SpeakOut: USA's Confederations Cup Success Gives India A Lesson In Football

After the USA's world shocking 2-0 victory over European champions Spain in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup, Goal.com's Greg Lalas explained in a delicately crafted 800-word commentary how the rest of the world feels about the US in general and US football in particular. Indeed his words were as much insightful as bitingly truthful as he exhibited in no uncertain terms how cynical and snobbish the world is of football in the US.

After all, the US is a nation where 'football' is played not with the foot but with the hands, where 'soccer' is the term assigned to what the rest of the world embraces as football; a nation where the domestic league is filled with former European stars out to make some quick buck outstretching their playing career.

Football, or soccer as they call it, is not a part of the Americans' mainstream sporting culture, baseball, (American) football and basketball are. They have the weird term 'soccer mom' and not 'soccer dad' and it is often girls and not boys who take up this sport.

The US is a world superpower in the realms of economy and politics and while a fraction of the world adores and respects it for that, the remaining fragment hates it and loathes it, often expressing its jealousy and disdain through the supposedly pure medium of sports.

India might not be the Asian version of America and might not be the next challenger to the US in terms of economy and nuclear power or whatever as some people so disbelievingly believe, but when it comes to football (or should we say soccer?), the two nations are not that different, at least in foreign eyes.

While the US feasts on the mega world event of the baseball world series that is almost invariably played out between teams within its own boundary, India feeds on the awkwardly stunning belief that emerging triumphant among a mere 12 or so nations in cricket makes it the best sporting nation in the world. While football is fast catching up in the US and more and more people are actively playing the game, Europe remains cynical, and while some major Premier League clubs are willing to invest in Indian football, many see those instances as marketing ploys to drain the money away from India to their own backyard.

Yet the differences between the US and India in terms of football is starkly apparent. While the US consistently feature in the FIFA World Cup finals and actually reached the quarterfinals in the 2002 edition, India don't even come anywhere close. The Americans, like Indians, don't really have football encrypted into their DNA but while a few chosen ones are willing to take the gamble and play the sport that is more than a religion in Europe and South America, here in India where the Premier League is huge people are happy to stay as passive observers.

True, for the US where the only credible footballing force in their region are Mexico, qualifying for major international competitions is relatively easy but even then you cannot ignore the sheer will the soccer-loving community in the US has demonstrated in the last two or so decades to make the sport huge in their nation.

Perhaps the turning point in US's football was the 1994 World Cup finals which the Americans hosted and even reached the knock-out stage of the competition. What is remarkable to note about that particular tournament is that in the run-up to the competition the US federation and then coach Bora Milutinovic signed 35 players in the early 1990s, housed them together in Southern California and trained them together for two years, a phase described by one journalist as the “incubation period of the modern era is US soccer.”

India coach Bob Houghton, who coached several of these US players during his tenure at MLS side Colorado Rapids in the mid-1990s, wants (or rather wanted) to do something similar ahead of the 2011 Asian Cup but the (perhaps understandable) uproar started by the I-League clubs who apparently refused to give up their star players for the prospective benefit of the Indian national team has virtually buried the idea deep inside the sand. In what many labeled as a new version of the 'club versus country' row, the nation lost, in all sense of the word.

Practically speaking, the idea of harnessing the best Indian footballers at the cost of damaging the prospects of their respective clubs is perhaps a bit too expensive for our nation. India, for all talk of economic development, is still a step too far from the US in competing monetarily and the steps they took ahead of the 1994 finals probably wouldn't have been taken had the US not hosted the event, but perhaps the Indian footballing community should learn some lessons from the US and from how they have travelled so many miles to defeat the European champions and arguably the finest team in the world at the moment Spain. Oh, not to mention how they went 2-0 up inside 30 minutes against the most successful national side in the world Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup.

We Indians boast of a footballing 'culture and tradition' that was evident even before we gained independence; we boast of Asia's biggest and one of the world's most fiercest club rivalries, of hosting one of the oldest football competitions in the world, but we are still far, far, far behind a nation (in footballing terms) that is supposed to be a ‘kid’ in the sport of football, a nation from where the world's most celebrated footballer (David Beckham) desperately seeks to run away.

Why can't we outdo the Americans when it comes to football?

The answers perhaps lies in the perception.....

Subhankar Mondal