What Does the Rest of the World Know about Soccer that Americans Don’t?
The biggest sporting event in the world will begin on Friday, when 32 teams will compete for the World Cup, the most coveted trophy on the planet.
At least, it’s coveted everywhere outside the United States. A great, collective yawn is how most Americans are greeting the news of the soccer tournament getting underway in South Africa. Why this is so is truly mystifying. Millions of children play the sport. Soccer camps abound across the country. The sport is sponsored and promoted by the usual corporate suspects who, along with the rest of us soccer fans, continue to wait for the sport to take off in a big way in the U.S. and lead to the game becoming a major sport.
It’s a familiar refrain. When Henry Kissinger and other high-level American soccer fanatics lobbied the International Federation of Association Football, commonly known by its acronym FIFA, to allow the U.S. to host the World Cup tournament in 1994, it was believed that bringing the event to America would supply the impetus for a huge burst of interest and excitement about the game in the United States. In anticipation of this, the MLS professional league was born, and a big push for corporate sponsors to help the national team become competitive on the world stage was undertaken.
At first, it appeared the naysayers would have to eat dirt. The plucky U.S. national team shocked the world by moving through to the round of 16 by pulling off one of the most stunning upsets in World Cup history, beating Colombia 2-1. But while the stadiums where games were played were filled to capacity, and TV ratings exceeded expectations, the response of the country could hardly be termed spectacular. About 9 million people tuned in to the championship game that year — about 10% of the audience for the Super Bowl.
The nascent MLS floundered as well. Despite those millions of kids playing in youth leagues, most stadiums were embarrassingly empty. Then, in 1998, with expectations for the U.S. national team high for the World Cup in France, our boys finished dead last, including a humiliating defeat at the hands of Iran. It appeared that 1994′s modest burst of interest in the sport was a mirage.
The historic run to the quarterfinals by the U.S. national team at the 2002 World Cup — the first time a U.S. squad had advanced that far since 1930 — didn’t work any magic either. TV ratings were about what they were in 1994. And the unmitigated disaster in 2006 (the U.S. was held to one goal in three games) didn’t help. It seemed that each World Cup cycle brought predictions of the sport taking off to the stratosphere in America only to have the game lay an egg.
In a sports-mad country like America, why is this? Some pundits go ludicrously far in ascribing political reasons to this failure:
For sure, there may be a number of reasons that is the case but my suspicion is that the so-called “beautiful game” is not so beautiful to American sensibilities. We like, as good small “d” democrats, our underdogs for sure but we also still expect folks in the end to get their just desert. And, in sports, that means excellence should prevail. Of course, the fact that is often not the case when it comes to soccer may be precisely the reason the sport is so popular in the countries of Latin America and Europe.
There is a reason that every single World Cup final since 1950 except one (1978) has involved either Germany or Brazil, and it’s not because they are dominated by other teams. There may, indeed, be political reasons for America’s failure to embrace the sport, but that’s not one of them. It may be as simple as our desire to consciously separate ourselves from Europe and the rest of the world — an American exceptionalism that affects even the games we play.
But leaving politics aside, the reason that soccer has not arrived (and may never rise) to the first tier of professional sports in America is tradition and timing. There is no American soccer “tradition” as there is in baseball and football. Even basketball enjoys a tradition far beyond any national memories we have of American soccer.
“The U.S. midfield is solid, even spectacular with Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan recognized as two of the top players in the world at their positions. The goalkeeper Tim Howard has had success playing in England.”
Have to disagree about Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan being two of the top players in the world in their positions. In fact its a ridiculous statement as neither of them are anywhere near that level Dempsey especially. Avergae both of them
DSR,
Rick certainly exaggerated the creds of Demps and Donovan, but you are downplaying them – they are bonafide starting EPL-caliber midfielders and that is nothing to sneeze at. They are certainly not elite, but they do their jobs well and if the USA gets any pace up top (Findley?Buddle?) the USA are threats to score. The backline is subpar, and without a solid showing by Howard, will doom the USA to an early exit in the round of 16.
The most boring game in the world. A game 90 + minutes long that normally has a score of 1 to 0. Wow thats really exciting… NOT. I will leave my TV off and watch the grass grow in my back yard thanks.
You put your finger on it. In soccer, good games are low-scoring (a few years ago, it seemed like half were being decided by penalty kicks, which is a travesty). Americans like action and scoring (as spectators – it’s a great participatory sport). That aside, if the U.S. team were to go far in the WC, that would start to catch people’s attention. Since that’s not imminently likely, I think it’s dependent on long term grassroots involvement/interest and increasing U.S. team quality over time. Both of these factors will be abetted by demography and immigration. We are talking here about a process that will take decades – but I would lay odds that by 2075 or so, U.S. will be a consistent top competitor on the world stage, and soccer will be a major sport at home.
I think what is even more boring is watching Danny Alves roll thirty yards down the field acting like he got injured. The game is constantly stopped because of clowns like him, Gerrard, and Henry to name a few. players who fake an injury have no shame and that’s why Americans hate the sport.
And you guys like basketball? It’s the most tedious game in the WORLD.
Agreed. The most boring game ever conceived. Also the only game where Venus de Milo (as presently equipped) could become a superstar.
Bob, you are correct-a-mundo. I tried watching 5 minutes of world cup soccer today… DAMN BORING… plus with all their horns (?), it sounds like being outside at an airport listening to engines revving. What is with the stupid horn blowing? I don’t get the whole thing.
Besides the fact that soccer is a boring euroweenie game, America has a superior and interesting game called football.
One more point:
Soccer is quite a boring game to watch, specially compared to American Football. In most game it is a lame midfield kick with two, three exciting moments per hour.
It got so pupular by tradition and ease of play, you essentially just need some space and a ball to play.
I have been living out of the States for 4 years in a country that worships football/soccer, so I have been exposed to many matches being televised and many discussions about the various leagues and players in Europe and elsewhere. Even with this exposure I still find watching an entire match to be a chore.
I wasn’t brought up with the game, so I do not understand the intricacies or even maybe the fundamentals. I do understand and admire the excellent physical abilities exhibited by the players.
But to me, and I think many other U.S. sports fans, the matches lack drama. They are boring to me. The game is fast paced, to be sure. But usually the pace and constant back-and-forth results in not much else, scoring-wise.
Soccer? BAH!
Compare soccer to baseball: Baseball has more frequent scoring, rapid accelerations of game play, players who must play multiple roles, complex and intriguing coordination and contextual dependencies, and a sense of accumulating tension in all but “blowout” games.
Compare soccer to football: Football has lots of scoring, staccato passages of great speed and violence, the most complex play calling and coordination of all sports, a plethora of subtle rules, and an inherent offense-defense clash that the viewer can never forget.
Compare soccer to basketball: Basketball has lots and lots of scoring, complex rules and coordination, continuous motion and offense-defense interplay, and frequent intervals of elevated tension. Besides, only via pro basketball can we derive significant entertainment from watching teams composed 70% of deadbeat fathers and 30% of convicted felons bounce a ball against a hardwood floor.
Compare soccer to ice hockey: Here’s the closest comparison, for ice hockey hasn’t “taken off” nearly as well as the aforementioned three sports. It’s difficult and tiring, and it features occasional refreshing violence, but like soccer, its rules are excessively simple, and long intervals can go by with no scoring or any other sort of climactic event.
Soccer isn’t just boring; it’s so simple even a child can understand it — and only a prepubescent child could take an interest in it. Apropos of which, where are the cheerleaders? A game with sidelines should have cheerleaders in scanty outfits. To say nothing of “sideline news babes,” such as have become prominent in football.
Clearly, soccer — a friend prefers to call it “European kickball” — is “not ready for prime time.”
I read through these comments and yours was clearly the best. I love the term “European Kickball”. Soccer is simply dull to watch. It might be fun to play, but it’s boring to watch. It’s right up there with watching other people bowl or fish. But then, even baseball bores me to tears most of the time.
In Mexico, the soccer liga has copied the cheerleaders, has wannabe Erin Andrews holding down a mike, and feature gratuitous shots of any hottie in the crowd. They must of learned at the knee of Harry Caray Cubs games for that last one. Even over there, the sport competes with Baseball and even Football especially as you get closer to the border and the average height/weight of the local population increases; you dont see beefy pale Sonorans on the pitch, instead they’re at the mound and plate. Narcos play baseball; the run of the mill illegal plays soccer.
Hockey may not have a lot scoring but it has many scoring opportunities. There are usually 50-60 shots on goal in average game if the games ends up 1-0. It is also lightening fast and hard hitting. Soccer players, who are usually held up as “tough” guys are really wimps. They feign injuries all the time. In hockey taking a dive earns you 2 minutes in the box for unsportsman-like conduct. Many decry North American hockey as a goon sport, but this is nonsense. In today’s day and age even the enforcers are skilled players. What’s more all the violence occurs on the ice instead of on the stands.
The Stanley Cup or Olympic Hockey provide some of the most exciting and compelling images in all of sports.
Amen, Amen, Amen, and Amen, especially with respect to the cheerleaders!
It is indeed strange. The underdog theory is interesting.
In regards to the World Cup. Americans are not really interested in any international sporting events except for the Olympics. I think the US is too big a country for people to feel strongly enough for the individual players on a national team. The distance is too big. Each state have none or maybe one local player on the national team. If the the states each were to compete like individual countries the way Scotland and Wales do (California vs. France, New York vs. Brazil), I think it would be different. Likewise in Europe nobody would care much about an EU team.
I agree with zazaz in that soccer is a cheap game to play and thus popular in third world countries. Europe used to baffle me with their love of teh game however I have a new theory as to why it’s popular. The national sport will reflect the nations culture and political system to a large extent. Third world countries (and europe under an increasingly socialist system) reflect soccer perfectly. Lots of actions, where things are seemingly happening constantly but only once in a great while does anything actually get done. Latin America, South America, Europe, Asia…..most countries in these places talk, talk, talk, talk, talk but rarely does anything of note get accomplished.
I think that in certain quarters or more accurately certain pubs in Britain Bob Devine and Zazaz would be lucky to get out in one piece.
It’s a game! It’s also a game which arouses passions world wide especially in South America where it’s akin to religion.
Here in a Britain where our previous Labour government presided over a regime which tried to ban the English George Cross flag as not ‘inclusive enough’ or ‘upsetting for Muslims’ the pennants are flying in defiance.
We even had a black government minister who suggested that the Union Jack be redesigned to reflect the ‘diversity’ of Britain.
So whats happening here is anger, passion and a pushback which melds our national sport with patriotism. A terrible admission really but thats what they tried on and its not working.
I’m not a football fan but I am a fan of Britain so if there’s any way I can show those marxist trolls who would sooner fill our land with Pakistanis than show a bit of spine I’m all for it.
It’s the name: the name the rest of the world calls it — football — was already taken by our own game, so someone came up with the silly name soccer. (and why should I hit her?)
The game itself does not appeal to American sensibilities.
Hard to put a finger on why it hasn’t ever taken off in the US as how can the rest of the world be wrong? I think it will remain one of those cultural differences though and will never really take off in the US. Take Baseball for instance apart form America and Canada and maybe Japan the rest of world feel the way about that as you do about football and I have to say I agree as I could not sit through an entire baseball game or basketball for that matter without falling asleep. I guess if you are not brought up exposed to something it becomes harder to grow to like/grow used to it as you get older which would explain the lack of enthusiasm for football(soccer) in the USA and the lack of enthusiasm for most US sports pretty much everywhere else outside the US.
