USZone,

I read a two month old article in ESPN the magazine, about how soccer is set to take over the US. It would be sorely welcomed considering the glory of the game and the lack of exposure it receives in the US. The MLS is doing a marvelous job of building soccer friendly stadiums in various markets for their teams, but more can still be done. Enough of that, my point is there are millions of americans that enjoy soccer and would be prime candidates for MZ teams. Why then do we have such a small following vs other countries. We have a high attachment rate for computers and internet access. What can we do, or what should we do, to expand the awareness of MZ and build up not only our member counts but also the strength of the US teams worldwide. Any suggestions?? We need some.

Nathan (najacob)

First off, we are excited to get our first letter to the editors. You bring up a popular topic amongst US Soccer fans, as well as US MZ users. I've recently been spending time at the BigSoccer forums ( http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/ ), and the forums there are filled with the same debate about US soccer, with many positive and negative opinions. While there are countless soccer forums on the internet, this one is huge, has a large US community, but many worldwide users as well.. If you aren't familiar with it, I invite you to spend some time there, as there are some very informed users there that discuss popular areas like the MLS and US NT, but often go into areas such as the stadiums, marketing & management, the United Soccer Leagues, youth soccer, the growth of the game, well... I could go on and on, the point is its very diverse and you can spend days reading up on opinions of what you've brought up so far.

The Zone would like to touch upon the growth of the game and its future in the US in future issues, so hopefully we can come up with some good reading. As for how to get more US users into MZ, that's a tough one too. I'd like to invite other readers to send in some ideas, perhaps we can arrive a list to publish in the Zone and see as a collective group we can improve the US's standing within the game. As for my own thoughts, two ideas come to mind. When I think about the users that have entered the game after me, they seem to have often come from two sources. 1) Word-of-mouth, or basically one MZ user convincing a friend (that may or may not already be a soccer fan) to join the game. 2) by hearing about MZ from forums on another online soccer management game. There are some other decent games out there, but at the same time most of the simulators are very formulaic and mathematical and it is easier to predict what will happen in games. They also often just have text descriptions of the matches, or at best a 2D representation similar to what MZ had 2 years ago... but MZ's 3D and dynamic game model appears to be unique in online management games. So for anyone out there playing another game, try to convert some users over the addictive world that Johan & company has created.

-- giggshasscored