How do we ditch the niche?

For the past several weeks since the end of the World Cup soccer coverage has returned to the dark ages once again. Relegated to thirty second mentions on Sportscenter and dedicated blogs (such as this one) because, as so many have felt the need to tell us, soccer is just a niche sport. Well that's well and good but us fans want more. We want our sport to be taken seriously alongside the big four in the United States. But in order to do that we need to break out of the "sports niche" genre of athletics.

How does soccer move from the same breath with lacrosse and curling and become a "major sport"?

1. Television: This is something that the MLS is already working on. Their new contract with ESPN/ABC will kick money back into the league (I believe this is the first contract in which the MLS will be paid). This isn't something that needs to always happen on a national scale either, local or region broadcasts of games will get channel surfers to take notice and get new fans to the teams. Stations such as Fox Sports Net air rerun after rerun some days, why not air games on the region that teams are in. Another move that should be made is to get Fox Soccer Channel into a more basic cable package. Fox already owns a specialty station in most basic packages (Speed Channel) I can see FSC being in the very same line if not even more succesful than Speed.

2. Stop Hyping Individual Players: Soccer is not the NBA. The game is extremely team oriented and can rarely be broken down into 1v1 situations. When it happens it is amazing to see, don't get me wrong, but in basketball it happens nine times out of ten possesions so that kind of advertising works. In soccer there are more than twice as many players on the field and all of them have a role to play. The colors ad that is running now treads a thin line between advertising solitary players and their teams/league as a whole. Advertise the fact that DC United has scored the most goals in the league, not a pubescent teen who has only one of them. Freddy Adu is a subject who deserves a post all on his own (and will get one on here soon), but he is not the only player in the league. Unfortunately some of the best players in the league are not American or have names that make them sound foreign (Jaime Moreno, Dwayne DeRosario, Ante Razov, etc). The bigwigs think that we'll turn on these players or not want them to succeed in the US if they aren't the stereotypical "all American boys". This type of racism disgusts me and embarasses me as a fan.

3. Provide for the media: Working with the Minnesota Thunder this summer I have first hand knowledge of how much better a broadcast can be when the teams willingly provide as much information on their squads as possible. I've also seen that the local papers use press releases from the team nearly verbatim as their match write ups. Therefore I can only imagine that the more a team releases to the media regarding match results, record breaking preformances, transfers, etc, the more information that gets printed and into the hands of the fans. The more info that's out there the quicker we'll move from a niche sport to a full fledged summer season.

When Did We Become the Cubs?

Seriously! I waited two days to calm down before commenting on the debacle that was the ending to the Atlanta match. 4 goals in the final 8 minutes of play saw the Thunder go from a probable 1-0 victory to a 1-1 draw. Then a 2-1 lead that looked like the final to a 2-2 draw, then in the final seconds of stoppage time a 3-2 defeat. It was sickening to watch everything slide out of their fingers so late in the game.
A missed clearance from a normally solid Dustin Brannan gave the Silverbacks their first goal. So eight minutes to go, score tied at a goal apeice, not terrible right? We can still salvage a point at home. Then in comes Ansou Toure. Someone that I've never seen, but heard nothing but praise for. So minutes after Toure checks in a pass from Leo Gibson goes too far for Knox, but Toure out sprints a defender to the ball despite the defender having a solid twenty yard head start. He took the ball down to the end line and pounded it right at the keeper. Not sure how the shot found a way into the net, but it did and in the 89th minute the Thunder go ahead 2-1. I'm going nuts in the booth. Incredible run of play leads to an amazing goal and most of all a lead.
Atlanta takes the kickoff runs down near the endline, sends in a cross that one of the defenders just misses with a boot, and Joe Warren can't grab. It sails back post where Maurice Hughes Leaps in the air and volleys it into the roof of the net with the outside of his foot.

That's jubilation to utter dispair in 60 seconds...BUT WAIT theres more.

The Thunder turn over the kickoff (yeah first clue this was going down hill) and concede a corner which is subsequently punched in for the winning goal. Yes, you read that right, punched. As in with a fist. Goal stood without discussion and the ref blew an end to three minutes of stoppage time after about 1:45.

Adding this latest fiasco to the previous loss against Charlston it leavs me qurious as to how we find a way to lose next. To go from scrapping out unlikely wins against MLS sides last year to this is painful.