Why Do We All Hate Soccer? Any Euro FReepers?

The only reason why soccer is around the world is because of British and Spanish colonialism. We booted the Brits out before the bland game could be invented, and Brits being the boring females that they are, invented a game where you are required to kick a ball for 30 minutes before scoring a point.

Gulliver-not-so-Swift, you are a typical American soccer-basher; ignorant and proud of it. Ignorance is bliss, and you are smug in your prejudices, lack of knowledge, and lack of imagination. Your choice.

Some facts. For starters, soccer was played by Americans long before we kicked the British out; we called it football because that was what it was: a kicking game played with the feet. Gridiron football would not be invented until over a century after independence from Britain.

Another point of fact: association football spread most rapidly where Britain DID NOT have colonies: Europe, and Latin America. Where Britain did have colonies (Africa, Asia) it took much longer for the game to catch on (in fact, it caught on most rapidly during the post-colonial era in these countries). And in the dominion countries (Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand), association football did not catch until recently, or played second or third fiddle to other sports. So you are wrong on that point, as well.

In fact it is not well known just how deeply football history goes back in the USA: take a look at some pictures and illustrations of American civil war soldiers playing football, and you will see that they are kicking around a round ball. Football in that time period consisted of kicking a round ball towards the opponent's goal; some rule versions allowing punching the ball with the hands, some rules allowed "fair catches" (after which the catcher would have to stand still and take a "free kick" or punt), some versions allowed limited running with the ball, but this was the distinct minority (mostly based on the Rugby School rules).

But running (without any restrictions at all) with an oval ball did not come until much later, after the Rugby Football Union in England broke away from the Football Association (FA founded in 1863, if memory serves; RFU founded in 1871, after which the two sports diverged rapidly).

Anyway, the oldest football club in the USA was the Oneida Football Club, of Boston, established in 1862, and they played "soccer" as it was then played, with rules based on those in use in England.

The current United States Soccer Federation (nee United States Soccer Football Association, nee United States Football Association) was originally a merger of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football Association (a split off group from the original AFA), and the AFA itself was originally founded in 1885. This makes the AFA, the original governing body for the sport of soccer in the USA, older than any other national FA except for the British FA's.

During the late 1890's, baseball's National League experimented with professional soccer during the off season, with NL teams sponsering their own football (soccer) teams. American newspapers and sports writers of the late 19th century referred to soccer as football, or association football, to distinguish it from rugby football and the American version of rugby which eventually evolved into our current gridiron football.

In the 1920's-30's there was a fairly successful professional league, the ASL, which attracted professional players from Britain. The American national team actually did fairly well during the early World Cups circa 1930-50, considering the circumstances. Also I believe the USA won a medal in soccer in the St. Louis Olympics of 1902(?) but my memory is getting sketchy on this point.

The first USA college football games, in the 19th century, were soccer games, with rules loosely based on those of the FA in England. Later the rugby rules were adopted instead, and eventually evolved into gridiron rules that we know today.

In fact, all of the major American sports except basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse, were derived from Britain. Baseball is rounders modified; earliest use of the word baseball dates back to 1700 in England. Our founding fathers played soccer (football, the kicking game, NOT the running game of rugby or gridiron) and cricket (not baseball). Yep - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, all that crew - were cricket players. Cricket was the most popular summer ball game in the USA up until the mid-19th century when baseball passed it in popularity. We Americans have since erased cricket and soccer from our national memory (down the memory hole, Orwell-style) but, facts are facts.

Chew on that.

That is true 'Soccer' has almost become a code word for anti-Capitialism.

Rubbish. A million ignorami repeating a lie does not make it true.

Besides, millions of right-wing pro-capitalist (or at any rate anti-socialist) skinheads beg to differ with you. Are you going to tell a footy loving skinhead that he is a socialist? Not to his face, you aren't. Not if you are smart.

I was in Europe during the '98 World Cup. I was participating in a soccer tournament (not in relation to any World Cup action), and I have to say it is a great sport. Don't get me wrong, I like to watch football, and I'll take in the occassional baseball game, but soccer is a sport that demands overall better conditioning for superior play. Look at how many three-hundred fifty pound linemen there are.

Whatever, but it still bores most of us Americans to death. I did play soccer a little, good exercise, but boring to watch. Those are facts, to most of us anyway. And we don't like people telling us to watch just because everyone else watches. It's so U.N. and PC.

I played soccer. It's kind of fun. More interesting than jogging, anyway. But all in all I'd rather watch football.

They actually kick the ball with their feet most of the time. Theirs is the real football, we need some other name for our sport.

We do, actually: gridiron football, just as we have a proper name for rugby: rugby football. Logically, the older sport should retain the name it had first, and the newer sport should add on a modifier, just as squash racquets was derived from the older sport of racquets, or the name "water polo" was derived from the name of the older sport of polo, or how ice hockey is used to distinguish it from the older game of hockey (what we North Americans know as field hockey, but which is everywhere else known as simply hockey, it being the older game by far, ice hockey being a relatively recent derivative). Likewise we call handball "team handball" to distinguish it from our court game of handball, though in this case I believe the European invented handball game is older. Though my memory may be faulty on this point.

It is not healthy to HATE!

Thanks for the neat summarization of history.

