Reaction to John Brooks's Game Winning Goal around the US

Why is this in U.S. Sports you might ask?

Well for starters, football or futbol or soccer (whichever name you prefer) -is- a US sport.

The US Soccer Federation (then called the US Football Association) was founded in 1913 and celebrated its 100th birthday last year:



But more important than that is the wave of euphoria which spread across the nation and around the world (including US servicemen in Afghanistan) following John Anthony Brooks's game winning goal vs Ghana in the USA's opening match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Ghana is the nation which knocked the USA out of the last two World Cups so a lot of people looked at this game as an opportunity for vengeance.

Here is what happened:



Also in Bethlehem, PA:



Seattle, WA:


What do you think? Are you watching the World Cup?

I played soccer when I was a kid and had fun, but I compare it to golf. It is fun to play, but excruciatingly boring to watch and I don't really follow it or care if the US wins or loses.

a reply to: JadeStar

Incredible Sound In Time Square When USA Scored Goal At World Cup

I was at the one in Birmingham, AL on the compilation video. It was at Good People Brewery. It was LOUD. My dad played football at Alabama in the 70s so I've been to TONS of football games (all the recent national championship and SEC champ games) and that was close to the same excitement in that brewery. Granted it's 1000 vs 100000 people but you get the idea. I'm not a soccer fan, but respect the game. It was fun.

a reply to: JadeStar

I think it's awesome. Way to go USA! I also like the comments of those who are so bothered by soccer trying to put it down. In this case it's fun to see dinosaurs slowly disappearing.

CJ

originally posted by: ColoradoJens
a reply to: JadeStar

I think it's awesome. Way to go USA! I also like the comments of those who are so bothered by soccer trying to put it down. In this case it's fun to see dinosaurs slowly disappearing.

CJ

Soccer does not have the fans or support in the US to sustain a professional league. It is much like the WNBA or professional Lacrosse in that it constantly needs fresh investors just to keep it afloat. It may not be what you want, but the numbers don't lie. You might get 100 rowdy fans in a bar to watch a game, but most people don't care.

The entire MLS league was worth negative 20 million dollars which means losing money and no real fan base. I am glad you love the sport. I like Lacrosse, but I don't pretend it is a big deal like the NBA or NHL with huge fan bases and millions in profits and salary.

I love watching women's fastpitch and they have a professional league, but I don't pretend it's a mainstream sport. Enjoy the game, but don't assume it is bigger than it is or that other people want to talk about it with you. Most people's eyes glaze over if I bring up lacrosse. Soccer is no different.

ETA: note the excitement this entire thread generated...none.

I am a huge sports fan of all kinds. If you asked me to rank them, soccer probably wouldn't make my top ten. US soccer is at nowhere near the level of most of the world. We have always pretty much been the "cellar dwellars" of international soccer. Our teams tend to fare "middle of the road" in past World Cup tourneys. But any success is mostly due to the US having such a huge population advantage over most of these international teams.

Plain and simple, we just aren't that good. But that is precisely what makes World Cup soccer so interesting. Every four years, sports fans in the US, like myself, have an international-level underdog to root for. We have such high expectations for most of our athletes. So we either feel disappointment when they underachieve or content when they do win because thats what they where supposed to do.

When successful, fans of David will experience/generate far greater joy and excitement than those of Goliath.

Go U.S.A.!!!!!!

Im from argentina, so let me tell you the US has had an spectacular squad for the last decade. Right now I'd say the team is kind of in a transition period, I watched the match against Ghana, and was expecting the US to easily take the win, instead I was a bit dissapointed by the perfomance.
Still, Im rooting for you guys against portugal, you're my go-to team other than my national squad, I even have a DTOM US tee.
I'm surprise with the reaction vids op posted, People gathering to watch the matchs, pretty amazing, I didn't thought it was much of a deal over there, although I knew there's a small soccer fanbase.
So, I wish you good luck in the next match, i made a bet you'd leave portugal out on the group stage, so I'm counting on Dempsey to lend me a hand there.

originally posted by: ColoradoJens
a reply to: JadeStar

I think it's awesome. Way to go USA! I also like the comments of those who are so bothered by soccer trying to put it down. In this case it's fun to see dinosaurs slowly disappearing.

CJ

My dad told me about a hockey game in the 1980s between the USA and Russia called the "Miracle on Ice" while watching these videos.

He said he thinks we're sort of in a similar type of moment now in terms of people who didn't care about hockey before that moment started to care.

So many people I have gotten behind the national team this time and its wonderful to see similar sights to what I've seen abroad happening here but with a distinctly American vibe.

