I grew up in the States so Soccer (football) was something I knew little about. Kick ball was the closest I got to soccer and it was more like a foot version of baseball. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned about FIFA’s World Cup.
The most popular sporting events for American kids are national championships of various kinds: football, baseball, basketball, all of which happen on pro (private franchises) and college levels and are played on American soil.
Teams from other countries, however, often play internationally and are national not private. Competitors are developed through clubs and begin aspiring at a young age to represent their local and national governments playing sport. This marks a huge difference in the way sporting structures are organized between the US and other countries.
US competitors are developed through a collegiate system and are channeled into private sport franchises. As a rule they don’t grow up aspiring to represent their nation in athletic competition. That may be one reason the Ryder Cup boys haven’t faired so well in recent years. Americans aren’t as motivated to “play” for national pride as Europeans. Why else would Colin Montgomerie perform so well during the RC? Only in recent years have Americans begun to take nation-based competition seriously and we’re still trying to master the mindset.
Interestingly, it wasn’t until the European Ryder Cup teams began beating the slap out of the US that American spectators started paying attention. Living in the largest sporting bubble on planet earth produced a sense of invincibility which the Ryder Cup experience proved was more imagined than real. The RC helped open the eyes of a sleeping giant that had previously been unaware of international possibilities.
