All my life soccer fans have been predicting that “the beautiful game” would one day become “big” in the United States, and always they have been wrong. Soccer has always been a minor league sport for American sports fans, who have preferred the uniquely American games of football, basketball, and baseball. Well, it appears that soccer fans have their wish with the 2014 World Cup. For some reason, American fans are getting into an American team that has one win, one loss, and one tie, and just four goals in three matches–an also-ran among world “football” powers.
Am I an old curmudgeon to see this as one more bit of evidence of America’s embrace of mediocrity?
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?