The USA vs Ghana game got huge ratings on ESPN a 7.1 share

To put that in perspective, that's the same rating Jimmy Fallon got on his Tonight Show host debut.

originally posted by: Metallicus

originally posted by: ColoradoJens
a reply to: JadeStar

I think it's awesome. Way to go USA! I also like the comments of those who are so bothered by soccer trying to put it down. In this case it's fun to see dinosaurs slowly disappearing.

CJ

Soccer does not have the fans or support in the US to sustain a professional league. It is much like the WNBA or professional Lacrosse in that it constantly needs fresh investors just to keep it afloat. It may not be what you want, but the numbers don't lie. You might get 100 rowdy fans in a bar to watch a game, but most people don't care.

The entire MLS league was worth negative 20 million dollars which means losing money and no real fan base. I am glad you love the sport. I like Lacrosse, but I don't pretend it is a big deal like the NBA or NHL with huge fan bases and millions in profits and salary.

I love watching women's fastpitch and they have a professional league, but I don't pretend it's a mainstream sport. Enjoy the game, but don't assume it is bigger than it is or that other people want to talk about it with you. Most people's eyes glaze over if I bring up lacrosse. Soccer is no different.

ETA: note the excitement this entire thread generated...none.

Wow.

Amazingly your information is about 10 years out of date. There are a number of reasons why:

MLS has been a very fast growing league. Information from just a couple years ago is woefully out of date.


Your table is from Forbes in 2008. There were only 13 clubs then. There are 19 now and soon be 22 beginning next year with the addition of a 2nd team in New York City owned by two of the richest entities in sports, England's Manchester City and the New York Yankees and a team in Orlando Florida. Additionally Atlanta was announced and is owned by Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta NFL team.

When that 2008 article and list was published only 7 of those clubs had their own purpose built stadium. Now 17 of 19 do and of the two which do not there are plans to build them in the next decade.

Here is the one from Forbes in 2013: Forbes: Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Teams - 11/20/2013



Note the increases in value.

There’s certainly no lack of demand for the proposed expansion teams. Two new franchises in Orlando and New York City are already expected to join in 2015, bringing the league up to 21 teams. Former LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham is exploring expansion opportunities in Miami, while Atlanta, Minneapolis and Sacramento suburb Elk Grove are just a few cities that appear intent on claiming an MLS team in the coming years.

That demand should be little surprise given the league’s recent success. In 2011, average MLS attendance hit 17,872 to surpass both the NBA and NHL, and it has since increased to 18,611 fans per game. More impressively, the average franchise is now worth $103 million, up more than 175% over the last five years. With five planned expansion teams and a new league TV deal on the way, there’s no reason to believe that growth is slowing anytime soon.

Since that 2013 article both the 2nd New York team, Atlanta and Orlando have been announced.

MLS, ESPN, Fox and Univision announced a new 8 year TV rights deal worth $720 million starting in 2015.

Sporting Intelligence also ranked MLS as the 7th best league in the world.

Attendance is actually very good for a FIFA Division 1 world football league as well. Out of 100s of soccer leagues around the world MLS became the 8th best attended league ahead of leagues in Brazil (host of this year's World Cup), Argentina and Japan.



Two MLS clubs average higher attendance in their markets than the local Major League Baseball team. Granted, baseball has more games but still, that is fairly remarkable and indicative of the trend of baseball drawing an older, declining crowd.

One of those clubs (Seattle Sounders FC which happens to be my hometown team) has been in the Top 50 best attended clubs in the world since 2009. Last year they averaged over 44,000 per game.

They are currently ranked in the Top 25 of global attendances for football. Again, that's out of literally hundreds of clubs which would put them in the top 5 of many leagues in Europe.

From the Seattle Times:

Here is where average attendance of 44,026 would rank in some of the top leagues worldwide, via ESPN.com:

— No. 2 in Italy’s Serie A behind Inter Milan (46,666)
— No. 2 in France’s Ligue 1 behind Paris Saint-Germain (44,879)
— No. 2 in Scottish Premiership behind Celtic (45,673)
— No. 2 in Holland’s Eredivise behind Ajax (50,275)
— No. 3 in Spain’s La Liga behind Barcelona (79,315) and Real Madrid (75,474)
— No. 6 in England’s Premier League behind Manchester United (75,147), Arsenal (60,021), Newcastle (49,812), Manchester City (47,042) and Liverpool (44,691).
— No. 9 in the German Bundesliga behind Borussia Dortmund (80,427); Bayern Munich (71,022); Schalke (61,724); Hertha Berlin (53,416); Hamburg (52,224); Eintracht Frankfurt (51,233); Borussia Monchengladbach (50,888) and Stuttgart (45,386)

Seattle Sounders FC is also the most valuable football brand in the US and Canada and 40th overall most valuable football brand in the world according to UK based Brand Finance which puts them higher than a lot of clubs in Europe elsewhere.

