'Give Soccer a Chance' - Newport Mercury Cup Coverage

Last week, I was fortunate enough to help spread the gospel of soccer to the entire Newport, RI area with the help of the Newport Mercury. The article was entitled 'Give soccer a chance,' and like I do here just about everyday, it was about this year's World Cup.

For those of you who did not see this article, a fantastic AP photo of Nedved and Donovan accompanied the text, and a full schedule was listed in a column along the article's side.

Most importantly, however, was the shout-out to this World Cup blog that the article featured in italics as a footer.

For those of you who want to see the original, go to
newportmercury.com/articles/2006/6/21/features/features2.txt

Otherwise read a copy of the text below.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read up on my rants and raves, your comments, criticisms, thoughts and opinions are always appreciated.
Give Soccer a Chance

Brazil has won 5 crowns, Italy and Germany 3, Argentina 2. The U.S. has never won the World Cup. And don't get your hopes up this year either.

BY ZACHARY McCUNE

If you are an American, the World Cup may be nothing more than an interruption of quality baseball: Who the hell are these Brazilian guys?! Where do I have to go to watch the Sox?

Most Americans view soccer with the sort of contempt bikers reserve for helmets. Although the sport has enjoyed being America's most popular youth sport, it is often considered to be a just children's game - something to outgrow and abandon, not a game to hone for the sake of national glory.

But for lots of people, the World Cup is the most important event of the year. National pride rides on victory or defeat. Huge sums of money are won and lost. Heroes are forged and rivalries created. It is the penultimate athletic competition of a global society. It is the defining championship of the world's most popular sport.

And so, with a worldwide media blitz of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, it may be time to give soccer a second chance. Take a look, watch some games, and give David Beckham more than a jealous stare; this is the World Cup we're talking about, and that means "party" in 32 different countries.

The World Cup is the international championship of soccer. It pits 32 national teams against each other every four years with the chance to win World soccer supremacy. Before teams can even play at the World Cup, they must qualify through international competition. To secure a World Cup berth, teams must win, or place highly in their respective continental groups. The USA qualified by winning the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football). England qualified finishing over Poland in their UEFA (European League) grouping.

Once the teams have formally qualified, they are randomly split into eight groups of four. These groups, labeled by letters A through H, represent the first part of the competition. Each member of the group must play all of the other teams for a Round Robin-style mini-tournament. The top two teams from each group advance.

The winning teams and finalists of the "mini-tournaments" must compete in a single elimination competition. Like the Final Four, this round quickly halves the field of competitors from 16 to eight to four and then to the final two.

This year, Germany plays host to the world's most celebrated international championship. With a national infrastructure of renovated stadiums, hotels and soccer villages, the Germans have invested a lot in the competition. Nevertheless, the enormous influx of fans, families and tourists is sure to stimulate the German economy and give it a month of unrivalled prosperity.

This year's tournament has been dominated by European teams who feel a sense of home-court advantage as they play in Europe for the first time in eight years. Among the European favorites is England, captained by poster-boy David Beckham and stocked with a field full of international superstars. France, too, has an impressive array of star power including Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry. The French won the tournament at home in 1998.

Of course, whenever you talk about the World Cup you talk about Brazil, and this year is no exception. With striker Ronaldinho fresh off a Champions League title and star forward Ronaldo still in the mix, Brazil is heavily favored to win the whole thing as it did in Korea four years ago.

Unfortunately for the Americans, their 3-0 thrashing by the Czech Republic in round 1 has all but eliminated the chance of advancing. After almost a year of hype, and an impressive campaign to the CONCACAF title, the Americans completely fell apart in round 1. Their defeat dealt a deathblow to growing domestic interest, as the desire to support a losing team is anything but American.

The American rebound against the Italians may have opened the window for advancement, but it may be too little too late. The draw showed a great improvement for the Americans and may have finally proven to Europe that the U.S. has arrived. Sadly, the boys in red, white and blue are now dependent on other teams and other wins to take them through.

With lots more soccer play, and any number of World Cup legends yet to be made, try getting around domestic prejudices and giving European football a shot. With world soccer supremacy and international street cred hanging in the balance, you might be glad you did.

Zachary McCune blogs daily about the World Cup at www.the2006worldcup

germany.blogspot.com/.