There were 36,218 people in a stadium East Hartford, Connecticut on May 25th, 2010. It was impossible to park, as thousands arrived with hours to spare before game time. Inside the stadium, almost everyone in attendance was wearing some form of official apparel. Jerseys, t-shirts, scarves, and goofy Uncle Sam hats attired the crowd to look something like a Memorial Day cook-out on Long Island. And when the first goal went in, off a corner kick in the 17th minute, there was no mistaking the deafening chant of an eager fanbase shouting USA! USA! USA!

This is what international soccer has become in the United States. Just four years ago, writing my second assignment for the Mercury, I traveled around Newport asking if bars, cafes, and restaurants intended to broadcast the upcoming World Cup tournament. Many of them told me no. Several mentioned that they would show the games only if there was not something else on: something like the Red Sox, or College Baseball. As a concession, some bartenders told me they would show the final.
Four years before that, I was in eighth grade. The tournament was being hosted by Korea and Japan meaning game time was only a bleary eyed 2 am. To make matters worse, few American channels were willing to broadcast the games. So I got up, at 2 am, and watched the World Cup on Telemundo and Univision, loosely improving my Spanish while watching the United States advance further than it had ever gone before. I could not afford a jersey, and even if I could, there was no one to purchase one. Falling asleep in class, my teachers demanded an explanation. When I told them I was up late watching the World Cup they either laughed in disbelief or asked what it was. Out of patronage, I printed a US Soccer shield and laminated it at a hardware store. I pinned it to my t-shirt every morning exhausted from watching soccer all night.
Eight years later, and the long promised enthusiasm for soccer has finally arrived in America. ESPN has promised unprecedented American coverage of the tournament, and I have countless chances to buy a US National Team Jersey. I bought their blue Away kit, the handsomest Jersey the team has ever worn, and wore it to East Hartford on May 25th.
I was not alone.
The first sport my parents ever let me play was soccer. Baseball happened two years later. Basketball happened a year after that. Like millions of my peers, soccer is neither odd nor foreign, but refreshingly familiar. On the US Men’s National Team, Jay DeMerit, Landon Donovan, and Clint Dempsey are all men of my generation. They have all played in Europe, where the competition is highest, but unlike previous generations they do not believe that soccer in America is an oxymoron.

And why should they?

When they scored in East Hartford on May 25th, a full stadium rose to salute them.
Shouting the name of the nation, these fans let the world hear that America has come to play soccer.

0-0

f that.

1-0 Eng

we have learned nothing. england is supposed to win. they get it done. but there is nothing that says May Day for Team USA. a totally acceptable result.

1-1

american soccer ain’t nothing to mess with. prepare to see the british press start panicking. capello will call it a hiccup, and the english will crush the next game, but the us will be looking into the round of 16.

2-1 ENG

the most likely result. the three lions will have some confidence but the us will feel vindicated. nothing is in disarray for the americans. now they just need to win the next two.

2-1 US

totally possible. and it would be so glorious. the brits would start re-thinking their defense. maybe a goalkeeping change will be in order. and the pressure would build on the english. the americans meanwhile will have something to hang their hat on.

2-2

damn that would be a good game. i’d love it to be a 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2 progression. everyone (fans, players, coaches, pundits) would be content.

3-2 ENG

mmmmmm good. and acceptable for everyone. scoring won’t be the problem. the americans will be thinking about defense and endurance. so will team england.

3-2 US

capello will be flipping out. america will have some new offensive hero (even if it’s donovan/dempsey again). ratings for the rest of the american world cup games will be out of control.

ENG victory by 2 or more

ummm, ok, maybe england is a legit contender. everyone in the uk’s gonna be getting STOKED on that kinda result. buy your rooney jerseyz now.

US victory by 2 or more

england in roo-ins. the british press corps are about to go CRAZY. america will never let the british live this down. f*** bp. REVENGE OF THE GULF! t-shirts. tattoos. monuments. ESPN will be calling it an instant classic. i will call it SARATOGA 2 or SARATOGA IN SOUTH AFRICA.

