Who says you have to live in America to act out the American dream? Jay DeMerit wanted to play in the English Premier League. He realized that playing at the University of Illinois at Chicago wasn’t going to help him realize his dream, so, two years ago, he packed up his things and moved to England, where he started out at non-league Northwood, the first club that would take him, with less than $2000 to his name. During a friendly six months later, Watford, of the English League Championship (England’s second division), took notice of his talent and signed him to a one-year contract. Fast-forward to this May, when Demerit realized his dream by scoring the lone goal in a play-off victory over Leeds that vaulted Watford back to the Premiership. Oh, and he won man-of-the-match that day, too, in what was undoubtedly the most important game of his career. Twenty-six year old DeMerit is now about to start his first season in the Premiership, and he sounds like just about the happiest guy in the world. He laments that when he came back to the States to tried and speak to his family and friends about the significance of what transpired for himself, his teammates, and the people of Watford, the profundity of it all was hopelessly lost in translation. “They were just like ‘Oh, I heard you won a game’. You try to tell people what it’s like and what people are like and how the game is looked at here, and nobody understands,” he said. Why are Americans so apathetic about soccer? DeMerit says it’s all about experience and exposure. “It’s not that Americans are incapable of liking the game; I don’t think that at all. They just need to be a part of what the game’s supposed to be.” Or, they need to go over there and watch Watford play; it’s impossible to come out of an English League play-off feeling apathetic about soccer, and that’s speaking from experience.