Why do Americans not care about Soccer?

[SR1729]

Playing tag is completely free. And that's something we all played as kids. Why didn't we continue playing that as adults and turn it into a professional sport?

Because soccer is a "divine" sport. Didn't you know? It says so several posts up. "Tag" wasn't chosen by the gods.

 

[AMDZen]

baseball:
batting gloves - $20
helmet - $20
baseball glove - depending on position between $50-$150
baseball - $12
bat - $175
cleats - $80

soccer:
cleats - $80
ball - $20
shin guards - $20

in other countries, they don't even play with anything but their bare feet and a ball made of shirts tied together into a ball. that's how pele learned to play soccer.

pretty sure soccer costs WAY less than baseball...

but, yeah, the time advertising is way less in soccer, too.

Uh yea ok. Your prices are outrageous. You CAN spend $175 on a bat, be my guest. If you are just playing for fun like most people you can go with a $50 bat, you don't need gloves to hit a softball in a beer league, or cleats but can get those for much cheaper. My glove was $30 and more then good enough. You don't need a catchers mit to play for fun

I am talking about playing for fun.

 

[BTA]

I'd watch tag matches if it was full contact...

 

[CLite]

dives, soccer is 100x worse than the NBA which I tend to avoid watching.

There is nothing fluid about people falling over eachother trying to suckoff the refs to draw a call.

 

[vi edit]

I'd watch tag matches if it was full contact...

Or you could just give them a goofy looking ball and call it rugby.

 

[BTA]

I actually like watching Rugby.

 

[CLite]

Or you could just give them a goofy looking ball and call it rugby.

I was in Melbourne for a while, Aussie rules football > anything tbh.

I go to a couple Giant's games a year, maybe a dozen Yankee games, a few Devil's games, but nothing compares to my experiences in Melbourne. I didn't know much about the rules but it was awesome to watch plus meat pies as stadium food are ftw.

 

[zinfamous]

Football > Baseball >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Soccer > Basketball

Football~Baseball~Basketball~Hockey>>Soccer

I do enjoy watching the World Cup, and while I've tried in the past, I simply can't get into soccer. Too much "middle-of-the-field (pitch?)" jockeying during a game. I don't mind the low scoring so much as the constant back-and-forth in the neutral zone with very little attack.

Problem with the US and soccer isn't so much that we don't care or can't compete, it's just that we have some rather long-established sports that already compete heavily for our attention in the same markets. I'm not sure if any other country has as many well-established dominant sports franchises as we do (sure, I could be wrong), but with 4 HUGE professional sports leagues (& we have pussy shit like Golf and NASCAR that seems to make shit tons of money, without any logical explanation as to why...) dominating for so long, and the history of soccer's failed attempts to establish inroads (late 70s failure in bringing a washed-up Pele to the US; the current and established irrelevance of MLS for a decade+), I simply don't see soccer happening in this country.

People like to argue that it will happen within the next decade b/c of the huge popularity of soccer among the young suburban kids...but that argument is pretty old now, and we've passed the moment of truth in terms of realizing this argument--The legions of young soccer players from 15 years ago never appeared. Why? they stopped playing soccer by the time they reached middle school. And they still do.

It seems we maintain a rate of producing one or two world class soccer players every 5 years or so...and maybe that's generous. You simply can't establish any kind of competitiveness in world championship play with that kind of production.
:\

 

[zinfamous]

as opposed to basketball that requires a ball and two hoops?

as opposed to american footbal that only requires a ball?

saying that Football is popular because its cheap its idiotic , if that was the case then it wouldnt be the most popular sport in places like England , Denmark , Sweden, and most of western europe which are the richest places in the world.

most of the premier athletes do not come from the gentry in those wealthy countries. And in the poor countries, well...most everyone is poor.

The fact is, soccer is cheaper than any other sport. No, you can't play (American) Football with just a ball. You need pads, helmets, etc. Otherwise, you wouldn't be playing football. I suppose you could go full contact without any protection, but tons of people would be dieing like they were in the early days of the sport. that's simply a fact. No one wants to watch flag football, and no one wants to watch people dieing on the field.

I think eits' cost of baseball is rather inflated, but it's still more spendy than soccer. ball + some sort of goals is pretty much all one needs. --and that's one ball for two teams. in baseball, at least every player on the field would need a glove. Sure, you can share a ball, and maybe a bat amongst all the player sin a game, but you need at least one set of gloves. Most likely though, all players will have some type of bat and/or their own glove.

 

[zinfamous]

Its worse than baseball.