3-3

well boys, that’s what we call soccer (unless ur british in which case that’s what you call football).

i wonder if i could make it a condition of my tax-payer dollars that ronaldo has to wear a boa.

that said, it must suck to be playing soccer all year wearing the sponsorship of financial champions like AIG. so i guess there is a certain joy to this, but i had to look REALLY hard for it.

we start with the home team, the new england revolution, who can be seen at home about every 10 days for $19 paid at the door, minutes before kick off.

we then consider my overseas favorites, arsenal fc, who can be seen for a mere 169 euro ($248 as of this post) at their new posh home stadium for a premiership match.

champions league match-ups (at least the early ones) are a steal at 148 euro, a trifling $217.

if we head south from england to spain things get a little more reasonable. a fc barcelona game against primera liga foes will set one back a fair 95 euro ($139).

in the netherlands, the top dutch teams like ajax are perhaps the fairest priced in europe, with a standard game costing 55 euro ($80), and grudge matches like psv eindhoven doubling that to 109 euro ($160).

the rest of europe rounds out as follows, italy’s ac milan is about 115 euro a match ($170), scottish glasgow rangers games are 245 euro ($360), and olympic marsielle tickets are 135 euro ($198).

then again, if you go south of the us to mexico, you can catch cruz azul for a pithy 200 pesos ($19.50).

of course, these costs are not the only costs of seeing these games, and for full hotel-transportation-soccer game wonderfulness, it seems that this website will work out soccer vacations.

but the bottom line? soccer in the united states is bargain basement cheap. i mean REALLY cheap. the cheapest. and if the revolution’s defeat of atlante in route to the superliga crown tells us anything, american soccer must be better than its mexican counterpart.

once again, here are the rankings:

(by price lowest to higest)

1. new england revolution $19 usa
2. cruz azul $19.50 mex
3. ajax $80 ned
4. barcelona $139 esp
5. ac milan $170 ita
6. olympic marsielle $198 fra
7. arsenal $248 eng
8. rangers $360 sct

a bittersweet moment to be sure. the feeling that the summer has begun coasting down the hill to its end, and there’s nothing to do now about it save enjoy the ride.

part of enjoying that ride has been a rampant engagement with fifa 07 of late, the last installment of the legendary soccer video game franchise that was made for the gamecube (my only console system). a couple of weeks ago, i bought fifa 07 at the providence place mall, after searching for it all summer. until the purchase all of the fifa-playing in the mccune household (which is substantial) had been executed on fifa 2002, which is worlds away from the quality of 07.

with all this fifa-playing, with all the arsenal, chelsea, man united, and liverpool grudge matches between friends, imagine my excitement when upon flicking on the tv set in newport, i discovered that today’s opening premiership matches were being televised. as i write now, chelsea is concluding an epic 4-0 rout of portsmouth. the score was actually 3-0 with 5 minutes left in the game but deco scored a long distance drill to bring it to four. i knew this was going to happen, because i checked the europort scoreline halfway through the game.

up next, arsenal. and i have intentionally NOT checked this score line.

arsenal is my favorite premiership team. i not only have two arsenal jerseys, but also sport an arsenal scarf from about november to march every year. i caught the arsenal bug back in 2000, when I visited london for the first time. i was twelve, and when my brother decided that he was a manchester united fan, i decided to take up supporting their rivals who at the time (and from my limited american pre-teen perspective) appeared to be arsenal.

i remember telling people back in boston that arsenal was the red sox of the english premiership and that man u were the yankees. i now know that was a hilarious over simplification.

still, my love for arsenal has only grown by actually getting a chance to follow the team using various widgets and highlight reel rss feeds. this year, i am actually thinking of paying the £4.99 a month to get arsenal tv on my comp. this would give me all the games. then, for the first time, i could be a (more) legit fan.

it’s funny being a moderate american soccer fan. because it’s fairly difficult to watch soccer on tv (first there are time delays, then there’s lack of programming), it’s hard to be a “true” fan. the internet has certainly assuaged these difficulties (thank god for eurosport) but it hasn’t solved all the problems. indeed, being an american soccer fan must be something like being a british basketball fan, the grass is way greener on the other side.

speaking of global/local tensions and soccer, i once read a great book on the subject called how soccer explains the world.

