Why Did Soccer Never Catch On In America?

[Ferbian]

Now I would like to start out by saying I know very well that Soccer is played in America, and that they have fans and all that stuff. However it's obvious that it's a smaller sport in America, as opposed to Europe.

Soccer has been around for very very long, and is definitely a world wide played sport, every country practically has a national team. However the Americans doesn't seem to have it catching on as much as the rest of the world does. And it makes me wonder, what exactly is causing that?

I mean all in all it's a pretty decent sport. Sure it could get boring from time to time with the back and forth ball playing. But it also has some moments where you get to experience some great goals, some great team spirit etc.

There's much more there really could be said about soccer. I'm guessing a primary thing that makes it fail to catch on is the lack of true tournaments that allows the American teams, as well as the Americans in general to be sucked into the excitement of tournaments like Champion's League primarily.

So I ask you now, why do you think soccer never truly caught on in America?

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

America have sports that are considered better than Soccer or they prefer another Sport...In other words, every country has 'THEIR' sport..Major ones in America are probably Baseball and Football(Rugby) right?

E.g. You can say the same for countries like Australia, India, Bangladesh, who prefer Cricket, and you think with the billion of people living in India, how the hell can't they find any decent footballers? (The answer is: They all prefer Cricket!)

I understand what you mean Ferbs, I mean USA national team is pretty good, actually top 20 FIFA rankings I think, and yet they focus more on college football, baseball, basketball...

Good question!

 

[goodlay]

I think the World Cup Final with Spain/Netherlands was the epitome of why Soccer isn't popular in America. There just isn't enough excitement and scoring to keep Americans enticed, and why should they watch when we have the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL? Also, the refereeing is garbage and just waiting for a scoring opportunity to happen is frustrating.

See and another problem is that they think the game is perfect, so they don't change the rules to help the offense or anything. Look at Hockey, people were losing interest and the league realized the game needed to be changed. Fast forward to today and you have a much more interesting and exciting game of Hockey in the NHL.

But yeah, it definitely is a good question. And there isn't one sole reason as to why Soccer never caught on here in America.

 

[hatehabsforever]

I think that the main reason why soccer has never caught on in North America is pretty simple. In my opinion, it's one of the, if not the, most boring sports known to man. On the heels of the World Cup, during which I at least attempted to watch it, I can honestly say in my opinion that I think I'd rather watch paint dry. With all due respect to the many many soccer fans out there and on these forums, it just does nothing for me whatsoever. To watch 90+ minutes of a game (around 80 minutes of which happens in the mid-field), just to see it end in a 0-0 tie, is hard for me to accept. Sometimes you have to watch the game for 10 minutes just to see a shot on net.

Look, I realize these guys are phenomenal athletes, their cardiovascular capacity and conditioning is second to none, their skill level in handling the ball is spectacular, and all of that. But I would rather watch the highlights on TSN/ESPN and see examples of this skill level (goals, saves, shots, whatever) rather than have to endure the entire game. Give me the NFL, or NHL, or NBA, or even MLB, any day of the week.

 

[CJ The Pirate]

The most annoying 'reason' I hear for Americans not liking Soccer is the 'It's Boring' excuse. Hardly. This is 90 minutes of action 99/100.
A 0-0 draw (tie) means most of the time you've witnessed at least one team defend magnificently. Sometimes it means both teams have. Sometimes it can mean luck just wasn't on one teams side. Rarely it means it was boring.

You have games like Arsenal Vs Wigan... Arsenal a team that has won the Premier League multiple times and are a constant thread. Wigan, a team that are very lucky not to have been relegated from the Premier League in recent seasons. The match ended 3-2 to Wigan despite going 2-0 down in the First Half.

We have just witnessed Wigan today beaten by the current league champions Chelsea 6 - 0. All goals built by the team and not one player acting like he is bigger that the club. This actually carries on an impressive run of 20+ goals in 4 games and their quality seems to remain at a set level regardless of playing at Home or Away. Speaking of which, their Home form has seen them go almost unbeaten at Stamford Bridge with only a few exceptions in recent years.

