ESPN recently aired a special in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of "The Greatest Game Ever Played", the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. The game, and its televised broadcast, is often credited with bringing the NFL to the forefront of the American sports consciousness. In the years since, football has taken its place as the king of American sports, engendering the kind of passion and support that the rest of the world reserves for that other football, the game we call soccer.


Alan Ameche scores the winning touchdown in "The Greatest Game Ever Played"

Soccer fans in this country are desperately waiting for our own "Greatest Game Ever Played". We're waiting for the seminal moment that the switch gets flipped and the rest of the country wakes up to the obvious greatness of the beautiful game. What that '58 NFL Championship game had going for it is something that cannot be recreated; the newness of televised sports. The images transmitted to the rest of the country from a frozen Yankee Stadium did more for the NFL than anything that MLS or the USSF can think of will do for American soccer. The modern world seems devoid of frontiers to conquer. There is no new and untapped medium through which soccer can stake its claim in the American sports landscape. It seems that our sporting minds have been made up; if we haven't been doing it for generations, then we sure as hell aren't going to do it now.

It creates a dilemma difficult even to comprehend. Throwing in the towel is not an option, and unless MLS goes belly up, it does not seem likely those of us who do love the sport and support the domestic game will let it happen. But it leaves us grasping for that elusive breakthrough. So where do we look?

There is only one possibility. USA-Mexico. USA-Mexico, a rivalry that more than contends with all of the most famous American sporting battles. Ohio State-Michigan? Nothing compared to El Tri and the Yanks. Yankees-Red Sox? USA-Mexico makes it look like a tea party. Redskins-Cowboys? Leaves me wanting. Wake up America. Spend a little time searching YouTube. Want rivalry? Here's rivalry:



And that's just from the qualifiers.

Here then, is the call to action: ABC, ESPN, whomever: Give USA-Mexico your five-star treatment. Get the word out, advertise MONTHS in advance. Have those clever talking heads of yours spend a little of their energy hyping something that deserves the hype. Put together a nice little package reviewing the recent history of soccer's answer to Yankees-Red Sox. Drum up a little excitement across your twenty-seven networks in February with something that approaches what you might do for a Saturday night football game in November. Send two or three of your cadre of reporters to interview anyone who might have an opinion on what beating the US means to Mexicans. Find out what the grass root supporters groups are doing in preparation of the game. Challenge your viewers who might otherwise ignore the game to give it ten or fifteen minutes of their time; it's more than likely that at least some of them will stick with it, get hooked, find themselves diving in headfirst, just like so many of us have done.

US Soccer, I have three words for you: Super Bowl commercial.

I'll admit it. I'm DESPERATE for American soccer's Greatest Game Ever Played. Here's to hoping February 11, 2009 lives up to my hype.