Why World Cup/Soccer isn't popular in the US?

[DolimiteB]

This is one of the biggest reasons I despise soccer. OK, so the guys may be superfit, they may have fantastic agility and skills, they may even actually be tough guys. But the way they fall to the ground in agony, most assuredly they have a ruptured cranium or their major arteries have been severed by the looks of the "pain" they are in...

Yet, when no penalty is called, they pop up immediately and continue play....

That, and the fact that soccer is just too boring to endure....

+1. You can bet if soccer had a pre-draft combine like the NFL Combine where they measure speed, strength, agility, vertical leap, etc., soccer would devise an event to test one's ability to flop.

And again, we're not here to debate popularity. Hands down soccer is the most popular game in the world in terms of the number of people that play it and watch it, yet in the US it remains nothing more than a shooting star. We could win this thing and a month later no one would be talking about it. When's the last time you were standing around the water cooler at work and all the guys were chatting about soccer? I bet today guys were talking about Joyce screwing Galarraga on his perfect game.

 

[Jim]

It comes down to one simple issue-


That guy who yells GOOOOAAAALLLLL.

 

[Obsessed]

It comes down to one simple issue-


That guy who yells GOOOOAAAALLLLL.

That could catch on here. TouchDOOOOOOWWWWWWN!

Oddly enough, however, Field GOOOOAAAALLLLL probably wouldn't be that exciting.

 

[Seraphim]

That could catch on here. TouchDOOOOOOWWWWWWN!

Oddly enough, however, Field GOOOOAAAALLLLL probably wouldn't be that exciting.

As a Patriot fan, there have been a couple of rather exciting field goals...

 

[DFrancis]

That could catch on here. TouchDOOOOOOWWWWWWN!

Oddly enough, however, Field GOOOOAAAALLLLL probably wouldn't be that exciting.

In CFL we have ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGE!!!

 

[Kevan]

It comes down to one simple issue-


That guy who yells GOOOOAAAALLLLL.

Only South Americans/Mexicans do that though.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

I'm sure someone has already proposed this, but I'm going to say it, too. It's pretty simple to me: soccer got a late start.

We have football in the autumn and winter, basketball in the late autumn until the summer, baseball in the spring until the autumn (this means all summer) and hockey running about the same time as basketball. That's four sports, which collectively encompass the entire year. That's a lot of sports. Soccer is like the short, fat kid with glasses at the pick up basketball game: if there's room left over, he's on the team. If not, he's watching and maybe next time.

What I'm trying to say is that soccer has to compete against a lot of other sports that have been around longer and have been entrenched into Americana. We have, what, 70, 80 years of baseball memories? Football and basketball have been around forever. Not to mention that football and basketball players are often black, which means young black children will relate to football and basketball players more than they do soccer players. So, in that way, it's a self perpetuating cycle. Europe is starting to gain interest in basketball because there's been an influx of European players into the NBA.

With the increase of Latin American immigrants, soccer will grow in popularity. It's already growing in popularity. It just has to be given time.

 

[DolimiteB]

The title of the article at the link below pretty much sums up soccer: Refs run more than Players. I can think of no other sport wherein the athletes expend less energy than the official. Let World Flop 2010 begin.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/04/world.cup.referees.fitness/index.html?hpt=Sbin

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

The title of the article at the link below pretty much sums up soccer: Refs run more than Players. I can think of no other sport wherein the athletes expend less energy than the official. Let World Flop 2010 begin.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/04/world.cup.referees.fitness/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Soccer players still do a lot more running than football or baseball players. Baseball players run so little that a lot of the best players are tubs of lard. They just sock it out of the park and do a little jog. The same is true for a lot of football players.

This article is not suggesting that soccer players don't run very much, but that the refs run more. This makes sense. They have to cover the entire field, whereas players cover certain areas. It would not make a lot of sense for the defender to run all the way around the field, thus exposing the goal.

 

[Don]

The rest of the world would disagree.

Like anyone really cares what Sri Lanka thinks.

 

[Shane]

Like anyone really cares what Sri Lanka thinks.

That's a fairly classless statement. Apologies to any forum members who are of Sri Lankan descent.

 

[Don]

That's a fairly classless statement. Apologies to any forum members who are of Sri Lankan descent.

Wow! Board monitor.

No one can apologize for someone else, and there is nothing to apologize for.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

Like anyone really cares what Sri Lanka thinks.

Joking or not, there's the other point.

As Americans, we're used to being king of the swing. Strongest military, most powerful corporations, most influential nation, wealthiest, blah blah blah. But when we play soccer, a little impoverished nation like the Ivory Coast can beat the snot out of us and this is unsettling.

 

[Kevan]

Wow! Board monitor.

No one can apologize for someone else, and there is nothing to apologize for.

Don, several times you've come into this thread and you've acted very arrogant, and by saying what you just said you're starting to act like a complete ***. If you don't want to participate in the discussion constructively, please leave.

 

[Don]

Joking or not, there's the other point.
a little impoverished nation like the Ivory Coast can beat the snot out of us and this is unsettling.

If anyone cares, I guess it matters. I do not, it bothers me not.

 

[Don]

Don, several times you've come into this thread and you've acted very arrogant, and by saying what you just said you're starting to act like a complete ***. If you don't want to participate in the discussion constructively, please leave.

Chip on the shoulder, sir?

Several posters posted that they'd rather have major surgery than watch soccer. Hmmmmm? Maybe you should attack them? I thought they made a funny point however. Point: Were those posts "constructive"?

IOW, selective indignation.

Thank you, and have a nice day.

 

[Kevan]

Chip on the shoulder, sir?

Several posters posted that they'd rather have major surgery than watch soccer. Hmmmmm? Maybe you should attack them? I thought they made a funny point however. Point: Were those posts "constructive"?

Thank you, and have a nice day.

There's a difference between their posts and yours. IF you can't see the difference, then you obviously have a different definition of "gentlemanly" than the rest of us.

 

[Don]

There's a difference between their posts and yours. IF you can't see the difference, then you obviously have a different definition of "gentlemanly" than the rest of us.

No, you have a problem, not me. Go complain to a mod. I posted nothing improper.

Again, selective indignation.

 

[TimmyBoston]

This is pathetic. All of you cut it out now or this will be locked.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

If anyone cares, I guess it matters. I do not, it bothers me not.

This thread isn't about you, my friend. I'm attempting to explain why, on a macroscopic level, Americans are not wild about soccer.

I would like, however, to clarify that I don't think it's that a loss to the Ivory Coast or Uruguay or whomever makes us feel consciously inferior, but that we're so used to success that when we don't succeed we lose interest. Some of these tiny nations are loyal to their national teams regardless of their history. Mexico has never come close to winning the World cup, but they live this sport.

In the US it is the near guarantee of success that matters not the possibility of it. Think of what happened when, a few years ago, we started losing international basketball competitions. Suddenly we had a national team with a fixed coach and fixed roster with regular practices. All the big names came out: Kobe, Lebron, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan, whomever. We had to reaffirm our status as the basketball juggernaut; and unlike in the past, this meant doing more than just throwing together a team of guys and letting them run amok without order or strategy.

When the US wins the World Cup or advances to the final game, soccer will really take off. We will start believing we will win and coalesce around that. It will most likely not be successful here until then.