I firmly believe that a lot of American sports that end with scores like 47 - 34 have completely blinded them so they see a Soccer game that ends 3 - 1 to be a low scoring game. NFL to me seems like a game of catch with a 100m sprint added in, rinse and repeat until finally you either get to your goal and you celebrate or not. Then the other team does the same. It's just a straight charge. With soccer you can reach that goal in a number of ways. Pass through the defence, A long ball over the top, dribble straight through if you can manage it. Play through the centre, play through the wings. Score with your foot on the volly, the half volly, with your head, a free kick, a penalty, make tactical substitutions that benefit the team at pivotal moments... or not. Have a man sent of for the entire game and see the tactics change for either better or worse. Star Strikers. Goals from a defender. An Amazing save from the goalkeeper. An amazing performance from the goalkeeper. A shot that no Goalkeeper could save.

I love Soccer. I love Cricket. I love Golf. I love Snooker. Any of those other games I'd completely agree with you. They're boring. I get it but I love them anyway. Football is just constant excitement for 90 mins.

 

[Buster]

To quote Jose Morinho (I heard him say it in an interview once I think):

"Americans like to use their hands".

American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Golf & Tennis.

These are the top and most popular sports in America, they all require skilful use of the hands, or are controlled primarily by the hands.

In general Americans find it hard to appreciate (maybe even sub-consciously) and there for hard to respect a game where all moves, skills & most plays, are done with the feet.

The other sports require hand to eye co-ordination, Soccer (football) requires feet to eye.

This also explains why America's most successful players overseas have always been Goalkeepers (Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann & Kelsey Keller to name a few).

Here is a quick article where Hahnemann says similar things on the topic.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/american-tradition-builds-goalkeepers-claims-hahnemann-417950.html

 

[klunderbunker]

Another big reason is the lack of big name American stars. The biggest American soccer player ever is likely Landon Donovan. He's an average player in the Premier League (I think that's where he plays) but here he's a national celebrity. With such a lack of big named stars, we have little reason to get interested.

As for the game itself, a lot of it has to do with how repetitive it is. I remember watching the USA game vs. I think Ghana and ten minutes in we were down 1-0 and the announcers declared the game over. We're incapable of scoring a goal in 80 minutes? FOr the next 80 minutes, we spent about 79 of it just kicking the ball back and forth in the midfield with a total of about three shots that even came close. In other words, you could not watch for 20 minutes at a time and miss nothing but the same stuff. In American spots defensive wars are considered boring as well. Soccer is the epitome of that for us.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

As far as soccer as big then America.. I dunno. I just sorta came to this conclusion:

Soccer is very popular for kids. However, most boys go on to play football because of flaring testosterone and girls still play soccer because most football organizations don't allow (or encourage I should say) girls to play. So, if it ain't broke why fix it? Only problem is that most Americans don't give a damn about women sports. I don't even give a damn about women sports.

Edit:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nuP4fG1dqo

That is pretty much all you need to know why. haha

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Probably because it's not as violent as American football or as ostentatious as basketball. No one here likes hockey all that much, and, well, baseball's kind of an anomaly.

 

[TwistofRKO]

Its obviously boring, but there are plenty of reasons.

First, America is much more well off than the majority of the world, which affords them more expensive sports to compete in. Almost every kid plays soccer as a child, and most of them either quit or join a real sport. Just the way it is. Don't cry, I didn't say every other country was poor.

Secondly, all of the top athletes play other sports. We have to listen to the rest of the world brag about soccer dominance while we watch their 5'7, 135 lbs captain kick a ball, while we can see Adrian Peterson truck and Ray Lewis deck people, while a buff kicker hangs everyone on the edge of their seat. We have more dramatic kicking, and its only a small part of the game.


Finally, its ******ed to claim Americans can't watch a low scoring game. We all flock to watch no-hitters. A 1-0 game in baseball is dramatic. You have real strategy, and sometimes even progress. Base hit, bunt, sac fly. Strategy and execution. I have an Xbox, a football, and a car, how many times can you try to pass it back and forth, kick it to mid-field, have it stolen, steal it back, repeat, and expect it to be entertaining?

Soccer is like a spider who keeps climbing up the web, only to have a fat kid with a stick knock it down. Its 2010, how many times can we watch that?

 

[gd]

It's because there's no good league in America, of course. Hell, I enjoy soccer. The World Cup is the bomb. And not just the US games either, I watched a lot of the other ones.

The problem is, that's just 1 month out of 48. What the hell are we supposed to do for the other 47? Watch the MLS? It can't be taken seriously considering it's clearly not the best league in the World, and likely isn't even in the top 5, or even 10.

There aren't many great American soccer players, and most of them go to Europe to play if they're any good. What great Amercian players are there in the MLS? Donavon and possibly Buddle. That's it.

