- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
USA's Clint Dempsey reacts after scoring the team
If you read my last piece on The Roar on Friday, then you’d know I’ve been in the US for the last week or so taking a close look at how the world game is faring within the country. By the time you read this I’ll be on a plane out of here. But since I arrived, I’ve been doing some thinking about the different parallels between football in the US and Australia.
In particular, I’ve always felt that the similarities between the MLS and the A-League are both significant and valuable. By that I mean, with so much in common, both countries should be able to learn quite a lot form one another.
However, it turns out those similarities don’t run as deep as I thought.
To put it simply: compared with Australia, the game is much further along in America then its moderate profile would suggest. I suppose that’s no surprise considering the US has hosted a World Cup and the national league is 10 years older.
So what comparisons there are are one way, with Australia doing almost all the learning (like how to expand a domestic competition).
One of those virtues we should aspire to is patience.
It turns out US Soccer has almost enough patience to impress the creators of Japanese football’s “100-year plan”.
Let me explain.
I’ve always wondered about how Mexico games in the US, which are regular occurrences, are almost always sell-outs.
With the company that helps run the MLS, Soccer United Marketing, holding the rights to Mexico games in America, there’s serious money to be made. That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing though when you consider the much lower attendances for when the US men’s national soccer team plays on home soil.
I’ve always wondered why the US Soccer Federation hasn’t done anything to get those attending Mexico games in America through the turnstiles at US home games.
Well, first of all. that was a pretty un-American perspective. The make-up of the United States is far more complex than I was allowing and their brand of multiculturalism is very different to ours.
All that aside, it was only from talking with the officials at MLS House in New York, where both the US World Cup bid and Soccer United Marketing are based, that I finally understood why nothing was being done.
The game’s administrators in the US are waiting for the next generation of football lovers to come through.
Their plan is to get the children of all these Mexican and Central American immigrants supporting the US national team and following a MLS outfit along with their inherited allegiances.
With such a massive influx of football lovers, the game will hopefully then grow and blossom even further.
In the meantime, US Soccer’s goal is to develop the game as much as they can and ensure there is a healthy football environment for these youngsters to embrace.
In a way, Australia is further along in getting second generation migrants to support their country of birth (think of all the supporters in both Greek and Australian colours during the friendly between the two countries in 2006 at the MCG).
However, unlike the US, I don’t think Australia is planning to capitalise on it enough.
Naturally there is only so much our relatively small governing body can do, but it’s certainly a pity that this opportunity continues to go begging.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.