Soccer — it’s something many Americans played as children and forgot about over time. Though the sport has long taken a backseat to football in the U.S., the culture of soccer is slowly taking over America, and it’s getting hard to ignore.
The sport started taking off in the states in 2010, when the FIFA World Cup took place in South Africa. The cup got people talking, even if it was just about the vuvuzelas drowning out every other sound. Even the Student Union joined in the hype that summer, airing matches on the big screens in the downstairs lounge area.
The World Cup kick-started interest among people across the nation, with fans rallying behind the U.S. National Teams through chapters of the American Outlaws, the U.S. Soccer support club. One of these chapters came together in Baton Rouge, calling themselves the Red Stick Outlaws.
“After the last World Cup, I saw how much passion there was for the game,” said Red Stick Outlaws chapter president Mark Jones. “I saw the Outlaws and how they were growing, so I tried starting one here with the help of the soccer board on [tigerdroppings.com].”
The Red Stick Outlaws meet at The Londoner Grill for each U.S. Men’s National Team game, but that’s not all.
“A lot of us have been to different road games this year,” Jones said. “We’re trying to go to Dallas and Houston to watch some MLS stuff. We’ve gone to a couple different LSU games this year, supporting them. And maybe going to New Orleans for a Jesters game.”
Besides The Londoner, other bars and venues are broadcasting games, like the Varsity Theatre, which typically airs games on weekend mornings.
While pride for the U.S. national teams is present and growing, the bigger growth of soccer fans comes from fans of the international clubs. Walking around campus, it’s easy to see someone wearing Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Chelsea apparel on any given day.
In addition to being something people can follow, soccer offers something that can bring people together.
“It’s an international sport where you can go to any country and find a handful of fans [who] all watch it and all know equally as much about it,” said biochemistry sophomore and Barcelona follower Khizir Qureshi. “I use it as a connection to see who watches soccer, and I feel like a brotherhood forms between us, since there’s so many people who don’t watch it.”
In addition to a growing number of fans, ESPN has debuted a new TV show, “ESPN FC.” The show launched in August and follows a similar layout as “Baseball Tonight” and other shows.
With the sport at the height of its popularity in America and the 2014 FIFA World Cup on the horizon, it seems the popularity and culture of soccer has nowhere to go but up.