Question For American's

[Guest the 1inch punch]

Simple question

[Guest franchise632]

I dont think its that people dont like soccer here in America, the problem is it doesnt get the kinda coverage that the other "big 4" sports get. If you look at american sports, the most fans follow sports where there are typical alot of points scored. Basketball, Football, Baseball, and to a lesser extent Hockey. Also the lack of international sucess by American soccer plays a big part in it. With the great showing by the US team in the years Tournament there will likely be a increase in the sports popularity, but it will likely never ge the coverage that the other big sports get.

[Guest Some Guy]

It's very, very boring. The game goes on and on and on and on and on and nothing ever happens. I don't like to watch a bunch of guys run after a spotted ball kicking at it for like seven hours and only have them score 1 or 2 times.

[Guest franchise632]

 

Oh yea I forgot ingnorance plays a part in that as well

[Guest Some Guy]

The "the media doesn't cover it like the NFL" excuse is just lame. The sport doesn't get covered because noone cares here. It is perceived as a high school sport in my neck of the woods and also as somewhat of a female sport. Girls high soccer is huge in my town. I've always hated the game whether it be playing it or watching it I never liked it.

 

I do think that the fact that Soccer is not an American sport in that it was invented somewhere else people here don't relate to it the same as they would with Baseball, Football, and Basketball which were invented in America.

 

I've watched some of a few games and the highlights on Sportscenter and I'm still extremely unimpressed with it.

 

Just a sidenote: Golf is more popular than soccer here, that's how exciting a Soccer game is.

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

The interesting thing about soccer in America is that it is widely played, but poorly covered. This is in part because America's professional league, the MLS, is mediocre at best. And in America, at least in American mainstream culture, only professional leagues count, with the exception of college football in the southern states. [but then, college football and college basketball are only superficially amateur these days; they are as money-driven as any professional league, expect for the players not getting a cut.]

 

The MLS isn't very good. It looks bush league, for the most part. I mean, I tune in now and then, and I see them playing on a [gridiron] football field, with the lines all over the place, and it just looks bad. The talent level isn't exactly A-level either, with a few exceptions. Plus, basketball, baseball, football and hockey suck up most of the air time on the best sports TV networks, so the MLS is stuck with saturday afternoons on ESPN2.

 

I mean, I really like soccer, and even I don't watch the MLS. Even with the local team being the defending league champions.

 

Also, remember that Americans are largely conditioned and programmed into the "lots of scoring is good, not so much scoring is bad" mentality, and our games have been tinkered with and gimmicked up to inflate scoring. It's very hard for a low scoring sport to get noticed, especially a "new" sport and a "new" professional league [MLS only started in 1996, making it far younger than the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL.] Most people in America are too impatient or unmotivated to learn about defensive strategy and the aesthetic qualities of a good defense, even in baseball [and in basketball there is almost no such thing as defense...I mean, for God's sake, GOALTENDING is a foul and an automatic two points for the offensive team! That sums up the philosophy of basketball pretty completely.] Especially in a "new" sport like soccer.

 

We're also used to clocks running BACKWARD, not forward. Plus stoppage time is weird concept and probably strikes people here as subjective. [injury time out? STOP THE CLOCK and start it up again when he's been carted off.]

 

One cynical unnamed Englishman also once commented that "Americans don't care about anything they can't be the best at." That's a bit of an exaggeration, and an unflattering one at that, but there is something to that.

 

International success by the national side will likely only increase American interest in soccer around world cup time. Sort of like how we are about olympic sports. We hype the hell out of Michael Johnson and the like during the games, but once they're over, it's "Michael Who?" until the next olympiad rolls around (another example of pro sports being king here).

 

Some of the sportswriters also theorize that the "gamesmanship" of soccer turns us off to it in general. The "overselling" and flopping around in the penalty area, so the theory goes, strikes us as "sissy" and "cheap" and contrary to the spirt of true competition. Also, we're used to American Helmet Football, where people pound the shit out of each other every play, and when someone is laid out on the turf the expectation is, to quote a writer I read "they will quietly lay there and die or get up and continue playing." That might be part of it. [but then, Rugby is even less popular than soccer over here.]

 

It might also suffer from a stigma of being seen as "their" game, "their" being foriegners. While this would likely change if we started kicking everyone's ass at it like we do most other things (and the things in which we don't kick ass don't count, remember), this might hold soccer down. The line between patriotism and xenophobia gets blurred pretty easily over here. Especially these days.

 

There are a LOT of Americans who enjoy soccer as players and fans. Millions, in fact. The thing one has to remember is that while 10 million soccer fanatics would be virtually every citizen in a place like Britain or Germany...it's a small, small minority in America, where there are well over 200 million (getting close to 300 million) people. It's kinda like being in the Green party. There's a lot of you, and you're dedicated, but you get lost in the large ocean of America pretty easily.

