Soccer Out of Obscurity

It has been a while and I can only hope that my three faithful followers can forgive me. Truth is I missed writing on my blog as it has always been a way for me to express my sports philosophy. Much has changed since my last post. I now work for Real Salt Lake, somewhere I never would have imagined working. Not because of the company but because of my personal preferences.

See, soccer has never been a priority to me. I played soccer just like every other 4 and 5 year old and thought it was fun to run around and kick a ball. I thought it was fun then and I am sure my parents appreciated the energy I exhausted running around pointlessly every Saturday morning. It was not long after that I discovered baseball, and then basketball, and then football. I eventually even took up golf, skiing, water polo, volleyball and other sport related activities. Soccer was a thing of the past, a childhood memory, a child's game.

Some of my friends pursued soccer further playing on "comp" teams. I had no idea what that meant. I knew more about super league baseball, AAU basketball, and Ute conference football than anything soccer. I had friends that played in high school, one of which went on to play college level soccer, but they never seemed to gain the attention as other "jocks" did. Granted I went to a high school that was all about baseball. None the less, soccer was an after thought in my mind. In fact, the only memory I have of being interested in high level soccer was right after I graduated from high school I went on a vacation with a bunch of my friends to Denver. The summer I graduated was also a World Cup year. While on vacation we would watch the World Cup, staying up late to catch the US play and spent the hours waiting playing FIFA Soccer on the PlayStation. Honestly that was the extent of soccer for me and I will be the first to tell you I was the worst at the video game!

Because I never had an attachment to soccer, I did not care for it. In fact, I would mock it openly. I thought it was boring, slow moving, anyone could play it if they wanted, and I hated the idea of a tie, a 0-0 tie especially. Growing up loving and playing baseball, if the score was tied, you kept playing until there was a winner. That was just they way it had to be. Why did soccer not understand that principle? How can people devote two hours of their life to a game, see no one score and walk away happy with what they saw? I would be livid if I paid to see a match and it ended in a 0-0 tie! No penalty shootout? No overtime? What? This thought process made me repulsed to the idea of soccer.

Fast forward to August 2009. I had been working/interning with Real Salt Lake for about 5 months. For those of you who need some details, Real Salt Lake was founded in 2005 as an expansion team for Major League Soccer. Prior to 2009, I had been to one Real Salt Lake game, I did not hate it, but I did not care for it either. Now working for Real Salt Lake, I found myself surrounded by people who knew much more about soccer than I ever did. Many of them had played high school or college level soccer. They had favorite teams from leagues I did not know the name of. They visited soccer websites to read about the weeks upcoming games instead of visiting ESPN like normal people. What was going on? What had I got myself into? Little did I know I was in for a ride.

At the time, my office mate was a die hard Barcelona fan. He had played college soccer and knew the game inside and out. I would talk to him often to try and learn why and how to like soccer. The first thing I decided was I needed to have a team. A team that I followed, knew the players, was loyal to. I wanted to create a little rivalry between me and my coworker so I began looking at teams from the Spanish soccer league. Real Madrid was too easy. Even I had heard of them. I wanted a team that would make me look like a real soccer guy, so I chose Sevilla. Sevilla does not have the reputation of Barcelona or Real Madrid, but they have finished top five the last few seasons, they had some big named players as well, and even beat Barcelona in league play! My devotion to Sevilla included printing out a big team logo and hanging it in my office, researching how to get my hands on a Sevilla jersey, bragging to my coworker about recent victories, informing all my other coworkers how great Sevilla was, and trying to stay up to date with all the team news.

Slowly I began to become more in tune with soccer and all its idiosyncrasies. Sevilla was playing in the UEFA Champions League at the time which opened a whole new door of unknowns for me. I learned the format of this tournament, I learned the purpose of the tournament, and eventually I was OK with a tournament overlapping with league play. It was intriguing and I was starting to enjoy following soccer. My coworkers began to jump on board and we soon all had our favorite teams and would brag about them. Every lunch we would discuss why our teams were better, where they were in league play and how they were doing in the Champions League. All this talk sparked such interest we found ourselves trying to find our team's games on TV. Anytime we found a European or South American soccer game on TV, we would call or text each other to tell them of the game we were watching. This led to us starting our own makeshift soccer fantasy league competition. It was great.

Real Salt Lake was helping my cause to get into the sport as well. In 2009 the team found a way to make the playoffs and made an unprecedented run to the championship, the MLS Cup. The Real Salt Lake organization flew us all up to Seattle to be there for the championship match up against the LA Galaxy. That was a trip I will never forget. Real Salt Lake upset the heavily favored Galaxy along with their big name players in a penalty shoot out.
We were champions. We were the best team in the league. Real Salt Lake was gaining local and national media attention and the talk of soccer was starting to rise. I found myself immersed in the middle of it all soaking it all up. I loved it. I loved to tell people I worked for Real Salt Lake. I loved to tell them we were champions.

Now wait a second, I loved to say what? Was this the same kid who once thought soccer was pointless? What had happened to me? I now found myself defending soccer. I found myself having a passion for the game and enjoying watching it on TV even. This has to be compared to someone who goes from hating golf to love watching it on TV. I had changed, forever.

Bill Simmons, an ESPN writer, shared some insight in an article he wrote after going to a USA vs Mexico match. I could not agree more with his article more and you can read it here. Americans still do not have the appreciation for the game that the rest of the world does. Someday I believe we will get there. MLS is still in its infancy and has a lot of room to grow. Americans are backing the national team more and more. Every World Cup comes with more anticipation and expectations than before. Real Salt Lake made history this year by competing for the CONCACAF Champions League Championship and unfortunately fell short in the finals against Monterrey. None the less they garnered a lot of national attention for what they accomplished. Soccer is slowly becoming more widespread and understood. Someday we will view soccer the same as the rest of the world.

Think about it for a moment. What other sport can bring nations together and unite the world for an entire tournament. The World Cup is just as big as the Olympics. That may be hard for many to digest, but it is the truth. Ask Brazil what event they are most looking forward to and I guarantee that the majority forget they are hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016. Truth is that soccer is the sport that for at least ninety minutes puts everything on hold. It amazes me and draws me more and more into the sport. Soccer is more widespread that you think. Every country in the world has a league, every country. Morocco? They have a league. Pappa New Guinea? They have a league. Don't believe me? Try visiting fifa.com and read about them. Soccer is everywhere. Take our office fantasy league which started as a simple two team platform. We now each have 21 teams from different leagues around the world that we all follow and keep track of their points and standings. Not to mention the champions leagues they play in. And we are looking forward to expanding it to 32 teams for next season!

I have been converted. I love watching soccer. I love following soccer. Don't get me wrong, baseball is still my first love and will always be, but soccer has not only been promoted out of obscurity but has become one of my favorite sports to follow. I know there are still doubters out there and even people who think I am crazy, but ignorance will always be an easier route than an attempt to educate yourself. I know because I took that route for 25 years of my life.