[Soccer:] The Anti-American Pastime

I’ve always been a big sports fan, which explains why I have absolutely no interest in soccer. The fact is, I’d rather watch my accountant get his toenails clipped than take in a soccer game — and that includes the World Cup final, which I’m sure will be as scintillating as any other soccer game.

In soccer, they spend hours frantically trying to score. That’s not sport. That’s a young guy trying to convince his date that he likes her for her personality. If you could bottle soccer, you’d have a cure for insomnia.

But it’s not just because it’s so dull that I don’t like soccer. Another reason I don’t like it is because of the Americans who do like it. Most of these sports fans — a term I use with no regard for either word, “sports” or “fans” — wouldn’t know a fumble from a first down, a hit-and-run from a double play. But every four years they show up at bars and go wild when the American team ties the Tunisians zero-zero, or nil-nil, as they call it.

I’m not much of a fan of Ann Coulter either (though she’s infinitely more interesting than soccer), but she’s right when she says that soccer is “excruciatingly boring” and that “the reason there are so many fights among spectators at soccer games is to compensate for the tedium.”

Which brings us to how, for many Americans — almost always liberal elite Americans — soccer isn’t really about soccer so much as it’s about proving the superiority of the young over the old, of liberals over conservatives.

Take Peter Beinart, a liberal journalist and professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. Mr. Beinart was with Fareed Zakaria on CNN the other day and had a lot to say about how soccer just might save America — from its narrow-minded, insular self.

Soccer fans in America, he said, show us that “we have a less nativist sports culture and we’re more open — at least some groups in the United States — young people, immigrants, political liberals — are more open to liking the same kinds of things that people in other countries do. Things don’t have to be ours and ours alone.”

Part of the attraction of soccer, Mr. Zakaria says, is that we’re sharing the sport with the rest of the world; we’re following something the rest of the world is following. Yes, Professor Beinart says, but it’s much more than that. Younger Americans, who like soccer more than older Americans, “are far less likely than older Americans to say that American culture is superior or to say that America is the greatest country in the world.”

In case you were wondering, this is a good thing to Mr. Beinart, and I suspect many other liberals. Because “it reflects a more cosmopolitan temperament, more of a recognition that America has things to learn from the rest of the world, and that in fact maybe we have to learn from the rest of the world if we’re going to remain a successful country.”

After taking that in, Mr. Zakaria observes that soccer fans in the United States look a lot like the Obama coalition. To which Beinart replied: “That’s exactly right, and if you look at the states where soccer is most popular, they’re overwhelmingly blue states and the states where soccer is least popular are red states.”

You see: Soccer is much more than a game that puts people like me to sleep. It’s a bunch of guys running up and down a “pitch” in short pants teaching us an important lesson — a lesson about how the tide is turning, about how the same people who embrace soccer embrace the idea that despite all the talk from those old right-wingers, America isn’t so special after all. Or as Peter Beinart explains it: “Younger people are far more likely than older people to say they like the United Nations. There’s a willingness to accept the idea that America is one of many nations. Yes, we have a special affinity for it. But it doesn’t mean in some objective sense [that] us, and everything we do are necessarily better.”

So there you have it. He grants us that as Americans we might have “a special affinity” for our homeland, but thanks to soccer we can learn a lot from the rest of the world. We can learn that we’re not as great as we think we are — or, more precisely, that we’re not as great as old, conservative, red-state Americans think we are.

Turns out that soccer is teaching me a lot more about elite, liberal intellectuals than it’ll ever teach me about the rest of the world. In fact, soccer has already taught me that smug, liberal elites are the single biggest reason I have no use for soccer, and that Ann Coulter isn’t crazy when she says, “Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation’s moral decay.”

— Bernard Goldberg is a news and media analyst for Fox News and the author of Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. His website is BernardGoldberg.com.

Honestly, I really don’t care to watch it...I think indoor would be a lot better as a spectator sport, but watching it on a normal field doesn’t trip my trigger. But that’s just my personal opinion.i>

That could be said about any sport. There are fans and then are those who could care less about a particular sport. Opinions are like a$$holes, every one has one. I don't care if you like soccer or not. It is your choice. What I resent are those who want to impose their view on me or ridicule or deride by liking a particular sport. I can spend my time and money watching any sport I like.

First of all, whenever somebody ‘corrects’ me and says its really called football, or its the ‘real’ football...they are really implying that the US is ‘incorrect’ and should fall in line with the rest of the world. It irks me to no end.

In the more than 200 countries that play the game, the overwhelming majority call it football. It is a commonly accepted term anywhere in the world except in a few countries like the US where you must clarify what football you are talking about. For example, in Australia they have Australian rules football, which is different from football (soccer).

And when somebody so readily accepts that we are ‘wrong’ with our name, it shows how easily people can ignore or forget American exceptionalism.

American exceptionalism has nothing to do with football or what we call it.