 

Plus, you have to admit, penalty kicks are a stupid way to break a tie, dengenerating a team contest into an individual affair where basically "the guys who are a little less lucky lose."

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

It's very, very boring. The game goes on and on and on and on and on and nothing ever happens. I don't like to watch a bunch of guys run after a spotted ball kicking at it for like seven hours and only have them score 1 or 2 times.

In total contrast to the always gripping thrill a minute game of baseball, where people ALSO stand around on a big field of grass for hours. And, occasionally, start running briefly for a short distance before going back to standing around.

 

One guy throws a little white ball, one guy swings a stick at it, and then everyone else chases after it while the guy with the stick drops it and tries to run in a circle back to where he started. What's the big deal?

 

One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

[Guest MaxPower27]

I think a lot of it has to do with shows like SportsCenter treating the game like a joke. I like what I see with World Cup soccer, but the MLS is pretty bad. Bad enough for me to watch some queer action movie, which I hate. I love sports, but quality is important.

 

Most people like scoring, I hate it. I love defence, that's why I love baseball. Low scoring games, with defence making or breaking you. Hockey excels in that dept. as well. I hate basketball because of inconsistency in foul calls (see Kobe's knock out punch to Bibby) aren't called, while a small slap on the wrist gets 2 shots. GAY! They market basketball players as tough guys, but they play (and fight) like pussies. I was in heaven watching the Celtics v. Pistons in the playoffs, with final scores of 66-62 and such. I hate football, but know a lot about it, due to the insane coverage of the training camps, and shit like that. It's almost as bad as the Barry Bonds watchs on FOX and ESPN.

[Guest DrTom]

"In total contrast to the always gripping thrill a minute game of baseball..."

 

Realistically, any sport can be uncharitably described in the one-man-swings-a-stick method you used to describe baseball. Each sport has its merits and flaws, and periods where the action is less than compelling. Baseball is widely covered, has a lot of strategy involved, is played by thousands of teams all over the country (and the world), and is seen as "the American pastime." Sure, it has its boring stretches, but as someone who played soccer for six years and baseball for eight, I'd much rather watch baseball.

 

Soccer does have some exciting stretches, but the majority of the game is a bunch of guys kicking a ball around to no apparent productive end. It's not at all uncommon that, after ninety minutes, there were 20-25 combined shots, and only one goal. Wow. Sorry, but that doesn't qualify as exciting. It's true that modern American sports fans are trained to love offense, but I love pitcher's duels in baseball, and I think a large majority of 1-0 soccer games are snoozefests.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

America likes a winner, plain and simple. If you lose, they don't care. For example, Apolo Anton Ohno was hyped for months leading up to the Winter Olympics, but after Marc Gagnon handed his ass to him no one cared about him, even before the Olympics were over.

 

If the US ever won a World Cup, I guarantee you that it would skyrocket in popularity.

[Guest bob_barron]

I'm a big football fan and I think it sucks how a lot of Americans are ignorant about such a great sport. Some of the letters in SI pissed me off. And people who call it boring and slow don't really understand it cause football is one of the most exciting sports in the world.

[Guest Human Fly]

If the US ever won a World Cup, I guarantee you that it would skyrocket in popularity.

 

Exactly. Women's soccer in America is more popular then Men's Soccer. Just because they won the Cup a few years back. If the Men would've won the Cup I think it would've helped the sport a ton. Soccer is the only sport where the U.S. Women have acheived more then the U.S. Men (not trying to be sexist).

[Guest Vern Gagne]

SportsCenter has highlights of what people are interested in. That doesn't include soccer.

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

It's very, very boring. The game goes on and on and on and on and on and nothing ever happens. I don't like to watch a bunch of guys run after a spotted ball kicking at it for like seven hours and only have them score 1 or 2 times.

what, and you're not talking about american football. i watched a game of this live when that international bowl or some shit came to australia. it took 4 hours to play a one hour game. after every single play, the game stopped for like 30 seconds. now *that* is a boring sport if ever there was one.

 

ill grant that soccer can be very boring, it just depends on who is playing. basically, if the two teams playing are able to attack and decide to, then soccer is actually a very entertaining game. see england v brazil the other day. both sides attacked, and much fun was had by all. the english premier league is also very good, as the style is very attacking and action based. just whatever you do, dont watch germany

 

to the person who said that americans dont like anything that they are not the best at... a truer statement has never been made.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

My guess fall in the it's-low-scoring-hence-it's-boring category.

 

Personally, I played it for 13 seasons, and when a World Cup-like event comes around I usually have a game or two on. At work there's only one other guy who cares about the WC, so whenever we talk about it we get strange looks from others in the building.

