Rather than accept the mounting specter of a multi-sport New England dynasty, sanity requires that I retreat to the comfort of my own imaginary sports Valhalla. Ten years from now, an aging Kevin Garnett could be hobbling around on two bum knees contemplating a decade of futility with the disappointing Celtics, while a melancholy Bill Belichick nostalgically cuts the sleeves off of his prison-issue jumpsuit while serving time for tax fraud. One would think that my own imagined future would be unassailable even by the most Ruthian of curses, but after a recent announcement from FIFA, it appears as if no sport and no time is safe from my current slump.
2018 is supposed to be a huge year for American soccer, a year of giant leaps for a sport moving in baby-steps (with the occasional well-coiffed British blunder). 2018 is supposed to be the second time that the United States plays host to the world’s most prestigious competition: the World Cup.
After spending 2002 in Japan and South Korea and 2006 in Germany, and with 2010 and 2014 slated for South Africa and Brazil, FIFA’s practice of continent rotation would make the United States a front-runner with Mexico to host the Cup in 2018.
But FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced earlier this week that the World Cup will no longer be rotated among continents, bringing nations like England, Spain and China into the mix.
A World Cup on American soil would address two of soccer’s largest obstacles in this country. First, Americans are skeptical of any sports league that doesn’t feature the very best players in the game. Major League Soccer is not one of the top soccer leagues in the world, therefore most sports fans in the U.S. struggle to accept it as a major attraction. David Beckham was supposed to be the instant remedy, but the British midfielder’s status as a soccer superstar is questionable in the twilight of his career. The World Cup, however, would bring all of the best soccer players to a fan base that is even more receptive of the sport than when the U.S. broke overall attendance records the first time it hosted the tournament in 1994.
American soccer has been flirting with the top-tier of international competition since the `02 Cup. The team has cracked the top ten in the last few years, but is yet to prove itself worthy of a nation that demands success from its athletes. At home, however, the U.S. side can play with just about anyone. Inspired by the home crowd, the `94 Men’s National Team advanced to the elimination round for the first time in over half a century. So far in 2007, the team is 10-1-1 on American soil, and only 1-4 abroad. A US-hosted World Cup in the near future would be just the push needed to get American soccer of the hump.
The importance of 2018 for American soccer has not been lost on U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati.
“FIFA’s decision does not change our own commitment to bring the World Cup back to the United States,” he said. “I believe that a U.S. bid will be very competitive.”
I still hope that in eleven years the now virile Red Sox Nation will need a little blue pill for its Papelboner, and that a washed-up Tom Brady will give up the pigskin to coach his son’s little league team, which will happen to be called the Yankees. But my sports dreams very rarely end anywhere near perfection, so in the meantime, I’ll cast my future hopes on a summer of soccer.