Take Baseball for instance apart form America and Canada and maybe Japan the rest of world feel the way about that as you do about football
I’d have to disagree with that, take a look at the world baseball classic sometime. Note the large number of latino players in baseball currently. Baseball is hugely popular in Mexico where most towns have a baseball team.
I think those who point out the crowded sports schedule have part of the answer. There really are simply too many sports going on for Americans to get interested in one more. It’s more than that, Baseball and Football (the American variety) are deeply rooted in the American Psyche. Most Americans grew up playing these games in school, either on organized teams or in back yard pick up games.
Baseball especially is part of the warp and weft of American History. The average American can name many of the great baseball players in history. And most who are not baseball fans at all will know who Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez are.
Soccer will never be a top tier sport in America because it simply doesn’t have the history those two sports have in this country.
Now, can some one please explain to me why Sumo hasn’t caught on in America?
Patrick
Perhaps another reason soccer is more popular everywhere else is the fact that it gives lots of little unimportant countries a chsnce to be a “big boy” for a little while. Many of these countries have a lot of national pride ( not that there is anything wrong with that) and the world cup is a chance for them to shine for a little while. . .
stop being arrogant!!!!!!!!! i bet you dont even play any sport
There is a reason for soccer’s popularity. You need zero equipment. You don’t need a perfectly flat surface like in basket. You don’t need it to be covered in grass or some other relatively soft coating like in rugby if you agree on game without tackles. You don’t need goals: two stones will do. You don’t even need a ball: you can play with an empty can. And because of soccer’s unstructured nature you don’t need to be 11 against 11. You can make a one on one dribbling game in a street using an empty can. You can’t do this in rugby or football.
Being a soccer fanatic is a way to express nationalism which is otherwise looked down upon in politics in Europe. Its a way for a nation’s red state people to get together. Politics in Europe is a race between the big gov’t party and the slightly less big govt party. Shall we have large taxes or really large taxes? See you get to choose. But there is no way to express conservative values. Its all been stamped out. So maybe soccer is a way to do that.
The reason soccer is not an American sport is it did not provide the necessary timing for commercial breaks required to make that air-time financially profitable. While we have cable television now, the market is far too distributed for it to focus the attention like it could 40 or 50 years ago. I lived in the U.K. where in 1993 they only had 4 channels of television–you were pretty much compelled to watch whatever was on.
European and third-world nations with state-sponsored television do not need to worry about advertising concerns, hence, the ubiquity of coverage. It is also is a very nationalistic game–so it’s a win-win for state-sponsored television and the teams.
Soccer is similar to lacrosse, except that lacrosse has respectable levels of scoring. Nevertheless, you people who think that soccer is boring don’t like lacrosse, either. Nor do you like indoor soccer, which has more scoring than the outdoor variety. Nor do you like rugby or cricket, which have plenty of scoring.
Denouncing soccer because it is boring is a purely subjective kind of judgment, and with such judgments there can be lots of differences of opinion. In Britain, the occasional high-scoring soccer game is denounced as “mere basketball.” In Australia, they tend to agree that soccer is boring, but no one has much inclination to follow our sports. They prefer rugby, Australian rules football, and cricket. Although I grew up with our sports, I began to find baseball utterly slow and boring even before I got involved in soccer. Football is ok, except that you must endure three hours merely to watch fifteen minutes of action. Basketball is exciting, but it is the most soccer-like of our three sports.
But for those of you who insist that soccer is worthless because it is boring, consider the following:
1. Yesterday, I played in a soccer pick-up game. I am 59 years old. The game I played in was real soccer. When was the last time you actually played real baseball (not softball) or real football (tackle and not touch)?
2. In soccer-playing countries, there are generally many levels of leagues, from the top professional leagues down to the lowliest amateur leagues. There are many opportunities to play on your own team. In football, if you’ve graduated from college, what opportunities are there for you to play? There’s the NFL and not much else. You are in your prime, yet you are forced to quit playing your favorite game. Ditto for basketball. What a waste.
3. There’s lots of international competition in soccer. It’s happening constantly. How much international competition is there in football? None. That means that as a player, you will never be able to represent your country, whether in the Olympics or anywhere else, and as a fan you will never be able to root for your country. How pathetic.
Before you dismiss soccer, you might want to consider some of the ridiculous defects in our sports.
John,
I fail to see how your arguments make soccer any more interesting.
1) Just because you were able to play a “real” game, doesn’t degrade the value of other people playing a pick-up game of softball or football. The point of those games are to have fun, and probably drink beers afterward.
2) Many people who watch sports have no desire to make a living out of it, or play it that frequently to be in a league. Our professional leagues are made from the best of the best. Amateur hour ends in college, let’s watch the pros.
3) We don’t care about international competition. We are more regionally oriented. Do we care if we will never see a national football team go up against Brazil, Germany, or Japan? Not at all. We have a little emotion for the Olympics, but we don’t sustain those feelings once it’s over. Most of the time, we’re even tuning into other events when the Olympics are on.
First it looks like there are a few arguments going on in this thread. I think John was explaining why people like soccer, and you are arguing about watching. I would also appreciate it if you did not speak for the rest of the country as I love watching soccer. Just because you might have the attention span of a fruit fly does not mean I do not enjoy the sport. I plan on watching as many games as possible. I love to plan and watch. The athletic ability is great and while there might be little scoring involved each goal is more important. In basketball there are so many points they become irrelevant individually. In soccer every score is so important that the anticipation is huge. My opinion is that many of my fellow Americans have lost no patients and that is part of our culture. Instant gratification with little foresight.
Brian, My aren’t we so high and mighty as to be able to sit through (and enjoy) a soccer game. Anyone who can’t is obviously and imbecile without the intelligence of a common house pest. You are the real reason why the sport will never take hold in the U.S. Every soccer fan is so santimonious about their superior intellect and refinement because they understand the game and, obviously, if you don’t like it you must be a boor. I too like a sport that doesn’t reign supreme here, but I take the time to try to explain the game to them when they question why I like it. I don’t spend my time comparing thier attributes to that of a “fruit fly”. But, since I don’t like the game, keep on insulting those of us that don’t, that will really get everyone behind it.
I do not, nor will I ever care whether you or anyone else likes soccer. If you do not like the sport do not watch it, pretty simple. People should only watch things they like. I was rather trying to explain why some (plenty of us like the sport) Americans do not want to watch soccer.
Can’t stand soccer. Love lacrosse. There are many more scoring chances, and goals, in lacrosse, but they’re not cheap or automatic. And while I never played, I went to a college with a historically strong lacrosse program, and was educated as a fan early on.
That may have something to do with it. Playing a game doesn’t necessarily translate into enjoyment of watching it, or vice-versa.
I can’t stand soccer, yet I enjoy LaCrosse (which is not like soccer, BTW), and I could actually sit through a rugby match and have never seen a full cricket match, so you’re theory really isn’t that sound so far.
Playing the game almost the same way at your age and physical level isn’t really a ringing endorsement for the quality and level of play for the sport in general. Your whole post is just one big reason whyt people don’t like soccer, the level of play isn’t that impressive. The NFL is exciting b/c there are so few “elite” players platying it. It’s the pinnacle of the sport and there are no schleps crowding the field.And why is it “Pathetic” to not play football internationally? I would say, as others did, the rest of the world seems to worry about international sports b/c that’s the only thing they have a chance at winning. We worry about the important things, internationally speaking.
Basketball is nothing like soccer. It’s absurd for you to say so. Clock management, play-calling, and physical talent are not even on the same planet as soccer. The skill to get the ball into the rim, which is only twice the size of the ball itself, while running, jumping or having somebocy in you face doesn’t even compare to soccer where the net is, what, 500 times the size of the ball?
1. Soccer is tedious (as others have noted). The issue is not that the scores are low, it is that the ATTEMPTS to score are almost non-existent. The principle offender of this phenomenon in the sport is the “offside rule” (which is fluid, complex ball and defenders are involved, and maddeningly inconsistent in its application) which effectively ends any purposeful offensive effort. Getting into scoring position is practically an accident. Put the concept of the Red and Blue lines into soccer (Blue line being the offside line where once the ball is past the blue line there can be no call until the ball recrosses the blue line) and the offensive excitement and shot count will increase. Scoring might not increase, but the actual attempts to score will go up.
2. Soccer matches are too long; about a half hour too long. The odd time additions that make the end of the game sort of a baffling and unpredictable don’t help. There is a simple elegance to time pressure where a match is potentially exciting at 30 minutes a half. It is crushingly boring and lethargic at 45 (or 47, or 48… ) minutes per half. Running around doing much of nothing tends to cause interest to flag.
3. The charge that Americans don’t like soccer is ludicrous in the extreme. No one who has endured Spring and Fall club soccer, travel league soccer, school soccer… searching for shin guards, finding the right sized ball, getting the right colored shorts… Mitre, Addidas, Nike cleats/boots/shoes… Sorry world, The US plays more soccer on any given Saturday or Sunday Spring though Fall, than any nation on the planet. Where else would women voters get the nickname “Soccer Moms”? Soccer is the “normal sized” kid sport. The bulk of my county’s park system is devoted to literally hundreds of various sized soccer fields, usually packed with kids playing “scatter-ball”. Parents crowd the sidelines screaming, exhorting, admonishing running back and forth… being burned to a crisp in the heat, or freezing in a cold drizzle. Between my three kids, there are several thousand dollars in soccer gear, fruit for half time, and league fees – along with a little over 20 seasons of play at two a year.
Americans play soccer. They just don’t watch it on TV. They don’t because it is mind numbing, and scoring seems to be accidental. We are also well aware of “nuance”, its just that it strikes us as silly if that marvelous technique has nothing to do with putting the ball in the net.
The World Cup is the impotent nations’ substitute for war, but then I guess the Olympics are the powerful nations’ substitute as well. Which is why riots break out. Hordes of bored, drunks need something to keep their attention.
The World Cup will continue to be a yawn. Waiting for the real season to begin… How many days until August 8?
R/The Mighty Fahvaag
You sir, are awesome
Excellent points all. I used to love playing soccer, and really irritated a lot of Chilenos by being able to play better than average when I lived down in Chile for a couple of years. But how can anybody stand watching it? It’s at least as repetitive as basketball but without the scoring. Everybody I spoke to about it in Chile predicted that the US would finally come to love soccer after the World Cup was held here and I said ‘no way’ every time. Fact is we do love soccer–just don’t want to watch it.
There’s an interesting theory that’s been around since the 70s that Americans are adrenaline deficient; our ancestors just didn’t get enough of a kick out of watching plants grow on the same field for a gazillion generations and were too easily annoyed by the local magnates ‘prima nocte’ activities. The theory may be bunkum but if it were true it might explain why soccer is so unpopular here and popular elsewhere (as a spectator sport). If we Americans don’t get excited so easily as ‘furriners’ then getting bored with soccer makes all kinds of sense. I’m not a fan of watching baseball, but it’s not just action that attracts fans–it’s the planning, the strategy, etc. Keep the mind busy that way and seats will get filled by those who enjoy that kind of thing. Basketball doesn’t have as much strategy but it’s paced frenetically for those who are particularly lacking in adrenaline. Football, of course, is the perfect spectator sport, with a bit of strategy and plenty of action and what attracts me, the drive.
Of course maybe we’re not at all adrenaline deficient. Maybe just easily bored.
A lot of points can get racked up in cricket, too. Why don’t we like that here?
We did in the early 19th century. It was an upper class sport that lost out as baseball became popular.
Soccer is, not to put too fine a point on it, BORING. BORING BORING BORING Hey, they almost scored BORING BORING BORING BORING Almost scored again BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING Tie game lets do penalty kicks BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING
The World Cup begins today and America couldn’t care less.
Yes.
Thank you Mr. Moran for having the decency to not rag on us for our national indifference to soccer. Why you ask, does this tournament create a national yawn here? Well, the less than masculine players who flop around as if they have been shot, are carted off on a stretcher only to return in a minute or two running as if nothing happened. You mention the 1994 World Cup where the US defeated Colombia 2-1. I remember a Colombian player being murdered because the winning goal was deflected of of Pablo Escobar into his own goal.
In short, the player are wussy boys and the fans are psychotic.
Little contact, low scoring makes soccer a loser here.
Plus the fact that we have too many big time sports already.
In the US, a fan really has to pick 3 or 4 sports to pay attention to and ignore the rest for the most part.
I just finished watching all the Stanley Cup games (becuase the Blackhawks were in it) but that is more hockey than I’ve watched in years.
I don’t buy the “too little contact” thing. There is more contact in soccer than basketball and baseball.
I fear we are not going to fight for any of our allies unless they happen to share Obama’s view of kindness toward Islam and fascism. Israel is on her own, and the only good news in all this is that Israel may have the forces necessary to handle the situation. But it’s the principle of the matter that’s so hard to ignore – we are literally turning our backs on the one Western nation in the Middle East.
This story runs every four years. I’m taking my 92-year-old father to the museum on Saturday afternoon so I can avoid the U.S.-England game. On the week of the World Cup, Time ran a special section promoting the tournament (one article was written by John Carlin, the London Sunday Times correspondent who wrote that Flight 93 was a hoax) even though it is the sister of Sports Illuistrated. On the week of the Saints’ inspiring Super Bowl, Time’s cover alerted us to the dangers of head injuries in football. What better illustration is there of the adversarial relationship of the American press and the American public? By the way, I have been a soccer fan for 40+ years, and can still name Coventry City’s F.A. Cup winning side from memory; I just resent soccer being used as yet another stick “our betters” beat us with.
All the three big American Sports — baseball, football, basketball — have deep spiritual components that combine individual dynamics with structured societal dynamics. Soccer simply does not have them. In soccer is is really just ‘us versus them’. Mob versus mob.
Every American sport is LEVELS of spirituality higher than that.
The one sport we have closest to soccer is basketball. In fact basketball was invented to as a winter training form of soccer. So what does basketball have that soccer does not? A LOT more structure, set plays, long term game strategy. Basketball, played at the advanced level is ALL highly structured, coordinated plays where the ball passes in predictable set ways between teammates. The size of the soccer field and the number of players precludes that higher development of ballet-like coordinated teamwork.
Comparing soccer to basketball is like comparing a worm to a snake. A snake is a much higher form of developed animal. Snakes have backbones, far more developed internal systems.
Football, at the advanced level, is a massive game, 90% of it is off the playing field in the provenance of the coaching staff. It is the one sport that most closely approaches War — it is a game of logistics, of special forces, of planning, training not so much in skills and strength, as in tactics and strategy.
Don’t forget the hooligans — the rest of the world condemns the US for being violent, yet except for when the Detroit Pistons win the NBA (yet another boring sport — too much scoring) championship, we don’t riot. Other countries riot over games during the season, even going to war once over a game.
We Americans already have baseball, football, basketball and hockey. And college football & basketball. Our calendar is already crowded and then there’s the wife nagging us to do our household chores.
That’s not true. there are very often riots following sports victories in america. but I do percieve the problem to be worse in soccer.
Outside of LA and other than nickle beer night at Detroit back in the seventies…and the riot never left the stadium, when exactly was there a violent riot in the US after a sporting event? In England, the Manchester United Fan Club is banned from going to home games. I can’t think of anything similar in the US.
I live in the Detroit area. As far as I know, there was no significant violence in Detroit following any of the Pistons’ NBA titles, nor any of the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup championships. Detroit gets a bad rap because after the 1984 World Series championship by the Tigers, there was a photo of a burning police car with a beer bellied Bubba cheering that got widely distributed, but actually the violence then was less serious than students getting drunk and rowdy in East Lansing.
LA’s had much more serious violence after sports championships than Detroit. Actually, the Tigers’ 1968 championship has been widely credited as helping to restore some level of unity to the city after the 1967 12th Street riot.
In any case, international soccer/football violence is far more widespread than American sports fans’ violence. It’s not just English hooligans. Stadiums in South America need fencing to control the fans.
Include Canadians outside of Tyranna, the multicult capital. You can’t even play tag or dodge ball in schools but they’re big on this stupid sport. Soccer. A bland game for sissies, played before rabid crowds that will kill over the results of such matches. North Americans above Mexico, turning to this lame sport, en masse, will really spell the end of the world as we know it.
I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Moran for publicly and plainly illustrating the correct useage of the phrase “couldn’t care less” and fervantly hope that the jillions of Americans who incorrectly say “could care less” (indicating that they still do, in fact, care about something about which they are attempting to say they no longer care at all) will take note.
The collective American psyche has something to do with it. I’ve been overseas for a couple of World Cups, and the excitement is infectious. You find yourself watching and caring because everyone else does. At home, it is a collective yawn. Maybe some psychologist will figure it out, but I’m not going to watch. I’m home, and I don’t care.
No sport is exciting if it’s not considered as a challenge, if you don’t identify yourself whit one of the teams in the field then you are getting bored.
Is not only an american question, when you are a supporter of one of the two teams involved in a game every time the opponent overcome middle fiel your adrenalina grow, if you are not involved the noting happens.
A napolitan proverb says ” every cockroach is beautiful to its mother” but if you are not a cockroach then…
So is soccer for some American and baseball etc… for many non American, as said in other post there are some physiological reason.
The world can care less if many Americans don’t like futbol.
New generations will make the sport more popular because it’s more fun to play than baseball (slow and player-restrictive), football (heaviness and brute force), basketball (tall and repetitive). The U.S. will lead the world in women’s soccer, they are doing great. Once you play it, then you can watch it and follow the championships.
For now, I’ll watch as many games as my time allows.
If you think American football is all “brute force” you clearly know nothing about the game. Definitely not enough to be passing any form of judgment on it.
With the exception of the high-flying quarterback throws, football is brute force. I refer my comments to common people PLAYING the game. I watch lots of American football, my favorite team is the University of Alabama. It’s a watchable sport but not many civilians can play it, as opposed to soccer. Do we have a woman’s football league? Women are smart enough not to get smashed by other brutes.
I enjoy football and I enjoy soccer!
Yes, you commie we do have chicks’ football, and they play in lingerie!
Freaking soccer lover.
j/k
You need to buy new glasses . . . What you’re referring to is called sumo wrestling.
vivo,
I’ve ribbed you and bashed your neo-fascist Pro-Obama positions on multiple occasions, but in this regard, I completely agree with you – I have become a soccer fan over the past 15 years and am looking forward to this next month and plotting my “sick” days to get down to my local pub to watch as many games as possible. Cheers.
When you enjoy soccer, emotions run high. I’d like to see the U.S., Brazil, Spain and Netherlands in the quarter finals.
I was a volunteer for the 1994 World Cup and enjoyed watching the games at the Standford Palo Alto stadium. Ahhh, memories . . .
If you think baseball is slow, you don’t understand the game either. The battle between pitcher and batter is intense and extremely technical. Don’t get me started on the beauty of a well-turned double play, perhaps the prettiest play in sports.
The joy of baseball is not in the speed of the game but the fact that the game is never, to paraphrase the immortal Yogi Berra, over until it’s over. I have seen teams down by 6 runs in the ninth inning with two outs come back to win. There is no drama to Soccer, when the first team scores the game is probably over. They might as well make every game sudden death. It’s why I don’t really care for football, at some point the game is out of reach, there simply isn’t enough time to come back. It’s hard for Americans to get behind a game where one score means the game is effectively out of reach.
Patrick
Being an Astros fan, gotta bring up the July 1994, the 18th I believe, game in which the ‘Stros came back from 11 down in the 6th to eventually win 15-12. Not the record, but one for the record books.
Hey Kevin: here’s one even better. As a long suffering Pirates fan, how about July 2001, where the Pirates scored 7 runs in the bottom of the seventh with two outs in the 9th inning to beat the ‘Stros, in something that has only been done twice in baseball history?
You never seen anything like this in soccer.
Teacher in Tejas,
Can you explain how the Pirates got seven runs in the seventh, with two outs in the ninth? As a former Houston resident and Astro fan, I want to know. Actually, Pirates and Astros fans have something to commiserate these days.
I agree with you. My comments refer to the difficulty for us common people to play the game well, as opposed to playing soccer. I have enjoyed some of the World Series games and they can be intense.
There is no truth to that when the first soccer team scores the game may be over. I’ve seen many games when the winning scores are made in the last few minutes.
You have to PLAY soccer to understand it and enjoy it. That’s why the strategy to win Americans is to let all the kids play the game and experience it. They will follow it when they become adults and commercial sponsors know this. You can imagine the commercialization of the game in China, India and the rest of populous places, like the good old USA.
Vivo,
I played soccer as a kid (great game to play), understand it just fine, but still find it boring compared to football, basketball, and baseball. I do watch the world cup every 4 years and am a sucker for a U.S. vs Mexico friendly, but otherwise don’t give a damn. For instance, the game between U.S. and England. England’s striker Rooney, who supposedly is one of the best players in the world was hardly a factor. In basketball, holding someone like Kobe Bryant to 20 points is considered an achievement. Many folks say American’s don’t get the complexities of soccer…they haven’t had to memorize a playbook thats as thick as the new healthcare bill as you would in football. I would say the closest sport to soccer for those that don’t follow is baseball. Fun to go to a live game and drink beer for non-insiders but wouldn’t sit down and watch a game. The difference though, is that one of the most difficult things to do in sports is to purposely hit a 97 MPH fastball to the cheapseats ala Albert Pujols.
If everyone would stick to the truth, we would all agree that any game of any sport can be boring or exciting. I’ve fallen asleep watching football, baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, gymnastics, you name it. But I’ve also been thrilled watching soccer, football, baseball and Olympic games. It all depends. There are many interrelated and unrelated factors. Some of them, very personal factors. So, nobody loses or wins this debate. We enjoy and detest different things, as the humans we are.
I just read somewhere, in soccer, a scoring the first goal in 93% of cases is going to win the game (home team)…. if its not on the home field, still 80%.
Baseball is slow, and even more boring than soccer. Please, please ESPN, play the world curling championships or something, anything but that longing-to-watch-paint-dry experience of baseball.
Soccer is a game for socialists and third world tribalists. There is a reason Europe Africa and South America love it and its mob mentality; collectivism.
Are you saying that every other country in the world is either socialist or third world? Because everywhere else loves the game and so do many people in this country. 17 million Americans watched the 2006 world cup final. That means it almost doubled from 1994, when we were actually hosting it. I imagine this year the number will be higher still. 19 million people is no small number. I think there will be quite a few people watching us play England on Saturday. This number will continue to increase until it is the most popular sport in our country as well. So the better question is why is it increasing in popularity?
Tell this to Cristiano Ronaldo
Soccer will never be popular in the U.S. simply because we have so many other sports that are better — more exciting and more interesting. Simple as that!
