Mark Woods: This isn't a 'Tim Tebow is excited about soccer so you should be, too' column

When Tony Allegretti was growing up in the Panhandle, he couldn’t just turn on the television and watch a soccer match as it was being played in Liverpool.

“I had to rent the greatest goals of 1984 over and over,” he said. “That’s how I picked Everton. From Graeme Sharp’s volleys. So much is available now it’s a dream.”

Now he not only can watch his Everton FC, my Liverpool FC or any other English Premier League team, he can wake up before dawn to catch Serbia and Cameroon in a group stage match in the 2022 World Cup. He even can spend part of his weekend checking out Wrexham, a lower-tier Welsh team owned by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.

And he won't be alone in America.

I know this partly because I’ve done all of the above, but mainly because when the United States played England on Black Friday, more than 15 million Americans tuned in, making it one of the most-viewed soccer matches ever in this country (but still nearly 10 million behind a 2015 U.S. women’s match). There were several watch parties in Jacksonville, held everywhere from the baseball stadium to Culhane’s Irish Pub on the Southside.

“The restaurant capacity is 350 and we were able to take up every last spot,” Allegretti said.

And for the United States’ match Tuesday — against Iran to decide whether the U.S. team advances to the round of 16 or heads home — they made plans to hold another watch party, this one in the Intuition Bier Hall.

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It all bodes well for plans, led by a group that includes Allegretti and some American football player named Tim Tebow, to bring professional soccer back to Jacksonville with a team beginning play in 2025 — the year before the World Cup returns to North America.

I’m writing this before Tuesday’s match. But without knowing the result, without knowing what happens in the next four years both nationally and locally, I can predict a couple of things:

A) Those Americans who already are soccer fans will wonder if this is a turning point, if the sport finally is on its way to becoming as big here as it is nearly everywhere else on earth.

B) It isn't.

Football is king in America

In America, the national pastime no longer is baseball, my first sports love. It clearly has become American football, from college to the NFL.

While soccer certainly has increased its foothold in the United States — according to a 2019 Gallup survey, it’s now the fourth most popular sport in this country — football has cemented its place atop the American sports food chain. And some of those who follow American football have no interest in adding soccer to their sports diet.

After the United States-England game ended in an 0-0 tie, there was a meme going around that said: “I don’t watch soccer. If I wanted to watch somebody struggle to score for 90 minutes, I’d take my friends out to the bar.”

I saw a post on Facebook where someone added a rant to this that concluded: “Stupid 3rd world sport. Soccer absolutely SUCKS!”

To each his own. I do watch soccer. Lots of it. I struggle to sit through an entire NFL game, but I have been known to watch multiple soccer games on a weekend.

It does involve a different kind of viewing. Americans are used to sports that are defined by situations and statistics, punctuated by repeated breaks for commercials. It’s 4th-and-inches on the 2-yard-line. It’s the eighth inning, two outs, a runner on second, a batter stepping to the plate with a .347 average against left-handers with runners in scoring position.

I do still love baseball, which I guess means I watch two sports that many Americans find boring.

I could try to explain how I got hooked on soccer. How it probably starts with playing it in high school and (briefly, at a low level) in college. How it really took hold when I spent a semester in England and went to one top-tier match (Liverpool at Arsenal) and several matches at Cambridge United’s old Abbey Stadium. How memorable it was to cover the 1994 World Cup and the U.S. women winning gold in Athens (both Georgia and Greece). And how deciding to pick a club to follow not only made me passionate about that team but led to me watching more games involving many more teams, leagues and nations.

I could try to explain the appeal.

But I’ve probably written that, in some shape or fashion, every four years for the last 40 years. I know others have tried to convert non-fans, to make them see the light, which might be one of the reasons why many who aren’t fans push back against the sport.

This won’t be another one of those columns. I’m not saying, “Tim Tebow is excited about soccer and you should be, too!”

To the contrary, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts.

What a time to be an American soccer fan

Never mind the future of soccer in America.

For American soccer fans, we might already be living in the golden age.

Some of that is the technology. Gone are the days of renting “greatest goals of 1984.” Technology has evolved to the point where you can watch live games from all over the world (although it does require quite the mix of streaming services).

Some of what makes me say this might make this the golden age for American soccer fans is the growth of the game here, both on the field and off it. By some measurements, the number of fans is sevenfold what it was a few decades ago. It certainly has reached the point where you know you’re hardly alone.

If I wear a Liverpool jersey or hat out in public, odds are someone will comment on it. Maybe even mention a player or game. And even if they support another team, there will be a collegial bond. We’re soccer fans in America.

This leads to the epiphany.

There’s something to be said for the fact that soccer isn’t king in this country, that it hasn’t grown to the point where it’s like in the rest of the world, that being an American soccer fan still is like being in a club of its own. A steadily growing club. But still one where fans have a bond that’s different from being a soccer fan in Argentina or England, or an NFL fan in the United States.

Roger Bennett, who hosts the popular “Men in Blazers” podcast, likes to quip that soccer has been America’s “sport of the future since 1972.”

Fifty years after 1972, the talk about the future continues. But for American soccer fans, there’s something to be said for appreciating the present.

mwoods@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4212

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Soccer fans in America have reasons to appreciate 2022 World Cup