And there is a whole group of people who desperately ‘want’ to like soccer. Why? Its hard for a conservative to wrap his head around this...but a lot of people in this nation are absolutely convinced that Europe is superior to the US in every way.

Now you are headed to tinfoil hat territory. And by the way, soccer is the most popular sport in the world, not only Europe. Do these same people desperately want to love golf and tennis for the same reason since both sports originated in the UK?

Then there is the lack of individuality. I understand that there are standout individual players....but the vast majority of Americans playing soccer are young kids, with very few actual soccer skills, probably being coached by a parent with very little knowledge or skills either. So in this country, for most people, soccer is what you do between soda breaks and trophy ceremonies on a Saturday afternoon...you run around and kick a ball, but few people really stand out (the kids who do stand out in athletics usually gravitate to the money sports as they get older and leave soccer). Its just a gaggle of kids...and even the kid with zero athletic ability can disguise that fact fairly well. There’s something about that reality that doesn’t jibe with American individuality in my mind.

I don't know what individuality has to do with any team sport. As they say, there is no "I" in team. As far s the level of soccer in the US, it is improving all the time. There are hotbeds of soccer like here in NoVa where the level of coaches and training is first rate. The US is becoming competitive internationally. Our women are number one in the world.

You seem to think there is a divide between those who like soccer and those who like football. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Now you may like soccer for different reasons, but make no mistake, a large group of its fans like it because they don’t love their country (they might like their country but don’t love it). I’ve long thought the perfect question to ask Obama is “Do you believe, without question or qualification, that the US is the best, most moral, most enlightened nation that has ever graced the surface of our planet.” I don’t think he would simply say yes...and I don’t think the majority of American soccer fans could just say yes either.

Spare me the pop-psychology. You are using the same analysis the Left is using. You are buying it hook, line, and sinker.

And I do think the current attacks on the NFL are coming from the left. I don’t think its sinister...but leftists tend to want to create a world with very little risk (which always results in less opportunity as well). They see football as an affront to this worldview - and will tell anyone who asks that they ‘never watch American football’, to make sure we know how enlightened they are. And, they view soccer as the ‘cure’ for football, plain and simple.

The popularity of the NFL as the number one spectator sport in America gives the lie to that analysis. The NFL is raking in billions from TV revenue and sales of merchandise. Over 100 million watch the Superbowl--the most watched event of any in America.

Sports will continue to evolve, especially for increased protection for the participants. The football played in the early days of leather helmets is no longer with us. Rules change to protect the players. Every sport sees such changes.

Anyway, its fine if you enjoy soccer. But your liking it as a conservative and the left’s cooping the sport are not mutually exclusive. Lefties absolutely love soccer...and they will try to ‘use’ it the best they can to advance their word view.

Sure. I will be very careful watching it and guard against being infected by the Left's world view.

“In the more than 200 countries that play the game, the overwhelming majority call it football. It is a commonly accepted term anywhere in the world except in a few countries like the US where you must clarify what football you are talking about.”

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of why this is the case. The Brits invented what we know as modern soccer, and coined the term soccer...and spread the sport around the globe....and then quit using the term. So they changed the name...the US did not invent their own name for it. This is why it ‘irks’ me when I am ‘corrected’. The term ‘Soccer’ is not an aberration...its the original name. And that’s what we still call it....and the rest of the world should frankly get over it (or perhaps go back to using the original term).

“Do these same people desperately want to love golf and tennis for the same reason since both sports originated in the UK?”

No, because 1) they can’t lord over everybody how much more popular golf is than football 2) they can’t lord over everybody how the US has never shown success at the highest levels in golf or tennis.

“I don’t know what individuality has to do with any team sport.”

A batter at the plate is a lonely man on an island, a quarterback in Football usually stands out among his team-mates. etc.

“The popularity of the NFL as the number one spectator sport in America gives the lie to that analysis”

Do you doubt that the NFL is being attacked? That the league just agreed to a huge concussion settlement? Do you doubt that studies are being done right now, which will enable insurance companies to tell high schools that football is not covered? Have you not noticed a host of rule changes in the NFL and college that have already changed the nature of the game? Guess not.

I have tried to give a polite analysis, and your response has been...err...prickly. I understand - it can get emotional, because people do tend to choose sides when it comes to soccer. Therefore, since you like it, you refuse to be open at all to the possibility that it is becoming the darling sport of the left. Hopefully with time, your defenses will go down, and you be able to notice a few things.

Remember, I started out my post with a pre-amble about how I grew up playing it. So its actually somewhat sad for me to see the leftists try to take ownership of it. I’m not happy with that reality, but I recognize it for what it is. The lines have been drawn - if you don’t believe me, put on some antibacterial lotion and go over to DU...search for ‘World Cup’. You will learn that progressives love soccer, because they are enlightened, and knuckle dragging morons watch football. We don’t have to participate in this ‘battle’, but we can’t deny they are trying to draw the battle lines up.

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