Also, for fans of Simmons' uniquely exuberant brand of hyperbole, this piece has a doozy:
But if you don't think the next five years of Jozy's career could potentially swing the future of soccer, you're insane.
I'm not sure exactly what he means, but the players who have alone swung the future of soccer in any measurable way are really quite few. If he's talking about reaching a level of historic greatness and thus carrying the US to world-power status, wow, that's a lot of pressure. I sure as hell wouldn't take anything close to even money that Altidore will reach the Messi/Ronaldo/Torres stratum (to say nothing of the immortals like Maradona or Pele), which isn't a knock on Altidore. Should he fail to get there, that doesn't mean Jozy will have fallen short of his potential.
For the record, no, I'm not insane.
4 comments:
I think what he meant was that if Altidore is a huge success other top young athletes in the US (Allen Iverson has always been Simmons' favorite example, as well as my own) will start playing soccer instead of point guard or cornerback and we'll inevitably kick everyone else's ass. Certainly hyperbolic, but also naively hopeful, and I mean that in a good way.
Yeah I think that's right, but wouldn't Altidore need to hit something close to Messi status to have that kind of impact? I hope he gets there, but that seems like a lot of pressure to put on him.
Also, how much is any sport's growth popularity the matter of one guy? I dont mean this rhetorically. I remember in 97 we all talked about how Tiger was going to bring golf into neighborhoods where it had never been seen before; has that happened? Are there more minorities playing golf today?
You're right, of course - it's probably not in the cards for one guy like Altidore to bring a revolution, though even change at the margins could help the US quite a bit. On the other hand, I'm not sure it's quite comparable to other sports - despite its popularity among US youths, soccer's cultural acceptability remains nascent at best. Baseball-basketball-football have been totally consolidated for decades, so no one athlete really could have had that effect since waaay back in the day. Soccer is the potentially lucrative team sport where there's still LOTS of room for to gain acceptance as a legit aspiration, especially in the cities. (Sorry, NHL!)
As for golf, the structural obstacles to it taking off in inner city neighborhoods are rather larger than those confronting soccer. Though lawd knows the sport could use an infusion of urban flavor, whether from white people, minorities, aliens, whatever.
Soccer's definitely got a lot of advantages over sports in that it's so easy to play. And yeah once we get the Iversons out on the pitch, American soccer should be able to compete with anyone. I wonder, if in 50 years soccer is comparable basketball in popularity and the US is a perennial cup contender, if it will have grown more because one key superstar sparking interest, or more just a general organic growth.
Post a Comment