On Saturday Thomas and I went to see the NY Red Bulls play the L.A. Galaxy in the MLS regular season game. We're fairly regular visitors to Giants Stadium, but the big attraction of this game was, of course, the appearance of Goldenballs himself in the Big Apple - sorry, I mean David Beckham's first visit to New York with his new team.
One of the biggest wrenches of leaving England was giving up my season ticket at White Hart Lane, especially as I felt I'd really arrived in the adult world when I first splashed out my £400. But the discovery of Fox Soccer Channel gave me my Premiership fix, and I set about trying to become emotionally attached to a team that played in a huge concrete bowl only one-eighth full, in a style that conjured up visions of energetic college students. Yes, once in a while you would see a quality player, but they would either be imported (Jaime Moreno) or a mature European looking for a little twilight glory and money (Youri Djorkaeff) and boy, was it hard to get involved.
And if it was hard for me, someone who had grown up spending every minute of every school vacation playing soccer in the lower field, someone who had been going to Spurs regularly since 1977 - except for interludes at college in Coventry, Brighton and Derby, when I was a regular at those local teams, watching in three stadiums that no longer exist - then how hard was it going to be for Americans who had never grown up with a football terrace culture and rarely got to see their teams on TV, drowned out by the ubiquitous baseball and 'big event' American Football ? Would it ever be possible for soccer to be a 'proper' game here in the U.S.A. ?
So I applauded Beckham's decision to come and play here - not for what it was doing for his career (you're fooling no-one, David) or for the effect on his bank balance, or his profile, or his greater ambition of "raising the profile of the greatest game in the world in the biggest sports market in the world" - no, I applauded David for what he was doing for me - making me feel like I really wanted to go and see an MLS game, making me look forward to what I was about to receive, and making me feel just a little bit invested in the result.
Of course, the circus arriving in town was fascinating in itself. There were multiple TV shows about David, and about Victoria. The American press and TV critics spectacularly missed the point about Posh, which is not surprising. In America celebrities NEVER make fun of themselves or their image - god forbid - so the critics really did not know what to make of her self-deprecating sense of humour - translation, she was taking the piss out of herself, making a great job of it, and the self-important critics didn't get the joke.
Anyway, David gave all of us hope that this time, maybe, just maybe, the stone in the pond would make ripples big enough to rock the boat, and soccer would finally launch in the US. Not after one game of course, or even one season, but over time, with kids seeing La Beckham, and the atmosphere surrounding him, and wanting to come back again and again.
Expectation was high and the atmosphere was electric at Giants Stadium. The usual Red Bulls crowd of 10-11,000 had swelled to 66,000 noisy revellers, most wearing soccer shirts of some description, many inevitably with the Galaxy's 23 on the back. Tom and I had fantastic seats in the front row of the balcony, and as the game kicked off it was clearly a great occasion - if only the match could live up to it.
And of course it did. By now you might know that the scoring went to and fro from almost the first minute to literally the last, as the Red Bulls clinched the game 5-4 with a Juan Pablo Angel goal (Remember him ?) at the death. But my heart sank like a stone when it came - the moment I realised that soccer would never catch on in the US came in the 18th minute. By then, Red Bulls had gone one goal up in the 3rd minute, only for Beckham to lay on two inch-perfect crosses for the equaliser in the 5th minute and the go-ahead goal in the 8th. 2 minutes later, Beckham was tackled hard and got up from the ground snarling at the Red Bull's Van Den Bergh, inspiring a small but intense melee involving a dozen players.
I was caught up in the game by now, and so didn't notice the apparently fallow period between the 10th and 18th minutes where obviously nothing of interest happened on the field - because in minute 18 it happened. Signalled by tumultuous but undirected cheering, a Mexican Wave rose at the far end of the ground, and spread like a particularly virulent virus around the concrete bowl. Now let me state clearly, so there is no mistake. I hate the Mexican Wave with a vengeance, and for one simple reason. When I pay good money to see a sporting event, I do so because - well, I want to watch a good sporting event. I didn't pay $40 per ticket (well, I didn't actually, but that's another story) to party like it's 1999. I don't need to be 'part of the event'. And most of all I want people around me to sit down and shut up, or at least watch and shout about what's happening in front of them.
I've never understood the American habit of turning up late for games, or getting up in the middle of the action to go to the concession stand. Why would you pay all that money and deliberately miss a great chunk of the action ? I'm just about down with turning up early to have a party in the parking lot - especially if there's a BBQ going - but for heaven's sake, shut down the grill early and be in your seat for the kick-off. I've seen soccer matches in executive boxes preceeded by a five-course meal, but at 5 to 3, regardless of what deal is about to be hatched, or promotion discussed, I cut the conversation short and move my chair to the plexiglass window - after all, we came to watch the game didn't we ?
Sport in the US is perilously close to being no more than entertainment, ruled by television money and television schedules, and everyone knows soccer is going the same way. In England, we know the impact of Sky on the scheduling of matches, and although Sky's attempts to 'make every game an event' got some pushback, if you've ever been in a stadium where a trophy has just been presented you'll know you can't make your chorus of "Ee-Ay-Addio, We Won The Cup' heard above the strains of 'We Are The Champions' coming over the tannoy.
And there's the rub. Television and sports event organisers believe they need to create atmosphere at games. Wrong. Crowds create atmosphere. Crowds breed a communal sense of anticipation, a spreading sense of belonging to your team, shared songs and humour, a common rivalry to opposing fans, and a communal joy when a goal is scored. Sports crowds build a sense of belonging. And for too long in the US, television, stadium announcers and someone charged with 'creating an occasion' has usurped this role so that many American sports fans no longer know how to do it (even if they still felt it was their place to do so).
The result is the Mexican Wave - the 'look at me, I'm here and I'm having fun' gesture that has nothing to do with the action taking place, and everything to do with personal aggrandizement. I'd like to tell everyone that this event is not about you - it's about the teams, the players down there - by all means get behind them with noise and singing and cheering, but no-one came to look at you, so sit down.
But no-one is listening - no-one can hear ! The music is too loud, the announcer is drowning out the crowd's songs with lists of matchball sponsors, the pre-match crescendo of noise peters out as the referee waits for the TV adverts to finish before whistling the kick-off, half the kids have come for the halftime kickabout, so they're buried within the stadium corridors for half the game - and there's no space left for a true soccer fan to build the bond with the team that will make him care about what actually happens on the pitch, cursing and spitting on the way home after a bad defeat, or going into work on Monday with a song in his heart after a good win. And if he doesn't care, then how can he make his friends/colleagues/family/kids/future soccer crowd care too ?
And that's why soccer will never catch on in the USA.
