A year and a half ago I wrote about soccer's impediments to success in the US. I now have boiled down my thoughts a bit.
As long as the US continues to believe that it is the sole economic and military superpower it will not be important to prove anything on the international sports stage. The draw and importance of the Olympics is much less than it was during the time of the Cold War and our need to prove ourselves against the Russians.
Believing we are the only ones worth competing against we continue to focus on national sports. Assuming that we are the best in the world because the rest of the world is too unsophisticated for our sports, we name "World Champions" the winners of the NFL, NBA, and MLB playoff tournaments.
The good news for fans of the beautiful game is that the empire is crumbling. India and China are making great strides toward being our economic superiors. Wars in the middle east are streching and depleting our military might and will. My boss says he believes that we are not far from civil war. The American century is over.
As the future for my children becomes dimmer the future of world sport becomes more assured. Given the choice I'd rather have the dominance of the United States continue unabated. History shows us that is not possible.
Posted to Games and Sport at June 30, 2007 8:41 PM