Why soccer will never be a major sport in the USA.

[Brian in Boston]

Oh, let's not forget about.... China? I hear they have a large population....

Yes... and China is a nation that FIFA has targeted as the next frontier in international soccer development.

[Fred T. Jane]

I wouldn't be quick to dismiss India as a footballing nation. They may not have had the success but soccer is still quite popular there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/w...all/3937015.stm

Oh, let's not forget about.... China? I hear they have a large population....

No, but the meme that Football is the most popular sport in the world is getting tiring, especially in light of South Asia's Cricket fever. 20% of the World's population is in South Asia, and it's awash with Cricket fever. To be honest, Football in India is in the same situation as it is in the US, that is merely a niche sport that may get to be good on the world stage, but it won't caputre the nation's attention like the national sport (in India's case, Cricket).

[yh]

Brian is 100% spot-on IMHO regarding soccer's likely permanent position in the U.S. as a niche sport.

And that's just fine as far as I'm concerned.

So long as there are dozens of cable sports channels at my nightly disposal (especially FSC) I'll never be without access to the world's best soccer players. And the good news is that soccer still holds enough interest stateside that it's a good bet that the world's brightest stars will likely extend their (waning) careers by playing out their twilight season(s) for big pay here in the States. Beckham's already said he'll come here when his prime international days are over and Ronaldo has pretty much said the same. I am of the sincere belief that Zizou would have likely considered the same option, however his boneheaded (pun intended) move on Sunday might have jeopardized his chances to sign on with a MLS club once he's exhausted his prime earning potential in the big leagues.

I'm of the belief that MLS will never reach the level of the top tier Euro leagues, however it's always going to be the best professional soccer available in the United States, so if and when MLS gets to the St. Louis area you can bank on my purchasing a season ticket.

I certainly hope that the MLS folks don't try to compete with baseball in the spring and summer and football in the fall. The NASL tried that; had roughly two or three years of moderate success thanks to the incredible star power that the Cosmos built, but couldn't sustain the success. As a result, a league which did fairly well for its first ten years eventually imploded when it got too big for its britches.

Speaking of the Cosmos, there's a new movie out (playing mostly in indie houses) about the team's meteoric rise and fall. It's called Once In a Lifetime. Hopefully I won't have to wait for it to hit IFC in order to see it myself.

[josdin00]

However, I only watch a handful of games every four years, so to say my knowledge of the game is limited is an understatement.

That pretty much invalidates your argument. I still do not know how people who watch soccer once every four years can make statements like this. This is equivalent to an Australian watching hockey once every four years at the Olympics and drawing to conclusions.

The discussion here was about why soccer is unable to attract a larger audience in America, and why it can't turn casual american fans into avid fans. As a casual american fan who enjoyed watching the game more than anyone else in my circle of friends and family, I'd say that puts me right in the middle of the demographic being discussed. If we were talking about ways to imporve the game, I'd be out of my weight class, but since we're discussing how the game is viewed in the US, I deserve a sopt in the discussion.

1. Diving, yes diving is a big problem, but the misconception about diving in North America, is that once a player dives and draws the foul, that they stay on the ground for a good 5 minutes, professional divers like Arjen Robben, and Cristiano Ronaldo get up right after the foul has been given, because rolling around only ruins your team flow.  Florent Malouda, when he won the penalty shot in the finals, he did not roll around after getting knocked.  Now please if you've never played soccer before, don't underestimate the pain of slight tackle. It kills.

If someone goes down on a tackle, I understand that it can hurt. I have no problem with that. In the games I watched, I saw players get bumped on the shoulder in a way that wouldn't phase you if it happened on the street, and yet they fell to the ground 'in agony'. I saw players get tackled, roll around for a while 'in agony' after the ref had either shown the card, or indicated that there was no foul, go off the field, and then return 60 seconds later as if nothing happened. Unless you actually broke your leg or tore your ACL, I don't want to see you acting like it. If those players you mentioned get up right after the foul, that's wonderful. They're not the ones that I'm talking about.

2. Offsides, say we do get rid of offsides, tell me, how would that make soccer more exciting, your basically going to get man-to-man marking, with players spread so far apart, that the game would actually be boring, even if the score was 19-18.  Some of the best soccer games I've seen have been 0-0 nailbiters.  Breaking the offside traps is one of the best feelings in soccer.

