One hundred yards of green.
Ninety minutes of anxiety.
Add some of the best athletes in the world, and you get soccer — a sport that is a religion to just about every other country in the world except the United States. Soccer’s presence is rising in this country, but there is no way it will ever be as big here as it is in countries like England, Germany, or Spain. There’s just too much competition for fan dollars and time between the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB.
There’s too much competition if that fan is someone other than me. Last night, Mexico defeated Jamaica 3-1 in the final game of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and I watched every second. The game was held at Lincoln Financial Field, so while I was out and about yesterday, I saw scores of Mexican-Americans donning their Chicharito jerseys or their Memo Ochoa jerseys.
Devoting time to soccer is something I’ve done for the past ten years, and I’ve enjoyed every second of it. My soccer enjoying origins stem from my old fraternity days. The fraternity I was a member of at San Diego State University — Gamma Phi Epsilon — was a multi-cultural fraternity. It was nothing like your “typical” vision of what a fraternity was. Mexican-Americans were the dominant culture in that fraternity, but there were people of all creeds and colors.
One thing we bonded over was soccer. In 2006, EA Sports released their 2006 FIFA World Cup game for Playstation 2 and XBox 360. The end of the spring semester and the summer was just one non-stop inter-fraternity competition. Guys played with Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and France among others. My team was Spain. Why? Spanish soccer was the most familiar that I knew. Through the video game, I learned about all the nuances of the game such as positioning and formations and what players play what position and their roles.
That knowledge continued to grow as did my love of the game, and I saw my first live soccer game on February 28, 2007. It was an international friendly between Mexico and Venezuela held at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. When I walked into the stadium and saw how passionate the fans were, I knew this was a sport I wanted to continue to embrace. Fast forward to 2015 where I am a giant Liverpool FC supporter. I’m still a big fan of Spanish soccer on an international level — which upsets my friends who live and breathe United States, but that’s something I have to deal with.
In this latest installment of the Monday Morning Conversation, I explain further why I love soccer, why I appreciate the game, and why I don’t care what detractors say about the sport. It’s a game still love and will continue to love.
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