NCAA Tournament? Feh. Give Me the U.S. Open Cup...

Just read an editorial (if you can call an opinionated sports article an "editorial") today about how the NCAA basketball tournament captures the spirit of America more than any other sporting event. I beg to differ.

Perhaps it doesn't have the same attraction because of what sport it is, but I think the U.S. Open Cup has more of an all-American feel to it than the NCAAs. Let me explain...

The NCAA tournament is made up of college teams. PERIOD. No exceptions to that rule. Therefore, anyone playing on these teams was probably recruited for their playing ability to play at a University, where their needs are taken care of via scholarships.

Let's look at the makeup of most American soccer teams. Now, I'm not talking about MLS here (though some of what I'm about to say applies to players there, too). American soccer players are, for the most part, semi-professional players at best. Your typical A-League, D3 League, etc. player has to have another job at the very least just to make ends meet. Soccer is played because it's a passion, a love for the sport. Some of these guys put their lives on hold for the chance to play soccer at a high level.

Second, let's look at the leagues themselves. MLS and the A-League are full-fledged professional leagues, though they certainly don't make any where near the money of the big four sports. The D3 League is semi-professional. The PDL is made up of college students who need teams to play on in their college offseasons (to a large extent). And then there are the amateur teams, which can be anything from a bar team to a team made up of immigrants to group of pals who play in a city league. Any of these teams can take place in the U.S. Open Cup - as long as they're good enough and can get into an entry tournament of some kind.

Third, let's look at the sports themselves. By and large, basketball players have to be tall. If you're not a tall hoopster, and that's rare, then you need some other skill to fall back on to survive your scholarship. But soccer players can come in all sizes - towering defenders, nimble midfielders, rough and hard-charging wingers, speedy opportunistic forwards, or any number of combinations thereof. Jon Busch, goalkeeper for the Columbus Crew, is one of the better keepers in that league yet stands a whole 5' 10" in a position normally reserved for the giants of the league. Mamadou Diallo, a former leading scorer in MLS, was a monster player at forward, where you usually have smaller, faster guys. And the variations go on.

That's the beauty of soccer - it doesn't matter how big or small you are, it's how you play the game. If you can do something special with the body you've been given, you'll be a success. And that's what America is all about - doing what you can with what you have.

If that's not the American spirit at its best, I don't know what is.