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Huge. I’ve been watching ever since I was a child, and the class of football I saw was better than anything I’d ever seen before. I got hooked on how fast and precise the game was. Most of the soccer I’d seen in the states involved lots of turnovers and little skilled teamwork. The combination of hard nosed grit and artistry in the EPL is unmatched in any other league. As far as I’m concerned it’s the best league in the world.
Locally, there is no football coverage. It doesn’t make the papers or the news broadcasts. Nationally you can have as much coverage as you want. I have a satellite package that gives me every televised EPL match and FA Cup match. There is another cable channel dedicated totally to football, and it splits itself between the South/Central American leagues and the major European leagues. ESPN (our major sports network which has about 6 channels) covers all the major matches and Champions League news.
I would not say it’s nothing. Certainly it is not anywhere near the EPL, but it’s getting much better. This year especially I have seen a huge jump in the level of skill in MLS. In my mind you have the EPL, Primera Division, Italian Serie A and Bundesliga as the top tier of professional football with the EPL being the best. I’d put MLS on the tier below those leagues. The success of our national team in CONCACAF and the emergence of stars such as Adu, Donovan, Beasley, and Eddie Jones has done much for the popularity of the sport. The MLS is run well and will continue to improve. Hopefully, at some point, the top teams in MLS will be able to compete with the best in the world, but that’s some time off in the future.
Honestly, I don’t see it making that much of a difference. They might get a bit more exposure because of Glazer’s ties here, but the EPL and Manchester United is just not a big deal to the American public. We have so many professional sports; most people don’t find it necessary to care for leagues in other countries. I’ll give you this example on the popularity of European football in general here in the states. Gillette, the razor company, has started running a series of advertisements in print and on television featuring David Beckham. On each commercial and print ad they actually have to put Beckham’s name and what he plays in the ad so people know who they’re seeing and why they should care. Anywhere else in the world, Beckham is the most recognizable person there is. Here, he’s just another guy. He could walk down Main Street in New York City and not turn a head. Most people wouldn’t even know his name were there not a movie featuring it (Bend It Like Beckham) or if he were not married to a former Spice Girl.
I had no hope. I had given up on ever winning an American League championship or World Series. All of my grandparents had been born and had died since the last time the Red Sox won the Series. Every year I simply waited for the worst, and had always been given it, until last year.
I think I would need about 6 months. I’m not all that interested in Asia, so most of my time would be spent in Europe. I’m a big fan of martial history, so I’d want to see all the major battlefields, such as Hastings, Bosworth, the beaches of Normandy, Austerlitz, Waterloo, etc. I’ve been to Europe and Africa on several occasions, and dealing with culture hasn’t been too difficult. The key is to just pay attention to your surroundings and if you don’t know what you’re doing, copy a native. I speak passable French and Spanish, so between those two languages and English I figure I can be understood in most places.
This is an easy one. A nice rib-eye steak cooked medium well, baked potato topped with cheese, chives, bacon and butter, a salad and a Corona to wash it all down.
I think I would have as good a shot as the next chap. I keep up with all the EPL news and have seen just about every match under the sun for the past two years. I’ll make some waves.