3:42 – and there’s an arsenal goal. first of the day, first of the season, first at home. it’s a textbook goal, from a new player called narsi. see, it’s good to watch the team because you get a chance to reaquaint yourself with the team you support. i wonder if i dare to check the scoreline yet.

no. it’s so rare that i get to watch, i’ll just savor the experience.

hilarious ne revolution team photo i got from the ‘fan download’ section so i think its fair use. 

ne revolution 1 – atlante 0

it was a game i could’ve gone to. a game i wanted to go to. but fate had other plans, and so i peered through the snow and color distortion on the spanish channel to watch another soccer game american media won’t broadcast. 

and what a game it was. shalrie joseph, the new england revolution‘s gifted goal scorer put away the game’s only score with an absolute lunge of a header. the goal came be found somewhere in the twisted chaos of the mls’ web domain. 

the victory propels the revolution past mexican foes atlante into the superliga final against houston (dynamo). and what is the superliga you might ask? the superliga is north america’s attempt to get a champion’s league-like competition going. it is currently a small tournament (8 total teams) half of which are mls and half are mexican primera division squads. the revolution qualified by being the league runner up last year.

in the group round, the revolution were undefeated, suffering just one tie to chivas usa. if they win, they will take on a purse estimated at around $350,000. but that’s not going to be easy because they face houston, the veritable boston celtics of the mls who are currently in a three year dynasty. the second place team to all those victories? the revolution. 

as someone said somewhere, the revolution are quickly becoming the mls’ buffalo bills (also known as always close, but never there). 

i do the revs pull it off this year. especially after surviving the disgusting play of atlante, who ended up suffering three red cards including a card to the goalkeeper after the game. the goalie assaulted a revolution player while some players were shaking hands. 

most of the second half was this barbaric, as the mexicans lost focus and became violent, really beating up on joseph and suffering two ejections as a result.

from the mls write-up (Kyle McCarthy): 

As he went to strike the free kick, the whistle blew after Rey appeared to strike Joseph in the stomach. Out came the red card for Rey as the two teams congregated on the edge of the penalty area.

Atlante continued to press, but all hope faded for the Mexicans once Zamora slid through the back of Joseph in stoppage time to earn his second booking and another ejection.

After the final whistle, the contest degenerated into ugly scenes as both benches emptied onto the field and the protagonists flew into an angry swarm at midfield. Once again, referee Carlos Batres of Guatemala brandished his red card, showing it to Vilar, Munoz Mustafa and Luis Venegas for Atlante and New England’s Jay Heaps, meaning he will miss the final.

the mexican side’s play was offensive, and to be perfectly frank, i was shocked by the revolution’s sense of poise and restraint. cheers to shalrie joseph not flipping a shit and lashing out. ditto for the rest of the team. and while the mexicans may contend they were treated unfairly (and i know this was alleged, because they were interviewed on the spanish channel, they were absolutely out of line. 

the good news is, the revolution move on, and will face the dynamo at home next week. having missed this game, i feel missing next week’s would be crime. so i won’t. besides, its fairly cheap to see the revs play ($19) and the parking is free. plus, you can usually get tickets at the game up until game time. which is why i had to watch this game on the spanish channel.  

so i’ve decided to give myself a rough sketch of prices, i’d be looking at. just an opportunity to say, ‘huh, so that’s how much a world cup costs…’

the problem here of course, is that this world cup is africa, and not in egypt or morocco, but south africa. so there’s no easy way to get there (i don’t think a trek through africa is safe, or affordable, although it would be epic). and thus costs rise.

oh, and the dollar sucks. so add like $300 to everything.

world cup costs

• travel (nyc to capetown) — $1,750
• housing (7 nights) — $644 or $98 (hostels, 100 ZAR = $13.50 a night)
• food (mostly beer, i’d imagine) — $560 ($80 a day)
• tickets (2 for any game possible) — $278 – $400

• gear (cuz i’m obviously gonna buy stuff) — $300 (just rough budget)

