sportsed@>clackamas. edu
The Clackamas Print"?
W ednesday, N ov 2, 2011
Soccer a 'goal’ w ith soccer city, USA
Steve Purdy fightsfar the ball against the Vancouver Whitecapsoffense a t
F C D a lla s on A p r il 17, 2 0 1 1 . A tten d a n c e f a r T im bers gam es has- increased greatly since th e s ta d iu m ’s
Merlo Field, home o f the University o f Portland Pilots on Oct. 1 7 ,2 0 1 0 .
expansion in th e su m m e r o f 2 0 1 0 a n d is regarded as one o f th e most, ra b id in. M a jo r League Soccer.
By John W illiam Howard
Sports Editor
It wasn’t long ago that nobody cared about soc
cer. In fact, in m u c h o f the country that’s still the
case. 1
. ' ' • • . . •
H atred o f soccer can be attributed to m any
different factors. N o t the least o f . those is that
Americans simply like to be the best at everything.
We’re basically the only people th at play American
Football — except for ; the Canadians but who
really Counts them? T h é U nited States absolutely
dominates everyone at basketball. W hile ja p a n and
the D om inican Republic have m ade strides with
basèball, they still lag behind. Americans are rabid
fans o f all those sports an d why not? W e invented
them , after all.
T h at story is different w ith soccer. Soccer origi
nated in Europe, taking on European rules and ide
als, w hich differ greatly from w hat the US is used
to. Americans are king o f the quick-fix. Just think
o f the microwave, oven; drive-thru restaurants and
diet pills. Instant gratification is built into o u r brains
and if som ething isn’t exciting right away, we quickly
find it boring and return to som ething éke.
T h at’s w hy soccer ju st doesn’t attract m ost
Americans. Soccer is a long, low-scoring game.
There is plenty o f dram a and action, b ut little to
‘show’ for it. Americans like scores that are easy to
understand, w ith num bers in the tens and hundreds
that show the flow o f the game and make it simple
to understand w hat happened. Soccer can be the
complete opposite. Two teams can battle defensively
and score in the 9 0th m inute, o r a team can p u t in a
goal inside the 1st m inute and will be held scoreless
the rest o f the game.
T he slow’ pace is com bined w ith the idea that
soccer players are whiners, fakers and generally over-
dramatic. Anybody w ho has searched on YouTube
for professional soccer will know that there are
plenty o f examples o f players bum ping wrists and
falling to the ground holding their ankles. T h e truth
is, the sport o f soccer doesn’t allow tim e to stop for
players to state their case to the officials, so they
often have to over exaggerate things in order to get
the attention o f the referee. Americans dismiss that
as softness, opting for the m ore masculine’ sport of
football, where the players àré covered ih. protective
pads from head to toe.
N ow don’t get m e wrong, I love football. I just
happen to be from Pbrtland, where we’te a little dif
ferent than the rest o f thex country.
; Portland is a place where soccer has n ot only
scraped a living, it has thrived. D ating back fur
ther d ia n the early 1920s, when a local team was
rumored- to have played sailors from a British
freighter, soccer gained a foothold in the area’s cul
ture. W ere a'city where we like things with adistinct
European twinge. W ejik e scarves (even during the
summer), wé like the rain, we like being green and
face it: we like soccer.
W hile the. m ost visible representation o f soccer
fever is the Timbers, whose jum p to M ajor League
Soccer sparked an even larger and more rabid fol
lowing m an before, the soccer m ovem ent can be
seen at all levels, o f the game, starting with youth
sports. »
Over the past decade or so, soccer has become
the m ost popular sport for children to play eclips
ing youth football, basketball and even little-league
baseball. M uch o f that sucœss can be attributed to
the simplicity o f the sport at the youth level. Soccer
involves kicking a ball, while baseball, basketball and
football require m ore -practice and m ore skill to get
the basics o f dribbling, passing and hitting down.
A dd in that football is expensive and dangerous,
it rains too m uch in the Northwest to play baseball
year round and basketball requires a hoop to make
it fun and you get why soccer has done so well here:
It’s an inexpensive, low-contact sport that can be
played anywhere that there is enough grassy space
to kick the ball.
W ith the large fàn base, â strong pool o f talent,
soccer has m ade leaps and bounds in the region. In
2002 and 2ÔÔ5, the University o f Portland women’s
program w on the NCA A cham pionship and since
has produced four current m embers o f the U S .
national team, including star M egan Rapinoe. Even
closer to hom e, the Clackamas C om m unity College
women’s team took back to back N W AACC titles
in 2004-05 and another in 2007, while winning the
Southern Region five times since 2002.
N ow it makes sense w hy the University o f
Portland Pilots are a national women’s soccer power.
We can understand why JELD -W EN field fills to
the brim every tim e that the Tim bers play or the US
W om en’s National Team visits. Soccer is p art o f our
culture here. It’s in our blood. It’s been built from
the ground up and isn’t likely to fade any tim e soon.
Upcoming Events
O
Women’s Vollyball
Tim e/date________
Clackamas @ Mt Hood CC '
(• •• | Women’s Soccer
7pm Friday Nov. 4
-
:. Tim e/date
Clackamas vs Lane
1pm Wednesday Nov. 2
P layo ff Q u a r t e r f i n a l 1 2 p m Saturday Nov. 5
O p p o ne n t TBD
Time TBA Saturday Nov. 12
Cross Country
Time/date
NWAACC Championships
@ E v e re tt CC T
3:00pm Saturday Nov. 12
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