Soccer is said to be the most popular sport in the world. Forgive me if I disagree. This may sound sort of narcissistic, but the sporting world revolves around the United States and our stars. The most popular sports icons of our time such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Babe Ruth were all generated from the American media. Now, there are European super stars like Pele and David Beckham, but their popularity has a limit- just like the sport they play.
Today, the U.S. soccer team lost a heartbreaker to Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Final 3-2. I guess this was a huge loss considering five days before some people wanted to give the U.S. team a ticker-tape parade after upsetting Spain in the semis. The U.S. was a huge underdog in both games.
At the half, Brazil trailed 2-0 but came roaring back by scoring three consecutive goals in the second half to win the title. But my question is... what title did they win?
I know it's called the Confederation Cup but what is it? Is it an international league that is played annually like the NFL or NBA? Or is it a qualifying series of games for the World Cup next year? I couldn't tell you and frankly I don't think the average sports fan could either. Soccer will never be what football or baseball is in this country because there are too many unknowns.
Hutton, I know you live and breathe sports, and you're knowledge is extensive but when it comes to what the world knows as football you fall exceedingly short. And yes, you do sound narcissistic. Because you live in the U.S. it is understandable that you may think the world revolves around our athletes, but you would be mistaken. Yes Tiger Woods is the most recognizable figure, but after that comes a host of football players. Beckham, Ronaldo, Kaka, and Henry are all in the top ten most known players in the world. In 2004 the Euro Final between Greece and Portugal was the most watched sporting event in the world, with 153 million as opposed to our football super bowl which had only 95 million viewers. The 2002 world cup final had 1 BILLION viewers Just because you don't understand a sport doesn't mean it means less. Your sporting world revolves around the US, you don't speak for the rest of the world.
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