I have a passing interest, but only because it is going on now. I do not care about keeping up interest in the game at all.
Does it really matter? It’s not a zero-sum game (pun intended). If a soccer fan is created, it doesn’t mean that another sport lost a fan.
I have zero interest in soccer, no one I know has any interest in it either. In fact, we detest the damn game!
Yes, it is growing.
Now more popular than arugula.
Meh, they’ve been saying the same thing for decades now.
I think that is the story that more and more parents are discouraging kids from playing football, because of concerns over injuries and long-term health effects, and soccer is starting to gain popularity with kids who wish to pursue it as their main sport. It is these kids that will fuel the 2018 and 2022 squads, and with better athletes choosing soccer, it won’t be long until the US is producing elite players.
Hey, if more people want to watch soccer then more power to them. I don’t care for it but couldn’t care less if others do. I’d almost always rather go work out or run than watch sports in the first place.
It’s being hyped more, but nobody cares about soccer.
The NWO has deemed soccer as the official world sport. They have a hard time selling soccer in the US because we prefer football.
That is the reason that everything is being done to destroy the game of football.
As a one world we must all have the same official sports.
Sad, but you know it is true.
Heck, look at how many non-fans of college basketball, check in and watch March Madness. Its the event, not the sport, just like the World Cup.
Last night I was torn between watching paint on my porch dry or watching the Japan-Greece nil nil duel. guess what won!
And so are the number of states that allow gay "marriage"
Soccer! For kids who can’t hit a curve ball.
I watch snippets of soccer on occasion, but mostly just pay attention to win/loss results. It's just too boring for me - about on par with baseball, but at least a step up from golf as a spectator sport.
Sports with a typical maximum of maybe 2 or 3 goals/scores per game are a snoozefest to watch IMHO.
Kid soccer is actually much more entertaining to watch than professional - more scores, more crazy stuff going on.
Here we go...all the soccer haters on FR.
I just don’t understand why somebody would want to take the time to rain on somebody else’s sport - if you don’t like it so what, why bash it? I know people that love curling and other odd sports, while I won’t watch it on TV I’m not going to insult them by bashing it....which is what goes on in FR.
I moved to the USA in the 80’s - there was NO soccer coverage, ZERO! Now I can watch ALL the soccer I want, MLS, English Premier League, etc. - so while many FReepers don’t know anyone that likes the sport I know dozens of my American friends/family that have become hooked. I’m sure all the TV coverage means NOTHING right? The popularity is (finally) growing in leaps and bounds.
Just because you don’t know what you’re looking for doesn’t mean interesting things aren’t happening - it’s just ignorance to assume there’s not.
To me, the funny part is many soccer bashers are baseball fans!! LLLLLOOOOOOLLLLL! That said, I DON’T BASH BASEBALL - because I know there’s aspects of the game that I just don’t appreciate, I never played.
Flame me if you will - but you’re all in denial if you think the game isn’t growing.
I don’t recall who said it but someone quipped, “Why should I be impressed with a sport that doesn’t even require opposable thumbs to play?”
;’)
There’s popularity and there’s popularity. Especially in America. Every 4 years America loves gymnastics, but in between Olympics nobody cares unless their kid is participating. The World Cup is getting fairly popular, in between the audience is still pretty small.
Soccer is being hyped here because the medium term future for football is bleak. Take off your fan glasses and see what’s happening. The sport is being torn apart from within and without - or rather it is being exposed by those within and without for the brutal effects it’s had on the players.
But football cannot be knocked from its perch as the number one sport in America until some other sport moves in to fill the void at the top of the American psyche. Whatever sport is to take football’s place must be television friendly. (This is a challenge for soccer because its action doesn’t stop for TV timeouts and such.) It also must be visually stimulating. This is the factor above all others that makes football fun for its fans to watch. All the camera angles! All the replays! You can see the wideout drop that durn pass 10 times from 6 different angles!
Soccer doesn’t lend itself too readily to the demands of TV. If it ever does, the networks will move in for a land grab on TV rights.
Just realize that no sport can remain the number one sport for all time. Not boxing (as in your grandfathers day) or baseball (in the years following) or golf (as in the 90s). Change happens. Football’s had its day.
I can’t tell you exactly when but there will be a day in our lifetimes when football will be regarded as a brutal, vicious, inhumane and cruel sport enjoyed only by the brutal, the vicious, the inhumane and the the cruel. These seeds have already been planted and they’ve sprouted.
Every time you hear broadcasters discussing concussions and new rules to protect the QB or to limit head trauma or ...or the myriad of other injuries that are part of the game ...you are witnessing another nail being pounded into the viewers consciousness about the nature of the game.
Whether or not it will be soccer that replaces football, no one knows. It does offer the one angle of world competition that no purely American game offers. Maybe some other sport will ascend but it’s hard to predict which it will be.
My flame retardant suit is on. Flame away. But if you decide to flame me, do yourself one little favor. Bookmark these words and come back to read them in five years. you’ll see what I mean.
Ok so there’s this round ball in the air coming towards you.
You have 2 choices:
a) CATCH the ball (with your HANDS), or
b) hit it with your HEAD
Hands with opposable thumbs are what separates human beings from all other animals. To take them out of a game seems, well, kinda dumb.
That being said, I’ve learned to appreciate soccer as a sport due to my son playing in a club travel team. We went to JAX to watch the US play Nigeria a couple of weeks ago and it was a size good crowd. A friend of mine owns a sports bar in town and said last Monday night when the US played was one of the biggest crowds he has ever had – definitively the largest Monday crowd.
I’ve witnessed the sport grow first hand – and although American soccer is currently a little ruff & tumble, the kids coming up are getting much better. I look forward to what Americans can ‘add’ to the sport.