Team USA did not have a great night on Monday, suffering a soul-crushing 4-1 defeat to the Belgians. The case for the future of soccer in America, however, had a very good night.
According to Michael Mulvihill of FOX, the viewership numbers for the game spiked to 50.1 million.
That includes the numbers from the audience on Fox (English-language), Telemundo, and Peacock (Spanish).
To put that in perspective, as Mulvihill’s post notes, that is the most-watched non-NFL sports event in over 30 years. A feat even more impressive when considering it was a Round of 16 game, not a quarter or semifinal game, much less a championship game.
As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes, “The NFL’s conference championships in January (Patriots-Broncos and Rams-Seahawks) averaged 47.4 million.”
Even factoring in the heavy influx of Spanish-language viewers, those are some very impressive numbers for a U.S. soccer team.
Getting Team USA to a point where it can compete on the field with European elites remains a vexing problem. After Belgium’s hard-fought 2-1 loss to Spain on Friday, the U.S. men’s loss looks a lot better.
But aside from the pitch, there’s no mistaking that the U.S. is capable of competing with anyone in terms of viewership. And it can no longer be said that the U.S. is a “bad’ soccer country.