USA Hockey vs. USA Soccer - Who Had the More Significant Win?

USA beat Canada in hockey tonight in a game some people (not me) are calling the biggest win for USA hockey since the Miracle on Ice. Other people (this is me) want to argue that this game should play a pretty big role in promoting hockey in the States and get more people interested in the NHL. And when I thought of this my memory immediately went to this past summer when USA beat Spain 2-0 in the Confederations Cup and a lot of people believe this would be the start of soccer becoming big in the United States. So I thought it'd be interesting to look at each game and see which game could have a bigger impact in promoting their game in this country.

Let's start with soccer shall we? It was obviously a big win, shutting out a team like Spain and did a tremendous job of immediately boosting national interest in soccer. It also did a great job of telling the rest of the world what the United States is capable of in the game. And I think that's where the impact will be felt first. As Tom wrote last week, a lot of American players are playing abroad and having pretty good success. While that is great for the National team, the effect at home won't be as great because the fans won't have the ability to go to a game to watch all these great players. I know I pay more attention to game played in England than the MLS games played here in the States and that has a large effect on the fact that the good American players are playing over there. This win for the USA is huge for the National team and will surely have more people interested in the World Cup this summer in South Africa but on an MLS level the effect won't be that great unless more of the top American players are playing here during their club season.

Now on to the events from tonight. I really think this is a big game for the NHL in the United States. Gary Bettman was interviewed after the game and really made a point of this being similar to an NHL playoff game. The game was played in an NHL stadium, with mostly NHL rules, using NHL officials, and consisting of all NHL players. Clearly, the common denominator here is the NHL, and that's why I think this game will have a bigger impact on the interest level of hockey opposed to the interest in soccer because of the win against Spain. All the athletes people saw tonight all play in a league that is played on this continent and that's huge when it comes to taking national success and bringing it back after this tournament. And similar to ESPN beginning to air Premiership matches on Saturday mornings at ungodly early times, we'll see NHL games being aired more nationally. The one difference is that the games can be played at prime time here and that will increase viewership significantly.

Either way you look at it, America has stepped up big time in sports we're not usually great at and for that we can all join in and say USA! USA! USA!