The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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50 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. PACK PERSPECTIVE BY TIM PEELER D uring the 2018 World Cup, I hap- pened to be traveling overseas with my wife on vacation. We started in Ger- many and made it through Austria, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece and back to England. At just about every stop, the commu- nities were consumed by their countries' games in the weeks-long international football tournament. We couldn't help but join in. We watched games on mas- sive television screens anchored into the Rhine River; on a projection screen in the middle of a town square in Split, Croa- tia, with strains of ZZ Top playing in the background; and in the middle of Trafal- gar Square in London on the night France beat Croatia, 4-2, for the title. When the title game ended, seemingly every French fan in the United King- dom surged through the streets, climb- ing onto the black taxis and statues of war heroes in roundabouts. It was much closer to a French takeover of the British capital than Napoleon ever attempted. I never really thought I would see any- thing similar on our side of the Atlantic Ocean. However, this year's expanded 48-team event, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, has come pretty close. And even though the U.S. team was eliminated in the Round of 16, the excite- ment has been sustained throughout the summer, with teams and their legions of fans celebrating being in the conti- nent's biggest cities almost as much as Americans celebrating the semi-quin- centennial. Is this finally the turning point for the United States to become a relevant force in the world's most popular sport? Two former NC State soccer players have opinions on that. One of them, leg- endary midfielder Tab Ramos, was in the maternity room when American soccer was born, first at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, followed by three consecutive appearances on U.S. World Cup teams. In 1994, when the entire event was held at nine venues in the U.S., Ramos was the centerpiece of the first American team since 1930 to advance to the Round of 16. The success of that summer led to the launch, two years later, of Major League Soccer, for which Ramos was the first player taken in the inaugural draft. So, will this year's World Cup create a similar spark in national interest in soc- cer? "It's the million-dollar question, isn't it?" said Ramos, who has been a coach, administrator and advocate for the sport since he first enrolled at NC State in 1984. "There's no doubt that the 1994 World Cup led us to this moment. So much has happened since then, but the aftereffects of 1994 went on for decades here in the States. We're still feeling it, and I do believe that this World Cup will do the same." Besides the games, soccer has seeped into American culture, with fans from around the world posting their thoughts on seeing the unfiltered U.S., from Buc- ee's to Costco to Waffle House. Ramos, who played professionally for 13 years and recorded 81 caps for the U.S. Men's National Team, has lived the change in excitement for his sport. He's a member of both the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame. Another interested observer is Curt Johnson, general manager of the Denver Summit Football Club, which began its inaugural season in the National Wom- en's Soccer League in March. Johnson, who helped lead the Wolf- pack to the 1990 ACC championship and the NCAA College Cup, has also de- voted his career to developing the sport he's loved since growing up in Raleigh and attending both Ravenscroft and NC State. "Hosting the World Cup has thrown gasoline on the fire of American soccer, and the fire is growing bigger and stron- ger," Johnson said. "An entire new gen- eration of people are being introduced to the game, just as their forerunners were going back to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 Women's World Cup." Johnson and Ramos both hope that introduction takes U.S. soccer to the next plateau of success in the international game. "Each time the global spotlight shines on the game, it inspires greater and greater participation," Johnson said. "I'm not just talking about players' participa- tion. I'm talking about investment, cor- porate support, city government, state government and national participation across the board." The cultural aspects of it can't be overlooked either. As Norway supporters rowed their way into the hearts of Amer- ica, Scottish fans literally drank Boston dry and German superfan Freddy went viral with his take on American hospital- ity, soccer tourists have injected them- selves into the daily lives of Americans who didn't know they needed it. Who knows, maybe the next World Cup will be projected on screens an- chored in the Hudson, Mississippi and Columbia rivers to frothing crowds around the country. ■ A three-time All-American during his time at NC State, Tab Ramos has been a passionate advocate for the growth of soccer in the United States. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS NC State Soccer Greats Relish The Growth Of Their Beautiful Game