• TOTAL = $3,654

variables, explanations, disclaimers

so, obviously, these are some pretty fuzzy numbers. first, most of them are estimated on the price of traveling to capetown in like, april 2009 instead of instead in 2010. air fares may go down for the world cup (more people flying) or they may go up. everything could get more expensive, or cheaper.

i had this dream that I could potentially travel across africa. you know, start in cairo, and do this f***ing epic trip down the nile, through the heart of africa, and end up capetown. apparently that is both wicked expensive and takes 4 months. it is also not easy to setup or accommodate.

there’s also the whole south africa component. tickets are available to south africans for just $20 (!!!), so maybe i can cheaper tickets. especially because i know a few south africans. the exchange rate is also really favorable, about 100 Rands (which is what SA’s call their money) to 13 bucks. so maybe south africa isn’t all bad.

then, again, there is the dollar, the crapshoot currency. like maybe i should have my money converted to euros as i save it, to make it more stable.

conclusions

if go to south africa, for the world cup in 2010, it’ll be expensive. but i knew that. so let me frame some goals on how to get there more efficiently.

my options

1. break into sports journalism, try to get someone to pay for me to go
2. try to become european, or at least get involved with their currencies
3. make a fortune (see later for digital entrepreneurial breakthrus)
4. don’t go
5. study abroad in south africa in spring 2010, chill out til world cup
6. sail over, possibly as charter crew (perhaps the least ridiculous)

you can also donate money to sponsor my trip. in which case i would love you forever. and possibly where your logo (or name or social security number) to demonstrate my appreciation.

think about it.

i just got back from lunch at three aces, my favorite pizza/sub joint in the entire boston area. they have a mrs. pacman machine, which still plays for a quarter, chicken finger subs (oh my god it’s so bad its good), alcohol (heineken thru sutton house) and, most importantly, soccer on tv.

a little over a month ago, I was watching the Euro on a daily basis in three aces. I’d time my lunch for just the right half hour slot, and catch the final 30 minutes second half. it was glorious.

especially because i got to see the dutch light up italy. and if it weren’t for these football-loving greek americans, i’d definitely have missed what maybe the highlight of my soccer year

this afternoon, the greeks were watching a game between two clubs in uruguay. it was clearly not an important game to be on at roughly 4 pm (local time uruguay) on a tuesday afternoon. nonetheless, i miss soccer this time of year (when Europe is taking a break, and the mls remains the mls) so i appreciated any televised men-hitting-ball-with-feet-strategically that i could get my eyes on.

i’d also never seen uruguayan soccer. despite the fact Uruguay hosted and won the first world cup. despite the fact that the best book i’d ever read on soccer (soccer in sun and shadow) was written by a uruguayan (eduardo galeano). despite the fact that as i understand it, soccer was invented by the english, incubated by the uruguayans, and perfected by the brazilians. in short, i’d been denied seeing the adolescence of soccer.

one reason why i have been denied this look is because uruguay flatly does not exist on the international soccer scene. between brazil and argentina, the men from montevideo have been simply outclassed.

and this was clear as soon as i began watching the game. it was the second half (which is ideal, because i can stay at three aces for about 40 minutes max) and the competitors were two teams from montevideo, River Plate (which seems to be the name of every soccer team in South America) and Danubio (which, ironically, is also named for a river, but one you may recognize from europe).

the field was tiny, the grass was tired, and the weather looked novemberish (long sleeve shirts, leaves turning on trees in the background). but the athletes were playing hard, and the fans (though few) were excited for the game.

and what a game it was. violent would be an understatement. these guys were absolutely assaulting one another on the pitch, and within minutes four yellow cards had been dispensed, two of which were to the same player, resulting in a red card and his instant ejection. the fouls were hard.

the uruguayan style of soccer seemed sloppy. the passing was poor, and the emphasis appeared to be on the individual player. far too many times, i watched a player try to go it alone, and blow it. the game ended in a tie, but i saw why the uruguayans haven’t been to the world cup in a while:

their scoring is poor, their spacing is atrocious, their strategy is adolescent, but their keepers are amazing.

*the icon above is for danubio. which has roughly the same diagonal black stripe thru their jerseys… SO BAD ASS.