right for her exploits against China in the shootout. So just stuck with it from there and kind of harbored an interest, was able to follow along with the sparse sightings of Ferguson's United and Wenger's Arsenal throughout the 2000s, a little bit of Champions League, and then Major League Soccer picks up in earnest after David Beckham arrives, and it's a little easier to find something closer to home.
And you grew up in the magnificently named St. Cloud in Minnesota. I confess I've never been, but I'm imagining it wasn't a major footballing hub when you were growing up. What did your friends think of you? Were they like, yeah, he's got this like sort of weird esoteric hobby. We don't get why he's into it.
You know, I actually, it was funny. I was more interested in the arts, the performing arts, the written arts. And that was not part of my grades pack of interest. Everyone was kind of disparate, but no one was really going into theater, speech, writing, all these sorts of things. So I was already a little bit on the periphery. And then when you throw in soccer, it's just like, okay, I'm just done. I don't even know where to begin with this guy. So it's very funny now, you know, reconnecting with classmates to your point. And they're just like, you can do that. That's the whole job is you just write about soccer. And that's all you do. And they still can't quite conceptualize.
Yeah. What was the state of football in the US at that point in time?
Ramshackle would be an understatement, I think I would say. There was a point in the mid-aughts where it did feel like Major League Soccer was going to crater.
What impact does hosting the World Cup have on American soccer interest?
There wasn't terrible public interest after its initial launch in 1996. But soccer really benefited from the American broadcast expansion into streaming with greater diversity of cable channels as well, where Eventually, live programming, you've got baseball, basketball, football, those are always the most expensive broadcast rights in the United States.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:41
2
How have Americans historically viewed soccer?
0:41–4:16
3
What impact does hosting the World Cup have on American soccer interest?
4:16–8:34
4
What personal experiences shaped Jeff Reuter's love for soccer?
8:34–16:03
5
What was the state of soccer in the US before the World Cup?
16:03–19:11
6
How do Americans perceive the scoring system in soccer?
19:11–26:16
Speakers
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