Americans miss World Cup excitement

What event occurring every four years puts to shame all other sporting event in the world, involving 32 nations and nearly 1.5 billion observers, yet fails to generate any substantial interest among the American population? Short of being coy, the answer is the FIFA World Cup.

Despite its growing popularity, many Americans still do not understand the importance or magnitude of this truly global event. Indeed in the many months I have spent talking about the 2006 World Cup in Germany, I have encountered many people who simply deride the tournament as a meaningless diversion involving foreigners who cannot compare to American athletes in terms of fitness or skill.

Yet Georgia Tech boasts a substantial foreign population that holds down the soccer contingency. For a few months during the school year, a dedicated following of students can be seen glued to the television on theStudent Center second floor.

The academic school calendar overlaps nicely with the Champions League, a tournament involving the most prestigious soccer clubs in Europe. If the Champions League packs the couches and sofas of the Student Center, the World Cup would probably cause Tech to close the building due to the students causing a fire hazard.

These same students can be found every week at SAC field pick-up games and scrimmages during all hours of the day. On these fields the name of the game is the language spoken. Proper names and fluency in English are of secondary importance. Winning games is of tertiary importance. It's all about the love of the game. And that's the beauty of the World Cup.

No other sporting event affects people on such a global level. Over the period of one month, a cumulative 28 billion people watched the 2002 World Cup. Analysts project viewership to rise to 32 billion cumulative people tuning into this year's World Cup.

As the world becomes more globalized and interconnected through communication, it is nearly impossible to avoid discussion or information about the World Cup.

To be fair, American interest in soccer has been on the rise since the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994. Interest further increased in 2002 when the men's U.S. soccer team reached the Quarterfinals of the World Cup and the women's U.S. soccer team won the whole shebang.

In 2004 the name Freddy Adu was on the tip of everyone's tongues for a few months when he signed to the MLS and at the age 14 became the youngest pro athlete in the world.

As of today, the United States is the fifth-ranked nation according to FIFA world rankings, and they have won the last two of their three friendlies leading up to the tournament.

So often Americans are stereotyped as only self-interested, but U.S. involvement in soccer should be rooted more deeply than in their day-to-day fortunes.

For example, a country that has never even qualified for the World Cup claims the highest national viewership of the 2002 World Cup: Thailand boasted the most cumulative viewers, with 269 million, barely narrowing out South Korea and China.

Now imagine what fans are like in countries that are actually good at soccer. In Ireland, a group of concerned citizens tried to petition Parliament to officially switch to Korean time for the duration of the 2002 World Cup. The bill did not pass; in hindsight, perhaps the group should have enlisted the help of the IRA.

World Cup matches retain such importance that they sometimes provide insight into important world events. For example, England and Argentina have a long-standing soccer rivalry stemming from the 1966 World Cup.

Far from downplaying the seriousness of the situation, the Falklands War only increased the indemnity between the soccer factions. The two countries met again in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals. This match stands as one of the most notorious games in soccer history.

Argentina emerged victorious due to a goal by Diego Maradona that has been dubbed the "Hand of God". As it turns out, the "Hand of God" was actually a handball.

English soccer fans and hooligans alike would have to wait another 16 years until they exacted their revenge in a 2002 World Cup match. The Queen of England reportedly tuned in to this match, no doubt a matter of national pride.

This brings me back to my original point. Americans who are usually oblivious to the world of soccer may tune in to see if the United States usurps the heavyweight nations to win the Cup, which is a step in the right direction, but it is too myopic.

The rest of the world will be monitoring the big names in soccer: Ronaldo and Ronaldinho of Brazil; Zizou and Henry of France; Shevchenko of Ukraine; Beckham and Owen of England; Figo of Portugal. The names go on, but most Americans do not know them.

Once the U.S. takes an interest in the world's game, perhaps the world will take an interest in the U.S.