I don’t expend any time wondering why the rest of the world (Canada excepted) doesn’t like American ‘football’ – and I really don’t care – so why does the rest of the world fret so much about why I don’t like World ‘football’?
A few other reasons.
1) name confusion. Is it soccer or football? James Taranto has a pretty funny name for it: metric football. the idea being that in all the places where they call it football, they use the metric system.
2) all the good team names are taken. So what do you call the New York soccer team? The tigers? Oops, that is taken. The pirates? The panthers? And of course no one would dare call a new team the “Redskins.” By the way, in Madden, I had a pretty cool team I created. I called them the Airmen, and then put the team in Tuskegee, Alabama, thus, the Tuskegee Airmen. Heh, cool.
3) its much more subtle than baseball, or basketball, but not nearly as much so as American football. to the casual viewer, it’s a whole lot of nothing going on.
4) no clear idea what makes the sport fun. I mean, you can’t get the spectacular dunks from Michael Jordan, where you see him do it and go, “seriously, does he have an anti-gravity belt on or what?” You can watch a guy get smacked like in football (American). In baseball, you get the home runs, and the strike outs. You don’t have wrecks like in NASCAR (note, there is a sport that has managed to grew in the crowded sports market, and that is another sport that involves a lot of time spent with very little happening and a lot of subtle stuff going on under the hood). Boxing is beating a guy up. I mean it goes on and on. Each sport gives you something for the highlight reel that even people who aren’t into the sport can appreciate. I have never seen a soccer player do anything that made me go, “cool.” And I would love to be proven wrong on this point.
I mean seriously, I used to play soccer when I was young and I liked playing it, but I couldn’t stand to watch the game.
So maybe the question should be reversed. what do americans know that the rest of the world doesn’t?
“I have never seen a soccer player do anything that made me go, ‘cool.’”
Not a soccer fan, but this made me go “cool”:
Double Bicycle Kick Goal
A raving, drooling American soccer fan checking in, just to add some levity to this otherwise dreary & predictable article. Can’t wait: one month of bliss, watching nations go toe-to-toe, showing what they’ve got on the field. I wouldn’t dream of arguing with the rest of you, as you’re determined not to like it, so just keep watching MLB, NFL or whatever.
Speaking of which, I wouldn’t mind there being a REAL “World Series” in baseball involving top teams from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Korea, Japan and Taiwan…’scuse me-Chinese Taibei in addition to the MLB champions.
It’s called the World Baseball Classic.
i really feel pity for you my american friends.Football (forget this disgusting soccer word) is the most beautiful, complete, intelligent and dramatic sport ever . it’s more interesting than suspence novel and more exiting than sex . it’s most sophisticated art full of emotional impact, it’s war and pure love in the same time.
Shalom from Israel
taly,
first off, I’m a huge soccer fan and look forward to seeing every single WC match this month (go USA). That being said, it is offputting to hear the word “soccer” being denigrated. In more than one country, it is called “soccer.” In yours it is not. This is called lingusitics. In England, getting pissed is an entirely different proposition than in AMerica. And that’s OK. So please get off the soccer v. football treadmill – it gets soccer fans nowhere and is a real impediment to exposing more AMericans to the “beautiful game.”
Dramatic is right…soccer players are drama queens to the biggest extent possible. I thought the flopping in the NBA is bad.
Actually India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (1 in 5 of the world’s people), and Indonesia (5th largest country in the world) have no interest either. China has, reportedly, limited interest as well. None of the Anglo-Saxon settler countries – Canada, USA, Australia, or New Zealand – have much interest in the sport (though with both Antipodean countries in this year’s World Cup that might change). So it is not true to say “the rest of the world” loves it.
Football (forget this disgusting soccer word)
Other than Britain it is called soccer in all the Anglo-Saxon countries plus the Republic of Ireland.
Get rid of the offside rule and free substituion, then it would be a real game.
Hey Rick: shut up.
Soccer is for p*ssies.
Why dont you go find a English soccer bar and say that. Then come back and let me know how it goes.
Oh great! P*ssies and retarded bullies. Tell you what. Send those twits to a hockey fan’s bar and let’s see how tough they are. Hockey? Athletic grace and incredible toughness combined. At least for Canadians. Duncan Keith loses seven teeth and hardly misses a shift for the Black Hawks. Danny Briere gets 10 stitches and is right back on the ice. Meanwhile, wussy soccer players are still rolling on the ground holding their itty bitty bruised shin. Please.
I respect hockey. It wasn’t part of my upbringing, but its a contact sport manned with men…not p*ssy soccer boys. Same thing with rugby…never played it…but do respect it.
Twinkle toes fairy skaters aren’t exactly the most intimidating image you could bring to mind.
Thomas…not a hockey fan but its a tough sport and the players are to be respected
It’s instructive you would send me to an ‘English soccer bar’ rather than confront me directly. FYI-Back in the day, I never found a pub/bistro/cantina in Britain or Europe during my travels where I felt intimidated. I doubt you could say the same about any pool hall on the wrong side of the tracks in West Texas. So don’t blow that kind of BS Nancy. Fact of the matter, the only position ‘soccer’ players can fill in the NFL is *kicker*. There are plenty of skill players in the NFL that could dominate in soccer if they chose such a pay cut.
First, no one who plays american football would be able to play soccer. Soccer is two 45 minutes periods with only TWO Substitutes. I doubt any football player could keep up with the soccer players for more than 10 minutes. Soccer players are in the best shape of any sports player. Note that they only have two subs the entire time. No other sport requires that kind of fortitude. I have not seen one American sport where players push themselves so hard they vomit. getting hit is easy but actually pushing yourself the very edge of your physical ability takes will power that is not required in football, baseball or hockey. In those games you just hit the bench if you are tired. Yes players sometimes take falls but most injuries are real. There are no time out and players have to back on the field. I was at the hawks parade, and think hockey players are pretty bad a**, but that does not take away from how tough soccer players are. I directed you to a British place because the comment made would not make me angry enough to want to fight someone. However, there are plenty of people out there who it would invoke a violent response from. Also I most likely do not live in the same city so it would be pointless to confront me. My point is that it is easy to say it blog, but if you believe it say it to someone in person.
Soccer players in good condition? In case you haven’t noticed for most of the game players either walk or are at a slow trot. At football and rugby they spend their time sprinting. Cristiano Ronaldo is told to be the fastest international player runs 100m in 10″8. There are lots of football or international rugby players who run it in 10″6 or faster. Also take a soccer player and make him spint repeatedly like rugby or
football players do and he will not finish the game.
Brian N,
Actually Brian, if our football players suddenly took a great interest in soccer, the world would be dominated by the U.S. in soccer Where else can you find a 6’4 240 lb guy run a 4.5 40? And that’s just the linebackers. Give a decent NFL cornerback some soccer skills and he would most likely look like Pele compared to the skinny runts that play soccer. Try knocking someone like Adrian Peterson off the ball. Most football players are in better shape because not only do that have to sprint but normally they have to block, or take on blocks of someone who is running full speed at them. American Footballers are bigger faster and stronger and yes they have more endurance. BTW, I played soccer when I was a kid…great game to play but boring to watch.
There was a commentator on MSNBC the other day that, for all practical purposes, said that the reason Americans do not take to soccer is that they are knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who voted for George Bush. With that kind of smug, condescension coming from promoters of the game, do they really think I am going to bother to become interested in a sport that I neither grew up with nor do I completely understand? So, as I understand it, I am now supposed to like soccer and also allow myself to be insulted by my “betters.”
Soccer is popular in countries where just about everyone played it as a kid. As a spectacle it doesn’t compare with N. American sports. Where I was raised we played soccer on city streets with a tennis ball. We didn’t need a field or equipment – just everyday street clothes and a street light if it was nighttime. It didn’t matter how many players there were on each team. At school we had proper boots, fields with lines drawn on them, goals with nets and a full sized ball. Later on I played for small country towns. Sometimes we had to clear sheep off the pitch before the game. These kind of memories are shared by many of the spectators at a soccer game.
In Canada thousands of people will go watch curling for the same reason – they have all played the game. It isn’t the spectacle, it’s the familiarity with the game – which is fun to play – and totally boring for strangers to watch.
Unfortunately today’s professional soccer players are puffed-up popinjays and total pansies. I can’t watch a modern game of soccer because it is 90% histrionics and play acting – rich pampered idiots masquerading as victims – and 10% honest football.
Some years ago, my wife and I hosted a German student for a year. Robert was a big fan of soccer, played on the high school team and watched all the stats in the paper. Much to my suprise when PBS (?) broadcast the games in their entirety his comment was that it was increadibly booring. In Germany they only broadcast the highlights. So Robert the super soccer fan just confirmed my opinion of soccer, “increadibly booring”.
The World Cup is fun to watch even though I’m not a soccer fan by any means. Unfortunatly, the United State’s participation in this event will always be looked down upon; by the other nations participating and by our own America bashing media.
An article in yesterday’s WSJ slaps the “Ugly American” label on the US delegation in South Africa from the very first sentence:
“The World Cup doesn’t start until Friday, but one thing has already been firmly established here in South Africa: the United States delegation is considerably pleased with itself.”
“This time, those broad smiles and that swaggering bonhomie we’re seeing on display here are the result of something Americans are far more used to boasting about: the dollar.
For this World Cup, soccer fans from the U.S. have bought more tickets than the fans from any other nation outside of South Africa. The U.S. has paid the highest media rights fees of any nation and has pledged to pay it players nearly $1 million apiece if they find a way to win the whole thing.”
How can American soccer fans have pride in our team when our own media portrays us as obnoxious foreigners invading South Africa and throwing our wealth in peoples faces?
Soccer is in its early childhood in America – and still growing. Its baseball in the 1910′s or football in the 1940′s; basketball in the 1950′s. The trajectory is up. If you are young, you get it; you’ve grown up with it; if you are older, you don’t. There is no argument; no need for hystrionics. Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the USA. That is a fact. It is Microsoft in the mid-1980′s…these metaphors are like shooting fish in a barrel. If you like other sports, great; if you like soccer, wonderful. In twenty years soccer will be a legit fourth sport, right up there with baseball and basketball (but way behind football-the actual king of American sport).
Soccer is war, carried out by other means.
It doesn’t matter who wins the world cup, because, whatever happens, everybody will riot, kill some innocent bystanders—and then turn around and scold America for not loving futbol, and for being so horribly violent!
I don’t do sports in general. The closest I got was my Dad would watch the U of M football games, which were fun, mostly in the hang out and eat chips kind of way. I don’t really get any of them, but of the little I have watched, the fake injuries I saw in soccer were a real turn-off. Come to think of it, I think Hockey is the other sport where fake injuries are considered part of the game.
I’m trying to think of routine cheats that turn up in baseball, US football, and basketball. I know baseball has this whole army of rules pushing, but I don’t think those are generally in view in quite the same way. Basketball had Hack-a-Shaq, but that was because the cost of the penalty was less than the cost of letting Shaq go do what he would do. I’m tying to think of what goes on in US football, but I’m not terribly familiar with it.
I wonder if the cheating aspect is part of why soccer and even hockey haven’t taken off in the US?
Fake injuries? See my response above. To follow your thoughts, however, could it be the influx of European players with a soccer mentality that is bringing this attitude to the NHL? One could make a case as Don Cherry does on a weekly basis.
The one I recall was a pretty clear fake. The team was ahead by one point and time was running down, so one of the guys just walks out in the middle of the field, carefully lays himself down on the grass, and starts waving his foot around. I think that was the one where one of the other team’s players started dragging the guy off field by his foot.
