The season never ends for soccer fans
by Rodolpho Carrasco
Saturday, February 20, 1999 in San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group
(Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, Calif. and a columnist for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. Check out more articles by Rodolpho Carrasco here.)
I'm tired of dragging UCLA football diehards, Laker junkies, and Dodger nostalgists along with me to witness the great game - soccer. Most of my friends consider soccer a pesky time-killer, not a "real" sport. One friend just looks at me condescendingly whenever I talk about the latest game.
Fine.
I should have listened to Jesus. "Don't cast your pearls before swine," he says. Since becoming a soccer fan five years ago, in the wake of the 1994 World Cup, I've preached the virtues of the game to all around me. I've given away tickets, invited people to my house, taken time to explain the game and its meaning. All that energy expended, and so few have listened, much less been converted.
In my passion to spread the word about soccer, I have a new tactic, something else Jesus says: "Let him who has ears hear." No more cajoling, weedling, nor arguing. Whomever will understand will understand.
Now, to every fan of the big three American sports of football, basketball and baseball, let him who has ears hear this:
The soccer season never ends.
Football season runs from September thru January. Basketball season from October thru June. Baseball, April thru October. Fans of these sports are restricted to watching top-level games during these periods only.
Imagine the NBA, Iverson and Kobi, et al, playing year-round. What if the Broncos and the Vikings (sorry, shamed Falcons fans) banged helmets in May? How about a warm World Series, instead of October's freezing rain?
These things are impossible. They'll never happen. For diehard fans, the off-season is an incommunicado nightmare. The only way to cope is by immersing oneself in another sport.
But due to the worldwide popularity of soccer and the omnipresence of television, top-level soccer is available to the rabid soccer fan every week of the year.
The principal American soccer league, Major League Soccer (MLS), gets no credit for this fans' paradise. Its season runs only from March thru October, roughly parallel to the baseball season.
But as MLS shuts down, the world's great leagues in South America, Italy, England and Germany are just getting starting. In addition, all-star teams from one nation battle other nations on a regular basis in international "friendlies." Top games from these leagues and friendlies are broadcast live, tape-delayed, or highlighted weekly on ESPN or on the major Spanish television stations, Telemundo (channel 52) and Univision (channel 34).
Soccer fans privileged to have Fox Sports Americas (FSA) cable channel occupy a whole other level of fandom. Arguably an all sports channel in Spanish, everyone knows FSA is really "The Soccer Channel." Most cities in the San Gabriel Valley carry this channel over Charter Cable (perversely, Charter cut FSA from the Pasadena Cable lineup a year ago, replacing it with the lame FX channel).
Watching FSA, it's possible to watch the world's best soccer at any time of the year for hours on end. That's what my nephew Jamaal did one night.
Visiting his aunt in Fontana, Jamaal sat in front of the television from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. First, he watched Racing vs. Barcelona in the Spanish league. Next, Bayern Munich and Leverkusen from Germany. A replay of an international friendly between Holland and Croatia followed. Finally, he was glued to a Mexican league game replay and the subsequent league highlights.
Fans of baseball, football and basketball can have no comparable experience.
Even if fans could watch the best the world has to offer - basketball from Italy, baseball from Japan, football from Europe - it would not compare to the level of play in these sports that we get here at home.
So that' my new line concerning the supremacy of soccer over other sports - the soccer season never neds. Whomever has ears to hear, let him hear.
As for me, I'm turning my attention to the incredible menu of world-class soccer that is about to unfold in our region of the world.
First, the Major League Soccer season is about to start. Our hometown Los Angeles Galaxy squad opens the season March 21 at the Rose Bowl. Cobi Jones, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Robin Fraser, Welton, Carlos Hermosillo, Clint Mathis, et al., are back to break more league scoring records.
Next, there is the big USA vs. Mexico game at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on Saturday, March 13. I'm buying my tickets as soon as I can. At the Mexico vs. Argentina game at the Coliseum last week, I planned on buying a ticket at the gate, but found myself standing outside, ticketless, with the capacity crowd of 91,000 already in their seats. I'm not getting burned again.
Finally, there is my dream game. On my birthday, July 28, the US has a rematch with #1 world ranked Brazil in Guadalajara, Mexico. Last time around, the US team stunned the world by beating the Brazilians, 1-0, in the rain here in L.A. Ronaldo, Romario, Roberto Carlos and company are not likely to forget that.
For my birthday last year, my wife gave me two tickets to the Major League Soccer final. I wonder if, this year, she would be willing to buy two round trip tickets from LAX to Guadalajara and two tickets to the game?
It would make for a great 32nd birthday.
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