Well, just about everything is worse than baseball, b/c baseball is the greatest sport!

 

[Deeko]

Why? Because its boring as hell to watch. And before someone says "lolz stupid american, its less boring than baseball!!!" again, I don't watch baseball for the same reason.

 

[AMDZen]

Well, just about everything is better than baseball, b/c baseball is the most boring sport after golf and followed by soccer!

fixed

 

[HendrixFan]

The 150lbs pussy soccer player screaming at the top of his lungs is nothing more than an annoyance and a disgrace. Unfortunately, this describes 90% of all soccer players. Americans want to see badasses that can do things other people can't do -- and see them pitted against other badasses that can do things other people can't do. Nobody wants to see "talent" that's achieved with a few months of training. Additionally, nobody in America wants to watch a sport where they could kick the shit out of everyone playing it because they're 150lbs pussies that constantly bitch, cry, and scream on a field. We want to watch sports where the ATHLETES have the ability to lift us over their head with one hand while simultaneously breaking our back.

I think this leads to another reason why nobody here likes soccer. The finest athletes play football or basketball, leaving the other sports relatively devoid of talent. Baseball culls its talent mostly from central america. The talent in soccer stays in their home countries.

 

[rasczak]

The logical question is then, why does the rest of the world love soccer?

because it's all they have really. they grew up with up, have watched it since they were kids, similar to how we love basketball, baseball, football depending on which one you watched as a child.

 

[zinfamous]

fixed

golf isn't even a sport. it's a little game played by wusses on atrociously disgusting faux green landscapes.

Pretty much anyone recognizes that the single most difficult task in all of the world's sports is hitting a baseball--curveball, changeup, 95+ mph fastball.

baseball is a very, very subtle sport. It's all about matchups, and does take some mental effort to understand these things.

attempting that latter part is what keeps most sports fans away. :\

 

[AMDZen]

golf isn't even a sport. it's a little game played by wusses on atrociously disgusting faux green landscapes.

Pretty much anyone recognizes that the single most difficult task in all of the world's sports is hitting a baseball--curveball, changeup, 95+ mph fastball.

baseball is a very, very subtle sport. It's all about matchups, and does take some mental effort to understand these things.

attempting that latter part is what keeps most sports fans away. :\

I don't care how subtle or hard it is, its boring to watch. Golf is hard as hell and has a lot of subtlety and finess as well.

Hell I'm sure being precise and consistent enough to drive a NASCAR is difficult but it doesn't make any of these sports more entertaining to watch.

 

[SR1729]

golf isn't even a sport.

Tell that to the guys who practice 80 hours per week and then play 72 holes. It requires more time investment than any other sport, hands down. When guys like Tiger came along and brought real physical conditioning to golf, they turned it into a sport in my book.

I've played most sports to some degree, but I've played soccer, golf, baseball, and hockey competitively. They are all sports by their own merits. Debates over why xyz is a sport and abc isn't are just stupid. I never played basketball (I detest the sport, frankly), but you can't argue that basketball and soccer will whip you into shape in no time flat. While I can't speak for basketball, I can say from experience that the challenge in soccer pretty much ends there. Once you're conditioned, the rest is just a matter of winning the penalty war. I quit playing in college because it just wasn't fun anymore. I'm 33 now, and have seriously thought about joining a friendly rec league (I'm still in great shape), but the thought of watching those prima donna twats on TV, with their atrocious acting skills, makes me want to peel my skin off. That doesn't make me a lesser person, nor does it make someone who disagrees with me a lesser person. It's just my opinion.

The most difficult challenge I've faced in sports is getting to the point where I could hit a 275 yard drive and hit the fairway more frequently than missing it. It was also the most gratifying accomplishment - and that was after perfecting a curveball. But again, just my opinion based on my own experience.

But people confuse their own biased (and sometimes bigoted) opinion as fact all too often.

 

[PimpJuice]

Probably because USA have always sucked at it, and since they are so proud, they decided to just write it off and ignore it

Its tons of fun to play, but as for watching it really depends on the teams... Some games are incredibly boring (usually teams with tactical/defensive mindset), but those games where teams play offensively and try to score as many goals as possible are awesome

For people saying boring I lol, baseball and golf are a hundred times more boring than football (yes, FOOTBALL, not soccer)

Only the US would call a game played mainly by hand "football" -.-

US sucks at soccer because soccer is the last sport that our best athletes want to play. Its pretty much the opposite in other countries where soccer is the #1 sport to play.

