America’s sport of the future

Trendy fads come and go all the time in our great country that we live in.

The ice bucket challenge, the Harlem Shake, Linsanity, and that uncertain-colored dress that split America down the middle for a couple of weeks are just a few that come to mind.

There’s plenty more, but if I listed them all I’d take up the entire paper.

Anyways, some trends withstand the test of time and become an integral part of the American culture, no matter how bad one may want them to disappear.

The nation is coming off the heels of one that has become a widespread epidemic.

That’s right, soccer.

What has been an underground movement for decades has finally surfaced over the past couple of years. The number of supporters continues to grow with each passing year. Our great nation is slowly blossoming into a soccer country, and there are two things the naysayers can do about it: nothing and like it.

Soccer is about to become one of America’s most popular sports by the turn of the next decade or two.

Don’t believe me?

This past Fourth of July weekend, the United States men’s team played a friendly against Guatemala July 3 in Nashville. More than 33,000 tickets had been sold three days before the game. The attendance that night turned out to be 44,835.

The women’s team is scheduled for a game in Chattanooga in August. In one day the event sold over 20,000 seats.

Oh, and in case you missed it, they just won the 2015 World Cup a couple of days ago. On America’s weekend. It doesn’t get more American than that.

It would have been pretty tough to avoid such an event in this era of social media, which could be a big reason for the soccer movement in America. About 8:30 p.m. central time the night of the final, half of the top trending topics on Twitter were related to the Women’s national team.

A few years ago, top European leagues such as the Premier League and La Liga were only accessible if you bought the TV package that included the channels they were broadcast on.

Now, with the various social media outlets, overseas soccer has a broader platform to be displayed on. We can see that amazing Messi goal moments after it happened, even if we’re nowhere near a television.

America is interested in the game, and it’s showing.

Last year, Michigan Stadium at the University of Michigan hosted a friendly between Manchester United and Real Madrid. The game brought in an attendance record of 109, 318. To put that into prospective, Michigan also holds the record for attendance at an NCAA football game (115,109 last fall for Michigan vs. Notre Dame) and a soccer game came a mere 6,000 people of matching that. Soccer’s such a fad.

But it’s not just the international powerhouses that have America’s attention, as our domestic league is finally getting some love.

Major League Soccer has seen it’s average attendance mark spike over the past couple of years. The 2014 average attendance for an MLS game was 19,151. You may think that’s a little low, but considering that five years ago the number was 16, 675, it’s a pretty big leap.

That number will only continue to enlarge as more expansion teams join, as well as some of Europe’s top stars continue to make their way across the pond to continue their careers in America. There have been rumblings that a certain Ronaldo character might be making his way over here within the next few years as well.

The beautiful game’s time is now. Slowly, more and more young athletes will realize that a career in soccer might be the best move for them.

Kobe Bryant, Odell Beckham Jr., Chad Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Ndamukong Suh. Guess what all of these athletes have in common? They all played soccer growing up. And they were really good at it, too.

Beckham Jr. was actually part of America’s Olympic Development program until he decided he wanted to focus on football.

I imagine that soon, athletes might have the opposite idea as him and gravitate toward the pitch.

Soccer has been America’s sport of the future since 1776. The future is now.