Christian Pulisic, a young American football star, demonstrates maturity on the field with his ability to face adversity. He currently plays for Borussia Dortmund. On Matchday 17 against Hoffenheim, he proved this ability by locking in a win by an assist then score to win the match. At the age of 19, there has never been a better player to rise among his club's youth ranks in a culture and language so different from his own. Pulisic is also showing better stats than Ronaldo or Lionel Messi at Pulisic's age. Pulisic at only 18, played 60 games for Dortmund, which is more than Messi or Ronaldo managed to do. The American footballer has shown consistency through Dortmund's turbulent times, including the dismissal of coach Peter Bosz. Yet Pulisic remains humble. He states that he is not the "wonderboy" or prodigy that people claim him to be. Instead, he insists that people rally around the sport as a whole, not focusing on one player. He speaks about the topic in his published piece in the Player's Tribune, saying “I think – I hope – that we’re going to be able to build something, here, with US Soccer, where it’s not just going to be about one lost match, or one lost cycle, or one lost team. It’s going to be about an entire country, rallying around an entire sport, in a way that lasts.” Yet, Pulisic scored five goals of eight in the USMNT's qualifier is just one of the many feats that landed him "2017 U.S. Soccer Player of the Year" award. A young man is quickly becoming America's number one football star.
What are your thoughts on US Soccer's current standing and the possibility of it becoming mainstream? What do you think has to happen for it to break through to the US mainstream? Could Pulisic be the man to do it?
See Christian Pulisic highlights below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDaeDqzoqGA
I think Pulisic presents a very interesting opportunity for US soccer. He is a once in a generation type talent and we haven't seen a US player of his stature in the history of the sport. He is playing in one of the top leagues in Europe and performing at a high level. But, he and the rest of US soccer have a long road ahead. US soccer right now is a joke, they failed to qualify for the world cup this summer and have not been able to compete with the other nations in quite some time. In the United States there are so many other sports that are popular that I think it will be hard for soccer to become mainstream. The problem is that all of our top athletes grew up playing other sports. Can you imagine if guys like Odell Beckham Jr, Lebron James, and Russell Westbrook grew up only playing soccer like athletes in Europe? Our soccer team would be out of this world, but because other sports dominate I don't think soccer in the US will be able to compete. With that being said, there is a possibility that with a talent like Pulisic US soccer can begin to become more popular and start to develop a solid national team that can compete with the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Pulisic can help grow soccer's popularity in the US. I am a bit curious about your point regarding the popularity of other sports. The US is so much bigger population wise than other European countries that even if say 1/6th of our kids play soccer you would think that we would be able to compete against countries that are far smaller but have a larger percentage playing only soccer. I'm curious if the issue is more how we develop our youth pool, rather than how large that pool is.
Delete-Brian
Pulisic is very interesting. In another of my classes, we discussed Pulisic as the next great player. Everyone of the local Spanish students knew of him, but many of the American students did not, which I thought was interesting. As an American sports fan, I had never heard of Pulisic prior to coming to Spain. This illustrates how soccer is not mainstream in the United States and for the near future, I don't think it will be.
ReplyDeleteTo be the best, you have to specialize in your sport at a very young age. In Europe, this means joining an academy and focusing on football. In the states, young men tend to start to specialize in basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and American football. This means the top athletes are focusing on the big 4 American sports and not soccer. Thus, the American soccer team tends to be B-level athletes, while the other sports contain the A-level athletes (similar to what Tim was saying). Pulisic can be a role model to show young American boys to start specializing in soccer, but this is a larger change that needs to happen to start producing American soccer players at the level of European.
I disagree a bit with your point that US soccer isn't getting the best athletes. If you look at top soccer talent all over the world, they don't look like Lebron James. I think certain body-types and physical traits are better suited for soccer since there is clearly a pretty universal look if you look at every team.
DeleteI do however, agree that there may be a larger issue with players not specializing or developing enough. It seems like the greater disparity between the US and European powerhouse countries is the level of development. I think that if you developed our players the way that say Spain does we could overcome the fact that many of America's youth don't play soccer.
-Brian
I think that US Soccer has certainly been on the rise over the last few years and has had numerous young players in Europe's top leagues. I also think that while the failure to reach the World Cup is a major set back it is going to be an important step in our development of our national team. This is because people are finally starting to really care about soccer in the United States and have a sense of pride with our national team. Many people on my college campus, who never talked about soccer, brought up the fact that they felt embarrassed that we couldn't reach the World Cup against a Trinidad and Tobago. I think that this new sense of national identity, while still small, that is beginning to form around Soccer in the US is going to be a catalyst for player development. Pulisic is a great example of what can be achieved when you play for an academy and I think that if the US wants to really compete with the rest of the soccer powerhouses, we need to establish an academy structure that generates more top quality players. But in order for that to happen, the culture of multi-sport athletes will have to change in order to tap into our best athletes and bring them into soccer not basketball, football, or baseball.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that there seems to be a growing soccer culture within the US. It feels like more people are paying attention. I do think that we are at a huge disadvantage against countries that have been crazy about soccer for decades and that it will take time to catch up especially if our best players aren't even playing in the MLS. However, with the US' size I think that eventually we will be able to bridge the gap.
