Association football is without doubt the most popular team sport in the world (Foer, 2004; Giulianotti, 1999). ‘Football' is the national sport in a whole host of nations but in the United States of America it is positioned as a minority activity and is referred to as soccer. This ‘American exceptionalism' (Markovits and Hellerman, 2001) means that the game occupies a somewhat unique positioning within the country.
This research offers a critical reflection on the positioning of the sport in the USA through an analysis of print media coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals. This tournament was initially framed as a(nother) key moment in the development of the game within the nation but the failure of the national team to progress beyond the group stages meant that much negative commentary was directed at the players and the coach. Through a critical discourse analysis we examine the positioning of the game and the tensions between the local and the global in stories surrounding the tournament.
Given that many sports in the USA have their own ‘world championships', although these are played solely within national borders, the analysis indicates that an unrealistic expectation surrounds the national soccer team. The FIFA World Cup is a truly global tournament and although the USA has made significant progress in recent years the structure and social positioning of the sport within the country may limit any future development. The analysis provides an insight into the ‘glocalization' of the game and offers some reflections upon the place of the nation in the contemporary sports world.