Every four years our televisions offer complete coverage of 32 countries competing for the top prize in international soccer, and a lot of Triangle residents just don’t care. Most modern nations expose their citizens to the game of soccer since birth, similar to how basketball has monopolized the lives of triangle sport fanatics. When students have the fall sports seasons roll around in September, the prospects of Carter-Finley filling is a bit higher than the soccer stands.

In the field of Psychology, it is commonly concluded that the more contact a person makes with an identifying prospect, like soccer, the chances that person will identify with that prospect is increased, as opposed to another less contacted prospect, such as cross country skiing. This is how preferred sports are determined within a region. Asking someone about his or her favorite sport will usually result in an answer that is associated with a childhood moment revolving around watching or playing the game.  Current sport icons make a large impact on what potential athletes choose to play, and we need a substantial amount of soccer icons. Watching a top player dominate at the professional level draws and inspires thousands of youth to attempt to attain similar success. Most young amateur sport players have had a cultural icon to look up to, and try to emulate their icon’s success. Michael Jordan undoubtedly increased basketball’s popularity in our generation by influencing youth across the country to pick up basketball. Although harder for North Carolina residents to conceptualize, soccer follows these same principles in other parts of the world. Players in this year’s World Cup are attempting to achieve mirrored success of their revered alumni. The great players use their childhood idols to reach the higher skill level that their icons represent. This mentality is reflected in the way global fans view their players. Ossie Ardiles of the UK newspaper Telegraph epitomized the constant comparison of current players and past players in his analysis between Lionel Messi from Argentina and the legendary Argentinean soccer player Diego Maradona. The performance of players today in the World Cup has a large impact on how the next generation of their fans will be performing in soccer. Only as our nation becomes relatively better at soccer will our citizens start to acknowledge it as one of the mainstream sports of the country. Even though Argentineans can appreciate their athletes, it will be difficult for Americans to relate to their soccer stars until we can enter into the culture with our own soccer stars.  American interest in soccer is tiny compared to our other mainstream sports. Interest this year has been increasing, on account the national team performed above expectations. If in coming World Cups the team could advance even farther, national interest could rise to greater heights. Raising American interest in soccer, however, will not come from watching other nations play. But seeing our own countrymen performing well against other countries is guaranteed to increase national interest.  The goal of the international soccer team should be to inspire and set an example for the next generation and fans. One of the national team players must step up and dominate the game in mainstream athletic competition, so that our N.C. State soccer tryouts and stands are filled. It would be nice for our students to have some common interest with athletic fans across the world.