I’ve had foot and ankle injuries before, and I know they’re not fun, but that was just weird.
Not much to add myself, other than:
I was born in Colombia but grew up in Miami. Fathers side is all Colombian but mothers side is American and I consider myself 100% American, to the point of refusing to learn to learn spanish (it’s the contrarian in me reacting to being constantly told all my life that I just HAD to learn spanish!). I’ve also been surrounded by friends that really love soccer.
Having said all that, I still don’t get the love of soccer. I’d prefer to watch American football any day of the week, to the everlasting disappointment of my fathers side of the fam. Oh well, what are you gonna do?
Go ‘Phins!
This was me, and sometimes still is:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nations-soccer-fan-becoming-insufferable,17553/
as one of the yawners all I can think of is that soccer is just stupid. yes “but everybody else in the world loves it” – bfd. plenty of the world doesn’t have much more than dirt fields and t-shirts for uniforms so it’s the perfect “one world” game.
as an aside, I always get a chuckle from american soccer dreamers that thought having pee-wees would propel soccer into a top-level american sport. I’ve read before that this is irrational thinking and it’s easy coming up with examples of it being so. compare the number of competitors to audience and it’s clear there’s practically no correlation for this in football. count all the pee-wees, h.s., collegiates you like. same for baseball. or how about nascar? is its booming success explained by all the after-school racetracks we have?
pee-wee soccer (in america) isn’t about the game or competition as much as it is about something that requires 0 skill or talent that “we” can all participate in. except for someone in a wheelchair or on crutches there isn’t a kid in america that can’t wander up and down a field getting a little exercise. it’s also perfect for a p.c. society desperate to believe the fantasy that boys and girls are physical equals. where else but in pee-wee soccer is competition not only discouraged but in some cases banned? “all teams get a trophy”; “any team scoring more than 7 automatically loses”; “we will no longer keep score”. pee-wee soccer is about “oneness” and not hurting feelings.
beyond that, soccer at its core is a slow-moving, boring snoozefest. I can handle slow and timid games like tennis when it’s mano-a-mano but watch two entire teams in t-shirts kicking a ball around a field the size of a small town? please. soccer is more about the fans themselves than the game. it’s no wonder beer sales and hooliganism are huge in soccer – somebody at a soccer game has to provide the action, might as well be the fans.
It is un-American not to be able to pick up a ball. The only good thing about the sport is that kids sleep like rocks after frutlessly chasing a ball all day.
Americans don’t go for soccer because:
1. It’s not a legitimate sport.
Any “sport” where you can’t use your hands is not a real sport.
Call it an activity or a something to pass time, but a sport? Really?
2. It’s childish (see 1 above). An activity for children. Only children play it here.
Run up and down, kick the ball. See Tim. See Tim run. Run Tim Run. Don’t touch!!
3. BORING (see 1 & 2)
It’s perfectly fine to not like soccer (there are many sports I don’t care about), but the excuses that many here are making are absolutely ridiculous.
Soccer is too slow, not exciting, not enough goals scored, too long (no ad breaks), not physical enough, not tactical etc. etc. Every one of those points is debatable, but that’s not important.
What’s important is that all those who made those different arguments are actually making excuses. The main reason why Americans don’t like soccer is closed mindedness. Yep, come down on me now…
Having said that I want to make it clear that closed mindedness in regards to sports is not an American trait alone. Every other nation has sports they just don’t like, and they don’t even make the effort to understand those sports.
It’s just a trait of the human mind, being individually involved in that which we are familiar with and being uninterested in “foreign” matters.
You want to take a quick test? Something like “Am I closed minded in regards to sports I’m not familiar with, or am I just not interested in soccer”?
Here comes the test: do you like rugby? If the answer is not, you are most likely closed minded. Why? Because rugby is highly tactical, more physical than NFL, faster than NFL, scores are high etc. etc. etc. Rugby is maybe the quintessential male sport. And yet, you don’t like it. Whatever explanations you might come up with, the bottom line is that you just don’t like rugby. There isn’t really a logical explanation for this, it’s just the way things are.
No one likes to say “hey, soccer is the world sport no. 1, but I don’t understand it, and, quite frankly, I don’t want to understand it”. So… people come up with excuses.
For the record, I personally AM closed minded in regards to sports. (And I don’t care about rugby).
Let’s not lie to ourselves.
Football = boring to watch live, great on TV (lots of American tradition)
Hockey = great live, hard to watch on TV (some American tradition)
Baseball = boring to watch live, boring to watch on TV (tons of American tradition)
Soccer = boring to watch live, boring to watch on TV (zero American tradition)
That pretty much sums it up, wouldn’t you agree?
In the US, soccer is for girlie men! What do you think goes through the brain of a 300 pounder DL or DT when he sees a soccer player covering his “private parts” for a free kick? In America, Football is for real men and soccer is for a “wanna be”.
Football = boring to watch live, great on TV (lots of American tradition)
Basketball = pretty good on TV, very good to watch live (some American tradition)
Hockey = incredible to watch live, hard to watch on TV (a little American tradition, strong in some regions)
Baseball = boring to watch live, boring to watch on TV (tons of American tradition)
Soccer = boring to watch live, torturous to watch on TV (zero American tradition)
Pretty much sums up the state of sports in America. Perhaps if we had had a Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, or Ted Williams equivalent in professional soccer decades ago it would be different, but the sport has a long way to go here.
The rest of the world is weird, who really cares what they think about any sport, or anything for that matter ?
The reason that The U.S. can’t warm to football (soccer) is that there is a possibility that a game might finish goal-less. A 0-0 stalemate goes against the grain of all American sports that are designed for high octane, end to end action, Designed for entertainment. Entertainment isn’t the primary focus for the rest of the world, its passion for a team, tribalism that probably doesn’t exist in U.S. sports.
Having caught an NFL game whilst in The U.S. I can honestly say that I have nevr seen anything so dull, 4+ hours of run a bit, stop, advert. run a bit, stop, advert… each to their own I guess…
Well I must say that TV timeouts also play into strategy, especially in ice hockey. You get a longer rest during the commercial break than you do changing on the fly in continuous action, so you can straddle the timeout to double shift.
Soccer (as you guys like to call it) has its ups and downs; blindingly fast, skillful passages of play and midfield slogfests where teams are grinding out results against each other like many other sports. I tend to agree with the viewpoint that the issue is generally over culture – the sports you grow up with tend to be those that you follow. I love watching soccer and will be watching as much as I can during the world cup, and then wait impatiently for the new league season to start.
This being said, I also love watching lots of other sports and can appreciate the intricacies of each of them. The one thing I dont get is how people can complain about watching soccer on tv as boring when you have (American) football on. I really enjoy watching the game itself, but there tends to be more break (adverts mainly) than there is game time in any given event.
Before I read too many of these posts, let me post my own reasons, which I’ve thought about in depth, for why Soccer, and Rugby, and Formula One have not reached huge audiences in the United States. I lived in England from 1996-2000. I know quite a bit about English, Euro, and World Cup Soccer. Not as much today as then. The United States didn’t play soccer, heavily, and that’s just the way it was. That’s not going to change now. Our kids grow up playing certain sports, just like European kids do. The difference is, they grow up bouncing a ball on their knee, and we grow up tossing a football. They grow up with Cricket Bats, and play in the park, and in the street, and we grew up with a Louisville slugger, or a stick, and play in the streets, and in the parks.
You can’t just put a bunch of banners, over advertise in on television, or even host the World Cup and rapidly change people who have grown up with their particular sports. My Broncos were in the Super Bowl when I was in England. I went to downtown London, where I worked, to a sports bar and watched the game with a bunch of Englishman crazy about American football. They represent the same percentage of people who in this country are crazy about European soccer, but it doesn’t change the cultural dichotomy.
In Northern states you are more likely to be using a stick and a puck than a basketball and a baseball. Southern states like Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi (to name a few) are rabid about their football. High School football is probably as important to local communities as College, and probably more so than the NFL. Young men in those areas grow up with football. Baseball and basketball are acceptable substitutes, but you aren’t going to see anyone kick a soccer ball down the pitch outside of small groups.
I always get a kick out of listening to moms who’ve told me when I was an instructor how they’d rather their kids played soccer than football. I used to think to myself that they thought that because they had no idea how rough soccer can be outside the US.
I’m a big Formula One fan, so being in England was like Paradise for me, and while I lament the relatively small fan base that exists here in the U.S.; well in comparison to NASCAR anyway, I know that isn’t going to change, because open wheel racing is just not big in this country, and it probably never will, no matter how many Karting school Red Bull sponsors to try and find the next United States Grand Prix champion. And so it goes for the World Cup. I’ll keep my eye out for how England and Holland are doing, but other than that, I won’t care that much, and I’ll probably only watch the finals, whereas once I was an avid footy watcher.
Well said Rik.
Dirty Leeds, You were probably in the nosebleed seats. An American football game, up close, is much more exciting than seen from a distance. But to get those kind of seats for an NFL or NCAA-1 game, you have to have a 7-figure bank account. NCAA-2 or high school football is a great place to see all the excitement up close.
The only reason I came to like soccer was that my daughter played it for a few years. It’s a great game for little kids because they don’t need much skill or equipment; they learn as they play; and they develop some basic physical coordination skills. But pro soccer? Can’t watch it without falling asleep. Golf also has that effect on me.
can someone please explain to me how most americans call soccer boring when you watch baseball and football. both are stopped for long periods with very little happening. games last 3 to 4 hours. i appreciate the skill level in american sports but calling soccer boring is mental
Well lets compare apples to apples. Nobody takes the kind of stoppage that a cricket match takes, so I’ll watch baseball over cricket anyday, and i don’t hate cricket.
As far as football goes; you can say soccer is non-stop, an argument I’ve heard from many English detractors of American sports, but there very, very slow periods where there is no shots on goal and a some boring midfield back and forth. I don’t hate soccer, but it has just as many dull periods as American football has stopages.
There are two reasons Americans just can’t get into soccer.
First, it is a continuous action game. Only one other sport popular in the U.S. features continuous action – hockey. And hockey ain’t that popular. With continous action, if you get up to get a beer, check your tweets or do anything but stare at the tv you miss stuff. Americans hate to miss stuff.
Second, there is no cool equipment needed. No helmets, gloves, clubs or hardware – in short, nothing to buy, nothing to impress your buddies with, no receipts to hide from the wife. What fun is that. Soccer requires just a ball and idiots to run around kicking it – perfect for the third world but pointless for a country with an economy built on consumer spending.
So, its American consumption and attention deficit is it. You don’t think European fans spend a lot of money on merchandise? Have you been anywhere near an English Football match? I jumped on the train to go to work one day and forgot that Arsenal was playing at Wembley, a stop I had to go by. I quickly realized my mistake when I saw so many red flags coming out of the train’s window I thought the Soviet Premier was arriving with the Red Army in tow.
European fans by just as many hats, jerseys, shorts, and their favorite footie stars trainers as any American, I would dare say more.
I don’t know what it is about soccer that makes it such a yawn for Americans. It could be the simple fact that our own mainline sports are just better. Baseball is cerebral, crafty and features the classic mano-et-mano individual confrontation of pitcher versus hitter. (It is also unique in team sports in that there is no clock.) Basketball is fast, brassy, fluid and features innovative scoring and great teamwork within a tightly confined space. Football has all the drama of warfare with intense specialization, strategy, tactics and spasms of genuine violence.
