And you thought soccer was not growing

On Wednesday the home office of OTWT received a shocking call from Endy in Outfield. At first I could not believe what I was hearing, it sounded like something tragic had happened. After talking to him, I try to figure out what was going on.

Endy called me to let me know that my father, who is 60 and home recovering after being sick for two months, watched the first half of the Barcelona/Racing Santander match on ESPN. I know what people are thinking, so what is the big deal with this, everything is. My dad hated the beautiful game, even going as far as making fun of my brother and I for spending so many hours on the weekend watching, but now maybe that is changing.

So after hearing the astonishing news, I called my father to see how he was doing and all he wanted to do is talking about "the big white guy with the big nose'' or as everyone knows him Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured right). He said he really liked him and thought he was fun to watch, he also expressed great love for the slick passing midfield duo of Xavi and Iniesta or as he called them ""the two short guys that look alike.'' Then my dad went on to tell to me about Barcelona and wanted to talk about how entertaining they were. It was almost cool to hear.

Maybe ESPN is the key to making soccer successful in this country, if my father can watch the first half of a game and express interest, who knows what is possible.