PRETORIA, South Africa – Long after the game had ended and the jubilant players had left the field, the U.S. fans partied on in the stands, singing, dancing and waving their American flags. Back home, folks who couldn’t pick Landon Donovan out of a lineup only a few weeks ago celebrated his goal with die-hard gusto.
For decades now, soccer enthusiasts have insisted it was only a matter of time before the game grabbed hold of the United States as it has the rest of the world.
That time is here.
U.S. sports fans love winners, and the Americans are moving on to the second round of the World Cup as the top team in their group — ahead, even, of mighty England. But it’s the way this team is playing, every match an adrenaline-fueled, heart-in-your-throat, can’t-look-away-for-a-second dance on the edge that is captivating the country. And changing the game in the United States.
“Anybody that watched today’s game and can’t get excited about it, we’re not going to win them over,” U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said. “But I think we won a lot of people over today.”
Soccer has been on a slow, steady climb for years now, and its growth is inevitable with all those kids who’ve been packing their local parks each weekend. But to become a major player in the U.S. sports scene, to generate the kind of interest the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball do, soccer needs some kind of watershed moment.
South Africa is it.