International soccer features great athletes and I wish them well. I just won’t be watching. One thing that I am getting VERY tired of however is the increasingly sneering attitude of some of our MSM pundits to the effect that there is something retrograde about the U.S. because we don’t fall into raptures over “the beautiful game.” If soccer advocates want the sport to grow in the U.S. they should try to be less condescending toward those of us who prefer to spend their sports dollar elsewhere.
I promise I won’t spoil anyone else’s party. Calling soccer boring on the day of the World Cup opening is like questioning the Pilgrims at Thanksgiving dinner. It’s rude.
I used to read the magazine When Saturday Comes. A writer complained after the 1994 World Cup that although the U.S. provided record crowds (I went to matches in Boston, Dallas, Detroit and Washington), you could avoid soccer if you wanted to, and people should not have had that option. I’ve never felt the same about the World Cup since.
Soccer has become popular for children in the USA for two reasons. One is that the ruling class has heavily promoted it as part of their post-nationalist rejection of things distinctively American. It’s the sport for “citizens of the world.” The other reason, IMO the most important one, is that it requires no significant skills to play on an elementary level.
I have been involved with children’s sports for 20 years and my observation is that soccer tends to attract the least physically gifted and the athletically laziest of youngsters. It is excellent for those who want to participate in team sports without needing to dedicate a lot of time or effort to developing skills. The large team size allows full participation and, most significantly, permits anonymous incompetence. There is glory for the “stars,” but no humiliation for the clods. It’s nice. It’s wonderful exercise. Soccer thus fills a niche in recreational youth sports for the unserious majority, a niche that definitely ought to be filled. I’m all for it.
But as a general rule, the kids who are exceptionally talented, along with those who are tough, who are hard-working, who like competition, who aren’t terrified of public failure—in fine, those kids who are serious about sports— go elsewhere. And yes, they look down on soccer players as unskilled wussies. (IMO, a soccer player practically has to get to the World Cup level before he will get the amount respect from other athletes that is routinely given to the ace in the local bowling league.)
Let’s see, NBA finals, major league baseball, college world series, etc….I wont be watching “football” which is, as someone else noted “The most boring game in the world. A game 90 + minutes long that normally has a score of 1 to 0.”
And yes, I LOVE 1-0 baseball games. A ton more strategy. The Euro-acting in soccer is repulsive.
Go USA though
The 2006 final involved neither Germany nor Brazil. Italy defeated France.
Part of the problem is the way soccer is broadcast in the US….the TV producers don’t really get that the camera has to be focused on only the ball….you can’t see plays developing and the like. I used to watch on the Spanish stations with the volume off to get a feel for the game and play.
Our media here is going crazy because, in my opinion, this is being held in South Africa. If the games were being held in say, Italy, this wouldn’t be generating as much ink here in the U.S. as it is now.
Americans believe in “commitment” when it comes to sports genres.
We let our sports eye wander in the players youths (junior league soccer, college sports and such) but when we settle down, there is only one sport in each of the major classifications that we go out with, and come home to. People who fret about our lack of liking soccer shouldn’t take our monogamy in sports personally.
One reason for the lack of mainstream interest in Rugby for example is that we have Football. Arena football isn’t big because we have real outside football (and empathy: it can be uncomfortable just to watch people play it since we’re used to the real thing). Soccer isn’t all that big unless you are under 15 and or are the parent of someone under 15 because we have football. Lacrosse isn’t all that big because of Mike Nifong? No. Football. And so on.
Face it, football is the US large-scale field sport of choice (and I have to accept that even though I prefer rugby).
Formula One? Thank, but no thanks. Our hearts belong to Nascar.
Same goes for Jai Alai (Yes, I remember the Mad Men episode, but seriously it’s kind of interesting to watch), the US indoor court sport of choice is Basketball (or ahem.. arena football).
Hockey is the full contact ice sport, though we do have a strange soft spot for Tonya Harding so there isn’t much traction for curling though we will watch it during the olympics with a strange curiosity (but once every four years is enough).
Baseball has a lot of sentimental value but as MightyMonarch says, it’s commitment to watch, and even still there is no room in our hearts for Cricket.
True story. The day after Ghana beat the U.S. in 2006, I was walking to work and this guy passed me by. He was wearing yellow, green and red, Ghana’s colors, and he had G H A N A hand-lettered on his shirt. Now if he’s African or African-American, I smile and maybe shake his hand. But this guy looked like Duane Doberman on the Bilko reruns. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I didn’t call him an asshole, and it’s the only time I have ever done this to a stranger. I’m done!
What I like about futbol is that poor kids can play it about anywhere. What I don’t like is the prima donna players who fake injuries to get penalties against their foes. Waaah, bring me a stretcher, I got an owee. The fouls are really low class and too common. And we have plenty of sports we already like where people get hurt for real. On the other hand, why did NBC feature curling so much during the Olympics, sucking up to small town Canada? As long as OU beats Texas at the Cotton Bowl I could care less, anyway.
I attended a game in UK once. It was tedious. The real show was the fans’ non-stop craziness yelling, taunting players and each other. And that was on a lame day where no one was pitching bottles (glass) at the players. IN the US soccer news is about stupid fans rioting and killing each other. Great fun! Hey kids, great weather for a soccer match today – forecast: boredom mixed with mild to lethal peril, lets go!
Soccer has a sane tradition in the US (by Americans) instead. As a kids activity.
Way to stereotype, I have been goignt o football games (soccer to you) for twenty years and I have never seen as much as a fight. Fans sing to the players to inspire them and to opposing fans to wind them up.
Not sure why they don’t like soccer, because its a much faster game, has less commercials i.e. one break.
Its seems to me that the NBA and the NFL are to powerful to give up any TV or commercial time. Soccer would sweep the channels, take the arenas…its all about money.
If it’s all about money, then quite clearly, soccer is a loser. It can’t command a mass television audience in America. Mass audiences are where the TV advertisers’ money goes That’s what determines what will be shown on what channels, and when — and soccer can’t command a mass audience in America.
Nor is it a matter of “educating” us dumb, unsophisticated Americans to the “beauties” of the sport. We’ve been exposed to it many times — amd each time, the great majority of us have changed the channel. It’s too simplistic, and too boring, to command our attention.
“De gustibus non disputandum est.” — Originator unknown.
I am an almost 70 year old woman who played soccer in High School and loved the game. Both my husband and I are watching today. The professional players are fabulous to watch. It is indeed a sport with so much dexterity and precision required that I don’t care the score-it’s the playing that’s phenominal.
I follow only one sport, but can enjoy and appreciate a really good match-up in almost any sport. Except soccer. Little kids play it because it requires fewer skills and less talent than American games. Adults don’t watch it because it’s BOR-ING and the rules for determining winners in tie or no-score games are laugh-out-loud ridiculous. Plus the soccer players who were in Rome last May for the European Cup drove me nuts (many Roman restaurants stopped serving wine it got so bad–can you imagine?).
SukieTawdry:
I had lived in N. America for 21 years and I must have had thousands of discussions about why Americans don’t like “soccer”. Well, I still don’t know. It is probably a mixture of many of the reasons already mentioned but your “insight” is simply unbelievable. I have played soccer on a decent level for more than 35 years and hockey for over 20 years. I had actually played hockey on a higher level than soccer. I also tried many other sports along the way and believe me, soccer is the hardest, most physically demanding and sometimes even the most brutal of them all. With the exception of goalies, most of the players retire from the highest level when they hit 30,32 max. Their bodies simply cannot take it anymore plus they become too slow for the game. In hockey, you see many guys around 40 still competing on the highest level (NHL)and they are still among the best. With the phenomenal amount of competition – hundreds of million or so players on the planet competing for a few hundreds or maybe thousands of spots in English, Spanish, and Italian leagues (to name the most prestigious)- the pressure, sacrifice and the amount of hard work necessary from early childhood to make it to the top are beyond description. Try to watch one game – they usually show from time to time how many kilometers or miles each individual player had run during the game – and the distances are crazy. Just to run that distance,at any pace, would go beyond abilities of most of the people and you also have to be exceptionally skilled to compete. I cannot imagine your average porker from MLB or NFL to run 6 – 10 kilometers a game, they would drop dead.
When you yourself actually try all this for several years it will make you appreciate many aspects of the game, not just the goals. Even 0-0 tie can be a beautiful experience. As someone who coached kids in North America I can say the number one reason they leave the game is because it is too hard and the level of skill required is beyond reach of many. There are not enough coaches there who can actually teach the kids anything as their own skills are horrible. It is like trying to coach kids hockey and not knowing how to skate.
To others:
The dives to get a penalty kick are not the norm and they happen in the south (Spain, Italy) more often than in the north (UK, Germany). It is a shame though. Dives in the midfield are sometimes necessary for your protection – the referee cannot simply see everything and as the best players are often targeted by the opponents they need to bring the referees’ attention to the situation.
Some people mentioned the reason Europeans like soccer because they are socialist weenies. Well, you could say that Europeans are socialist weenies compared to Americans but that was 30 years ago. Through my work I used to move around a bit so I can compare. What had happen to USA and Canada is a travesty; Canada and both coasts of US are now more socialist and weenie than many parts of Europe. And it will get worse with the cretin you have voted into WH. It is the biggest disappointment of my whole life. I couldn’t bear it anymore and I had to move back to Europe where I actually enjoy more freedom and more objective reporting and where I don’t have to apologize for being a white heterosexual man. I go to this site everyday, along with others, and I weep when I see where your country is going. Please do something about it.
NFL players aren’t trained for endurance, they’re trained for speed over short distances and power. Those “fat” lineman can actually outrun most athletes (even soccer players) in the 40 yard dash. You’re right that soccer players have tremendous endurance, but that’s what is needed in that sport. American football requires strength, speed and power in short bursts. Also, I’d like to see a soccer player run a passing route at full speed, catch a ball and then take a tackle by a 200+ pound defensive player then get up and do the same a few minutes later.
If I had incurred the expense of traveling to Italy only to find out I couldn’t get any wine with dinner, I’d probably be tempted to riot right along with the soccer fans.
Isn’t this a lot like asking heterosexual men why they don’t like to have sex with other men? If you like soccer, watch it. If we don’t, don’t try to figure out why.
To borrow a phrase usually applied to Brazil; in America, soccer is the sport of the future. And it always will be.
Wow… way to not understand Capitalism.
Advertising works BECAUSE the Sport is something that Viewers want to see. People don’t watch sports because companies advertise….
60,000 – 110,000 fans packing each stadium on any given Saturday for College (Where often crowds are bigger than the pros.) or Sunday/Monday millions of TV viewers of both broadcast and satellite don’t lie. They would be happier if there wasn’t one commercial, or commercial time out, you’d be surprised at how quickly a Division II or III NCAA football game wraps up.
So you get the “Cart Before The Horse” Award for the day.
Soccer is NOT a fast sport… it is S-L-O-W. A 1-1 tie after 90 minutes is inexcusable. Most of a soccer game is about watching the ball loop slowly across mid field, never getting past the top of the goalie box. If you look at the field, most of the players are sort of standing around watching the ball go back and forth, playing their positions so that they don’t end up flat face exhausted by the mid point of the second half.
I equate soccer to fishing. It is exciting for a few minutes total out of several hours of sitting around twiddling and scratching at bug bites. At least bass fisherman have rocket sled boats and can have some fun getting there and coming back.
