March’s other sports madness

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 24th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the World Cup.

Many American sports fans are obsessed with college basketball this month. But there’s another, much bigger March madness going on around the globe. WORLD’s Paul Butler has more.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: Football—also known as soccer—is easily the most popular sport around the world. Interest in the game has been steadily growing in America over the last decade—up 27 percent. Late last year, a survey of American sports fans discovered that soccer is now the fourth most popular sport in this country—surpassing ice hockey and placing it just behind baseball.

BELZ: America is a melting pot and people from all over the world…are coming here and continuing to be soccer fans.

Adam Belz is a reporter and cohost of the Scuffed Soccer Podcast—covering the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team.

BELZ: I played soccer growing up, and always, always was a fan— especially around World Cup time—you know, that's such a festive global event. And it was always fun to watch our country's national team play on that stage.

The World Cup is a global soccer tournament that happens every four years. But unlike the NCAA basketball tournament crammed into about a month’s time—the World Cup tournament qualifiers happen over many months, even years. The first qualifiers for the 2022 finals in Qatar began in 2019—with 210 teams spread over six confederations—or conferences:

BELZ: So there's a South American Confederation. There's a North and Central American Confederation. The European one, African one, Asian one and Oceania. And each of those confederations sends a certain number of teams to the World Cup.

Each country in the tournament fields a national team. Throughout the regular soccer season, athletes play for clubs in Europe and North America. But at set times in the year, they return home to play for their countries.

The last of those windows is occurring right now for the final stage of 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Over the next week, top teams from each region are making a last push to qualify for the November World Cup finals in Qatar

In the North and Central America region, the top three teams at the end of the qualifiers are guaranteed a place in the tournament. The fourth team heads to a playoff for one more possible slot in the final 32. The rest of the teams in the confederation are disqualified. The U.S. Men’s team is currently in second.

They play longtime rival Mexico tonight.

BELZ: We've never beaten Mexico in Mexico City—in a World Cup qualifier. It's a very difficult place to play. They call it the Azteca. It's a 100,000 seat stadium. One of the sort of cathedrals of Global Soccer. I think we'll probably lose that game.

But Belz is more hopeful for next week’s games against Panama and Costa Rica. He believes that if the U.S. team can pull off a win in at least one of those remaining matches—they should head to Qatar. They’re trying to overcome the bitter disappointment of 2018’s failed bid to qualify.

BELZ: That was an older team. And they just couldn't quite get over the finish line. Now we have a very young team, most of our best players are in their early 20s. And one reason to be excited is just we've never had this many good players. The flip side of that is because they're so young, they're a little bit inexperienced.

Belz is excited about this American team—not just because of their abilities, but the make-up of the squad.

BELZ: The other thing I think that's really exciting about this team is just how diverse it is. It is really a nice reflection of the American dream. Mexican American from El Paso is one of the strikers on the team, one of our best attackers is the son of the president of Liberia. He was born and raised in New York. And, you know, it's just a nice cross section of the whole country, which has not always been as true.

The U.S. team has fared well enough so far in the tournament, but they haven’t lived up to many analysts’ expectations. Belz says that could change in these next three games.

BELZ: The player to keep an eye on is Christian Pulisic. He was only 17 when we failed to qualify for the World Cup last time. And there is, at least in my little world, iconic images of him crying. He now is one of the most expensive players in the world. And well regarded attackers. He has not played super well for the U.S. in this qualifying cycle. But I think he's going to come into this window with a lot to prove. He's the one to watch.

The global COVID pandemic threatened to derail the World Cup qualifiers, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine may lead some to wonder about the focus on sports at this time in history…but Adam Belz thinks there’s still reason to move forward with the tournament.

BELZ: For me—and for a lot of people who pay attention to soccer on the level of detail that I do—there's always going to be problems. And I think as cheesy as it sounds, the World Cup is even bigger than the Olympics at this point. You know, you got people all over the world coming together to share something and pay attention to something and enjoy something that is a beautiful game. And I think it's okay to pay attention to, even though there are big problems in the world.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

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