Tweet This: USA! USA!
Landon Donvan sends the US to the next round of the World Cup
For the first time since 1930 the US national soccer/football team won its World Cup qualifying group with a dramatic, last-minute, 1-0 win over Algeria. Soccer skeptics might immediately assume yet another yawning 1-0 match. But if those skeptics are also baseball fans, they might assume a great pitchers’ duel. In this instance, we had a great goalkeepers’ duel as Tim Howard of the US and Faouzi Chaouchi of Algeria were both kept busy with shots against the posts and breakaways. Indeed, it was as exciting and flowing match as could be hoped for. And as we predicted, social media kept the excitement flowing to ever widening audiences.
Twitter had its most overwhelming day when the US drew with England back on 12 June – soon followed by the Lakers’ dramatic win over the Celtics to win the NBA Championship. Yesterday’s world cup win will likely dwarf those figures, as the progress of the US team has been put in dramatic contrast to traditional powerhouses like France and England. The top three ‘hot searches’ on Twitter as of this posting relate to the match.
From a soccer fan’s point of view, one must now set one’s sights for the Round-of-16 match against Ghana on Saturday. From a social media user’s point of view, the intriguing issue is how one can watch the ripple effect of SM as even disinterested groups connected to interested groups get pulled into the excitement. One can imagine what could draw people unaware of your organization’s good work into the growing group who are well aware of your organization’s good work. Admittedly, scales are different (few of us get to have our jobs televised live on ABC/ESPN), but the effect is the same: the draw of connections among users of social media brings ever-growing results.
May the US have a similar result on Saturday – whether you follow it via social media, traditional media, or a likely combination of both.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD