Every four years, like clockwork, we in America are told that if the US has a strong showing in the World Cup, professional soccer will finally gain acceptance in the mainsteam sports culture. It won't. Why?
Lots of American youth play it, but that doesn't translate to support for MLS teams. Chances are, if you show athletic promise, your Dad's going to push you to baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, track and field, etc.--not soccer. Below are my personal theories and they largely contribute to my overall conclusion: soccer is very un-American in nature.
Please submit your own theories. Soccer advocates are also welcome to offer up what they love/appreciate about the game. The intent isn't to bash soccer, but understand why we in America have never embraced it like the rest of the world.
1. Caps: Over the next month you're going to hear a lot about how many "International Caps" a player has under his belt. This is slang for the number of games the guy has played. It's not a match. It's not a Cap. It's a game.
2. 90 minute games: A soccer game could very easily be completed in 60 minutes with the same low score. Moreover, the clock goes up (not down) and doesn't stop when the ref blows the whistle. Ball goes out of bounds? Clock runs. Player hurt and on the ground? Clock runs. The ref will just tack on some time at the end of the game without telling anyone how much time he's decided upon. It's like a secret overtime even if the game isn't tied.
3. Ties: Unless it's an elimination game, you can have ties in soccer. Hockey figured this out a while ago and added shootouts to the end of regular season games. You can't have ties (the NFL does have them...albeit sparingly....like 1-2 a year).
4. Flopping: Over the course of the World Cup you're going to see a lot of the world's best players wildly flailing about after getting tripped and/or bumped in to. As noted above, the clock will continue to run while the trainer jogs out to talk to him in hushed tones. Unlike the NFL, where if they stop the game for a hurt player that player has to leave the field for a play, in soccer he'll get up and continue playing. Why? He wasn't really hurt. He wanted to draw a Red/Yellow card. In the NHL they penalize you for diving. Soccer seems to embrace it.
5. Lack of Substitutions: Three subsitutions per game. Really? Soccer advocates will tell you that this means the players have to have stamina. In reality, the relatively few substitutions means that by the end of the game people are so exhausted from chasing a ball around that two things are happening at an increased rate: 1) Flopping, and 2) Kicking the ball out of bounds. Why? Because in both cases the clock will continue to run. Presumably, this is why the ref adds an unknown amount of secret time to the 90 minutes already allocated in the rule book.
6. Lack of Violence: If someone's going to be paid millions of dollars there had better be some risk of severe bodily harm. Getting kicked in the shin or head butted (Zidane) isn't like taking a 90 mph pitch in the ribs, a puck in the face, or getting hammered by the free safety on a crossing pattern.
7. We're not the best at it.
8. Offsides: You should be able to go anywhere you want on the field. Offsides shouldn't fluctuate based on where the last defender is. In hockey they have blue lines that dictate whether you're offside, not the other team's last defender. In the NFL there is a clear line that says whether you're on the wrong side. You want to open up the field in soccer? Let guys go wherever they want.
9. Hands: Not using 50% of the digits that the good Lord provided doesn't constitute an achievement. The evolution of opposable thumbs is a good thing and should be embraced. And since we're talking about hands, why does the only guy who gets to use his hands get to wear a completely different jersey than the rest of his team? They end up looking like a cross between wild animals and NASCAR. Is it so the ref can tell who's allowed to touch the ball with his hands?
*Note, that not each of these criteria apply to each popular US sport, but by and large our popular sports meet most of these criteria.
Lots of American youth play it, but that doesn't translate to support for MLS teams. Chances are, if you show athletic promise, your Dad's going to push you to baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, track and field, etc.--not soccer. Below are my personal theories and they largely contribute to my overall conclusion: soccer is very un-American in nature.
Please submit your own theories. Soccer advocates are also welcome to offer up what they love/appreciate about the game. The intent isn't to bash soccer, but understand why we in America have never embraced it like the rest of the world.
1. Caps: Over the next month you're going to hear a lot about how many "International Caps" a player has under his belt. This is slang for the number of games the guy has played. It's not a match. It's not a Cap. It's a game.
2. 90 minute games: A soccer game could very easily be completed in 60 minutes with the same low score. Moreover, the clock goes up (not down) and doesn't stop when the ref blows the whistle. Ball goes out of bounds? Clock runs. Player hurt and on the ground? Clock runs. The ref will just tack on some time at the end of the game without telling anyone how much time he's decided upon. It's like a secret overtime even if the game isn't tied.
3. Ties: Unless it's an elimination game, you can have ties in soccer. Hockey figured this out a while ago and added shootouts to the end of regular season games. You can't have ties (the NFL does have them...albeit sparingly....like 1-2 a year).
4. Flopping: Over the course of the World Cup you're going to see a lot of the world's best players wildly flailing about after getting tripped and/or bumped in to. As noted above, the clock will continue to run while the trainer jogs out to talk to him in hushed tones. Unlike the NFL, where if they stop the game for a hurt player that player has to leave the field for a play, in soccer he'll get up and continue playing. Why? He wasn't really hurt. He wanted to draw a Red/Yellow card. In the NHL they penalize you for diving. Soccer seems to embrace it.
5. Lack of Substitutions: Three subsitutions per game. Really? Soccer advocates will tell you that this means the players have to have stamina. In reality, the relatively few substitutions means that by the end of the game people are so exhausted from chasing a ball around that two things are happening at an increased rate: 1) Flopping, and 2) Kicking the ball out of bounds. Why? Because in both cases the clock will continue to run. Presumably, this is why the ref adds an unknown amount of secret time to the 90 minutes already allocated in the rule book.
6. Lack of Violence: If someone's going to be paid millions of dollars there had better be some risk of severe bodily harm. Getting kicked in the shin or head butted (Zidane) isn't like taking a 90 mph pitch in the ribs, a puck in the face, or getting hammered by the free safety on a crossing pattern.
7. We're not the best at it.
8. Offsides: You should be able to go anywhere you want on the field. Offsides shouldn't fluctuate based on where the last defender is. In hockey they have blue lines that dictate whether you're offside, not the other team's last defender. In the NFL there is a clear line that says whether you're on the wrong side. You want to open up the field in soccer? Let guys go wherever they want.
9. Hands: Not using 50% of the digits that the good Lord provided doesn't constitute an achievement. The evolution of opposable thumbs is a good thing and should be embraced. And since we're talking about hands, why does the only guy who gets to use his hands get to wear a completely different jersey than the rest of his team? They end up looking like a cross between wild animals and NASCAR. Is it so the ref can tell who's allowed to touch the ball with his hands?
*Note, that not each of these criteria apply to each popular US sport, but by and large our popular sports meet most of these criteria.
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Besides, it's more exciting than baseball, at least for me.
