The Giants Stadium
Football is in a paradoxical situation in the USA. In 2004, the national men's team broke into the top ten of the FIFA rankings and the women's team are, of course, recent World Cup winners while the sport itself is enjoying burgeoning popularity among the young, notably at school and university levels. However, the professional game has tried and failed on more than one occasion to establish itself: the latest incarnation, Major League Soccer, is barely nine years old and boasts only a handful of teams to its credit. Indeed, there remains the perception worldwide that there is something distinctively incongruous about an American playing or watching football. A recent visit to an MLS game pitting the New York Metrostars against the Kansas City Wizards provided the chance to observe first hand the enigmatic phenomenon that is football in the USA.
The Metrostars play in the Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is a short bus ride from central Manhattan. Views eastward from the stadium of the Manhattan skyline itself are spectacular. Tickets are plentiful. The ground, the winter home to both the Giants and Jets gridiron teams, seats 80,000 but probably no more than 7,000 or so attend for football. The club is doing what it can to attract and retain fans. The facilities themselves are palatial and, on arrival, a small army of smiling greeters hand out free programmes and gifts such as seat cushions and bottle buddies. The souvenir stalls are well equipped with paraphernalia that would not look out of place in Europe such as replica shirts, scarves, caps, mugs, flags and photos, and the catering facilities are, well, gargantually American. Off field, the Metrostars organise coaching sessions and summer schools for the local community and even hold post-match parties for fans at local restaurants and bars.
Matches themselves, though, are conducted in a fascinating mix of American and European values and procedures. The Kansas City team entered the arena to a deathly silence, testimony to the fact that travelling support in MLS, given the huge distances between clubs, is a rarity indeed. The home team, on the other hand, were introduced individually to the crowd with, predictably, some players receiving bigger ovations than others. Prior to kick off, the crowd was treated to a rendition of the American national anthem, marred on this occasion by the poor quality of the microphone. The playing of the stirring Star Spangled Banner before a contest that essentially divides Americans by opposing teams from two different cities serves as a reminder that American society values above all else that which unites its diverse elements into the greater, patriotic whole (not to mention the fact that it is, after all, quite a rousing song).
Even after the game had started, novelties abounded for the European visitor. At corners, gee up music was played (to absolutely no effect on the play itself) and, every ten minutes or so, loudspeaker announcements were made promoting the soccer schools, ticket sales and commercial sponsors in what would be an unthinkable intrusion into play on the old continent.
The crowd itself, sparse though it was, was knowledgeable if largely undemonstrative. A small group of fans, congregated behind one goal, attempted to generate an atmosphere by singing, chanting and waving flags but the majority were content to sit, eat and applaud politely from time to time. Having said this, comments made about play by fans revealed considerable appreciation of the finer points of the game as well as the customary disdain for the officials' decisions while the roar that greeted the solitary New York goal was as loud as any that might be heard in Milan, Marseille or Manchester.
In summary, there is much that is unusual, even alien, about the way Americans
"do" football. However, the overriding impression left on this European by the
experience of watching "soccer" in the USA is that, for all the differences, this
is still the same game played in recognisable circumstances and following familiar
rituals. Above all, even in the land of the baseball brave and the home of the
gridiron free, football, the world's most popular sport, is very much a partisan
passion enjoyed by its dedicated fans.
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