Sunday, June 27, 2010

USA Loss Not too Important

Now I must say soccer (or football for you Europeans) has a place in my heart being as how I've represented my school's soccer team valiantly on the field, but truth be told, I hate watching soccer...... and I think America agrees. The news stories leading up to the USA/Guanna match was that Americans were gaining interest in the sport as they rooted team USA on. But here's the sad truth for all you football fanatics: Soccer will never be anything more than a sport played by school kids in the good old USA. To back that up I have a few valid points.

1.) So what America backed it's own team? During the Olympics you can find everyday Americans watching the USA ping pong team play, does that mean ping pong will sweep America by storm? the answer is the same as it is for soccer, NO.

2.) Soccer is filled with babies, and America hates cry babies. While watching team USA play, and any other team for that matter, I saw grown men cry like babies to the referee whenever they got bumped into. On play sticks out in my mind. It was the last game in the qualifying round and USA was playing some country I've seldom heard of. One of our guys went for a ball that the opponent was bobbling when the other guy just fell over. He grimaced in pain as if the cleat had cut his main artery. But when the replay came on in slow motion you could clearly see he was never even touched. Now bad calls happen in any sport, but I saw at least ten calls in that game alone with contact being non-apparent. Americans love a contact sport, that's why American Football has surpassed Baseball as Americas pastime. Soccer is far from a contact sport. Heck, I'd say Rugby has a better chance of catching on in America than soccer.

3.) There's no star power. If you ask the average American to name a soccer player, nine times out of ten the answer will be "David Beckham," ask them to name another and the answer will probably be "Uhhhhh." Ask an average American to name a Hockey, Baseball, or Football player and they'll have endless answers. The simple fact is that no one knows who plays the sport. The only player I really even remember from team USA is goalie Tim Howard. If Fut ball or Football or Soccer or whatever they want to call the sport wants to match the relevance of the WNBA, they need to build a little star power.

America and Europe have always had different ideals, and that's more than true when it comes to sports. Americans like an aggressive, in your face game like football and hockey. The Euros however seem to settle with a bunch of whiny grown men kicking a ball around an oversize field. America already has two passive aggressive sports (Basketball, which has spread around the world, and Baseball, big in Asia and South America at least.) So soccer fans keep hoping and praying, but I don't think soccer's coming here anywhere soon.

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