Baseball is up and running, the NBA Playoffs just started this weekend, but for some reason I'm disinterested in both. Over the last couple of years my sport of choice has been soccer, and I blame David Beckham.
I know most people think the Becks/Galaxy experiment was a bust in the States, but I'm one of those that really started to pay attention to Major League Soccer after he joined the L.A. side. Sure, MLS still isn't on par with the NFL, MLB, or the NBA, but I do think the league was able to turn casual fans into more die-hards.
Now, I'm much more interested in watching a Philadelphia Union/Toronto FC match than a Yankees/Red Sox game. I used to be a big Spurs fan, but I'd rather get tickets to an Austin Aztex/Portland Timbers game than heading down to San Antonio. If anything involving the UEFA Champions League or the EPL comes on the TV, I'll stop what I'm doing to catch up on European football, but I could careless about the upcoming NFL Draft. Don't get me started on the World Cup. I kind of feel un-American thanks to my soccer obsession.
Soccer will always be a niche sport in the States, which is a shame, but maybe someday it will become a bigger part of our sport culture. You never know, soccer might even over take hockey in terms of popularity in the U.S. (although playoff hockey is amazing to watch).
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