America hearts Clint Dempsey’s wonder goal against Stoke
No less a publication than the New York Times took note of Deuce’s wonder goal against Stoke earlier this week (watch it here), a small but sure sign that there is a growing appetite for football/soccer in the States.
The NYT ran a blog post yesterday titled “Spectacular Dempsey Goal Raises Eyebrows, and His Reputation”. Many other US blogs mentioned the goal, such as EPL Talk, which compared the strike to the screamer scored by John Harkes for Sheffield Wednesday in 1990.
Sometimes all it takes is one goal to make a player, and since his move to England in 2007, Dempsey has slowly played himself into the spotlight, not to mention a potential transfer to a bigger club than Fulham; Tuesday’s eye-catching goal against Stoke has boosted his reputation further. And of course, the bigger Dempsey becomes, the faster the game will grow in America.
Dempsey will never be a David Beckham type of celebrity, but his excellence may yet be enough to put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Fabio Capello, take note.
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Dirty Dempsey. Football is certainly a kick in the grass!
Why should Fabio Capello take note?
I’m from the states, been around the block a bit and let me say this: there might not still be a significant percentage of football fans here, but in absolute terms the numbers are growing and fast.
More people are sporting club shirts (esp. EPL), more people are watching on TV (Fox Soccer channel and ESPN THANK YOU), more people who might not even be sports fans have at least heard of the names of the big clubs (Man Yoo and Barca especially), compared to 10-20 years ago when NOBODY except the die-hards were into it.
Mark my words… the country might not win the world Cup in the next hundred years but there will be a slew of young talent popping up in the next 20 years from the US (including 1-2 “superstars” a la… oh you-know-who fillintheblank), and they will be just as enticing to European clubs as the rest of the world’s players are now.
I’ve always liked how Landy Cakes and Adu were so over hyped and achieved nothing, yet Dempsey came in completely under the radar and done brilliantly. The best outfield player the US has produced over the last 10 years.
Dempsey’s a fantastic player, who pairs excellent technique with a massive drive a work-rate. Glad to see he’s getting some real respect. And I think Donovan has a great opportunity to show that he’s just as good of a player while at Everton, albeit in a very small time frame. Hope he impresses.
Ellsass, I’m going to guess that Capello would take note because at 2 p.m. ET on June 12, 2010 Dempsey might score a goal like that again, thus handing the U.S. another famous victory over you limey Brits.
Yep, what Grant said. But I’m sure Fabio is not one to underestimate the States and particularly Dempsey.
I’m sure even Clint Dempsey can’t lead his team to that feat alone. Oh wait, you have Freddy Adu!