Wake Up America, Soccer Is 'The Beautiful Game' For A Reason

By Deb Borges

If someone were to ask what my favorite sport is, most people close to me would answer “that’s easy – she’s a huge football fan," and for the most part they would be correct. I have been a devoted New York Jets fans since the age of 8 and love everything about football.

But it is really the sport of futbol that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Futbol, futebol, footie, soccer – call it whatever you’d like – is a sport that I was born to love. My parents were both born in Portugal, and like many other European countries, soccer there is a way of life. I grew up playing the sport, watching the sport and still do today.

For those of you who aren’t fans, it can be hard to explain the role that soccer plays in many families like mine. It’s a sport like no other, a sport that unifies countries and evokes a sense of patriotism like nothing I’ve experienced in my lifetime.

The legendary Pele described soccer as “the beautiful game." In my eyes, beauty means simplicity. Ever see a beautiful woman who doesn’t wear makeup? Or an amazing picture of a simple sunset? It’s often that the most beautiful things are free of all the unnecessary things that take away from what is naturally beautiful.

Have you ever given a toddler a ball and see him or her instinctively want to throw it in the wastebasket? Probably not! But what happens when you put that same ball by that same toddler’s feet? Nine times out of 10 that munchkin will start to kick and chase after it.

My point is, the very premise of the game is familiar to all of us. Soccer is a magical blend of simplicity and complexity. There are only 17 rules to the game, yet the best in the game must have the right combination of technical finesse, ability to improvise, speed and power to be successful.

The sport has proven to be a catalyst for patriotism, a sport that has helped bridge differences between nations, tribes and individuals over the years all over the world.

Less than 50 years ago, South Korea would not allow the Japanese national team to cross its borders to play a match, yet in 2002 the two nations co-hosted the World Cup. Before hosting the 2006 World Cup, a German flag was rarely seen flying in that country. But that year, for the first time since World War II, people were proudly waving German flags from cars and balconies.

The sport creates a sense of national pride that many Americans have a hard time comprehending.

How is it that as sports crazed as America is, it still lags so far behind the European devotion to the game? It’s a notion that is frustrating to many of the die-hard soccer fans in this country. I’ve had endless conversations regarding this topic, all of which were fueled by the blatant aggressive hostility of traditional U.S. sports media to soccer. Let’s be honest, we’ve all come across sports traditionalists who openly despise the sport.

My job here isn't necessarily to change their minds, but I would like to create some kind of "open-mind" policy they could refer to going forward.

From where I'm standing on the pitch, the “American ego,” as I like to call it, has limited the nation’s acceptance of the sport. The theory behind it is simple – if the U.S. doesn’t dominate a sport, the vast majority of its citizens don’t support the national team or the game.

Golf has had a huge following for a very long time, and it started, believe it or not, well before our very own Tiger Woods became an icon. Why? Is it because of the skill required to be successful? The power of seeing someone hit a ball well over 300 yards? The drama that can unfold on the back 9 of any professional tournament?

Soccer shares many of those same moments, albeit in a different form. The problem is the majority of Americans don't take the time to notice or at least concede that something they don't understand may be worth paying a little more attention to.

Soccer is growing in leaps and bounds at every level in this country. But unlike in other countries, the sport is mostly viewed as fun and recreational in the U.S., something to stick the kids in so that they aren't home doing nothing or rotting in front of a television or computer screen. But if you really stop and look, talented players from the U.S., thanks to growing programs at every level, now have options to play competitively after college.

Americans also like instant resolution. In baseball there’s some sort of resolution after every pitch. On every football play yards are gained or lost, passes are completed or fall incomplete. In basketball scoring is frequent and fast, just they way we like everything else in life.

Soccer, on the other hand, challenges our attention spans. You can watch a game for 90 minutes and end up with a score of 1-0, or a tie. Boring right? At least acknowledge the fact that soccer is continuous. While most American-based sports have some kind of TV timeout seemingly every few minutes, soccer is basically non-stop for at least 45 minutes twice in any given match. And it even has managed to find a way to throw in significant advertising at the highest levels without disrupting the flow of play.

I believe there's an insufficient level of understanding of the game to appreciate the details and intricacies involved as opposed to just watching and waiting for the ball to go in the net. Let’s be honest, you don’t have to know everything about football, baseball, basketball to know that exciting things are happening. People cheer when the team scores, period. They boo or complain when someone does something out of place.

Well, the same is true in soccer. A dazzling move, a deftly-placed touch-pass to space, a tremendous header or goalie tip over the crossbar elicits the same kind of responses as when someone gets nutmegged (soccer term you may not be ready for) or when, just like in American sports, the referees or officials start to make the game more about themselves than the teams involved.

If I've piqued your interest, or opened you mind just a little, then this June is your chance to truly give the sport a shot. The world’s biggest party -- or World Cup -- will soon take place in South Africa and we all know Americans sure love a good party. As true sports fans you owe it to yourselves to at least make an effort to join in the festivities -- if for no other reason than because America will arguably field its best side ever.

Coached by Bob Bradley, the U.S. national team will be looking to build upon its second-place finish at the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa just a few months ago. Names like Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey may be foreign to you, which is kind of ironic considering they probably grew up just a few doors down, but they are worth checking out. They are all impressive players with international experience who have led the U.S. to impressive results in recent tournaments.

When asked, most Americans will say the most memorable international moment they can remember their country playing in was the 1980 Olympic ice hockey semifinals against the then-Soviet Union. Hockey, like soccer, has more of a cult following than mainstream respect in this country.

But on that night back in February of 1980 the sport captivated the country.

The U.S. soccer team will play a pretty big match of its own in June. The Americans open Group C play against England, a respected and feared international power that has produced more individual stars over the years than probably even the New York Yankees. A strong showing in that match could catapult the U.S. into the round of 16 considering lightly regarded Algeria and Slovenia are also in their group. The U.S. has a real shot here to go very far in this tournament.

And since most every American loves a winner, June of 2010 will be a nice opportunity to rally behind a team that has already garnered a lot of respect from the international community.

Don't you think it's time those players get the same kind of acknowledgement from their own people?

The World Cup is already the most watched sporting event in the world. What's a few hundred million more? It's simply an amazing event from start to finish.

There’s a certain joy that comes with being one of the billion or more people watching 32 countries abide by 17 simple rules.

It fills me with the conviction, as ignorant as it may seem, that soccer really can unite us all.

Deb Borges, otherwise known as @LilMissNYJet on Twitter, is passionate about everything she does. You'd be doing yourselves a great service by following her and checking out her N.Y. Jets blog -- Life of a True N.Y. Jets fan