Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, and Brazil are the only countries standing from the 32 teams that kicked off the World Cup last month.
But as the semi-finals get underway on July 8, something magical is going down in communities across the U.S.; African soccer fans, American casual sports fans, and everyday African Americans have morphed into a curious hybrid.
This past month, support for the U.S. and a renewed joy of the game created a unique blend of African, African American, Asian, Hispanic and White, a new breed of American, infected with World Cup Fever, brown on the outside, but bleeding red, white and blue.
Credit the improbable but spectacular run of the USMNT for igniting this passion.
It’s rare for the USA to be considered underdog at anything, but for a nation still feeling out the game of soccer ending up in the dreaded group of death, every soccer fan from Alabama to Wyoming could hear the bells toll.
Making it into the second round of the tournament for the second World Cup in a row made us legit. It’s time to start dreaming, to start embracing the game and time to welcome African Americans to the party.
After decades of disdain at playing soccer, if all the bars packed in New York’s Harlem and Fort Greene Brooklyn are any indication, the black community is finally on board.
So why the sudden escalation of support?
Unlike baseball, basketball, and football, soccer’s early origins in the U.S. came from Scottish, Irish, and Italian immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. During that period, most of Africa was colonized by the Europeans. African history professor Peter Alegi tells NPR.org, “The game came with European imperialism and first with the British. It was the soldiers, traders, and missionaries who really pushed the game. It spread very quickly through the mission schools, through the military and through the railways. And it was quickly embraced by Africans.”
If the game was embraced by Africans, why not the black community?
Cherae Robinson puts it this way, “African Americans insulated from the sport due to slavery and segregation and then again by overwhelmingly being relegated to urban areas late in to the 20th century,
never truly had the chance to develop a love for the sport. For most African Americans, soccer conjures up images of soccer moms and minivans—something our urban surroundings don’t include.”It’s also easier to set up a basketball court than a soccer pitch, which is 100 meters in length.
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Further, black immigrants who adored the game of soccer before arriving the United States were seduced by the merchandising, flare and financial prosperity of U.S. sports, and many tried to assimilate into American life and its sports culture. The dominating elements of it included high flying basketball players with slick moves, the quick up and down tempo of U.S. games, and sportsmanship of American football.
But something unique happened during the World Cup. Immigrants in the States witnessed an awakening of distant early memories, a remembering of an old love. A rekindling of the joy of the game grew within the immigrant communities and it spread like wildfire among their African American friends.
You saw it in the bars when Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire or Cameroon played—it was contagious and black America was infected.
“Everybody knew somebody rooting for a country. When the U.S. wasn’t playing, you rooted by association and that’s how it spread. Their country became your country, at least for an hour and a half,” says sports blogger Cedric Thornton.
He also says legendary footballer Pele‘s arrival in the U.S. to play for New York-based Cosmos was the entry point to the growth of the game.
Pele agrees. He tells the Miami Herald, “People don’t remember, when I arrived, soccer in this country was good, but mostly with children. Today, the U.S. is the same level as Europe. They almost made semifinals in the 2002 World Cup, and the base is more organized than in Brazil and maybe all of South America. I am happy because I feel I was part of it.”
Soccer is also becoming more fun to watch. The furious pace of the World Cup’s first round and the record volley of goals, is rendering the “it’s too slow” argument obsolete, especially when one compares it to watching baseball – once called America’s favorite pastime.
The American team is growing into a sum of its parts, reflecting the diversity of the country it represents. Consider the players with African origins on this squad. Tim Howard
, Jozy Altidore, Julian Green, Timmy Chandler, Jermaine Jones, John Anthony Brooks, Deandre Yedlin, and Damarcus Beasley, just to name a few.These guys are responsible for viewership of the tournament going through the roof. The USA vs Portugal game is tied for the most watched soccer game in U.S. history.
Viewership of the game has stood at 24.7 million, and that’s not even including the millions that streamed the game, or the thousands packed in bars across the country.
So what happens now that the United States and Africa are out of the tournament? It remains to be seen if viewership remains high. But black America has definitely been bitten by the soccer bug.