That's money and numbers.... Let's talk culture and passion. Two things that the sport is based on whether it be in Sao Paulo, Salzburg or Seattle.

Before every Seattle Sounders match there is a gathering of people in a nearby square. It's kinda of like a festival of sorts, bands play, people drink and then an hour before the game every one marches to CenturyLink Field like this:




And when we arrive in the stadium?




So, contrary to the outdated info you posted, MLS is thriving, and unlike the WNBA which you compared it to and which the NBA runs, MLS has been self sufficient for about a decade, has a very good new TV contract, has billionaires chomping at the bit to purchase franchise rights and has huge growth potential due to the nature of the sport being a global one.




See also: MLS is thriving a decade after barely hanging on

So now that I've denied ignorance regarding MLS and cut off the tired debates about whether or not soccer would ever be popular in the USA (it already is in certain places and is growing every day as evidenced by the video in the original post)..... let's go back to the World Cup....

One reason that the USA won was the sheer amount of Americans who filled the stadium making it feel like a home game in the US complete with the "I Believe" chant.

This is a report from before the game.

20,000 US Soccer fans in Natal for World Cup opener against Ghana

If reports out of Natal are to be believed, the United States Men’s National Team could have upwards of 22,000 fans packed into the Arena das Dunas for Monday’s clash with Group G rival Ghana.

Word of the incredible support – which would ensure half of the stadium would be a sea of red, white and blue – comes from attendees of the pre-match conference on Sunday night in Natal.

There, the numbers were provided to Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan, who said the Black Stars are expecting US support to be very strong.

From Soccerwire:

"Definitely the United States will be coming in their numbers to support their players. That is what we’ve witnessed from the past two World Cups playing against them. Definitely sometimes the fans play a very, very important role in the game, they keep on cheering their players to give them more power to keep doing what they’re doing – not forgetting, we’re on the field, we’re the players, not the fans."

"The fans can do their job, they have to make sure they cheer their players, but it’s the 22 players on the field which are dealing with each other … We have to just stay focused and play our normal game."

The fans did their job alright.

By the way, did you know the USA bought more tickets to the World Cup than any other nation except for Brazil?

U.S. fans snap up World Cup tickets

FIFA says people in the United States have bought more than three times as many World Cup tickets than those in any other nation except for host Brazil.

Soccer's governing body said Tuesday that of the 2,577,662 tickets allocated for this year's tournament, 1,041,418 have gone to people in Brazil. The U.S. is second at 154,412, followed by Australia (40,681), England (38,043) and Colombia (33,126).

The tournament opens June 12 and is in Brazil for the first time since 1950. The Americans are making their seventh straight appearance and play Ghana, Portugal and Germany in the first round.

Prices range from $90 to $175 in the first round, other than the opener. They go up to $440 to $990 for the final in Rio de Janeiro on June 13.

See USA Today's The 6 most passionate fanbases at the World Cup

originally posted by: Swills
a reply to: JadeStar

Incredible Sound In Time Square When USA Scored Goal At World Cup

LOL! WOW! Thanks for that!

This was Times Square in 2006 when the USA scored against Ghana:


I heard the team got a great welcome and sendoff in New York City before they went to Brazil:

Originally posted by: KidOK
I was at the one in Birmingham, AL on the compilation video. It was at Good People Brewery. It was LOUD. My dad played football at Alabama in the 70s so I've been to TONS of football games (all the recent national championship and SEC champ games) and that was close to the same excitement in that brewery. Granted it's 1000 vs 100000 people but you get the idea. I'm not a soccer fan, but respect the game. It was fun.

Glad you had a great time. Even though it wasn't 100,000 people its still pretty cool that you were among 1,000 in Alabama!

I was in the Seattle clip towards the back where it spilled out onto the street where they also had screens set up (because it was a block party). It got SOOO quiet when that Ghana goal went in though. Everyone was so tense so when Brooks scored for the USA it was just sheer relief.


There were literally dozens of parties going on around the city and region and a LOT of people cut out of work an hour or so early.

I like how this game was scheduled to allow for that. I noticed FIFA seemes to have scheduled the USA matches so that they are either on a day off (like Sunday's match against Portugal) or convenient to take off early or take a long lunch. (Monday's match vs Ghana and the match vs Germany).

Seems like they are trying to maximize the most amount of viewers they can in the US.

The first World Cup I watched was 2002 when the games came on in the early early morning from Japan and Korea.



