The rest of the world calls it football. Two teams with 11 players each gather to kick a ball back and forth on a field to see who can get it past the other team’s players and into the net. Hey, the name makes sense.
America calls it soccer. Perhaps because we already had a sport called football that was doing quite well, people decided to lift the "soc" from the sport’s official name of Association (as-soc-iation) Football and make a new name. That’s what the dictionary suggests. Makes little sense to us.
But what makes even less sense is the country’s overall lack of familiarity with the sport when our own men’s team is shocking the rest of the world with its success.
A team of journalists from Mexico visiting The Herald last month peppered members of the editorial board with a series of questions. But they stumped us when they asked why local media featured stories about the Mariners losing when our men’s soccer team was doing so well. We muttered something about baseball being the national pastime but then pointed out how popular soccer is among Snohomish County youth. Collectively, we didn’t know enough about the sport to give them a good answer.
Nobody has an excuse for not learning more about the sport now. We made it to the final eight! The U.S. team started off the World Cup defeating powerful Portugal earlier this month and stunning soccer, uh, football fans around the world. Since then they lost to Poland, but made it to the next round thanks to a South Korean victory over Portugal, and then defeated Mexico. They’re scheduled to play Germany on Friday. All that from a young team playing without two key players sidelined by injuries.
Much of the credit seems to go to coach Bruce Arena who actually makes sure every athlete gets play time — and you thought only Little League coaches did that. And players seem to be more focused on teamwork this year than in years past.
The team even got a call from President George W. Bush who told them their country is proud of them and that "a lot of people that don’t know anything about soccer, like me, are all excited and pulling for you."
Whatever happens Friday, the U.S. men’s soccer team has succeeded in opening the door to their sport a little wider. And they didn’t even have to tear off their shirts and run around the field to get our attention.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
