Is U.S.-England "The Most Anticipated Soccer Match in U.S. History!!!"?

USA-England was certainly the most anticipated as far as numbers, considering the ESPN hype machine, the growth of our own domestic league, the quality of our national team and the legion of wannabe English fans in our fanbase (I love how some of the EPL team "supporters" said they were "TORN!!" over this one). And ESPN made sure anyone who didn't care about soccer knew exactly when this match was.

However . . . As I said, the early matches in the 1994 World Cup were probably more anticipated among the hardcores, since we were all hoping for a successful World Cup that would finally give soccer a foothold here. If I define "anticipation as "Praying for a good showing against all odds," of course. There was a lot of interest around the England game, but a lot of emotion and hope around those 1994 games. Beating England Saturday would have been nice, but managing to avoid being the first host not to advance (a real danger entering the tournament) was essential.

Any of the matches in 1994 were bigger than the 2002 quarterfinal, because they were still trying to sell the sport itself to the U.S. The quarterfinal was a big match for where it was in the tournament, just not as huge for our history. A loss there didn't kill U.S. soccer. A loss to Colombia in 1994 would have been crippling.

The biggest match in our history - certainly the biggest result, based on what it helped lead to - remains the win against Trinidad and Tobago in 1989. While we had already been awarded the 1994 World Cup, it was the event that led to the beginnings of actual respectability.

 

I enjoy the sport just fine and don’t worry about the concept of being a “niche sport.” However, I find it to be a very funny thing to claim. The reality is that soccer already is a fairly big sport here, massive even.

There are three cable television channels dedicated to showing soccer games, Fox Soccer Channel, FSC + and GolTV. When the Champions League Final was played in Europe the game was showed on the local Fox affiliate, not some cable station. There is a Univision and Telemundo takes in monster ratings routinely and half of their weekend programming is taken up by soccer games. These things don’t happen unless someone is watching somewhere.

The ratings and attendance for MLS games is weak. This is true. However, soccer does not limited to just MLS. Soccer is a sport. Lots of people might tune in for a Yankees game but have no interest in watching the Royals play Pittsburgh. If the Royals and Pirates play on ESPN (we all know ESPN wouldn’t bother carrying the game but that is beside the point) what do you think the ratings would be? Would we then be able to say, “Baseball is a niche sport!”

Soccer is only niche in communities that are more focused on other sports. You two seem to live in one of those communities. Other communities are centered on soccer.

Piotr, you are correct. There are other games that were more anticipated, for instance 2002's USA v. Mexico in the knock-out stages was a bigger deal to me. That game was against a key rival on the largest stage.

This game was "anticipated" in the sense that there were an infinitely larger number of people talking to me about it. No matter where I went, if I had some sort of USA soccer gear on, someone looked. I'd see some Mexican guys wear something and some friendly ribbing would go back and forth.

In all, there was no way that this wasn't more anticipated on a larger scale to more people than any game previously.

 

There was less flopping than the NBA Finals.

 

Apparently Saturday was too "successful" for the establishment. It looks like it's finished as a soccer bar.

http://anamericangame.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/claddagh-ruining-a-good-thing-as-we-know-it/

Only in America.

 

I've been really impressed with the play and the officiating. Hope we're not about to get a diving exhibition in five minutes.

 

Apparently, there were like 20,000 people gathered in DuPont Circle in DC to watch the game Saturday.

A buddy and his girlfriend went down to watch, but couldn't even get a spot anywhere close to the 2 big screens. Just packed. They immediately turned around and left.

 

I agree with everything you wrote. Though, I'm feeling pretty confident that it won't happen just yet. It is still early.

 

Unless the goalie gets killed a la Andres Escobar, this game still wasn't as exciting or as pivotal as the 1994 win over Columbia.