I’m for everything Team USA...
But some of these comments about soccer’s popularity blah blah blah...the best athletes in the world play American football, not soccer or if we must call it by it’s proper name....kommunist kickball.
Honestly, in America, not the second tier, but third tier athletes play soccer as opposed to football, basketball and baseball. So, that’s why we lag the world in soccer as a rule.
That will change as more and more Americans start making the big bucks in Europe. Tim Howard just signed a huge contract with Everton. There will be more, and more athletes will see soccer as a lucrative path, compared to football, basketball or baseball.
My high school had a very good boys' soccer team. We were a basketball school and that team's coach wanted his players in either soccer (or cross country running) for their fall sport because they were less likely to get seriously injured and it gave them great endurance. The football team got the short straw on the school's top athletes, but the crowds still went to watch football on fall nights.
Why do you have to denigrate one sport, especially the most popular one in the world, to boost another? I like both.
Honestly, in America, not the second tier, but third tier athletes play soccer as opposed to football, basketball and baseball. So, that’s why we lag the world in soccer as a rule.
The number of professional players in basketball, football, and baseball are few in number compared to the 306 million people in our population. And they require different skills and physiques to compete. Foreign players have made major inroads in the NBA and MLB.
MLB 2008: The percentage of major league baseball players born outside the 50 states dropped slightly this year. Of the 855 players on rosters at the start of the season, 239 were born outside the 50 states, the commissioner's office said Tuesday. The percentage dropped to 28.0 from 29.0 last year, when it was just off the record of 29.2 set in 2005.
NBA: Four of the 14 members of the championship Lakers were foreign born,
Given the huge numbers of Americans, even our third tier athletes should be able to compete. And unlike football and basketball, you can have a normal body-type and compete. Maradonna was only 5'4" and Pele 5'8". Italy, the current world champion, has a population of 58 million--one-fifth the size of ours.
Right now, one in 8 Americans are foreign born. By 2050, one in five will be foreign born. I see soccer becoming more popular and the US more competitive in the world in the sport.