Soccer once again commands the world stage

IT OFTEN HAS occurred to me--with some consternation--that the most popular sporting event in the world continues to be largely misunderstood in this country. Like most of our nation's 250,000,000 or so inhabitants, I grew up with baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. Soccer was not even on the radar. I played it once in gym class. Soccer moms did not exist. The only soccer player I ever heard of was Pele. Soccer was an overseas game, and American television--except for those old "ABC Wide World of Sports" shows--virtually ignored it. It only has been during the last 10 years that it became possible to watch all games of the World Cup on U.S. television.

Everywhere else--whether you call it soccer or football in England, fuss ball in Germany, calcio in Italy, or futbol in Mexico--soccer is king. This Cup tournament is one of the few global championship team events that commands the collective attention of the sporting world for one solid month. On June 9, 2006, the 18th World Cup, the world championship of soccer, will be staged in Germany. The top 32 teams, having earned their positions in the tournament through two years of grueling qualifying matches, will be composed of each nation's top professional players. When the championship game of the 2006 World Cup is played in Berlin on July 9, approximately one of every three people on Earth will be watching, either in person or on television.

When the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA, a French acronym) was formed in 1904, it generated the first inklings for holding a true world championship of soccer. The best players produced by each country would be formed into teams to represent their homelands. However, it took 26 years for the idea to come to full fruition, with the initial World Cup being held in the tiny nation of Uruguay. Starting out as a simple single-elimination competition, the event matured through the years to the point where it has become an international marketing behemoth that generates billions of dollars in revenue.

Soccer is a beautiful, fluid game that does not favor height, girth, strength, stature, aggressiveness, or ferocity, in short, an individual does not make the team because he or she is big, strong, and tough. Soccer's rules reward those who are skillful with the ball, and punish those who initiate physical contact without playing the ball. There is no such thing as a "great hit" in soccer. There is no "physical domination." It is about speed, stamina, strategy, and fluidity, all ad-libbed into a 90-minute contest with no timeouts. Soccer at its best is played with both the head and the heart. Pele, who led Brazil to World Cup championships in 1958, 1962. and 1970, called it "the beautiful game." Soccer is gorgeous to watch, easy to understand and, on a World Cup stage, a joy to behold.

For its part, the U.S. never truly has experienced World Cup bliss. The closest America came was in 1994 when it played host to the country's first World Cup, which still ranks as the most successful ever in terms of generating revenue. The 1994 World Cup jumpstarted programs for the U.S. Soccer Federation and established an endowed foundation that ensures that the game will keep growing here.

Though the U.S. team never has captured a championship or even made it to the title game, the U.S. was a proud participant in the first World Cup, played in Uruguay in 1930, and the second World Cup in Italy four years later. In fact, the Americans made it to the semifinals of the first event, its highest finish ever. However, between 1934-94, the U.S. qualified for only one World Cup tourney--in 1950.

The 1950 tournament in Brazil was particularly memorable for the U.S., which took on England in a first-round game. Armed with a talent-loaded roster of professionals that included the great dribbling wizard Sir Stanley Matthews, the English were heavily favored. Yet, on that memorable day, June 13, the Americans shocked the world. Haitian-born center-forward Joe Gaetjens scored a goal that gave the U.S. a dramatic 1-0 win. When the final score arrived via teletype in Britain, editors were sure it was a misprint. However, the U.S. squad's upset--depicted in the recent motion picture "The Game of Their Lives"--was real, handing the British their worst defeat at American hands since the Revolutionary War.

It would be 44 years before Team USA would return to the World Cup. The U.S. Soccer Federation, which had been around about as long as FIFA, had not been able to gain a real foothold. The game largely was confined to immigrant communities and localized soccer clubs. The formation of the professional game in North America in 1967 signaled the beginning of a new era. The North American Soccer League, which brought Pele and a great many other international players to the U.S., launched a youth movement that took off and took hold.

In 1975, I was a young sportswriter working for The Oregonian in Portland. Alter languishing on the desk as a headline writer, I wrangled myself a beat assignment--by default--with the city's new professional soccer team, the Portland Timbers. No one else wanted it. I dove headfirst into the sport, learning from the ground up. Only two years later--and now perceived as an "expert" (I use that term loosely)--I was asked to be one of the broadcasters for Timbers' TV games. It was another chapter in my soccer experiences that cemented me to the game forever.