What Does the Rest of the World Know about Soccer that Americans Don’t?

PAjamas MEdia ^ | June 11 | Rick Moran

[AJKauf]

leaving politics aside, the reason that soccer has not arrived (and may never rise) to the first tier of professional sports in America is tradition and timing. There is no American soccer “tradition” as there is in baseball and football. Even basketball enjoys a tradition far beyond any national memories we have of American soccer....

[kabar]

I am a sports junkie. I enjoy all sports. The World Cup is the world's biggest and most watched sporting event. Ebery nation fields a team and is part of the qualification process.The winner is truly the world champion.

You don't have to put down one sport to elevate another.

[Night Hides Not]

We could rule the entire soccer world and it'd still be a minor sport here among sports fans.

If soccer were the #2 sport in Dallas, it would be lost to the average sports fan when the Dallas Cowboys start training camp in July.

I'll bet you could say that about every other NFL city.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Baseball: Huge. Invented here in the US of A.

Football: Huge. Invented here in the US of A.

Basketball: Huge. Invented here in the US of A.

Hockey: Big'ish but not huge. Not invented here.

Soccer: Least popular of all in US. Not invented here.

Maybe it's a national pride thing.

[Frank_2001]

“You sure you weren’t watching rugby?”

LOL, rugby is basically American football without pads;)

[oh8eleven]

When my kids were young I watched them play and it was okay.
Our city also had a team in the NASL and we got to watch Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, et al, and it was okay.
But that was then and now ... zzzzzzzzz.

[Mr. Mojo]

No doubt.

The “soccer isn’t popular in America because Americans aren’t good at it” line is pure BS.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

They should let you use your hands.

They do in Ireland. It's called Irish Football and it ROCKS lad.

[Borges]

Didn’t American football come out of Rugby? And wasn’t Baseball heavily based on a British game called Rounders?

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“One friggin’ goal is scored in about 4 hours and it becomes an earth-shaking EVENT!! “

And yet, dating remains popular.

[dfwgator]

Baseball: Huge. Invented here in the US of A.
- Borrowed heavily from Cricket and Rounders.

Football: Huge. Invented here in the US of A.
- Borrowed heavily from Rugby

Basketball: Huge. Invented here in the US of A.
- James Naismith, born in Canada (but ok, it was invented while he was at KU)

[Travis T. OJustice]

Add lacrosse to the list of Born in the USA sports.

[oh8eleven]

[Stosh]

And I have little doubt that if enough Americans had an interest we could make an interesting game by putting together something new, while borrowing heavily from soccer.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Lacrosse is the official summer sport of Canada. (Hockey in winter, natch.)

[Maceman]

Basketball, Baseball and American Football as we know them are games that were specifically invented here in America, and grew up in American culture.

Whereas soccer whereas soccer is an import, and not a very interesting one at that.

[okie01]

The “soccer isn’t popular in America because Americans aren’t good at it” line is pure BS.

Soccer isn't popular in America because it's an all-around dumb game and boring as hell.

[b4its2late]

The rest of the world sucks. So does soccer.

[Eagle of Liberty]

NBA players are in better shape than any other major team sport. MLB players are in the worst shape.

NBA players would DIE on a soccer field.

[dfwgator]

And I have little doubt that if enough Americans had an interest we could make an interesting game by putting together something new, while borrowing heavily from soccer.

We tried that, it's called "Indoor Soccer."

[dfwgator]

A soccer player can average up to 6 miles of solid running during a match.