Cheers…
Go USA!!! If England wins… well… Go England!!! (It’s an anglosphere kind of thing…)
TMF
The fishing analogy is not bad. It’s elusive, impossible to predict. I would also say soccer has some of the same features as other obsessive past times like Golf and wine tasting. It’s impossible to get right. It is measured in degrees of “not bad”. It is rarely really good or even satisfactory. Which is exactly what makes people obsess over it.
I think the main reason it isn’t popular in the USA is we think it’s stupid to play a game with a ball that forbids most of the players from using their hands.
You want soccer to become popular in the US, then there are a couple of easy changes to be made. Remove two players from each side, but keep the same field dimensions. Talk about a lot of scoring opportunities from all the open gaps because the coach wanted to double team the other side’s best player. Institute hockey style substitution, as often as the coach wants, whenever the coach wants. Limit the number of players on each team to 12 players, that would leave 5 on the bench at any one time. That just leaves improving the offsides issue, and I have no desire to create the epic wall o’ text.
Then wait about another 20-30 years and hope it catches on.
It’s a fun way/game to burn off some pounds. Loved coaching ten and under… but it ain’t football.
There is a good reason why young kids start playing soccer and then abandon it for other sports as they get older: it’s a good sport for little kids to start out on. Young 5 and 6 year old kids do not have the eye-hand coordination and upper body strength required to play baseball or basketball very well, and they are too young to master the complex teamwork demanded in football. But any 3 year old kid can run and kick a ball toward a target.
As for why soccer is not more popular here, the reason rather simple. Some people complain that baseball is boring, but baseball is wildly exciting as compared to soccer. Watching a World Cup Soccer game is as exciting as watching corn grow. Personally I don’t care much for a sport where players can’t use their hands either, I know soccer players are great athletes but it still seems too one dimensional.
I’d like to ask, why the big push towards soccer? Someone really wants to us to care about it. It’s like one of those things that are supposed to be for our own good. Here in Canada, the CBC and other media have apparently decided, along with a recent “special report” on the dangers of hockey to our youth, that we’d all be better off we played soccer. World Cup mania is being sold pretty hard. What is going on here and when and how was this decided? I mean, I really don’t care if others want to watch soccer but why do I feel it’s being pushed on me?
I didn’t even read this article, or any of the comments.
Boring compared to american football, you’re having a laugh. It takes 3 hours for 48 minutes of play. Football is popular becasue it is inclusive and cheap to play. If you don’t understand the game you can’t appreciate it. It takes kids a long time to actually learn the game properly, there are manu nuances which americans arent capable of learning. You equate high scoring with exciting, the fact is football is non stop unlike your silly games with their time outs and stoppages for ad breaks. Frankly I woulod rather the USA didn’t watch or play the game, you only try to change the game to suit your short attention span.
Football is inclusive and inexpensive? Fella, any body can kick a ball. It takes skill to throw a spiral or run a route, never mind the offensive line schems. Inexpensive? What do a pair of shoes and a ball cost? Maybe the cost of a fair helmet? Now add all the pads and pants. Only hockey cost more.
3 hrs to play? Yes, b/c the plays are incredibly complex. That’s why the games are only played once a week. Place a football playbook next to a soccer playbook, and then the rulebooks, and then get back to me.
Seems like it’s the concensus here, but it’s the most boring sport I’ve ever watched.
There’s no strategy paired with middling skills. No clock management or plays to run, it seems. I saw today that a game, in the world champinonship series, ended in a tie! A tie! And 1-1 at that! Whoa, now that’s exciting! I understand they run a points system, but that’s the boring part of it. Win the damn game!
It could also have to do with, and I’m just spit-balling here, the fact that it’s being held in a country that’s undergoing a genocidal war, on a continent that’s undergoing genocidal wars.
Frankly, I’m sickend by ESPN’s and the worlds coverage of this, the lamest form of competetive sport in the most vile of hopless third-world shi*-holes.
Aren’t we supposed to have a conscience?
Why don’t Americans follow Soccer? Inferiority complex I believe. Like the Australians, if you still struggle to beat your old colonial master it doesn’t interest you.
On these shores Basketball is for girls, Baseball is for people who are unable to play any other sports and American Football is for overweight people who are unable to play any other sports.
As the majority of your sports revolve around eating during intervals the continuous nature of football allows you little time to go back and forth to the kitchen.
Congratulations, Mr. Ballbag, you may have stumbled across the reason why Americans don’t have any real interest in watching soccer…because it pisses off those effete snobs who look down on us for not liking soccer.
“Inferiority complex”? Seriously?
America feels inferior to other countries, so in a fit of rebellion, that America is known for we have ingnored following soccer for over 100 years. To compensate for our supposed inferiority we invented our own games. Basketball, American Football, and other sports so we can be overweight and play by ourselves.
No, I don’t think so. I am pretty sure you were insulting Americans in general, not the players, but you seem to want to put a red card to American games completely.
Soccer is boring compared to American Games and if all American Games were banned yesterday, we would find or invent a new game to play instead of choosing soccer.
Have fun kicking your soccer ball around without a goal in sight.
Football, American Football, is the evolution of Soccer. Walter Camp, considered the father of American Football, helped form the rules of the sport. But it all started with something every simple.
Picking up the ball!
By just picking up the ball, protecting the ball to get to the goal changed the game of soccer to rugby.
From rugby to American Football.
All this happened in the 19th century. Its origin started around 1892 and in 1920 the American Professional Football Association, two years later, the NFL was formed.
It took an additional 38 years for the NFL’s development to attain its major league status.
Even though American Football, called mob football, was banned from Yale and Havard in 1860 and 1861, it was still popular with regular common people, to the point that in the late 1860′s the game relabeled the Boston Game, or Football Club was allowed to again on campus.
Then everything changed on September 5, 1906. The forward pass.
A change in the rules changed the game forever from a mob, kicking game, to its more modern version.
Before there were times the pass was attempted and in once case a coin toss saw the pass was legel when later the pass was illegal until 1906.
It took a long time and effort to create the modern game of football.
Forcing people in the US to care or watch soccer will never happen. Football, American Football, is exciting and originally American, just like Basketball. It is why they are the two most popular games in the United States and Soccer is left behind because we have evolved from Europe and soccer long ago.
Soccer is Marxist economic theory personified. All that effort and almost zero output! 22 guys chase a ball around for 90 minutes and, if you’re lucky you see two ro three goals. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that counts is “everybody’s working” regardless of output.
1. Soccer is a great youth sport, because its cheap to equip the kids (shin guards, spikes and no expensive padding or bats and helmets) and boys and girls can play on an equal basis when they are six or seven.
2. It fits into our “wussified parental culture.” When the game is usually a 0-0 draw no mother’s son (or daughter) has to suffer the humiliation of striking out with the bases loaded, dropping the winning touchdown pass or missing the last minute free throw.
3. Soccer loses its best athletes around the 8th or 9th grade, because the hot girls are not watching soccer. They are over at the football field, the baseball diamond and the basketball gym.
4. Last, but not least. Referring to my above point. Its Marxist, collectivist. It celebrates the group over the individual, whereas American sports celebrate both, football and basketball, and the ultimate American sport, baseball, is not even a “team sport,” but a “group of individuals playing as a team.
“It fits into our “wussified parental culture.” When the game is usually a 0-0 draw no mother’s son (or daughter) has to suffer the humiliation of striking out with the bases loaded, dropping the winning touchdown pass or missing the last minute free throw.”
There are plenty of humiliating moments in soccer. Missing a penalty kick. Giving away a penalty kick. Screwing up a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Getting a red card early in the game. For goalkeepers, pretty much any mistake they make leads to a goal which often decides the game. Goalies can mess up in a ton of ways: failing to catch the ball or dropping it. Kicking the ball to an onrushing forward. Miscontrolling the ball near an opposition player. It’s especially humiliating when you do these things in front of an audience of more than 700 million people, as with the world cup final.
Inferiority complex? Americans? Haven’t you noticed we are and feel inferior to no one? Magananimity is actually getting us into trouble.
And we got over the whole “colonial” thing…try it.
Baseball is for poor athletes? No wonder there are no aussie ball players. Or any other famous athletes. You may rattle off a few names of soccer players, but seriously, soccer does not require much in the way of skill. And yes, I’ve played it, so don’t even bother.
And do you really think that the NFL is stocked with overweight, talentless hacks? Dude, if you want to defend your preferrenes, at least do so with some arguments which remotley reflect reality.
And do you mean to say that we eat during the game, while we’re playing or watching? ‘Cuz here in the first world, we can pause games at will…not that we need to with soccer.
What shores, by the way? The shores of Londonistan? Or elsehwere in Eurabia?
I enjoyed the comments but am so bored by soccer that I couldn’t bring myself to finish reading the article. I did manage to watch the World Cup on 06. Wasn’t that a tie game France-Italy decided by an overtime kick or something? Yawn.
I didn’t read all (in fact, not much) of this post, because it started out as boring and trite as soccer itself. Why soccer has not caught on in the US is hardly a mystery. It’s excruciatingly dull. Nothing much happens. I forced myself to watch a bit of the France-Uruguay World Cup match, and, quite literally, Nothing Happened! Final score, 0-0. Every minute seemed like nothing but a bunch of guys kicking a ball, with almost no hope of ever scoring a goal. I can’t see how there could be much (any?) “artistry”, strategy, tactics, to it. Compared to which, football (American, that is) is an explosion of Everything: Violence, Strategy, Tactics, Gamesmanship, Intellect, Courage, Honor, Glory! I suppose Americans would warm to soccer if they had nothing else. A starving man would eat anything. But the notion that a fan of (real) football could be turned on to a game of running around, kicking a ball and doing nothing much else (hardly ever scoring!) is pure fantasy. I’m quite pleased that the Rest-of-the-World has this game it dotes on. If it entertains them and sends them home content (though, alas, it often sends them into the streets in hooligan riots!), well, that’s fine. If you like it, go for it! But don’t insult my intelligence with hand-ringing thumb-suckers ’bout why Real Americans don’t cotton to it. To any one who has ever cracked pads with an opposing linebacker, as I have (1960 Class A “Back of the Year” in Georgia High School football), the question is ludicrous. So go away and don’t bother me while I ponder whether Shanahan and McNabb (McNabb! Still trying to wrap my noggin around that!) can resusitate my Redskins (I now live in DC). Oh, if you must, tell me who wins the World Cup. But don’t expect me to remember.
and yet many NFL teams have European field goal kickers. why well, you can’t teach that unless you know something about real Football(known here as Soccer).
Yup, other than the fact that very few teams have a European kicker (I think there is one), I suppose your “facts” are right on.
There is something incredibly ironic about people who call soccer boring and in the same sentence call baseball exciting. Seriously, just laugh out loud funny. And the other options? A bunch of girls ice skating because they got cut by the football team but still want to pretend they’re tough(yeah, that’s why hockey has some of the oldest pro players of any sport :rolleyes:), and giant 6’8″ guys falling over when sneezed upon? Gimme a break, there is only one real sport on this side of the pond, and it starts real soon.
I have greatly enjoyed this thread and the sometimes good-natured, sometimes not so good-natured, banter between pro- and anti- soccer types. I’m a Brit who’s never been much good at sports. I don’t watch footy except for the world cup, which gives me a rare chance to shout for my nation, England.
I wonder if in the US, being so damn big (30 times the size of the UK), there’s actually a similar opportunity to root for football teams from one’s home state. Maybe there isn’t the same longing to get out there and beat the crap out of some foreign opposition or another on the sports field? I can’t say; I’m just speculating.
