Two teams get together on a field for a competitive match. One team has assembled a starting lineup of some of the best players from across the world, none of whom played in the club’s development program. The other team counters with a lineup of all domestic players who were either products of the club academy, or joined the team for free.
Who wins? If you guess the first and better team, you’d be wrong. Granted, it wasn’t the second team either. The game finished in a scoreless draw, a far cry from what analysts predicted. Let’s elaborate now.
The teams, English giant Manchester United F.C. and Football League Two side Cambridge United F.C. The competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup is an annual tournament involving teams from across the UK. United is a mainstay in the Premier League, the top tier of English soccer. Meanwhile, Cambridge is currently in 12th place in League Two, English soccer’s fourth tier. The location was Cambridge, a great chance for the town to come together for this once-in-a-lifetime chance to upset a weakened United side.
While the match didn’t end in a victory for Cambridge, a draw was enough to prove a point. Soccer is the world’s best sport. Americans stand firm on their opinions that soccer is disinteresting and football, baseball or any other sport is better. While I respect everyone’s opinion, the FA Cup proves that you don’t need to be in the top league to be the best team.
Another eye-popping feature of this game is the cost of the starting lineup. When the transfer fees for starters on Manchester United’s squad were added, the total amounted to a whopping ₤145.5 million. The same total for Cambridge was even more astonishing: zero. That’s right, nothing.
To put this competition into American terms, it would be like the Greenville Drive, the A-level affiliate three tiers below the Red Sox, matching up with the New York Yankees in a game of baseball. The only difference, you could predict the outcome heavily in favor of the Yankees. That’s not the case in soccer.
Pop quiz! Who would win in a match: Premier League leader Chelsea F.C. hosting third level Bradford City A.F.C. and reigning EPL champion Manchester City F.C. hosting second level Middlesbrough. If you guessed Chelsea and Man City, you are extremely wrong. Both teams were upset by lower level teams and, incredibly, eliminated from the FA Cup tournament.
The result of both the Chelsea and the Manchester City matches were not only astonishing to fans all over the world, but very unpredictable. As is soccer in general. There’s no accurately predicting soccer matches.
Unlike many sports, soccer is 100 percent team-oriented. Each player is expected to help out on defense and contribute on offense. Leo Messi, despite his historic skill, would be incomplete without supporting cast members such as Neymar on the club level and Sergio Agüero internationally.
This makes soccer completely different from all other sports. In football, a quarterback can easily alter a game singlehandedly. Basketball can have games where players score half a team’s points. Hockey has players like Sidney Crosby, who controls the game with every move he makes. Pitchers can singlehandedly win a game in baseball.
But soccer is just different. While it’s true players like Messi must be watched more closely, there is no one player on the field during a soccer match who won’t have an effect on the outcome. Everyone plays. If one performs poorly, the team does too.
Finally, no other sport gives teams in lower levels or divisions a chance to knock off one of the best teams in the uppermost echelon. Only soccer gives everyone a chance, regardless of stature. Many sports fans will dislike lower-level teams being celebrated, but it is fair. Every team, not just the highly touted clubs, gets a chance to be the best and achieve glory. Plain and simple, it’s just fair.
So if you still believe soccer is not the world’s best sport, that is your prerogative. If this doesn’t change your opinion, I hope it at least made you think. For me, soccer is a private retreat away from life where everything is perfect. Win, lose or draw, everything is fair and you are still accepted by fellow fans.
Life isn’t always fair, but solace can be found in soccer. Anything can happen, it is fair and the unpredictable nature keeps the sport from lacking interest. For this reason, it is far and away the best sport in the world.
Daniel Shulman is a sophomore at Boston University majoring in Journalism through the College of Communication. A native of Stoughton, Dan is a sports fanatic who loves everything Boston sports related. He is currently a Sports Hawk at the Boston Globe in the High School sports department. He is also a statistician for both Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Men’s Ice Hockey. Aside from writing, Dan has an interest in music, movies and cooking.
