I didn't grow up with soccer but I have two soccer playing daughters and have watched enough to have begun to figure out the game. At this point, I prefer soccer and baseball to football and basketball, which have degraded themselves in pursuit of tv dollars to the point that they are poor imitations of what they used to be. Soccer and baseball have stayed true to the game; I don't like the designated hitter, interleague play, or MLB playoffs, but the game on the field itself hasn't changed. Neither has soccer. And the athletic quality of soccer, as a pure running game, puts any other major U.S. team sport to shame.
U.S. women's soccer, btw, is among the best in the world, and has been for decades now. (That's probably due to Title IX, which has other problems, but it certainly boosted women's sports, though at an unnecessarily great cost to the men.)
The U.S. men's team is now a respectable middling power, ranked 13th in the world going into this World Cup. We're a long way from being a recognized power, but if this were college football or basketball, we'd be one of those consistently dangerous mid-majors that no one can afford to overlook.
I'm delighted that American sports like basketball and, to a lesser extent, baseball have put down roots in other parts of the world. Soccer putting down roots here is no different.
Thank you!!! Very, good comment by someone who can think. Awesome.
See my post 133, I thought Coulter is being tongue in cheek. I have read exactly same thing from John Roughan at the NewZealand Herald and tran Kiwi for Anerican specifics is the same article. Except a rough an doesn’t like the US and doesn’t particularly care for Americans, particularly American conservatives.