From the World Cup to the Gold Cup. The United States Women’s National team blitzed Japan to take home the World Cup title this past Sunday night in front of a captivated nation. Over 24 million television viewers tuned in according to reports to watch the final. It was a perfect storm for the U.S.; they were a good team, evening time slot at the end of a holiday weekend and national pride. Soccer is fine in this country. It’s easy for everyone to rally around the flag and the passion for both the men’s and women’s national teams are off the charts. The icing on the cake for the women was the amount of cross over viewers (non-soccer fans) that tuned into the event. Not only was it a win but four goals in 16 minutes deflated all arguments that the game is low scoring and boring. The men opened up CONCACAF Gold Cup play with a win over Honduras Tuesday night. It’s not the World Cup but it is a very important tournament for the U.S. With a win they clinch a spot in the Confederations Cup which features the world’s top teams in 2017. It’s a great opportunity to play in a major tournament just a year ahead of the 2018 World Cup. National Soccer is fine. The question for soccer talk moving forward is how can MLS teams draw more eyes to their product? How can the passion for U.S.A. soccer transition to talking about the sport outside of national play? All I know is I’m all in, MLS, UNM, Albuquerque Sol, etc. I’ll keep following, broadcasting and talking about the sport. And yes I do ‘kick about’ in my free time.