Delete-Brian
I think that Pulisic presents a unique take on how he wants fans to react to him as a player. He would rather the attention to be drawn to the whole team or the sport as a whole rather than him as an individual player. I think that this is a very new and refreshing outlook from what I can tell to be somewhat of a norm within soccer players. For example, players such as Messi and Ronaldo seem to come off a little more ethnocentric than that and would rather the attention be placed on them as an individual player. While they definitely care about the team and sport as a whole, I think that Pulisic is a bit more willing to state this as his opinion than maybe Messi or Ronaldo would be as they are more interested in building up their personal brand.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think that players like Pulisic give American soccer some hope in maybe one day becoming the powerhouse that European soccer currently is. I think that if a fanbase is built up more in the US and more players have a mentality such as Pulisic's there is a greater chance that fans will be drawn to American soccer therefore building up the sport in its entirety within the US. Furthermore, I do agree with Cole that it would be necessary to start from the bottom and build more of an academy structure in the US like they have here in Europe so that we can start soccer players young in the hopes that they will eventually grow up to be like Pulisic, Messi, or Ronaldo.
Do you think that Pulisic's more mild manners/ less outlandish behavior actually be an issue? It seems like oftentimes fans love characters. When athletes are a bit more eccentric they grab more headlines and are more polarizing, could Pulisic's lack of eccentricity actually be worse for the US because less people are paying attention to him. If he was being very out there there, he would grab more headlines and maybe more people in the US would know who he is. I personally prefer the more humble-type player, but do think that if Pulisic were more eccentric it actually might be better for US soccer's popularity
DeleteWhile I, like Alison, consider myself an avid American sports fan, I too have to admit that I had not heard of Pulisic before traveling to Spain. This really upset me, especially given that he is an American player making waves here in Europe!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cole's argument that "Pulisic is a great example of what can be achieved when you play for an academy" and that the US should "establish an academy structure that generates more top-quality players." However, I do not see this as being the first step in soccer's ultimate breakthrough into mainstream US news, social culture, or creation of national pride. Rather, I would argue that soccer's first step should be to increase their media presence within the US. We discussed in class the importance and power of proper media usage, such as commercials and well-run Facebook/social media pages. If information about soccer teams, matches, and news - both of US and international teams - became more accessible and prominent, perhaps we would see a spike in the number of interested individuals. After all, the more we know about something, the easier it is for us to make decisions; it may be that players and fans in the US simply don't know enough about soccer to take a stance on their feelings about it.
Will Pulisic be the man to do this? Because of his humble attitude and belief that fans should rally around the sport as a whole rather than a single player, I think that while he may start the movement, or at least be the first "leg" of increasing soccer's presence in the United States, I do not believe he will want to do it alone or be the "face" of the movement. Are there other prominent US players on the European football scene that could also be brought in to this attempted breakthrough?
- Jenna
That's an interesting point about the media's job in helping growing soccer, Jenna. I have to disagree though as it seems like the media typically caters to what people want. Their job is to make money and do so by getting ratings and clearly soccer isn't getting those ratings otherwise they would be showing it more. I think that in order for soccer to grow they first need to win, quality performance/ success I believe will draw fans rather than commercials or facebook posts. However, how they will achieve that success is obviously a tough question, but like many of the commenters above, I agree that they key is developing our youth.
Delete-Brian
I understand your point there, Brian. I agree that the media's job is to cater to the interests of viewers, but I would also argue that, especially in today's society, the media has a lot of power in influencing individual's perceptions and molding opinions. And, non-traditional media sources have become increasingly popular in sharing news, education, and information about topics that aren't necessarily popular on their own, like soccer's current position in the United States. However, while they do have power, you are right in bringing up that there is only so much the media can do.
Delete- Jenna
I agree with a lot of what's been said. I think that soccer has been unable to make a break through in the U.S. because there are so many other popular sports, opposed to in Europe where soccer is pretty much the only sport that everyone cares about. Kids have so many options to choose from when they are young, that many athletes that could have been very successful in soccer, choose to play something else.
ReplyDeleteI think that a large part of this also has to do with how the media designates air time. In a way they almost get to dictate which sports are popular through how often and what time they decide to air certain shows. Furthermore, sports like (American) Football, Baseball, and Basketball are marketed a lot more so they grab the attention of more fans.
Because of this, I think it will take a lot of time and effort for soccer to improve as well as gain the interest of more American fans. However Pulisic is a great first step. If he can become popular among American fans he could draw attention to soccer more. I think more attention and interest from fans will lead to media outlets showing soccer more, and therefore growing the fan base even more. It's a cycle and it will take time but it definitely has the potential to happen.
- Siobhan O'Loughlin