Is the World Cup Must-See TV?

HOLLANDER: Soccer? I don't care for it. It's an under-evolved sport if you asked me. In fact, I'll bet the majority of our readers know relatively little about soccer. But I say to you all: watch the 2006 World Cup. It provides an enlightening snapshot of the current state of our world and the future of American sports.

While the rest of the world convulses over the two-week, 32-nation soccer tournament that happens only once every four years, soccer still draws only marginal interest in the United Sates. This reflects and reinforces the world's perception of the U.S. as an isolationist nation. The World Cup highlights our near total lack of interest in what other countries are doing. The World Cup also amusingly reverses the U.S. superpower role. Here, the U.S. is the stranger, other, clumsy foreigner looking to assimilate.

The inversion of the U.S./world paradigm extends beyond the socio-political and into the realm of athletics with predictable consequences for the future. Soccer would seem an unlikely urban sport. Yet if you visit parks and asphalt playgrounds in cities all over America, you'll see more pick-up soccer than pick-up basketball or sandlot baseball. Who's playing? Immigrants. They're from Mexico, Eastern Europe, Asia, Nigeria-all over. You've seen them, I know.

Illegal or not, when this immigrant generation's children attend U.S. schools it will be soccer they want to play. They'll be good at it, too. Also noteworthy is that the U.S. is seeded higher in this year's World Cup than ever before. As new immigrant progeny join the ranks of our interscholastic soccer programs, the level of U.S. soccer will only continue to rise. Ironically, as the world surpasses America in its "pastime," baseball, America is rapidly ascending to the top of the world's game, soccer.

Is any of the above compelling enough for you, C.J.? Don't fret. The 2006 World Cup offers plenty of comfort food that American sports fans love: SCANDAL! Teutoniphobic Brit soccer hooligans have been warned by the host German government that drunken Nazi salutes, shouts of "Sieg Heil!" at the referees and finger-under-the-nose Hitler mustaches will not be tolerated. Italy's team is playing under the dark cloud of the ever-widening investigation of the team Juventus point shaving scandal. British officials are still searching for answers as to why most players on Tottenham Hotspur suspiciously fell ill to food poisoning leading to their dubious loss to West Ham in the Champions League final last month. And human rights activists are in up in arms over the Germany's lax restrictions on sex trafficking spurred by the anticipated boon to their legalized prostitution industry as a result of hosting the World Cup. Sex, violence and organized crime. What major network doesn't wish they had a primetime line-up like that?

One last thing: For all those Yanks who still can't relate but want to talk World Cup around the water cooler let me suggest The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup (Harper Perennial) edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. This delightfully readable and organized book offers clear, relevant stats on all the participating countries and their teams accompanied by first-class essays from an intriguing list of writers including Dave Eggers, Jorge Castaneda, Nick Hornby, Eric Schlosser, Franklin Foer and others. Get with the World Cup, C.J., or get left behind.

SULLIVAN: You have managed to be more boring than a World Cup soccer game and that's some feat. Soccer will not "catch" on in America. Not because we are "less than" our world brothers and sisters, but because baseball and basketball will soon be the international sports. Any sport that only lets one player on each team use their hands is lame.

Every few years, say every four, when the World Cup is played I hear about how America is about to become soccer central. It never happens. Pelé coming to New York in the 1970s was huge, for a game or two, but that quickly cooled. You know why? America finds soccer boring. And as for all those 10-year-olds playing soccer? Most quit when they find baseball, track, basketball, golf, hockey or football. They quit because soccer does not stir the imagination of America.

The World Cup is always dominated by the best teams. There are no Cinderella stories at the end of the World Cup. America has as much of a chance to win the World Cup as George W. Bush has of being thought of as a great president. Even if our team did manage to pull off a miracle, soccer would still be a minor sport in America.

Formula One race cars tournaments are also one of the top world sports. Does that mean NASCAR will overtake baseball as our national pastime? Never. You have the tail wagging the dog. America is the cutting-edge, and basketball will soon replace soccer as the world sport.

HOLLANDER: Check yourself. NASCAR will very likely surpass baseball in popularity sooner than later. You need to grow out of your limited New York City-centric worldview and get a better sense of why George W. Bush got elected in the first place. I'm not saying I like soccer. I'm saying that the world is getting flatter, and the social, racial and cultural composition of America is changing significantly, and it will change even more in the next 25 years. This is not the 1970s. As America becomes more international, soccer will gain exponentially in popularity here. It is no secret that less and less American kids are playing sports of any kind. They are too busy playing computer games and getting obese. It is also well documented that substantially less African Americans are playing baseball at any level. You see these trends reversing any time soon? I don't. Regardless of what David Stern may have you believe, basketball is way, way, way behind soccer in world popularity. Do you see American basketball fans traveling en masse to other countries to cheer on their national team? That's what you'll see when you watch the World Cup. It's at another level.

SULLIVAN: Yeah and I suppose that less Latinos are playing baseball. You make these broad-based statements like they support soccer. They don't. Baseball is huge and growing, as is basketball. African Americans are playing less baseball because they dominate in football and basketball. Children becoming more obese is a problem. However, I have 8-year-old twin girls. Both are in good shape. Both love basketball. They tell me, "Dad lets shoot some hoops." Most kids in their school are fit. One kid is husky, the rest are very active. They all run track. Most play basketball and baseball. They play soccer, but most of the kids don't really like it. Football is huge for boys. Softball is very big with the girls.

I do see wide load kids, but I think parents are seeing that kids need to move to be healthy. Soccer is good for kids, but as an adult game it is lacking. You can rail all you want with your politically-correct polemics on soccer, I still won't watch it, and I think in New York-and the rest of America-I'm in the majority. By the way, basketball keeps getting bigger and bigger on the world stage. Sit back and watch how it will continue to grow. Basketball is the new world sport-not soccer.