My American cousins are telling me that a sport I find the second most boring on the planet, American football, is deeply strategic, deeply interesting, wildly exciting. I’m sure they must be right. It must be me who can’t see it. I really mean it. It MUST be me who can’t see it. And when I tell them that footy has its own subtleties, interest and excitement, they may not be able to see that either, but take my word for it likewise – It IS. Especially at the level played in the World cup.
So we’re both right; it’s just that we have a blind spot to one another’s conditioned predilections.
Mind you, everyone would agree, I feel sure, that the genuinely most exciting game on the planet is Rugby Union: where hairy men are real hairy men, not Mary-Annes who caper around for bursts of a few seconds dressed in bombproof armour and are ungentlemanly enough to tackle an opponent off the ball or to throw that ball forward into the waiting arms of some prima donna who will be protected, as far as possible, by the brute force of behemoths with artificially exaggerated shoulders. Even though I am assured, and of course accept, that it is sublime and terribly complex, in the manner, perhaps, of rhinos playing chess.
And as for the most supremely subtle, complex and skilful, intensely involving, and dare I say it, most spiritual game on the planet, look no further than snooker. I know some of you won’t be able to see this, but despite that, it IS so. I have experienced that Nirvana, and if my reader hasn’t, well, all I can retort is that he who tastes, knows.
I feel equally sure all will agree that cricket is a game that was invented by a hypnotist. I go into a dazed trance after less than five minutes and experience an irresistible urge to watch my fingernails grow instead.
Baseball is of course, a game for girlies, and basketball, for seven-foot ganglers. Why don’t they have leagues for different heights? Five foot to five-foot six; five foot six to six foot; and so on. It’s downright heightism and they should be reported to the PC police.
Hi everybody
i’m a Pajamas media addict.But today i’m feeling very uncomfortable. I’m reading your comments and do not know to laugh or to cry.
Lack of individualism, communist ideas on march, dos not require any special skills? Are you kidding me? Tell this to Cristiano Ronaldo or to Lionel Messi or to Frank Lampard.Stupid? Without any tactics? Yea…..Tell this to Jose Mourinho or Frank Lampard(this stupid usless lad has IQ of 150).Not tough enough for you? I’m wondering what Didier Drogba , John Terry or Rio Ferdinand have to say about this issue.
But my real concern is about something else.Folks , how to say, you are ignorant and arrogant.you know nothing you understand nothing but you have an opinion.
I really feel sorry for you
So , my dear friends stay with your so called”football” and baseball and be happy.
I have a new ad for you
BASEBALL. THE BEST MSEDICINE VS INSOMNIA EVER!
AMERICAN FOOTBALL!SOMETIMES IT’S OK TO USE YOUR BRAINS TOO(IF YOU HAVE ONE OF COURSE)
N.B
thank you for supporting Israel!
I
Thanks for one more reason to dislike soccer, you amazingly arrogant twat! We don’t need your stinkin’ game.
What a comment!!I’m sure your mommy is very proud of you.
But no problem , dude. We keep our “stinky” game for those who love and understand and care so calm down and drink some beer.
Taly:
I don’t think anybody disagrees that athletic prowess of soccer players at the major league level. World class athletes are great at what they do regardless of the sport that they play. They are talking about at the youth levels. Any five year old can kick a ball but few can catch or throw or hit.
Soccer is indeed a very tactical game but despite the constant movement of the ball it is as positional as football. Football may be continuous but it is a high level mix of strategy and tactics
Your dislike of baseball is an indication of your need to be entertained. Baseball is actually one of the most cerebral sports around.
If you want to compare goal sports then Hockey is also a far superior game. It is fast and has many scoring opportunities. You can a reversal of fortune in a heartbeat. In Olympic Gold Medal game Canada had only one shot on goal at it was the winner. Hockey is a game for tough guys while soccer is girlie man sport where the violence takes place in the stands rather than the field of play
should read “…not continuous…”
PJM needs an edit function for comments
Hockey is a sport for fairies who got cut from their football teams and deluded themselves into thinking that twinkling their toes is some sort of man’s game.
I assume you are just trolling for a reaction. You won’t get one especially if you are a soccer fan. Anybody who thinks hockey is a wimpy sport has never been the ice.
I went to a World Cup game in Detroit in 1994. It was the most boring sporting event ever. I think it was the US against Sweden. After what seemed like hours sweating in the non-air-conditioned Silverdome(they nicknamed it the Swelterdome) in July, the game ended as a tie.
If you take hockey, slow the players down and spread them out over a football field, while also removing the physical aspects that keep one interested between goals, you have soccer.
I’m absolutely, utterly stunned at how narrow minded my fellow conservatives are.
Yes, soccer has tons of things to complain about, but, for God’s sake, so does every other sport ! Has anyone _ever_ even considered the fact that soccer is “boring” because you don’t fully understand it? And I mean _fully_, not just that “22 guys are kicking a ball around”.
Jeez, people, the reality is that you DO NOT understand the game as you should, and that’s why you don’t like it. On top of that it’s a “cultural” thing. American have absolutely no history with soccer.
It’s as simple as that. Drop pseudo-scientific explanations why soccer sucks. I’m always amazed at how in today’s society people generally like to give their “expert” opinion on just about any subject, whether they understand it or not. Too few people feel comfortable anymore saying “I won’t comment because
Right. Just as soon as my betters stop trying to shove this stupid game down my throat. What is the problem with just going and enjoying it if it’s so darn entertaining and leaving those of us who will never “get it” alone? Soccer is like communism, Islam and environmentalism in that it won’t leave the non-believers be. You must submit! Resistance is futile! **** that!
…I don’t know”.
These discussions are always hilarious. In general, we love the sports we grew up admiring and watching with family and friends, whether we were playing them or not. As Mr. Horn says, futbol just hasn’t been one of those sports for most Americans. It starts from way behind here.
I’d guess at least half of all Americans could relate stories about Dad just LOVING baseball and his Red Sox, or funny Aunt May decking herself out head to toe in Kansas City Chiefs regalia every fall weekend, or the posse of cousins and uncles gathering for every Bulls game they could possibly assemble for, whether in the arena or in front of the tube.
For college graduates, the overwhelmingly watched, attended, screamed- and died-for alma mater sports are football and basketball. There’s some hockey in the mix for the northern schools. The soccer team is kind of like the tennis or golf team: “Oh, did they win? Good for them! Who were they playing? Umm…do they have some kind of season? How does that work?”
Another thing the foreigners’ comments have highlighted here is the significance to futbol lovers of hollering for your national team. That’s not a particularly strong urge for Americans, presumably because we’re big and have been a “superpower” for so long. Of course we like to see the Americans win at the Olympics, but we can play so many sports just among American teams that the whole dynamic has developed differently for us. It’s worth noting that nations like Japan and Russia tend to “do sports” with less of a routine international flavor too, although Russia doesn’t support the huge professional sports infrastructure found in America and Japan. India also has a robust domestic sports network, however, as do Australia and Canada.
The nations most prominent in futbol — professional and World Cup — are medium-size nations with lots of neighbors within economical traveling distance. Futbol in general is most popular among nations with that profile. As others point out, it’s cheap to operate, and since it’s quite a simple game, it’s easy to play across borders.
Neither geography nor economics has ever levied those constraints on the development of American sports. We’ve had the means and leisure to develop sports with incredible complexity, a scoring regime to suit every taste, and stiff barriers to entry. (Basketball may seem relatively simple, rules-wise, but you have to be a genetic oddity at the outset to have any hope of playing it at the higher levels.) Why not? We don’t have to adapt our sports to attract opponents from outside our borders.
All that said, soccer would have a better chance of gaining a big American fan base if it just weren’t so darn boring.
The only place that soccer belongs in the USA is as a highschool girls sport. The sport perfectly reflects the tribalistic behaviors of collectivism.
This is one of the most idiotic things that I have ever read.
At least half the time that soccer makes the international news, it’s to report how many people were killed at the last stampede at some poorly designed, oversold stadium. Gee, I don’t remember murderous stampedes at any NFL games. Maybe I just missed that news.
1 – 1 TIE How flipping cozy… 94 minutes and I think there were no more than two handfuls of shots on goal. They had to wake the crowd up to go home.
“If it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?” – Vince Lombardi
Of course Duffy Daugherty said it best… “A tie is like kissing your sister.”
Or in this case an old cousin. :-p~
The Mighty Fahvaag
If you drew an outline of the human body with parts in proportion to the amount of brain activity they require, the eyes and the hands would each be bigger than any other part, by far.
Co-coordinating the hands and the eyes is requires a lot of brain activity. And coordinating the physical (the hands), with the abstract (processing light through vision) is most sophisticated.
The hallmark of a popular North American sport is hand-eye coordination. Baseball, basketball, lacrosse, ice hockey, volleyball all were invented and became popular in North America. American football? Well, it was a niche sport mostly played by a few colleges – and then they invented the forward pass. You know the rest of the story.
Soccer is boring to the North American fan because it lacks the sophistication of the hand-eye-coordination challenge.
Feudalism is also key. Soccer popularity and a history of feudalism is highly congruent. Baseball popularity and no feudal background is equally congruent. Japan is a good example. In the Meiji restoration, the Japanese Emperor essentially declared that feudalism was dead, and that Japan would emulate Western (American) ways. The Japanese high school ‘world series’ is older that the World Series itself. Latin America is another example. Where the RC Church and feudalism were strongest, they play soccer. Where feudalism was not entrenched, they play baseball.
So if if you are a serf, and hand-eye coordination is more than your brain can process, watch soccer.
Soccer goalkeepers (at the highest level) require incredible hand-eye coordination and agility, as well as lighting fast reflexes.
Back in the ’90′s I remember in the New York Times as article about this subject. HENRY KISSINGER WAS QUOTED RECOMMENDING THAT AMERICANS BE INCULCATED INTO THE GLORIES OF SOCCER IN ORDER TO BECOME PART OF THE REST OF THE WORLD. I remember thinking when I read his statement that it revealed what many suspected he has been working for his entire political life. He is a tool of the NEW WORLD ORDER CROWD and soccer was to be the sport of the “peoples” of the world, in a world without nation states and borders, New World Order with End, Amen.
And another thing…might it have something to do with the NAUSEATING PHRASE we used to hear over and over again….SOCCER MOMS???? Somehow that didn’t do the sport much good either.
And this is why.
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2010/06/12/oh-my-god-soccer-and-now-we-actually-tied-england-somebody-just-shoot-me-when-is-football/
I think around the world everyone likes the fact that Americans do not have a clue about football.
The less in common anyone has with yanks the better.Keep the comments rolling.
I don’t give a crap about soccer or an article that attempts to explain why other Americans don’t give a crap about soccer. It’s quite simple, the sport is boring as hell. Of course many sports that used to be exciting are boring too. Baseball being one example. We have added an hour to the length of the game but nothing interesting is happening in that hour. Just alot of standing around waiting for commercial breaks, the pitcher to throw the ball, and the batter to get back in the box. It sucks.
Isn’t it over, YET!????
Soccer’s popularity in a country is inversely proportional to that country’s relevance.
How are all of you doing? Iam doing great I joined this forum because am bored at work…..ZZZZzzz costumer support is so boring. But all that aside how are you do you like my cat?
[IMG]http://www.picgifs.com/graphics/c/cute/graphics-cute-671650.jpg http://www.bluedevilphotos.com/selecting-a-reliable-computer-repair-company/148/ alt=”computer repair”[/IMG]