[Guest Anorak]

Football has a unique and powerful cultural importance to people throughout the world that is completely unmatched by any other sport. I don't care if Americans are indifferent to it but it often seems their insults towards it are the result of a superiority complex that assumes the rest of the world must be dumb for loving something they don't care about. Do the same people ever stop to consider why Baseball and American Football are not embraced by other countries? Could it be because they lack the same universal appeal as football?

 

Ice Hockey and Basketball are other American sports I don't watch myself but I can at least see their appeal and understand why enough countries play them to enable some kind of international competition. American Football is completely artificial and lacks the passion that Rugby inspires, there's just no flow to it as its constantly stop start all the time, a gimmicky second hand version of another game does not make a great sport. Do they stretch the games out so long just to make people buy more hot dogs and potato chips or something? Baseball? Grown men playing rounders is a pretty sorry sight.

 

I was reminded of an old quote from an article about the worldwide poularity and appeal of football which sums up my feelings....

 

"Sure, the Yanks don't get it, but surely thats a recommendation"?

[Guest Marshall]

You should be proud of the way USA played againest the fucking bastard Germans!

[Guest redbaron51]

The Italian league is way worse than the German league.

 

 

The Americans think that everything has to revolve around them. I mean they probably think Basketball is the best sport in the world, yet half the world couldn't care less about American Basketball. World Cup is the biggest sporting event next to the Summer Olympics, when you have nearly a fifth of the World's population watching it.

 

I also think that Americans can not think of a game that rely's on "A Good Offence is a good defence" concept. I mean when you have 10 shots on at game on the goalie, look how many chances they get.

 

Plus its all strategy. You can't just run your ass off for 90 minutes kicking the ball on a field, that'll just make you an idiot, you gotta play your position, and no one is going to cover you if you don't play your position properly, you try to play a game that is bigger than a football field for 90 minutes straight, no breaks, think that is easy?

 

Also I think that Americans have a short attention span at soccer, if there is no action for the first 5 minutes, they don't care. They want to see goals and many of them.

 

But I just find that the typical American is nothing but a patriotic bandwagoner that has no clue what they are cheering for.

[Guest Some Guy]

One cynical unnamed Englishman also once commented that "Americans don't care about anything they can't be the best at." That's a bit of an exaggeration, and an unflattering one at that, but there is something to that.

 

Personally I don't see why America couldn't be the best at Soccer if we tried. Every sport that we try to be the best at we are.

 

 

For the person who said something along the lines of, "Could it be that soccer has more worldwide apeal than Baseball or Football?" I'd say could it be that most of those places (Europe excluded) are poverty ridden third world countries and finding a soccer ball to kick around is far cheaper than getting a football and pads or a bat, ball, and glove, or a ball and hoop? This might cause a higher % of people in the country playing the game and hence help it's popularity.

 

I'd also like to throw the whining, "Soccer doesn't get covered by the American press and if it did then all the stupid Americans would become elightened as to just how far superior our sport is to their's"

 

How much does American Baseball get covered in Brazil?

It doesn't. I work with a Brazilian imigrant who had never even heard of the sport before he moved here. We get into debates all the time about the virtues or lack their of of Baseball and Soccer. Which generally end with, "you should watch it, you might like it." and our replies to each other are "but it's so fucking boring."

 

My sister recently went to Australia and *GASP* there was no mantion of American sports in their newspapers. The rest of the world is holding us down. Yeah that's it.

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

Realistically, any sport can be uncharitably described in the one-man-swings-a-stick method you used to describe baseball.  Each sport has its merits and flaws, and periods where the action is less than compelling.

Yep, that's exactly my point.

 

Any sport can easily be brushed off as boring by someone who does not -- and does not wish to develop -- a detailed understanding of the game.

 

And let me clarify; I *LOVE* baseball. Well, watching anyway. I don't like playing baseball, because I always sucked at it.

 

I was trying to point out that baseball is as boring to some as soccer football is to others, and that "it's boring" is a subjective opinion, and should not be brandished around like an objective fact.

 

Some Guy: I agree. If America wants to become a soccer power, it can. Where there's a will, there's a way, especially for the wealthiest nation in the world when it also happens to be one of the most populated nations in the world as well. We've got what, 200 - 300 million people? Surely there's a few people in that group who are really f'n good at soccer. All it takes is infusing American soccer with that "We've gotta be the best, we've gotta be successful" attitude that we approach most endeavors with. Once we decide that fielding a powerhouse on the international soccer pitch would be another good, fun way to prove we are "the greatest nation in the world" all it takes is a process of committing some of that big load of cash towards cultivating those great soccer players.

 

Plus, with our pretty open immigration policy, we could always snatch up a couple of Brazillian or German ringers.

