re: Lets talk about americas lack of interest in soccer

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Lets talk about americas lack of interest in soccer

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One of the biggest things imo is the lack of a world class domestic league. I wake up early Saturday and Sunday morning to watch the English Premier League but never watch the MLS. In all other major sports we have the best league in the world here in the US.

Back to the OP's question, though, on why the 'popularity' of youth soccer has not translated to a much greater following--

Children's sports in America are driven by two forces-- parental desire for activity, and child desire to avoid embarrassment. I'm not saying these are universal-- there are parents who love the sports, and there are kids with athletic talent who love the venues in which they can express their gifts-- but for the great unathletic masses, it isn't the culmination of their personal desire to play team sports.

Soccer has become the ultimate place where these two things can work together-- parents see a continuous workout, with minimal commitment (no expensive equipment is necessary); it's minimally invasive in terms of scheduling, because the clock is always running and you have a rough idea of the length of a game commitment.

With the low scoring and the differentiation between playing really well and really badly being harder to discern (you can get your arse stomped 2-0, or you can play well and lose 2-0 more easily than in other sports), kids tolerate playing soccer because it's harder to single out anyone for poor play unless you know the game well. They're never in that negative, embarrassing spotlight like a kid who drops a fly ball or drops the football.

When the kids grow up, they have no particular attachment to soccer; it served its purpose to keep the peace, rather than stimulate an athletic interest that will last a lifetime.

Mind, there are kids for who taking to soccer will do just that-- and again, I'm talking about the non-athletes that make up the lion's share of any youth sports team. If soccer can ever figure out how to make Timmy 'pleasing the parents' Punchcard into a soccer fan, it'll get past the hump.

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Three words.

Aussie. Rules. Football.

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I'm familiar with it. I prefer Rugby though, Union and League.

im 2 pages into this thread and it's pretty clear that most people have no fricking clue what they are talking about.

I think soccer's lack of popularity boils down to a few things:

ONE. It's not American. Americans hate international sports unless we absolutely dominate them. Tennis has waned in popularity the same exact moment we stopped winning all of the time. We love golf as an international sport, because Americans win about half of the majors, and are always in contention.

TWO. American soccer fans are the worst. The basic campaign has been to treat the game like it's sports broccoli, as if it's better for you. and no one likes to be told that. They've gotten better, but there's still this tendency to play the "you just don't understand it" card, which also comes out of the defensiveness borne out of decades of attack from the mainstream. So I get where it comes from.

Also, there's the reflexive need to bash American soccer, which is better than even Americans give it credit for. We're not Brazil or anything, but people act like we're Luxembourg or something. That goes back to point #1.

THREE. It rewards stalling. There's defense, and then there's the simple refusal to play offense. If you are outmatched, you go into a bunker and you stall. You don't even try to score if you're truly outmatched, and play for a 0-0 tie. It's pretty cynical play, and it's also pretty common in international soccer, which Americans are more likely to be exposed to. Basketball added a shot clock to get past this problem, lacrosse has stall warnings and is tinkering with a shot clock, and hockey's rink design pretty much prevents stalling. Soccer has done little to prevent stalling, and it's f'n brutal.

FOUR. Offsides. Soccer has actually been willing to tinker with offsides over the decades, making it friendlier and friendlier to offense. But the offsides trap is a fricking abomination. It rewards teams for NOT PLAYING DEFENSE. And it's one thing to prevent guys from totally cherry picking, but seeing the ball at 20 yards out and have no one near the goal just because every defender is at the 18 is just ridiculous. It severely limits the offense and reduces scoring chances. It's exploiting the rulebook to stop teams from scoring by not playing defense. Step up. He's offside, no play. It is awful to watch. People don't mind great defensive plays that involve athleticism or toughness. But watching a guy step forward to put a guy behind an imaginary line as an effective strategy is just contrary to the ideals of sport in general. It's awful. It chokes the life from the game.

no scoring, games can end in ties, shitty league, soccer players are soft

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Don’t know anything about youth soccer, what would need to change?

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The best players in Europe are basically playing for a club before the age of 10. For instance, for Barcelona, the kids move there and go to classes there while training. Soccer is their life. Also, none of the players go to college to play soccer. You play for the youth team, then the u20 team (might be a step in between there), then you play for the senior team.

I'd be ok with extending the line at the 18 to the sidelines and once the ball passes that line, there's no offside, but that's as far as I'd go.

Playing 11 vs 11 on that size of field would make the game way more boring.

I wish more sports did something like hockey does. Every year, they bring in some players and officials for a few days and try out different ideas and rules. The one's that might work get added to the NHL, the ones that don't are forgotten.