If there was a league the caliber of the EPL with a bunch of American stars in it, I truly believe soccer would be much more popular in America. At this point, quality soccer just isn't readily accessible to Americans.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

That world cup was a crock of shit. So, just because Americans don't get soccer, means that the American team shouldn't be allowed to kick ass? If they are clearly the better team that day, I don't see why it is plausible to discredit them. The rest of the world just hates that the American team was doing what America does best.. Win. haha

 

[Miko]

Scoring is overrated, happens too much in these fancy american sports it gets dull. Oh look he just got a "down touch" and now he's going to kick it over the upside down goal on top of the other goal. Thats like a million points already. It gets well boring.

Fuck, if a football (soccer) match has more than 5 goals in it I turn off in disgust.

 

[CraigThe13th]

Its obviously boring, but there are plenty of reasons.

First, America is much more well off than the majority of the world, which affords them more expensive sports to compete in. Almost every kid plays soccer as a child, and most of them either quit or join a real sport. Just the way it is. Don't cry, I didn't say every other country was poor.

Secondly, all of the top athletes play other sports. We have to listen to the rest of the world brag about soccer dominance while we watch their 5'7, 135 lbs captain kick a ball, while we can see Adrian Peterson truck and Ray Lewis deck people, while a buff kicker hangs everyone on the edge of their seat. We have more dramatic kicking, and its only a small part of the game.


Finally, its ******ed to claim Americans can't watch a low scoring game. We all flock to watch no-hitters. A 1-0 game in baseball is dramatic. You have real strategy, and sometimes even progress. Base hit, bunt, sac fly. Strategy and execution. I have an Xbox, a football, and a car, how many times can you try to pass it back and forth, kick it to mid-field, have it stolen, steal it back, repeat, and expect it to be entertaining?

Soccer is like a spider who keeps climbing up the web, only to have a fat kid with a stick knock it down. Its 2010, how many times can we watch that?

What a crock of shit, Americans are richer than the rest of the world so thats why they all play football. If anything is ******ed to claim it's that right there.

Americans are unique people with unique sporting tastes, hence why soccer isn't popular over there and in return nobody cares about american football or baseball anywhere else in the world. Basketball is the only real successful US sporting import.

Just because you don't like football that doesn't give you the right to say it's not a real sport. You just end up sounding thick. I can't stand NFL or MLB with their quarters, stop-starting and silly scorelines. I still wouldn't disrespect the athletes and the sports themselves by saying it's not a real sport.

Football is the national sport of a hell of a lot of countries and has been around many years before any american sport and you just come across as an immature,clueless douche with your fucking insulting comments towards my country's national sport.

I'd love to see you step into an english pub on a saturday afternoon and talk that absolute bollocks. You would get verbally and maybe physically schooled for such ignorance.

Your childish comments make me well angry.I dunno how your even back here on WZ. Your just a troll and it makes me happy to know I'm not the only person on this forum who doesn't like you.

 

[CraigThe13th]

That world cup was a crock of shit. So, just because Americans don't get soccer, means that the American team shouldn't be allowed to kick ass? If they are clearly the better team that day, I don't see why it is plausible to discredit them. The rest of the world just hates that the American team was doing what America does best.. Win. haha

You didn't win anything what the hell are you talking about? lol you lot did as bad as England overall.

You didn't beat England you DREW. Foreign concept some yanks I know but it means nobody won.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

Another big reason is the lack of big name American stars. The biggest American soccer player ever is likely Landon Donovan. He's an average player in the Premier League (I think that's where he plays) but here he's a national celebrity. With such a lack of big named stars, we have little reason to get interested.

Exactly. The MLS really lacks in star power when it comes to soccer. To be honest, London Donovan is the best they have. Unfortunately, he will be getting a transfer to Machester City in the coming future leaving the US without much star power. Other stars that have been in MLS were Quatemoc Blanco (Mexico) & David Bekham but Quatemoc left and Bekham is injured, so they are really moot at this point.

But besides star power, there is really one other thing that the US lacks when it comes to soccer. And that is, the commentators. I simply cannot bear watching them call a match. They are just so boring. Here is a typical match being called by a US commentator: "Nice pass there by the midfielder there. London has the ball...he shoots...Oh! the keeper blocked it!" well maybe written it doesn't sound as boring, but when you hear them say it, it is just aweful.

Now if you compare that to a Mexican commentator, you will greatly see the difference. A Mexican commentator calls the match with more excitement. Here is the average Mexican commentor talking translated in English. "(in a fast pase of words)Here comes Giovanni, centers to Marquez, Marquez dribbles, he dribbles, he keeps dribbling....he shoots...Aaaaannnnndddd!!!!...hheeeeeeeee!!!...miiiiiisssssseeeeessssss!!!!...".