[Guest Some Guy]

Exactly. The guy I work with was going to turn pro before he broke his back in a motorcycle accident. America could easily persuade foriegn athletes to leave their countries to play Soccer here. Take a look at Ichiro, Sasaki, Nomo, Ishii, all the Hispanic players, etc... And all the freakishly tall African guys and that Chinese guy who I think was drafted by the NBA. It can be dobut we don't because noone gives a shit about Soccer in America. Sorry people, that's just the way it is.

[Guest razazteca]

It all comes down to the public opinion that soccer is more less an Olympic sport. Where as nobody cares about the game until the big event (World Cup)happens once every 4 years. There is no coverage of the sport on a national basis without a big event like the World Cup or the Olympics. When I lived in Dallas, local radio stations were running advertisments mocking the MLS team the BURN. Plus the MLS games were not aired a major network but on a indy channel that nobody watches anyways.

[Guest redbaron51]

For the person who said something along the lines of, "Could it be that soccer has more worldwide apeal than Baseball or Football?" I'd say could it be that most of those places (Europe excluded) are poverty ridden third world countries and finding a soccer ball to kick around is far cheaper than getting a football and pads or a bat, ball, and glove, or a ball and hoop? This might cause a higher % of people in the country playing the game and hence help it's popularity.

 

 

Baseball would be excluded since there is cricket and its pretty popular around the world, and especially in poorer countries, but I couldn't see it being popular. Hell some countries think the NFL is a joke (hell most countries do) Its just the American civilization can't deal that there are better sports than whats in the states.

 

Also you gotta think, Golf was played with a stick and a rock, and look where it is now, its a popular activity.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"World Cup is the biggest sporting event next to the Summer Olympics, when you have nearly a fifth of the World's population watching it."

 

And the other four-fifths would be watching it, but they don't have any TVs...

[Guest MrRant]

Perhaps its just the fact that a lot of American's think the sport sucks. I do. Not because myself or my friends don't understand it, we just think it plain sucks.

 

The only thing I paid attention to was to see if America won just because the French wouldn't be able to take the fact that America is better at something that they percieve themselves to be superior at.

 

And I have been to soccer matches by the way and its just kick the ball to onside of the field, then it gets kicked to the other side, and then to the other side again, and then back to the first side.

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

My sister recently went to Australia and *GASP* there was no mantion of American sports in their newspapers. The rest of the world is holding us down. Yeah that's it.

as a person who actually lives in australia, that is a damn lie. there is a page at the rear of the sports section where they have "shorts," and all of the major american and european sports are there. what did you expect, american sports on the back page of the paper??? jeez, talk about american arrogance, the simple fact is that your american sports which you crown "world champions" in, have absolutely no relevance outside america. we care about our domestic sports, like you do, but we do not declare our winners world champions, that is nauseatingly arrogant, and stereotypically american. and australia is in a very similar position to the us in regards to soccer, but instead of just ignoring the tournament because we failed at the last hurdle (again ), world cup has been on in primetime, and interest has never been higher. each to their own i guess, but the fact remains that americans will never care about something they are not the best at.

 

and to the person who said america is best at everything they try at, how about ice hockey, you certainly got nailed by canada in the olympics. *that* is also so stereotypically american it makes me sick!!! get a dose of reality, america is not the fucking centre of the universe!

[Guest ant_7000]

Well, I think its Boring zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, it can get exciting at times but most of the time its zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz boring. I think its not enough scoring when and its like 20 people on the field. Like some local sports guy I was watching tonight said soccer is popular with young kids because they get to run around and then when they get older and more coordinated they play other sports and stray away from soccer. I always was never into soccer and I hated when I was in High School in Gym class they would force us to play soccer and I would just stand around, while the other class played Football.

[Guest bob_barron]

I like the games with little to no scoring cause they keep you on the edge of your seat. To me a 1-0 or 0-0 game is better then a 5-4 game.

 

IMO Football is one of the most exciting sports to watch and its so worth losing sleep to watch

[Guest ant_7000]

When is the next World Cup is it every 4 years? and why the game never ends at 90:00 when one team already has a lead? And all this soccer talk reminds me of that Simpsons episode when they went to a soccer game and annonuncer was all excited when were just kicking the ball back and forth. BACK to CENTER BACK to MIDFIELDER oh WAIT BACK TO CENTER

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

When is the next World Cup is it every 4 years? and why the game never ends at 90:00 when one team already has a lead? And all this soccer talk reminds me of that Simpsons episode when they went to a soccer game and annonuncer was all excited when were just kicking the ball back and forth. BACK to CENTER BACK to MIDFIELDER oh WAIT BACK TO CENTER

thank you for proving your ingnorance.

 

stupid americans, if you actually watched a game, or read the world cup thread, this question has already been answered