George

Soccer will probably not replace the major American sports leagues’for some time, including Canadian hockey, but it has definitely arrived in the US. The quality of the MLS is steadily growing, but not quite as fast as fan awareness. Media coverage is also more tuned in, even in my small town newspaper The Berkshire Eagle. The Chelsea-Bayren Munich game made it to the Morning Joe program.

Although my soccer career, which began in 1948 in Junior HS and continued for ten years up through graduate school, the World Cup was off my radar until 1978. I owned a retail appliance store on 98th and Broadway in Manhattan. My Argentinian salesman insisted on watching the games during working hours, even though we were busy selling air conditioners.

It was easy to watch the games as we also sold TV’s and all the sets were tuned to the game. Initially, I tried to limit him to only the Argentinian games, but the customers came in to watch other games. Eventually, we placed a TV in the window and attracted crowds for the duration of the World Cup.

Many of my customers were ethnic soccer fans from all over the world and I was caught up in their excitement. I have avidly followed the World Cup, including the Woman’s, ever since.

My son and I attended four 1994 World Cup games at Giant Stadium. The crowd electricity was greater than any other professional sport’s playoff’s that I had attended, including a Ranger-Devil triple overtime Stanley Cup game. Ireland defeated Italy 1-0 much to the dismay of a predominately Italian crowd. However, the jubilant Irish stood and cheered their team for over an hour. My wife was concerned that we would be very late for company at our apartment later in the afternoon, but the Irish cheering helped by keeping fans in the stadium. We were out of Giant Stadium and home at 92nd and Central Park West in about a half an hour.

There must be something about representing your country that trumps all else.