Will you keep watching 'the beautiful game' or even the rest of this World Cup with USA now eliminated?
Fox Sports' John Strong, inset, called the USA vs. Belgium World Cup Round of 16 match on Monday. Credit: Fox Sports; AP/Lindsey Wasson
At the end of the U.S. team’s disappointing 4-1 defeat to Belgium in Seattle on Monday night, Fox Sports announcer John Strong made an impassioned plea for viewers to . . .
. . . Keep watching soccer.
“If you’ve enjoyed what you’re seeing, well, support your local team,” Strong said. “This doesn’t have to be the last soccer you watch for the next four years. It’s a beautiful sport.”
Cringey at best.
Actually, soccer is called “the beautiful game” and it is the most popular sport in the entire world.
That Strong felt the need to talk it up during a North American World Cup that has shattered every television ratings metric was a bit odd.
And a bit unnecessary.
Soccer doesn’t need you, America. Oh, it wants your money — FIFA surely does, just check those ticket prices — but the sport will survive globally just fine even if the next match American audiences watch en masse is the U.S. team’s opening one in the 2030 World Cup (or beyond, if they don't qualify for 2030 in Morocco, Portugal and Spain).
Soccer has been hailed as “the fastest growing sport in America” back since I was a kid and Pele was drawing record crowds for the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League.
Now we have Major League Soccer, which is a fine niche league and is represented locally by NYCFC and the New York Red Bulls, who play in New Jersey.
It’s unlikely an American soccer league will ever be able to become as good or popular as the top global ones. But since we already have football (the other one) and baseball and basketball and hockey, isn’t that enough?
When Strong implored fans to keep watching soccer, we presume he was referring to the MLS for men’s games and the NWSL for women’s games. He probably wasn’t talking about the rest of the World Cup, which casual American sports fans may be shocked to learn will continue without the U.S. squad.
Full disclosure: I am a casual sports fan when it comes to soccer. I have been interested in this World Cup, but I wouldn’t say I have been enthralled.
The incessant fake injuries (sportsmanship, anyone?) and the fact that no one knows how much time is left because the clock counts up and not down are seriously annoying to me.
Imagine watching a close NFL game in the fourth quarter and listening to the announcers speculate about how much time is left because NO ONE KNOWS or watching a baseball game and the talk is about whether it’s the eighth or ninth inning.
There’s nothing beautiful about that.
Still, the tension and drama you feel during a World Cup match is real. I watched the entire U.S.-Belgium match and even in my relative soccer ignorance could see the Americans were being outplayed.
Tuesday morning when getting coffee I remarked to a soccer-jersey wearing person that the U.S. effort reminded me of an NBA team that was getting beaten to every loose ball.
“Belgium just wanted it more,” I remarked, and my soccer-jersey wearing new friend explained why I was right for about five uninterrupted minutes.
My coffee grew cold. But my heart was warmed by the idea that I had gotten it right.
I have actually attended a World Cup match. It was in 1998, in Nantes, France, and it was the U.S. vs. Yugoslavia. I wrapped an American flag bandana around my forehead and cheered like mad for a U.S. team that suffered a 1-0 defeat.
It was one of the most fun times I’ve had at a sporting event. It wasn’t the most important match in that World Cup, but the atmosphere and passion of the crowd was impressive. I remember thinking, “I get it” when it comes to soccer, at least World Cup soccer.
I also remember thinking that when I got home I would watch the rest of the World Cup right down to the final match.
I didn’t.
But that’s just me. Maybe this World Cup has grabbed so many casual American fans that they will heed John Strong’s words and become fans of the MLS or NWSL. Maybe they won’t wait four years before they watch another soccer match.
It is, after all, a beautiful game. Or so we're told.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
