Wake up, America.
Let's stop with this nonsensical interest in soccer that we have shown with our team in the World Cup.
We aren't really that interested in what the rest of the world knows as football, are we?
Soccer has always been a niche sport here, and it always will be one, simply because our slate is too crowded as it is.
Baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and all the individual sports, such as tennis, golf and bowling, among others, have really filled up our sports slate.
Heck, you can include professional wrestling in that mix too.
And soccer, next to golf, is probably the most boring sport on the planet to watch. Low scoring is the norm, and they are even checking the ball out this year because goals are up.
It might be juiced.
And we don't need the nationalism associated with soccer. When I see European fans, and soccer fans elsewhere, literally bathing themselves in national pride associated with these games, I become ill.
We are not Europe, we are the United States of America, and we don't do things like this here.
Look, soccer on the lower levels--kids leagues, primarily--has been popular for decades, I am not going to dispute that.
But for whatever reason, once you get out of these leagues, the interest vanishes, and I have to say I don't know why, and nobody else does either.
There have been several professional sports leagues set up to try to continue the interest, but honestly, they are really niche leagues, garnering little press and little following among sports fans.
Remember the NASL? Remember Pele?
Anyway, there continue to be professional soccer leagues operating across the country, but they really get little interest from fans--both indoor and outdoor, they exist, and that is about it.
But the World Cup kind of ignites interest in the sport from people who go with the flow.
It's sort of like the phony interest in certain sports generated by the Olympics--once they are over, does anyone really care about curling?
The only difference today is that our population is changing, and that is putting more of a spotlight on soccer.
We have many more Hispanics coming to this country, and they bring an interest in "futbol" from their native countries.
Since this is such an expanding market, advertisers see it as a way to make money, so they focus on the World Cup as a way to not only market soccer, but to sell their products.
That is all fine and good, but the U.S. is simply not a soccer country. This will fade once the U.S. team is eliminated, and we will be back to focusing on our most popular sport, baseball, during the summer.
Sorry, this is a baseball/football, and to a certain extent, baskeball/hockey country, and as much as some of us want us to be the same as the rest of the world, it isn't going to work.
Our real interest in soccer?
Nil.
You put in words my thoughts exactly about soccer. Soccer was used by England to keep the colonials happy, seems Cricket only caught on in a few countries.
ReplyDeleteCurrent soccer "frenzy" in the US seems to be hipster fueled ie we don't like it because we're too old or don't understand it.
Give me Baseball!
I am not too old, understand the game, but find it boring as all heck. This is media fueled enthusiasm, certainly drawing in those of weak minds and those who want to be part of the party. Here is my test. Simply find the name of a player on the U.S. squad, and write it down. In six months, or even three months, ask those colleagues of yours who this guy is, and I promise you no one will know. Soccer is a current frenzy, but it has no permanent retention, much like the Olympics. It is a sport of the present moment, and once the U.S. is out, there it goes. NIL!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, at the moment the frenzy over the World Cup is more about national pride than live of the game. But that will change as our demographics change. Within decades there will no longer be a 'white majority" and over 40% of our population will be Hispanic or if Hispanic origins.
ReplyDeleteThat might be true, but now, it is really a nonsensical frenzy. I don't agree with Ann Coulter on too much, and I don't necessarily agree with her now, but her point is well taken; soccer is not a sport that Americans really are that enamored with. I doubt that it will change over time, even with the growing Hispanic population. It is the media which is at fault here, trying to turn us into a European annex. Didn't we get away from that type of situation in 1776?
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