COMMENTARY : ‘Feed Into’ Soccer; the Reward Is Beauty
Now is the time for armchair spectators to give soccer another chance. I know soccer has never commanded much interest here because Americans regard it as too much of a slow-moving, punchless game, but it is popular the world over, and now we have the World Cup, the most-watched of tournaments, lighting up our magic lanterns.
The TNT cable network is covering 24 of the 52 matches through the final on July 8.
Bob Neal, the veteran Turner cable sportscaster, heads the ‘A’ announcing team, calling about 14 games with Mick Luckhurst, the former Atlanta Falcons field-goal kicker from England. Neal is smart enough to admit it will be no easy task to get Americans involved.
“Americans have so many sports, we have not learned how to feed into soccer,” he said. “I did six years of North American League soccer and am not blowing smoke when I say I got next to it. I found real beauty in the sport.
“The beauty,” he said, “is not in the scoring, but in the work that leads to the score. I know that doesn’t excite Americans who are used to the faster pace of basketball and hockey, but when you are into soccer, you recognize that teams build the play from the back. The secret is to use the entire field to create open space for a shot at the goal. It might take nine or 10 of these builds for this to happen.
“I’ll tell you this. When you are involved in a game--when a son of yours is playing or you are rooting for a team--your heart beats faster every time the ball approaches the goal even if there is no score.”
Neal doesn’t expect the World Cup to eradicate American apathy. “But I think there are elements here similar to the NCAA basketball tournament. With continuity, people can begin to find a team and follow it. You can watch a star like Diego Maradona of Argentina and begin to relate to him the way we relate to our star professionals.”
I have always thought soccer is a more sane and worthwhile game than football but have never been able to “feed into the sport” because I am unable to appreciate the nuances of non-scoring action. The World Cup, however, does present magnificent spectacle and nationalistic fervor that is involving. It has the nuttiness of scheduling England and Ireland in far-off Sardinia for fear of violence if too many home fans were in attendance.
I am dipping into the World Cup action on the tube because the United States has a team in it, and it serves as a prelude to 1994, when the World Cup becomes a bigger deal here because we will be hosting it for the first time.
