My name is Kevin McCauley, and I am an association football fan from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While I have since escaped the frozen, barren wasteland that is the upper Midwest, I spent the entirety of my childhood and the majority of my short adult life in Wisconsin and Michigan. College football and basketball have always been a really big deal to me. It seems like, on a national level, the center of the college football universe is the SEC and the center of the college basketball universe is the ACC, though more recently, the Big East. Good football and basketball are always fine with me and I learned to appreciate other styles as I got older, but the Big Ten will always be close to my heart.
Association Football And The Big Ten Ethos: How The Midwest Affects My View Of The Beautiful Game
Throughout a lot of the country, Big Ten football and basketball are the butt of jokes. Not because people think the quality is poor, but just because they dislike the style of play. For the most part, in both basketball and football, there is a heavy focus on defense, hustle, and fundamentals. In football, Joe Paterno, Woody Hayes, and Bo Schembechler were kings for years. Hayes is famous for his “three yards and a cloud of dust” offense, while Paterno and Schembechler were famous for their stingy defenses. It was tough and nasty football, and guys like Barry Alvarez, Lloyd Carr, and Kirk Ferentz continued the tradition. In the opinion of some, it was also slow and boring football.
A lot of people think that Big Ten basketball is slow and boring as well. Tom Izzo, Bo Ryan, and Steve Alford have continued in the tradition of Jud Heathcote, Dick Bennett, and the legendary Robert Montgomery Knight. I recall a Sportscenter segment where they had cameras inside one of Bob Knight’s practices. When one of his players took a creative shot instead of playing inside of his narrow framework, Knight yelled at him “You’re not playing for f---ing Pat Riley!” Big Ten basketball games regularly fail to reach 100 combined points between the two teams. Once again, slow and boring.
It was never boring to me, though. It was what I grew up with. I absolutely loved the style of play of the elite Big Ten basketball and football teams. To me, a focus on defense and toughness with a general disregard for flashy play and creative play-calling was the way that sports were supposed to be played.
I played soccer as a kid, but I don't recall watching a lot of MLS or United States national team games. Obviously, when I was a kid, soccer wasn't very accessible on television or the internet. I came into my soccer fandom during the 2002 World Cup, when the United States defeated Portugal and Mexico en route to the quarterfinals. Of course, everyone loved Landon Donovan and Demarcus Beasley, the budding stars of that tournament, but I was a lot more attached to the guys who played with some serious fire and physicality like Brian McBride and Pablo Mastroeni. To me, they played the game the way it was supposed to be played.
Unfortunately, in 2002, I wasn’t aware of Fox Soccer Channel yet and internet streaming had not yet evolved to anywhere near its current level. For four years, I was mostly relegated to reading box scores and match reports on the internet while catching the occasional MLS game on television. When World Cup 2006 rolled around, I became a full-out soccer fanatic. How, exactly, I’m not sure.
See, World Cup 2006 was incredibly full of diving and play acting. A lot of people complained about the diving and play acting at World Cup 2010, but I don't think it was even close. Maybe this is just because I got used to diving in the four years between World Cups, but I don't think so. I'm pretty sure the diving was actually worse in '06. Anyway, it was appalling. I wanted to throw things at my television whenever Arjen Robben or Cristiano Ronaldo flopped around like a fish. Whenever an Italian faked an injury, I lost it. I was totally beside myself and I didn't understand how any self-respecting man could act like that. I thought it was the most revolting thing I had ever seen at a high level of professional sports.
There was one player in particular that I loved at the 2006 World Cup though, and that was Wayne Rooney. He didn't have a great tournament, nor did most of the England squad, but imagine what he looked like to me in comparison to guys like Ronaldo and Robben, who not only dived, but didn't really give their teams much in the way of defending either. I loved how Rooney got back behind the ball to try to win it back. I loved how he would push and shove with guys who were much bigger than him. I loved how he never dived or faked an injury. Looking back, a lot of his tracking back hurt his team. When Rooney was playing this way, constantly tracking back, and England (and Manchester United) would win the ball back, Rooney wasn't in a position to start the attack. I didn't understand this as a new fan of football. The Big Ten fan in me loved Rooney and despised Ronaldo. Even before the incident in the England-Portugal game, I couldn't understand how these guys could play together on the same team.
This got me watching Manchester United games for Rooney after the World Cup, but as a fan of him, not of the team. My favorite non-American at World Cup 2002 was Robbie Keane, so I was already very much committed to Tottenham Hotspur at this point. The English Premier league had more physical play and less diving than what I saw at the World Cup, so I became hooked pretty easily. As much as I despised these aspects of the game, and they truly were offensive on an almost personal level to me, I obviously loved the game enough that I was able to look past it.
I was able to get into the Bundesliga pretty easily, as that league was also pretty physical in nature, but La Liga and Serie A really took a while for me. Now that I’ve gotten over my biases a bit, Serie A is actually my favorite league in Europe, at the moment. This probably has to do with the tactical sophistication. Even though the EPL and Bundesliga are closer to Big Ten sports than Serie A on a physical level, the strategy of a lot of Serie A teams and their incredible discipline is closer to the Big Ten than the big teams in England. Due to my personal sporting biases, I’m a big fan of the Japanese and South Korean national football teams, who are incredible when it comes to tactical and positional discipline. It’s like Bo Schembechler is coaching soccer.
I feel like diving is less prevalent than it was a couple of years ago, but it’s entirely possible that I’ve just been conditioned to it. However, I’ve become a huge fan of Mexican football too, and that probably has more diving and play acting than any other league in the world that’s easily accessible for me. I’ve gotten used to it, and I actually find it hard to believe.
Big Ten sports seem to have a general ethos, and I really identify with it. An emphasis on defense, toughness, and fundamentals is more important than speed and creativity. I’ve learned to appreciate different styles and get over my anger when someone dives, but it took a really long time. My favorite players will still always be the Gennaro Gattusos of the world, but I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for a different way of looking at sports over my years of following the beautiful game.
But don’t think my appreciation of La Liga will ever make me appreciate Jamie Dixon. Never.
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