I got hooked watching us get to the quarterfinals by beating Portugal and Mexico. We were very close to beating Germany then too! I was hooked!

I then watched the dismal 2006 performance....


..but was heartened by the 2007 U-20 World Cup which I attended in Ottawa when the US beat Brazil and we saw the future: The emergence of Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore.



Then there was our run to the final of the 2009 Confederations Cup where we beat Spain (who would go on to win the World Cup next year):



And my first big watch party was in 2010 for the World Cup in South Africa and I loved it! Its way more fun to watch and celebrate with lots of people.



I'd say to anyone who hasn't been to one of these events, its like a combination of New Year's Eve, the Super Bowl and the 4th of July rolled into one.

a reply to: JadeStar

The Forbes data was only six years ago and not a decade. I am glad your sport is growing and I am glad you enjoy watching the games. The numbers are still not impressive to me, but I am used to watching underdog sports. ESPN did a great job with women's fastpitch this year and I got to enjoy a lot of games that wouldn't have been on TV a decade ago.

I suppose soccer is like the Olympics (using your hockey analogy) and is something many Americans will find interesting every four years or so. I still can't watch the sport, but like I said lacrosse is the same way in that it is popular to play and has a small professional league, but ultimately isn't watched or played after highschool or college.

Enjoy your WC team and good luck!

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: JadeStar
I suppose soccer is like the Olympics (using your hockey analogy) and is something many Americans will find interesting every four years or so.

Very good analogy.

I still can't watch the sport, but like I said lacrosse is the same way in that it is popular to play and has a small professional league, but ultimately isn't watched or played after highschool or college.

It's a bit beyond that at this point. No one is throwing billions into lacrosse, buying its TV rights (last time I checked lacrosse bought its time on TV like MLS used to a decade ago) or making money off of it. I'm trying to think of the last time I've seen a Major League Lacrosse match on TV. It had to be ages ago.

Enjoy your WC team and good luck!

Thanks.

USA-Ghana Draws 15.9 Million on ESPN and Univision

ESPN’s telecast of the United States-Ghana nail-biter in the opening round of the FIFA World Cup on Monday averaged a big 11.09 million viewers, according to Nielsen, making it the most-viewed soccer match ever televised by the network. It obliterated the previous high of 6.16 million for the 2010 match between USA and Algeria.

It’s also ESPN’s most-watched telecast of any kind since college football’s BCS National Championship (25.57 million).

Tournament to date through 15 matches, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC have combined to average 4.112 million viewers through the first 14 matches — increases of 19% (vs. 2.1) and 23% (vs. 3,346,000), respectively, over the 2010 World Cup.

The USA-Ghana match also topped the day’s Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings, with roughly 3.1 million tweets written by 1.1 million unique authors. The second biggest program of the day on Twitter, according to Nielsen, was the Germany-Portugal match (1.22 million tweets from 421 unique authors).

originally posted by: payta
Im from argentina, so let me tell you the US has had an spectacular squad for the last decade.

Thanks. I still remember that Copa America your country hosted in 2007 and I and my boyfriend still have our scarves which say United States on one side and Estados Unidos on the other That was the last Copa America the USA was in
until the Copa America Centenario in 2016 which you know is being hosted in the United States.

Right now I'd say the team is kind of in a transition period, I watched the match against Ghana, and was expecting the US to easily take the win, instead I was a bit dissapointed by the perfomance.

I was too. I think two things played a factor in that. The injury to Altidore (no other forward can hold the ball up as well as he does) and the other injury to defender Besler which saw Jurgen Klinsmann put in a guy (Brooks) who was kind of unknown in the middle of our back line (so less risk taking). Brooks ended up scoring the winning goal so it was brilliant move by Klinsmann to put him in when he did.

Then there was the weather and the fact that Ghana seemed better prepared for it than the US (which makes sense since Ghana like Brazil is a hot, tropical country).

And Michael Bradley played the game I've ever seen him play. This team is built around him. If he plays well the team looks very good in possessing and passing the football. Everything runs through him. He is both our #8 and #10.

Still, Im rooting for you guys against portugal, you're my go-to team other than my national squad, I even have a DTOM US tee.

THANK YOU!

I guess you heard Cristiano Ronaldo is injured again (they put an ice pack on his knee again today and he left training early). So Portugal is not playing their best right now because they depend on him so much. That and the red card to Pepe may be very good news for the USA.

Most USA fans are quietly confident we can beat Portugal again. All the signs that were there in 2002 when we beat them in the World Cup are there again: Tired players, a team built around one big star player (then it was Figo now it is Ronaldo), underestimating the US team, etc.

