writing book, need AMERICA's opinion on soccer

Hey all i'm writing a book on soccer and globalization, and am interviewing americans for their opinion/perception of soccer. It would be appreciated if you gave me a quick summary what you think about the game, good or bad and its role in our culture. also it would be useful if you told me whether you are a democrat or republican. Thanks folks :)

its role in our culture.

bconngemini

I don't think you'll get much there. :P

[QUOTE="bconngemini"]

its role in our culture.

UssjTrunks

I don't think you'll get much there. :P

i meant from it role as a euro-crosmopolitan sport that appeals to soccer moms to its role as a euro-cosmopolitan sport that disappeals to baseball/football/nascar dad...

[QUOTE="UssjTrunks"]

[QUOTE="bconngemini"]

its role in our culture.

bconngemini

I don't think you'll get much there. :P

i meant from it role as a euro-crosmopolitan sport that appeals to soccer moms to its role as a euro-cosmopolitan sport that disappeals to baseball/football/nascar dad...

we usually have issues with anything we are not good at and tend to disregard it .. thats why i peronsally think most americans say soccer sucks or is lame ect ect.. IMO soccer is the greatest sport on the face of this planet .. next to college football

Just to give a brief explination of soccer's importance in america from what i've seen...

I played football(american) in highschool and we had two practice fields one for junior varsity and one for varsity, towards the end of the season we(varsity) were only using one field because JV's season was over, the schools soccer team began practicing on the other field, our coaches booted them off the field and we spread our practice out to use up both fields, soccer team went to the school for pity and were basically told to suck it up and find another field.

Now I would normally think that's pretty messed up but considering most people i've met that play/are huge fans of soccer have this whole superiority complex about the sport thinking it's soooo much better than any other sport and that all should bow down to the mighty soccer gods...And in america that's where it got them, with no field to practice on.

Just my experience...lol. (soccer team were notorious for being DBags, only reason why I condone what happened)

This is all you need:

1. Americans find it ridiculously boring. You can argue all day whether or not that it is or it isn't, but thats irrelevant. Americans don't care about the subtleties of the game, thats not enough. We want scoring...soccer has almost none. Hockey gets away with its low scoring because of the hitting and fighting and the pace is much faster, plus there are a lot more scoring opportunities.

2. Everytime Americans do watch a soccer game/match we see nothing but players faking injuries, complaining, and crying when they get hit. The extent to which the players do it is pathetic really. Sure other sports have their fair share of athletes complaining about ref's calls but they don't whine and cry like soccer players when they get hit. And hockey and football players get hit much harder than soccer players...

3. The game doesn't have a history here. Sure there have been various leagues and teams throughout our country's history, but the longetivity and consistency hasn't been there like it has with the other sports...especially our bread and butter with football and baseball. There is no single championship that identifies soccer...especially here in the US. Nobody cares who wins the MLS each year because it has no history. I don't even know what months of the year MLS takes place. Sure the World Cup can be decent, but nobody pays attention to the national team unless they are in the World Cup. During the off years nobody pays attention to the friendly matches or world cup qualifiers the US team plays.

4. There is really no room for it. Americans already have football and baseball which cover the whole calendar year, besides that we've got college football, college basketball, and to a lesser extent the NBA and NHL.

5. Of all professional sports, soccer is probably the worst when it comes to gambling opportunities.

6. There is too much ambiguity in the rules. Red and Yellow cards are total judgment calls which can ruin a match. If your team gets a bad call in football or baseball or hockey or a garbage foul call in baseball it isn't nearly as influential on the outcome of the match. Americans also aren't fans of the running clock and the extra time and injury time nonsense. Americans love having clocks which allow for exciting end game plays. That last second goal or basket or touchdown or field goal. With soccer, you never really know exactly how much time is left.

Soccer players seem like pansies as well. They are the punters of football. If you look at them to hard they fall to the ground in fake agony.liveburntorange

This is all you need:

1. Americans find it ridiculously boring. You can argue all day whether or not that it is or it isn't, but thats irrelevant. Americans don't care about the subtleties of the game, thats not enough. We want scoring...soccer has almost none. Hockey gets away with its low scoring because of the hitting and fighting and the pace is much faster, plus there are a lot more scoring opportunities.

2. Everytime Americans do watch a soccer game/match we see nothing but players faking injuries, complaining, and crying when they get hit. The extent to which the players do it is pathetic really. Sure other sports have their fair share of athletes complaining about ref's calls but they don't whine and cry like soccer players when they get hit. And hockey and football players get hit much harder than soccer players...

3. The game doesn't have a history here. Sure there have been various leagues and teams throughout our country's history, but the longetivity and consistency hasn't been there like it has with the other sports...especially our bread and butter with football and baseball. There is no single championship that identifies soccer...especially here in the US. Nobody cares who wins the MLS each year because it has no history. I don't even know what months of the year MLS takes place. Sure the World Cup can be decent, but nobody pays attention to the national team unless they are in the World Cup. During the off years nobody pays attention to the friendly matches or world cup qualifiers the US team plays.

4. There is really no room for it. Americans already have football and baseball which cover the whole calendar year, besides that we've got college football, college basketball, and to a lesser extent the NBA and NHL.

5. Of all professional sports, soccer is probably the worst when it comes to gambling opportunities.

6. There is too much ambiguity in the rules. Red and Yellow cards are total judgment calls which can ruin a match. If your team gets a bad call in football or baseball or hockey or a garbage foul call in baseball it isn't nearly as influential on the outcome of the match. Americans also aren't fans of the running clock and the extra time and injury time nonsense. Americans love having clocks which allow for exciting end game plays. That last second goal or basket or touchdown or field goal. With soccer, you never really know exactly how much time is left.

Cloud_Insurance

Thanks for the summary. Heard complaint #1 and #2 a lot from other americans, the difficult of scoring and the fake theatrics/untoughness of players. It usually comes mentioned first, then the "its not our sports", "no room for it", "too euro"...etc.

Also my book isn't about soccer in america (that will be only once chapter) and there will be no "will soccer become mainstream in america" debate. I'm looking for opinions and how they are formed...for example is the perception of soccer as being boring due to lack of stats/high scores and is the stereotype of soccer players as pansies come from it being associated with europe or maybe because we are only exposed to soccer during the world cup when diving is prevalent as opposed to the league play...etc. Thanks though.

I believe you will find most Americans to be completely indifferent to soccer. It's viewed largely as a children's game while American Football is viewed as the "Men's Game".3KindgomsRandy

Your contradict yourself. You say that americans look down on socer as game not for men, but are "indifferent" to it. If we were indifferent to it, we wouldn't automatically compare it to the our "Men's Game" football and call soccer a pansy childrens game.

It might not be popular to watch but last I heard it was the most popular sport when it comes to participation.duxup

Exactly. I totally like soccer it just happens to be behind a few other sports I like more. But it is the most played sport especially among the youth here in the US so it's a big part of the US now if people want to admit it or not.

From my perspective, Soccer is a sport that is considered "foreign" to most Americans. Where I live I find there's a good amount of leagues for kids set up for Soccer, but very very few people here watches it on a professional level. Soccer is barely promoted in the U.S. ESPN only talks about it on a brief segment of ESPN Deportes, though it does get more attention near the finals of the world cup but that's about it. People in the U.S. are primarily concerned with Football, Baseball, and Basketball. DA_B0MB

don't watch espn deportes much but every time i've turned to it it was soccer...hispanics adore soccer, but i have heard many hispanics say that abandoning soccer helps them assimilate to our culture and move away from it to our domestic sports... don't want to raise suspicion and be labelled unamerican by watching futbol instead of football