The Sports Beat

Watching Euro 2008 has been a fantastic break from the monotony of American soccer.  Crisp passing, magnetic traps, deft one-touches, proper spacing, and strategy fill the pitch in Europe.  In MLS, and wherever the U.S. National Team plays that day, the opposite approach comes out: American-style soccer.  And unlike many American products, this one stinks.

In last night’s New England Revolution-Real Salt Lake matchup, American soccer was at its finest.  The ball flew around the air, aimlessly headed in random directions like an electron, the midfield clogged like the shower drain at a sorority house, and players took misguided shots from all angles like a freshman at her first college party.  Mediocre athletes sure ran around a lot, but accomplished little.  Teamwork evaporated and possession was scarce.  In short, it looked like high school soccer.

The level of play wasn’t the only thing that different from European soccer.  The field confused and baffled with its myriad lines running every which way.  Football, field hockey, rugby, lacrosse, they all could have taken place on that hardened field turf the game occurred on.  The concrete-like surface made the world’s most popular orb look like a child’s boyant rubber bouncy ball.  The corn field I played on in Athol, Massacusetts, at age 10 was more fit for the world’s greatest game than Real Salt Lake’s homefield.

It’s a sad state, American soccer, and David Beckham isn’t going to change that.  Let’s hope Freddy and friends can lift up the world’s lone superpower’s fifth favorite sport in line with its political status, because the current product seems destined for recall.