 

[skace]

read chuck klosterman on soccer
http://books.google.com/books?id=8b...A#v=onepage&q=chuck klosterman soccer&f=false
its a game for people who don't like sports

Maybe in generalities that makes sense. But it would also make sense about biddy basketball and a lot of other sports. When you get down to the lowest echelon, you will have a lot of fuck ups that are only there because their parents are still dragging them to the sport.

To think that is the entirety of soccer however, is insulting. Soccer isn't terrifying? Tell that to the kid who thought he had a break away before I drove my knee into his stomach. You know how many soccer players will eat a yellow card without even thinking about it? Soccer is a sport where we actually have a penalty called a high kick to prevent you from KICKING ANOTHER PLAYER IN THE FACE. And guess what? It still happens. You will get kicked in the face, your bones will be broken, if the kid is bigger than you - he will try to break your legs, you will take a few shots to the groin. Anyone who thinks soccer is a sport for people shying away from contact needs to wake the fuck up.

But I do agree with some of the thread, professional soccer is actually pretty boring to watch. It's hard for me to argue this however, since most professional sports are pretty boring to watch - so while I don't enjoy watching soccer, I can't name another sport I'd rather be watching either. If I had to guess though, I'd say watching soccer in an actual stadium with the fans would probably be as much or more exciting than watching a similar event here in America. I've seen their crowds, they are electric. I have a few Turkish friends, and if I ever visit Istanbul they told me I absolutely have to see a Fenerbache game in person.

One thing is for certain, I did love watching soccer growing up in the competitive leagues. We had a lot more show boating than professional soccer has. I loved watching people do flip throw ins, I could never do them, but it was basically where you laid the ball on the ground, touched your head to the ball and flipped over it, whipping it over your back. Women soccer players were always the best to watch do it - some of them could launch that fucking thing down the field.

 

[meltdown75]

the fact of the matter is that soccer is a sport that transcends barriers, cultures, races, and ideologies. it is a divine sport. it requires amazing endurance, great strength, sharp skills, and fast thinking. there's no other sport on earth that will unite people the way soccer does. although sometimes it may inspire a small riot, it can stop wars.

there's no greater sport on the face of the planet than soccer and the world knows it.

the reason we americans don't is because there's not enough money in it. there's more money in teams with huge rosters, gargantuan men unleashing anger (football, baseball, hockey). there's more money and more opportunity for kids to have a place on the team; if you suck at throwing a football, you can either learn to run with one, catch one, block the guy throwing it, or attack the guy throwing it. if you suck at throwing a baseball fast and on target, you can learn to be a catcher, be a baseman, or an outfielder.

in soccer, you have only two choices... you can either stay in goal and be good at keeping the ball from passing you by whatever means necessary or you can run, steal the ball, and kick it forward. whether you're on offense or defense, your fundamentals are the same... you must know how to tackle, you must know how to shoot, head, or pass on target, and you must hustle for 45 minutes at a time. if you suck at doing these things, you will not make the team... and, just like everyone else, if you suck at something, then you won't like it.

sweet mother of Jesus. bolded = dumbest thing i've ever read on an internet forum.

oh and soccer... MEH

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Baseball is way more boring than soccer.

Yeah probably because in soccer there's at least constant action. But you gotta remember what most people treat a baseball game like... people just kinda sit there chilling. It's almost like a lounge of people just hanging out, leaning back, drinking, eating, and chatting while the game is going on. It's a lot different.

NBA has a lot more chanting as possessions change and stuff. College football is just an amazing thing itself. You take the student section and the young alums who seem to have never graduated (myself included) and it's probably like some of the crazy soccer fans.... except I never understood why people could go so crazy about soccer while at least in NCAA you're backing your alma mater.

 

[meltdown75]

golf isn't even a sport. it's a little game played by wusses on atrociously disgusting faux green landscapes. [/B]

pretty much all of my good friends both play hockey and golf... some of them play baseball too... 404 wusses not found. and what is disgusting about a golf course? 0_o they're usually the nicest parkland settings to be found in any given area. golf FTW

 

[Anubis]

except I never understood why people could go so crazy about soccer while at least in NCAA you're backing your alma mater.

not everyone went to a school with a D1 football program

 

[eits]

sweet mother of Jesus. bolded = dumbest thing i've ever read on an internet forum.

oh and soccer... MEH

why's that dumb?

 

[yinan]

Baseball is not a sport because it barely requires you to move. In an average game how many times does a player actually have to run? 3? Baseball is more of a "recreational activity", like bowling.

Oh ya and I also hate it because all baseball players are cheaters.