July 3, 2010
MY TWO CENTS
Let's look at the big picture
Gino Rullo is a long-time soccer fan who is an official in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League.
By Gino Rullo
Special to BigAppleSoccer.com
While watching the game down in Guatemala with my military friends who are slowly coming around to soccer, I heard some remarks after our loss to Ghana that I did not like.
One said he wanted to take of his U.S. Soccer shirt because we lost, the other is that they think that we will just never be good enough. I know that soccer is slowly getting noticed; the ratings are higher, we are hearing all sorts of reports of games being shown between innings of baseball games, that congress wanted to stop to watch the end of one of the games and so on.
I did not want my buddies walking away completely disappointed by us getting knocked out. So I did some research and putting it in perspective, we should really not be too disappointed because there is a light at the end of the tunnel:
There have only been 19 World Cups so far of which, America has participated in just about half of these tournaments: 1930, 1934, 1950, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010.
Out of these nine appearances we finished third once (1930), made it to the Quarterfinals once (2002) made it out of the first round Four times (1930, 1994, 2002 and 2010) and failed to make it out of the first round Five times.
Looking at this we are just under 50 percent in getting out of the first round. Now remember all told, only seven teams have won the World Cup. Only seven -- only seven. It is worth repeating because we have 32 teams in the cup (there have been 32 teams since 1998). A total of 204 teams tried to qualify for South Africa. We were one of 32 that did.
But still, out of nine times we’ve only made it out of the first round four times. Not good enough. We are better than that.
Once again, let’s look at the big picture. Up until 1996 (upon the creation of the MLS) we only ever had a handful of players playing pro overseas (of which just a couple were playing for a first division team).
So taking the stats from 1996 on, how have we done? Since then, we have played in four World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010) of which we have made it to the quarterfinals once (2002) and have gotten past the first round two times (2002 and 2010). That is 50 percent.
Italy did not make it out, nor did France this World Cup. England is gone, getting trounced by Germany. Sure we could have played better and sure the coach should have made some adjustments to the lineup (playing arm chair quarterback – sorry for the cross sport reference) but the same can be said for every team.
I will close with this. We have only gotten serious in America with soccer within the last 12 years. The kids of this generation are just growing up, just starting to mature, are watching every game they can and are passionate for it.
We have more kids playing soccer than any other sport. Our population is larger than any winner of the World Cup ever and statistically, it is just a matter of time that we will be in the final.
There are many factors going into to winning a World Cup. It is possible that we may never win in our lifetimes. However, we will win major tournaments and our players will win awards and we will have players that will continue to make incredible strides in the game.
We are becoming a soccer nation. We are no longer looked on as a joke. Where would we be now, if the MLS was around as long as leagues from Italy, England, France or Brazil? What if the North American Soccer League did not fold?
The MLS is getting better as are our players. Give it a little time America, we will be there. And once we are, world, watch out!
"The opinions reflected in the My Two Cents columns do not express the views of the editors or management of BigAppleSoccer. com" If you want to respond to this story or have an opinion of your own, send it to email.
