SELLING THE GAME
AC Milan downs Barcelona in front of 51,391, showing soccer fandom still on upswing
SANTA CLARA >> The International Champions Cup gave a Bay Area audience a chance to tap into soccer’s mystique Saturday with storied teams FC Barcelona and AC Milan competing vigorously in front of 51,391 fans in what amounted to a well-executed summer scrimmage.
Another international soccer event attracted a festive crowd to Levi’s Stadium to again underscore Americans’ appetite for the world’s game.
Wildly popular Barcelona succumbed in extra time 1-0 on Andre Silva’s left-footed stunner. As dramatic as a finish as it was for Milan, it remains unclear how appearances of the world’s best teams can help kickstart this country’s ascendancy in soccer.
The question is perhaps more relevant than ever after the
United States failed to qualify for one of the most compelling World Cup competitions in history. U.S. Soccer has changed coaches and leadership but has yet to lay down a clear path to
reaching international respectability.
Charlie Stillitano, the creator of the popular preseason tournament that began six years ago, said the International Champions
Cup helps — to a degree.
“Our tournament has exposed children to the highest level of football,” he said. “As great as MLS is, it only helps soccer to have these superstars come over here. It’s like the NBA going to China.”
It didn’t matter that many of Barcelona’s god-like players were not part of the proceedings.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Ivan Rakitic, Gerard Piqué and Philippe Coutinho have been given time off after the World Cup that ended last month. Considering the Catalans open the season Aug. 12 in the Spanish Super Cup final the game’s stars needed a holiday.
Back in Spain, all the talk is about the transfer of Chilean
midfielder Arturo Vidal from FC Bayern Munich although Barca was spectacular in the first half. In Milan, the big news is the signing of Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain ahead of the Serie A opener Aug. 19 against Genoa.
But American aficionados also know Barcelona and Milan have combined to win 43 league titles, 35 major domestic cups and 13 Champions League crowns. The clubs’ traditions are enough of a cachet to bring heaps of attention to their sport. It’s one reason the summer exhibition tournament has been successful since its inception in 2013.
The Barcelona brand was the reason Oscar Pelaez of San Mateo brought his three soccerplaying
boys to Levi’s Stadium. The Guatemalan immigrant wanted his kids to get exposed to the tactics of a club whose distinct style has been the envy of the sport.
“Even though they look like kids, they touch the ball with beauty,” Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso said. “The way they play the game, the way they feel the game. It’s not the kind of thing you can copy and paste.”
Still, fans in attendance Saturday evening said such exposure will inspire a new generation of U.S. kids to pursue soccer with a fervor needed to elevate the country into the top echelon of the sport.
But with North America preparing to play host to the World Cup in eight years this country has yet to find consensus on which path to take.
Landon Donovan, the greatest U.S. player in history, blamed a system that fails to nurture potential
American talent.
“A big piece of the problem is this obsessive desire to win at a young age,” he said. “We have to get over the desire to win for 8 to 9-year-olds — it just doesn’t matter. If the incentive changes from winning soccer games to developing players we’ll be heading in the right direction.”
Paco Lobato, a coach with Spain’s Atletico de Madrid academy, has similar issues with the American system.
Lobato spent a week in Fremont recently working with American kids as part of La Liga Escuela de Futbol Nor Cal training camp. Lobato said through a translator U.S. soccer officials do a poor job of scouring the streets for talent — an age-old criticism of the highly structured youth system that is too expensive for many families.
Lobato is less concerned with the pay-to-play structure than the lack of a central performance
center like in other countries.
“What is really needed is to create a general scout structure that works for soccer — to have a spider’s web from north to south and from east to west and look for that talent and create a center or several centers of high performance with all available means,” he said.
Enrique Ponce of Watsonville knows what Labato means when it comes to the Latino communities.
“You don’t see scouts at the Sunday league games,” he said outside of Levi’s Stadium.
Ponce, 24, said promising players fade away because of family circumstances and the need to work.
But on Saturday almost everyone was paying tribute to the Europeans in their final preseason game leading Gattuso to conclude American soccer is ready for its ascent.
“It can only go up,” he said.