You can definately spot the difference. The two quotes that I said were actually true. They are from recent memory of watching a MLS game in English and then watching a Mexico game in Spanish and without a doubt, the Spanish commentating was a heck of a lot better.

The point is, the reason I feel that US soccer lacks attention is because of the lack of star power along with the lack of commentating skills. And well thats already a lot when it comes to soccer.

 

[TwistofRKO]

What a crock of shit, Americans are richer than the rest of the world so thats why they all play football. If anything is ******ed to claim it's that right there.

Americans are unique people with unique sporting tastes, hence why soccer isn't popular over there and in return nobody cares about american football or baseball anywhere else in the world. Basketball is the only real successful US sporting import.

Just because you don't like football that doesn't give you the right to say it's not a real sport. You just end up sounding thick. I can't stand NFL or MLB with their quarters, stop-starting and silly scorelines. I still wouldn't disrespect the athletes and the sports themselves by saying it's not a real sport.

Football is the national sport of a hell of a lot of countries and has been around many years before any american sport and you just come across as an immature,clueless douche with your fucking insulting comments towards my country's national sport.

I'd love to see you step into an english pub on a saturday afternoon and talk that absolute bollocks. You would get verbally and maybe physically schooled for such ignorance.

Your childish comments make me well angry.I dunno how your even back here on WZ. Your just a troll and it makes me happy to know I'm not the only person on this forum who doesn't like you.

Baseball is pretty huge in Latin America and Japan, but yeah, nowhere else but America.

Go find a box of tissues, I don't care if I hurt your feelings. I insulted your "national sport", not you.

Did I say it wasn't a real sport? No, just that its a real stupid one.

Baseball doesn't have quarters.

Soccer fans have to get drunk, or start riots to even make a game interesting. Have some idiot with a flame thrower attend every game and maybe I wont fall asleep next time.

And I LOVE football. I just hate soccer.

 

[ABMorales787]

The inability to accept the ways of other cultures.

Basketball, American Football and Baseball were all perfected in the U.S. Association Football? Nope. Think about it. Soccer was not perfected in the U.S. like the other sports. By the time it reached America it was "Rugby". From there it would become American Football. Soccer never had much of an influence in the early years of American history. Therefor it was not accepted as part of American culture. It would be like developing a completely new sport. MMA had a hard time, but it is a branch of Martial Arts practice and competition. It had it's influence here already. But what about a sport like Kickball? Been around for a few years. But why hasn't it catched on even though it is so fun to play? Because it was created many, many years after all the more predominant U.S. sports. About a century apart.

I find the excuse about how Soccer is "boring" to be, number one, immature as fuck, because there is no way in hell we'd see Eli Manning running around with the ball for 45 minutes straight with zero break. Number two, Golf is a fuck of a lot more boring. I can't believe it's more popular than Kickball. Why is that? because Golf has been around here longer. It is more accepted in the U.S. culture. That's why.

 

[Барбоса]

That much of the world see the American sports are predominantly 'boring' and that many Americans find association football 'boring' suggests that there is clearly something cultural at play here. It could be that the USA originally wanted to promote their own national game rather than another import from Britain or it could be the wealth argument in that association football was originally a working class game and in many parts of the world, it still is.

Personally, I have never gotten the appeal of baseball or basketball. Anyone who argues that association football is repetitive and yet likes to watch either of these sports is a hypocrite.

I do like watching American football but the sheer amount of stoppages are incredibly off-putting. That a game of 60 mins of play can take over two hours to complete just seems wrong.

It would take an extensive PhD or other study to full explore the reasons behind it.

 

[harrythem]

Did I say it wasn't a real sport?

Almost every kid plays soccer as a child, and most of them either quit or join a real sport

Why, I think you did say it wasn't a real sport.

if you like football then you like soccer as, quite simply, you use your FOOT to kick the BALL! In the American version you use your HANDS!

Just because you don't like the pace of a football game doesn't make it any less real or exciting for those that follow it. Me personally I cant stand baseball or cricket, yet think rounders is still the best game ever invented for PE.

