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The World Cup did not go exactly how the United States Men’s National Team expected, but the sport was the talk of the country this summer.
Nearly 7 million people flooded stadiums in North America to catch World Cup action, and the final between Spain and Argentina peaked at 52 million viewers, averaging at around 38 million.
Landon Donovan was an analyst for FOX throughout the event and said this year’s World Cup was an unforgettable memory.
“I’m sad it’s over now. It really did go by so fast. Maybe for people at home, not so fast. But for us, it was just travel, game, work, game, travel, appearance, travel, meet-and-greet, travel, game. It was honestly the time of my life, and I’m sad it’s over,” Donovan told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
“The superstars showed up and scored goals. The fan bases were incredible. The infrastructure and the stadiums, of course, are amazing in this country. The fans filled the stadiums. It broke records in every way on TV and social. It was a phenomenal World Cup, and I’m really just sad it’s over.”
It remains to be seen what kind of growth will occur in the U.S. after the World Cup, but if it’s anything like what occurred in 1994, the sport is in a good spot – just in time for Major League Soccer’s All-Star Game in Charlotte on Wednesday.
Donovan partnered with longtime MLS sponsor AT&T for the festivities to bring fans closer to the action.
“They’ve been supporters of ours for a long time. Soccer, to most people, is relatively new, but I’ve been in this game for a long time. So when you have people and companies that want to support in a real way and not just throw money at it, but actually be involved, then it means a lot to us because we’ve been ambassadors for this game forever,” Donovan said. “They’re helping us connect people to this game that we love, and that means a lot. They’re great with our podcast with me and Tim Howard. Great to me personally, individually, all the All-Star Games. They love the sport. They genuinely do, and it’s been really nice to have them.”
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Donovan recalled the ovation he got when he returned to MLS after the 2002 World Cup.
“I lived it, right? At the end of these tournaments, there’s so much energy and excitement around soccer and the sport, so you’ll see an uptick in viewership. You’ll see an uptick in the stadiums. People now know these guys’ names, and it’s a really, really awesome opportunity to grow as a player, but also to grow your brand,” he said.
“When I came back in 2002, I literally got off the plane from Korea and went straight to the stadium at noon, maybe 2:00. We had a game that night, and I got to play for 10 minutes at the end of the game. The excitement in the stadium for the fans to see someone who, 24 hours earlier, had been on a field in Korea was awesome. So these guys coming back into the league a week before the All-Star Game, and then a lot of them at the All-Star Game, it’s a really awesome opportunity to be recognized and appreciated. It’s really cool.”
While a deeper USMNT run would have done wonders for the sport, Donovan, though, is done talking about when soccer will arrive – because he thinks “soccer is here.”
“There has been study after study, they asked people to name their favorite sport. The NFL was one, the NBA was two and soccer was three — soccer in general, right? So people do love this sport in this country,” he said. “I know anecdotally, I drop my kids off at school every day. I don’t see NFL jerseys. I don’t see baseball jerseys. I see soccer jerseys. The kids are all wearing soccer jerseys. They’re all in. So soccer is here.
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“Now, how you quantify it in a real way via Major League Soccer or U.S. Soccer, I don’t know. That’s harder to do. But this sport is mainstream now. When you turned on the TV this summer, people were talking about soccer… So, it is here. It’s not where we all want it to be yet, but that takes time, man. These other sports have had decades, if not centuries, of a head start on soccer. So we’ll just keep going.”
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