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Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, left, is tripped-up by New York Red Bulls midfielder Clint Mathis. AP Photo/Bill Kostroun
I’ve been in New York for over a week now and I haven’t heard the Big Apples’ Major League Soccer team, the New York Red Bulls, mentioned once, despite being one of the few local franchises currently in season.
Yet, like in Australia, there are signs the world game is thriving.
Last week, pubs across New York welcomed hordes of football fans for the UEFA Champions League final played across the globe in the eternal city.
At the Nevada Smith’s sports bar in lower Manhattan, a line had developed around the block by midday, over two hours before kick off.
Security was on hand to knock back fans once capacity had been reached, ninety minutes before kick off.
Inside, the two floors of the pub were packed to capacity, a mix of both English tourists, Spanish ex pats and, encouragingly, many locals. And an even mix of Manchester and Barcelona fans.
The atmosphere within was incredible, rivalling anything Australia’s finest pubs can deliver for such occasions. The size of the crowd was truly phenomenal.
The scene was repeated a few days later for the FA Cup final.
The world game is thriving in the America’s biggest market. Yet, there has been little sign of the Red Bulls and the MLS.
Perhaps it’s the fact they are currently bottom of their conference. Or maybe it’s to be expected in a city that’s one of the most competitive and crowded sporting markets in the world.
The Red Bulls, a fascinating case of what football franchises could look like around the world under the ownership of a corporation – totally re-branded to fit that corporate image – are just the latest incarnation of a New York soccer side and, unlike the Cosmos of the 70s, they have yet to appeal to New Yorkers.
As one local told me, they just don’t care about the team. They don’t have the history, name and awareness of the Yankees, Mets, Knicks or Rangers.
More likely, too, it’s the lowly place soccer has in the code battle.
Soccer has had a weird and wonderful journey in the USA, from the excesses of the NASL in the 1970s, thanks largely to the New York Cosmos and their international squad of superstars, Pele, Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto, to the collapse of the league under its own weight of expectation following this golden age.
The World Cup in 1994 was meant to be American soccer’s reawakening, with a new league and new promise.
But despite the survival of the MLS and arrival of Beckham, there has been no reason for the NBA, NFL and MLB to panic.
It is a story that bares striking similarities to our own, living as the code does in the shadow of Indigenous codes and fighting for its right to stand alongside them.
As the popularity of the European game demonstrates in both Australian and America, it is not the game itself that lacks the core support.
Enthusiasm toward foreign leagues over the local product is natural.
Our attractions will always be to the biggest, brightest and best. Television and the Internet have fuelled the popularity and might of foreign leagues.
Is it just a case of these ‘new’ leagues needing time to grow within the hearts of the community? Only time will tell.
Let’s be honest, more than likely the A-League and MLS will never become the number one codes in their respective countries. Not in our lifetimes, anyway.
But as young children of the world game family, both leagues still have a way to go and they are part of a bigger family that is thriving across the globe and dwarfs the size and scope of any other family.
They just need to find a way to tap into this popularity.
Growth by association.