I think football will kick off much more predominantly in the non too distant future because of the Premier League. By that I mean there is such an obscene amount of money flowing through the game now that the players are starting to get the stupidly large contracts and egos that have long been associated with sports such as American football and Basketball. I think if the players profiles keep raising at the rate they've gone since the PL started then it won't be long before we've got some dirt-poor yet extremely good looking American player coming over here who can just shit unbelievable tekkers from his boots. Once that player arrives, then I can see a lot more Americans taking a proper look at football and not judging it on the bastardization that was the last world cup.

 

[Dhays9]

First off, I think there is way to much I hate Americans, We(Americans) hate you because your taste in sports suck.

I think it never caught on in America as we never had a reason to really cheer for it or were grown up around it. I was grown up around baseball and wrestling (folkstyle not kayfabe wrestling) and that is what I watch and support. Hell I can't stand to watch a football game and soccer is all right depending if its a low scoring game or high scoring game.

For the case of Americans liking high scoring games. HELL NO!!!! I turn the channel or watch another match (if at a tourny) if the game or match gets outta hand. One of the most exciting things for us Americans to watch is pitcher going for a No-No or a perfect game (never ever talk about while its going on though). For wrestling I wanna watch a technical match that goes all 3 periods (overtime is where its at) and be a 5-4 match with a couple takedowns or reversals. Any game that gets outta hand is boring and same thing with football. If I'm forced to watch it at one of family's house then I perfer a low scoring game than high scoring games.

All in all, you guys are just trying to flame each other for the country you come from and not the sport.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Because it's fucking boring! There's no two ways around this. The average soccer game has two goals scored and ends in a fucking tie, and you wanna know why people don't watch it? Well, for starters, aside from the fact it's boring as shit, to watch over an hour of a sport where there's only two points scored in the entire match is ridiculous.

People watch sports for three things:

1. Scoring

2. Physicality

3. Skill

What can soccer really attest to out of that list? Potentially skill? Not enough.

Watching soccer is like watching the worlds worst power-play squad go up against the worlds best penalty killing squad in hockey – that is to say, it's psychotically redundant and anticlimactic.

 

[Reddannihilation]

Because Americans suck at it. Simple as that. Football is awesome, real Football, not padded douchebags throwing a ball and stopping the game every ten seconds. Football isn't popular in the US because people in the US aren't very good at it.

 

[Dhays9]

AGAIN WITH THE US BASHING.

Hey not everyone in American hates soccer. I'd rather watch that than football but after a while it gets boring. However, I can watch 162 plus straight days of baseball so all prefence.

IDR no disrespect here but soccer has a lot more physicality than you think and it does take skill. I'd like to see you take on Man United (just saying them cuz there my favorite soccer team). Though skilll is hard to determine aS each sport takes a different set of skills. For example I don't need to be able to run a marathon for folkstyle wrestling. I need to have the condition to go the hardest 6 or 7 depends on level nonstop since there are no breaks. So each sport has different skills.

Also, physicality I believe soccer is one of the most dangerous sports when it comes to head injuries. Yes it is ahead of football.

 

[harrythem]

I don't think it's America bashing, more so the generally held view on Americans point of view of things they didn't create which IDR and TwistofRKO have kind of re-enforced (with TwistofRKO going so far as to red rep me with the words "Soccer blows. You swallow")

I stand by that football is the most amazing game in the world in that it does what religion politics music or anything else can't...it unites people in a common thread. North America apart (in general) you go to any country in the world and you'll always find someone that has a passion for football.

Oh, IDR, your three points will get addressed seperately:

1 - Low scoring. Clearly you haven't seen any English football as, since the season started, there have been over 200 goals in 3 weeks. As a defender that worries me about the standard of defending but, as you're someone that likes high scoring games, that should please you

2. Physicality - There is pleanty of physicality in football, but it is done in a more subtle way then American football (or rugby). You watch someone like Drogba getting into a jostle for control of the ball against a top defender like Vidic and tell me there isn't an intense physical battle going on there. Same goes with Midfielders and they way they have to harass people to win the ball. If you choose not to see the physical side of the sport, then you wont see it, but it is there, in abundance. Hell sometimes you get blokes like Roy Keane who introduce American Football style tackles as well, not nice to see, but you see them.

3. Skill - The game is oozing with skill. Messi, Ronaldo, Torres, Gerrard, Lampard, Fabregas, Henry, Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta, the list can go on and on and on. Even down to the grass roots level of football, I'll play a match and see someone do something magical and you just congratulate them (after the match of course) because it's an art form when done correctly.

So you might think it's psychotically redundant and anticlimactic but, I can guarantee, I can find you a few billion people that disagree with your point of view.


On a side note, I still dont like golf or cricket.