American Soccer at the Branding Crossroads

If you were in the United States from June to July, odds are fairly good that you developed some form of “soccer fever”. Personally, I really didn’t care about soccer at all until my buddy sent me a “March Madness-like” grid to fill out. After I made my picks (I had Germany taking home the Cup), I was officially hooked. To further exacerbate my new found enthusiasm for soccer, USA was set to play England on June 12, one of the first games of group play. I went into Manhattan to watch the game with my roommates, both avid soccer players, and I was shocked at the turnout; every bar and restaurant was packed with people donning American flags, USA soccer scarves and face paint. This apparent collective leap by Americans onto the soccer bandwagon was almost instantaneous and for a few weeks it seemed as if soccer had finally been embraced by our country.

But as the tournament progressed, it seemed that interest in the World Cup was waning. Focus shifted more and more to the wrong things: “why do they flop when you barely touch them?”, “the vuvuzella is so annoying”, etc. It all came to a head when the United States lost to Ghana. As quickly as the enthusiasm had started, it dissipated, and the majority went back to being disinterested in soccer completely; “The New York Post” led the way with the following headline:

Shortly after that, Nike came out with a sequel to their wildly popular “Write the Future” ad. The sequel depicted young players thanking the US soccer team for various actions during their games. The video is full of comments like “thank you for playing with style, with class, for having confidence.” 24 seconds into the ad, one of the players channels most of our nations thoughts when he says “thank you for not diving.” This aspect of the game seemed to outrage and disgust many first-time viewers. While I partially agree with this, I can also see the other side of the story. Diving is part of soccer. A player has the chance to outsmart his opponent by accentuating a mistake; it’s simply part of the game.

It occurred to me that during this month-long soccer spotlight, two very important points were identified:

1) The World Cup showed that Americans are more than willing to embrace the game if their own players are on the field.

2) As a whole, our country isn’t ready to accept a “rest-of-the-world style” of play. Nike showed that conclusively.

The organization that should have been paying VERY close attention to the American response to the World Cup (and I mean taking copious notes 24/7) is the MLS. They have been struggling for years to get professional soccer to same level as the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL. To date, they’ve had very little success. However, since it’s inception in 1993, they have been modeling their league after foreign soccer clubs (a very logical decision), going so far as to bring international sensations like David Beckham, Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Juan Pablo Ángel into the league in an effort to create some credibility. While this helped, the league’s popularity never truly took off like anticipated. I think one glaring reason is because Americans won’t respond to an imitation of a foreign club. If the 2010 World Cup and Nike have shown us anything, it’s this: Americans want their own style of play with their own players on the field. It’s the epitome of “easier said than done”, but it seems to be the current reality.

So with the sport still fresh in everyone’s minds, Major League Soccer is at a crossroads. Should they embark on a new American style of the game, one devoid of primadonnas, diving and vuvuzellas? Or should they continue to follow the proven model and wait for the rest of us to come around? It’s an interesting question that I personally can’t answer with 100% certainty. Obviously, there are very valid points on both sides. But if you were in charge of branding for Major League Soccer, in what direction would you take the league?