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World Cup Qualifying is around the corner

With the start of the U.S. national team’s World Cup qualifying campaign a little more than a month away, it is about time for the media hype machine to start building. U.S. Soccer is doing its part with a new series of commercials set to begin airing. Here are a couple:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFCCiRbHXT8&hl=en]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18F1hloN5sQ&hl=en]

Can’t you just feel the excitement? I bet you’re ready to go home and try on your U.S. national team jersey right now.

Comments

  1. 1. The song sounds nothing like Green Day’s “Holiday.”

    2. The big problem with the ads is that they do zero for non-soccer fans. Before WHAT starts?

    3. They’re a bit too subtle, in all honesty. I think splicing in a least 1 quick bit of game footage would help make the connection a little more clear. It’s quite possible to miss what the ads are about if you aren’t paying complete attention.

    Anything is better than nothing, but they could have done better.

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  2. It’s not a Green Day ripoff, it’s a an Iggy Pop and the Stooges ripoff. “The Passenger”.

    I think Green Day ripped it off as well.

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  3. I thought the commercials were fine –the second one is really exciting. I just can’t wait and I love this team so whatever it is, I’ll just smile about it.

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  4. Explosions in the Sky makes me feel like I am saving the world when I am taking a crap.

    Two things I am looking forward to:

    1) The Jay DeMerit movie in 10-15 years, complete with him sliding on the captain’s armband for some 2010 world cup qualifier

    2) The inevitable, incredibly pissed off Don’t Tread On Me commercial featuring footage of newDonovan running around Azteca screaming after scoring a goal.

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  5. Better idea: lets get Eastwood to direct a 30 second commercial, make it look like 11 soccer players vs 20,000 japanese soldiers.

    Get serious people its a damn commercial… oh yeah, and we’re playing barbados in LA, I’m sure when we go down to Mexico City they will get a little more into it

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  6. With marketing like this it is easy to see why footie is a second-tier sport in this country. Lose the boring, milquetoast, crap. Show some aggro and get people excited!

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  7. All we’re asking for is a 2 hour highly choreographed montage of the last 38 games broken down in to one amazing sequence with new recordings from the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen playing in the background.

    Seriously guys, standards a bit much for teaser commercials. Freakin’ commercials for our US national team and you want f’ing Coppola behind the camera.

    I dig them both.

    Ohh, and for the guy who thinks it’s lame to yell USA in the huddle. WHAT THE HELL SHOULD THEY SAY? 1 2 3, … seriously, what ELSE would they say. They’re representing us, my heart is filled with pride hearing them chant the reason they are playing.

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  8. i like the commercials. i’ve been waiting 2 years for the games to begin and i’m glad to see u.s. soccer having commercials to get the fans into it from the beginning.

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  9. these commercials are just boring. there is nothing wrong in particular, they’re just totally insignificant and unnoteworthy.

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  10. “Explosions in the Sky’ playing in the background…”

    for serious. They can get me anxious to watch curling if they wanted.

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  11. Firs commercial = emmm, don’t all athletes lift weights?

    Second commercial – time lapse segueing to the USA huddle = perfect amount of patriotism.

    1 out of 2 ain’t too bad.

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  12. I wanna have some artsy commercial with Jay workin’ his tail off and ‘Explosions in the Sky’ playing in the background. That would be epic!

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  13. My original comment was only a reaction to the first video. I love the “U-S-A!” chant out of the huddle.

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  14. I think was just a commercial to show Bob, that the blond guy at the end of the bench is still there.

    Demerit is the red headed step child of the US Nat’l team.

    On a sacastic note i’m looking forward to Bob playing grab a$$ for another year with boca & bornstein

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  15. Actual game clips would be cool. And how about one of those montage songs from Rocky, some slo-mo shots, some clips of us getting boo’d and getting knocked on our asse a bit, then us scoring and coming back. I’m being serious – show the heart and guts on the field! This stuff is too generic.

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  16. Well, under the category of something is better than nothing, these were good. I can’t ever remember any advertising to announce WC qualifying. Maybe I blinked or wasn’t paying attention?

    They should’ve identified Jay in the first commercial. Say he’s a defender playing in England…talk about the fact that he played for a pub team 4 years ago. Gimme something, he’s the Rocky of American soccer for God’s sake.

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  17. Was that Demerrit in the first clip? Count me amongst those that get chills when I hear a U-S-A out of the huddle.

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  18. Okay, seriously. On reflection: what a lame cheer. “U-S-A?” We should be doing a Māori haka dance like the All Blacks to psych ourselves up for games.

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