I'm surprise with the reaction vids op posted, People gathering to watch the matchs, pretty amazing, I didn't thought it was much of a deal over there, although I knew there's a small soccer fanbase.

Yes. Even though it may not be the most popular sport in the USA, many people watch and follow the sport. Enough follow it that its still big in the places where its followed. It's one thing many people from other countries do not know.

The USA is a HUGE country of over 330 million people. So if we only had 25% of it into the sport (it's actually around 35-40% by most polls) then thats more than the entire population of England (60 million or so).

If you ever come to Seattle you will find a lot of people who celebrate before and after matches similar to they do in Argentina (gathering hours before the game, drinking, playing loud music, etc). There are even some Argentines and Colombians who live here who support the Seattle Sounders and brought their traditions here (and two very big bomba murgas too!! ) If you ever do come to Seattle people will buy you a beer and welcome you to our madness

So, I wish you good luck in the next match, i made a bet you'd leave portugal out on the group stage, so I'm counting on Dempsey to lend me a hand there.

Thank you, Dempsey is my favorite player on the team and I am lucky I get to see him play in person every week for my club too!

You may recognize this chant

I don't claim to know what their revenue is, but I do know that you see quite a lot of Sporting KC stuff around here and have for the past two or three years ever since they started challenging for the top in the league. I think you almost see more Sporting stuff than you do Royals stuff. That might change now that the Royals are in first place if they can hold on to it.

I think the big beef I have with soccer is that they can do all that running around only to have it all either end in a tie or one a single kick. And you're never sure when it ends, either, because of how they add extra time at the end of regulation. I also don't like the way they take flops or dives trying to draw cards. I don't like it when they do it in basketball, either.

US Vice President Joe Biden visits the team after the game. Keep in mind, a lot of these young guys never expected to be selected for this World Cup team much less see the V.P. in their locker room.

originally posted by: ketsuko
I don't claim to know what their revenue is, but I do know that you see quite a lot of Sporting KC stuff around here and have for the past two or three years ever since they started challenging for the top in the league. I think you almost see more Sporting stuff than you do Royals stuff. That might change now that the Royals are in first place if they can hold on to it.

Yeah, Kansas City has been cited b the Wall Street Journal as one of the US cities that MLS is mainstream in along with Seattle, Portland Oregon, Philadelphia and Houston.

I also know that they are 3rd in the league in terms of merchandise sales. Seattle is #1 followed by LA which is #2.

I think the big beef I have with soccer is that they can do all that running around only to have it all either end in a tie or one a single kick.

No one likes defensive football even avid fans of the sport, but sometimes there may be a scoreless draw that is exciting as hell.

It's a game of chances as well as goals. People celebrate the stuff that almost leads to a goal if that stuff is spectacular (a bunch of goalkeeper saves) as much as the goals themselves.

In a league match a tie or draw still yields both teams a point in the standings. Why have them? Because most of the time a draw is the fairest result.

That said, there have not been many draws in this World Cup (only 2) and one of those draws was very exciting (Brazil vs Mexico which was a goalkeeping showcase).

And you're never sure when it ends, either, because of how they add extra time at the end of regulation.

That's a funny criticism because one of the things that drew me to the sport was knowing that it was going to end sometime around 90 mins

Its seldom more than 5 minutes of extra time at the end of a game. So I know how much time I am devoting to watching a game unlike say an NFL game where every 5 minutes they are cutting to commercials for no other reason than to cut to commercials, so a 2 hour game ends up being an all day affair. I've got no time for that unless its the playoffs lol.

(for normal matches in knock out tournaments/knockout games where there must be a winner, matches can go into 30 mins of extra time and penalty kicks if the match is still tied).

I can't tell you how frustrated I and many fans get when a basketball or baseball game goes over the time its supposed to and bleeds into the start of a match on TV.

You find that far more often than

[quote[I also don't like the way they take flops or dives trying to draw cards. I don't like it when they do it in basketball, either.

Flopping happens in just about every sport like you said, basketball, hockey, even NFL. It's cheating but so is hacking at players without fouls being called.

If the referee is good flopping and hacking is kept to a minimum.

Right now I'm watching Spain vs Chile and the referee, Mark Geiger is an American ref from MLS. He's kept the flopping and hacking to a minimum because he doesn't buy into it. I've seen him pull out cards for players that dive too so it is getting better at least.

I think one of the reasons FIFA picked him is because he -is- American and we don't typically fall for that crap and Spain and Chile have reputations for simulation (flopping).

a reply to: JadeStar

simulation ,flopping ?

The correct analogy is "Diving"

This information comes free of charge from The Home Of Football.