Comments on: The History of Soccer’s Unpopularity in the US

By: C

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:01:39 +0000

J- with all due respect, your an idiot. Im gonna respond to your 4 points. Keep in mind i am a soccer fan, played soccer for 15 years and follow it regularly-

1. Those “rivalries” do not deserve the term heated as compared to others. More often than not people who do not like or follow baseball know about the hatred between the Sox/Yanks. With soccer no one has any idea about those unless they really follow the league.

2. Who the hell cares? alot of people. look at the popularity of hockey when fighting was banned compared to when it was reinstated.

3. Look at local town leagues- its happening more and more.

4. When a score ends up being 1-0 the public will often think that is a slow game. the lack of scoring is where people say slow not the “constant action.” after 90 minutes and 1 goal (sometimes in the opening minutes), i, a person who grew up with a soccer ball on his foot, will say slow.

Sorry J but your wayyy off. good try tho

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Confederations Cup Offers Hope for U.S. Soccer | Sports of Boston — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:10:17 +0000

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By: noel

noel — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:49:45 +0000

The “COOL” status is correct. There are too many a-holes fathers telling young boys that soccer is for p…ys. I had my 10 year old newphew tell me this. Only 250000 kids play pop warner football but in high school the easy way to popularity is joining the football team. Because the entire HS. experience is built around the Homecoming game. There are millions of closet soccer fans out there and as soccer gains respect in this country their slowly coming out.

By: peteo

peteo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:05:28 +0000

All reasons aside, I think the most important aspect is that soccer has not yet attained “cool” status. Once that happens – where not just soccer fans but average sports fans want to be apart of – it should explode in popularity.

Look at the other sports, there are fair-weather/bandwagon “fans” who know little about the rules or players on teams.

By: Bebo

Bebo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:13:57 +0000

I think Erikk raises some good issues here. Americans have a difficult time giving soccer the same respect as its favorite pasttimes – baseball, basketball and football. And while the rest of you clowns think that MLS rivalries are just as latent in the US, there is nothing farther from the truth.

By: j

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:14:09 +0000

I overall agree with most your article but disgree with a couple of your points.

1. As many people already pointed out, there are heated rivalries in soccer such as Portalnd-Seattle, Chivas-LA, Houstan-Dallas, DC-Chicago.

2. Other than Football and Hockey where people continually smash each other, Soccer is probrably the next most dangerous sport. Personally, though, I think the whole “dangerous Sport” thing is stupid. Who the hell cares that more people get injured in one sport than another? It doesn’t make it more interesting to me.

3. You make soccer seem as if it is not competitive. That is completley FALSE. Even from a young age soccer is a very competitive sport. I have no clue where you got your idea that soccer isn’t competitive.

4. I have to disagree with your point that soccer is slow, and any other person who says that soccer is slow. Soccer plays continiously for 45 minutes and then another 45 minutes, no breaks. Can any other sport boast that? No. Soccer has constant action in the form of passing, moving, shooting, corner kicks, throw-ins, free kicks. There is always somthing happening. Baseball-lets not even talk about lack of action, football-has huddles, timeouts, big breaks between each play, Basketball-Constant Time outs.

I could go through so many other reasons why soccer isn’t slow to me, but I don’t have the time.

Anyway, good article, but too many points I disagree with.

By: Vnice

Vnice — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:07:12 +0000

Hey, I have an idea…

instead of talking about why soccer has failed to take root, let’s talk about how much headway it HAS made in the last 10 years. Let’s talk about the success of MLS teams like Seattle and Toronto (I know they are Canadian, but it’s still MLS). Let’s take about how we can make it take root more strongly.

Written pieces like this just make soccer seem more irrelevant to people who already think it is.

By: Peter C

Peter C — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:39:51 +0000

I thought that Erikk’s ‘rivalry’ argument meant there were no soccer rivalries like the Sox/Yanks in MLS, not anywhere in the world.
That being said, in addition to proximity, the Arsenal/Tottenham, and other rivalries, have had so many more years to develop.
In MLS, Columbus and Toronto seem to be developing that tasty ‘Euro’ style rivalry.

By: tech

tech — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:36:50 +0000

I agree with you on the article, but i disagree with you on one thing, and that’s that mls soccer does have a rivalry a classic you might say, people that know their history would know that,that rivalry is L.A GALAXY versus D.C UNITED, first two teams in the first ever historic final in 1996, only two teams to win the concacaf champions league, these teo have outlasted any other teams in mls soccer, these two are the originals, and their’s a bigger audience boost when these two play