Geez, I wonder if these chauvinists realize the vomit they spill out here today says much more about them than it does about the subject they attempt to cover. I mean, I'd be embarassed to reveal so much about myself to total strangers. What is this, an exhibitionist competition trying to outdo the stripper mom?

That said, it's interesting to ponder this ethnocentric insecurity, as that's what it is, for what it says about ourselves. I'm thinking of that All American bumpersticker that goes something like this: "Number 2 is the first Loser!" You see it on a spiffed up Beemer SUV stuck in traffic 50 cars behind a toll gate. But of course the owner, like those who consider "World Series" to be really, really world series and like those who consider the Super Bowel winning team to be the world champions, that owner wants to decide himself the scope of his bragging (and impose it on you!) 50 cars behind the toll gate? That doesn't count! Standing in a supermarket checkout line? That don't count either! Being not as rich as Bill Gates? No, that don't count! And so on... As we like to say here: what a looser!

Whatever, but it still bores most of us Americans to death. I did play soccer a little, good exercise, but boring to watch. Those are facts, to most of us anyway. And we don't like people telling us to watch just because everyone else watches. It's so U.N. and PC.

And we Americans, millions of us, who grew up with soccer are sick to death of listening to you people whine and whine and whine and whine and whine about the subject.

No one is forcing you to watch soccer or to play soccer. Soccer is NOT "U.N." (United Nations??? WTF?) or PC, far from it.

That's just a figment of your paranoid and delusional imagination. Next you will be telling us that the black helicopters will be flying in Chinese cavalry troops massing south of the border in Mexico, ready to invade Main Street, USA, and force us to watch soccer at gunpoint. Oh, the horrors! Tell your friends! Wake up, America! </sarcarsm>

You do not speak for all American, or even most Americans, on this subject; Americans have very diverse tastes, many of them don't care for sports of any kind. It's un-American to pretend that certain sports are un-American, frankly. Speak for yourself and stop pretending that you speak for America. You don't.

We are the world... Sing it!

That said, it's interesting to ponder this ethnocentric insecurity, as that's what it is, for what it says about ourselves. I'm thinking of that All American bumpersticker that goes something like this: "Number 2 is the first Loser!"

You have hit the nail on the head. Insecurity. I remember in grade school when I told a friend that soccer was actually called football and had been around for a lot longer then our American game of football. To see the look on his face you would have thought I had told him that Santa Claus had just killed the Easter Bunny and left the corpse in his bedroom.

Any real American can enjoy soccer either as a player or as a spectator, if he is willing to learn. But he should not get uptight, if he choses not to learn, nor should he care what sports other Americans watch or play.

It's just sports; people here talk as though it were Constitutional Law, or something. Well, the Founding Fathers who wrote our Constitution, played cricket! Deal with it, America. Learn some real history for a change and stop getting so bent out of joint over a game.

I take to heart your comments about "Number 2 is the first Loser!" as well; I first saw this slogan on a young kid's teeshirt once (I believe it was something like "Number 2 is still only 1st Loser" or similar, but memory is not what it was), and it made me sick to my stomach. The "values" we teach our young people via sports, are, frankly, not always the best. I can think of some better lessons people should be learning then "Number 2 is the first Loser!"

You could say that about a lot of things.

Not to worry, you would still recognize the good old USA like you remembered it. (especially after 9/11)

I hadn't seen so many flags out since WWII or Reagan winning a second term in a 49 state landslide.

There are signs that the soccer moms are slipping into their socialist ways but as long as the fear of god is back in em we will be alright.

No seriously I think succer is a RIOT

I especially love the "fans" who came here when we hosted the games, and threw urine bombs (balloons filled with urine) at the opposing teams players and fans. Very tasteful.

Basketball the worlds most popular game in the 21st Century is not derived from the Redcoats.

Good idea!

Re: "The worst part about Soccer is the wussiness of the players."

Yea ! And when is baby seal clubbing going to be in the olympics?! < / sarcasm >

Hey. I apologize. I jumped all the way to the end here because I've seen this topic a gazillion times (I read a little of your impassioned support for the sport and God bless ya). But to most of us who grew up with the traditional US sports soccer is, and ever will be the most perfect example of the most stupid sport imaginable.

You only are allowed to use your FEET and the top of your HEAD for cryin out loud! It's like turning a healthy man loose for sex and saying "but you can only use your toes and the tip of your nose"!

Cna you imagine Gilbert Brown as a rugby player?

We are the world... Sing it!

This is the clear sign of the juvenile mentality at work: when presented with evidence that his view of reality is mistaken, he precedes as though nothing has happened and continues to pretend that his false ideas are solidly based in reality. Well, guess what, Iowegian: I'm one of those vast right wing conspirators who would like to abolish the UN, eliminate all socialism and return the Federal government to its Constitutionally limited mandates of national defense and its other delegated duties. I hate "We are the World" and anything associated with it.

But what your tiny brain seems incapable of grasping is that we are discussing sports here, not politics. One's like or dislike of a particular sport has no relation at all to one's politics.

"We are the world"? No, we are bored with your pathetic attempts to paint us as leftists or PC or globalists. If you want to see a hive of political correctness, I suggest you check out the current American sports scene. I'll wager there are as many socialists and leftists pulling the strings behind the scenes in the NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL as there are in soccer at any level. Maybe more.