To me, the exciting part about soccer is the scoring drives, the incredible footwork to get around defenders, and the precision passing. I don't see how any of those are negatively affected by removing offsides. If you allow people to camp out behind the defenders, defenses will have to leave someone back to account for that person. That, therefore, is one less person clutering up the middle of the field, leaving more room for offensive players to move the ball, either themselves, or by passing. That will create a faster pace to the game, giving defenders less time to react, and opening up scoring. A nailbiter is going to be a nailbiter whether it's 0-0 or 8-8.

It's funny how soccer is the only sport that gets bashed by people that dislike it, but sports like yatching and syncro swimming are bash free....WHY!!! is it just that haters are jealous that a sport that they dislike is the most popular sport in the world?

I did not want to give the impression that I disliked soccer. I enjoyed watching the World Cup games, otherwise I wouldn't have watched them. I also was not bashing soccer, I was attempting to discuss why it is not a major sport in America. I didn't say that the game sucks, or that people who watch it are stupid. I gave a couple reasons why, culturally, the game does not compete well with baseball, football, or basketball in the U.S.

So in conclusion, the reason why soccer will not survive in North America, is because of ignorant close-minded Americans like you, that are just too blind realize what a great game it is.  Seriously if you don't like it, then don't say anything about soccer, and if you're only going to watch soccer once every 4 years, then don't come on forums, and act like a know-it-all.

You know, up until your last two sections, I thought this was going to turn into an interesting discussion. Well, your first couple sentances were a bit over the top, but the parts where you debated my thoughts on flopping and offsides were both pretty interesting. Then you went and assumed that I dislike soccer, which I don't. You accused me of being ignorant, which I admitted to twice in my original post, so that was a bit redundant. You accused me of being closed-minded, which can't be further from the truth. Then you top it all off by accusing me of acting like a know-it-all, which is kind of hard to support when I admitted, in the post you were refering to, that I was not very familiar with the game.

I am not the type of person to bash other people, whether in person, or on the internet. Its counter productive, and really hurts the forum where it happens. If you don't like something I say, that's fine, but please don't turn it into personal attacks.

[Saturn]

2. Offsides, say we do get rid of offsides, tell me, how would that make soccer more exciting, your basically going to get man-to-man marking, with players spread so far apart, that the game would actually be boring, even if the score was 19-18.  Some of the best soccer games I've seen have been 0-0 nailbiters.  Breaking the offside traps is one of the best feelings in soccer.

To me, the exciting part about soccer is the scoring drives, the incredible footwork to get around defenders, and the precision passing. I don't see how any of those are negatively affected by removing offsides. If you allow people to camp out behind the defenders, defenses will have to leave someone back to account for that person. That, therefore, is one less person clutering up the middle of the field, leaving more room for offensive players to move the ball, either themselves, or by passing. That will create a faster pace to the game, giving defenders less time to react, and opening up scoring. A nailbiter is going to be a nailbiter whether it's 0-0 or 8-8.

No. Teams would just end up clustering players in the box with lob passes going back and forth a.k.a. ruining the game. The game is perfect the way it is.

[Luigi74]

Two other reasons soccer will never be a major sport in the US is first you don't really have point spread betting lines like football and basketball which hurts alot because people don't like doing straight up odds bets in sports, if you don't think betting is a big deal why does a Marshall v Southern Miss. college football game on a tuesday night get decent ratings. Also you can't really do fantasy sports with it like baseball, football and basketball which is another thing that gets people to tune into games they wouldnt have before.

[Swiss]

I think that the Brian in Boston's opinion is very well based with good points. He answered the why soccer will not so widely popular in the USA like baseball or football.

Ah, insults aren't relevant and relative to soccer. Playing baseball and basket one can heard some "very nice" insults.

For example, I, being deaf, was told by my laughing softball pals that the opposite catcher was tired by insulting me when I was at bat (it's obvious that I didn't heard him his provocations).

[DGivens87]

Speaking of the Cosmos, there's a new movie out (playing mostly in indie houses) about the team's meteoric rise and fall. It's called Once In a Lifetime. Hopefully I won't have to wait for it to hit IFC in order to see it myself.

I'm trying to find a place that's showing it here in RI tomorrow (which is the date it's supposed to open nationally), but no such luck also. I don't wanna have to wait for it to air on ESPN come October. ARGH!!!