Success is the best way of promoting U.S. soccer, says federation president Sunil Gulati, and tonight’s match against Mexico in Arizona is a good place to start. It’s about promotion, he says, and there’s no better promotion than good results.
“Most of the promotion is centered around two things: specific games and the buildup to big events like the World Cup and the Olympics,” Gulati tells Jack Bell of the New York Times. “Do national team and M.L.S. players need a higher profile? The answer is yes,” but “More people know the players than 10 years ago, and that’s not accidental. It’s based on results.”
Indeed, all the good work that’s brought the U.S. to a 6-0-1 record against continental rival Mexico at home since 2000 has been good for the game’s visibility. However, some of that was undone by the team’s poor performance in Germany last summer. How do you explain to a large audience of fare-weather fans who don’t know any better that we lost to Ghana? Perhaps the recent David Beckham news brings some of those people back.
In any event, the USA-Mexico game is important enough to both Bob Bradley and Hugo Sanchez that both men have brought in all the big guns from overseas. Nothing friendly about tonight!