The Wisconsin Sports Rant

I actually sat and watched an entire half of football, er, soccer today — the first half of the USA’s tie with Italy. Not only did I watch it, I really got into it! Watching how the teams worked the ball up the field through skilled passing and movement without the ball (sound familiar) really showed how the game is so simple, yet can be so strategic (which is a far cry from my playing days in Milwaukee Kickers on the JCC team).  So why will we never consider MLS the fifth major professional sports league in the USA? Why don’t we all gather around the telly to watch Manchester United play Arsenal? It’s simple. The tie.

Americans don’t like games that end without a clear victor and loser. To us, ties belong around our necks, not in the field of play. We like a definitive ending. We love the thrill of victory with the agony of defeat. Without it, we feel lost, blasé, and uncomfortable. Think about it. How often is there a tie in the NFL? Infrequently enough that if one does occur, it is usualy an early highlight on SportsCenter, and everyone laughs about it. You look at the standings the next day and just feel a little dirty that there are actually a couple of ones in that usually useless third column, and are not sure quite what to make of them. Honestly, at the end of the NFL season, when teams are clinching or being eliminated from playoff spots, do you even consider that clause about “if so-and-so wins or ties“? If you said yes then you are being anything but honest.

Heck, basketball games can’t end in a tie, even in the regular season (anyone remember the 5-overtime thriller between the Bucks and the Sonics in 1989 that ended in a 155-154 Bucks win?). Baseball games are played until there is a winner, even if it means finishing the next day (or if it is the All-Star game played in the Commisioner’s backyard, in the new crown jewel of a stadium that took 7 years to finish from government approval to opening day, and all available players have been used). Even hockey, in which ties used to occur nightly, has now adopted a system that makes ties almost obsolete.

The bottom line is, when you have to explain to an American what the consequences of a tie are for the national soccer team, you have already lost him (or her). We simply don’t like it. We want to win. And if we don’t win, we lose. Even if we tie. Get it? No? Exactly. Oh well, perhaps the USA can win the match against Ghana (who looked and played like world-beaters today), and Italy can beat the Czech Republic. That way we would advance, because even though we tied Italy, we really won.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Articles, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.