[Dr. Sivana]

Soccer is not important in the U.S. If watching the World Cup became impossible, there would be no major disruptions, except in some Latino neighborhoods.

Yet there would be riots throughout the world, while the rest of the world wouldn't care if the Super Bowl got canceled.

Yup, except in not insignificant countries like China and India, which follow it, but don't live or die by it. Which means there is no one sport that will get every major area of the world upset. Soccer is largely a Euro/Latin American thing. Canada, despite having been part of the British Empire for so long really has hockey as its national sport. I imagine that in Japan, the top sumo wrestler has more prestige than the top soccer player. The top baseball pitcher and home run hitter might be competitive for the title.

[antiRepublicrat]

Soccer is largely a Euro/Latin American thing

There are teams from every region of the world playing in the finals. The Europeans and Latin Americans are definitely the most fanatic, but unlike American football, soccer is at least somewhat popular in almost every country in the world. 204 national teams tried to get into this final. 32 teams from one country tried to get into the Super Bowl. There is simply no comparison.

The only thing about soccer that I don't like is that we aren't the best at it. It should be a matter of national pride to dominate the sport, but instead we leave it mostly to the Europeans and South Americans. Most of us have accepted defeat, often using various coping devices to explain it away (soccer is not important, it's for pansies, etc.).