American Futbol's Future

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So as not to derail the World Cup thread I thought a new thread might be in order to discuss the future of the American side and the prospects of the sport's popularity here, Rat Boy be damned.

It is probably premature to talk about a coaching change, but when has that ever stopped anyone.

Who from the current side will still be around in 4 years and be a major contributor in Brazil? Who are the names that should be on our radar?

As far as the popularity of the sport, I think this WC will help, and think that the sport has a chance at surpassing baseball in 20 or so years, but I can think of a few things that would help speed that along.

The biggest being stateside promotion of our major foreign league players.

I would be shocked if Donovan doesn't end up in the EPL, with Man City supposedly interested. I think ESPN's weekly coverage of the EPL has been a good thing, but to truly capitalize ESPN's Saturday morning EPL telecast should focus as often as possible on Dempsey/Fullham and Donovan Everton/Man C, along with the usual suspects Man U and Arsenal. Basically, ESPN should follow their baseball pattern where the Redsox and Yankees make up the bulk of their scheduling.

The other big step I would like to see happen is a properly run, ESPN backed Champions League combining both N. American (CONCACAF) and S. American (CONMEBOL) clubs. Yes the S. American teams would probably win everything for a decade plus, but if they were willing to give up some marketing control it would probably help boost their teams marketing penetration in the American market. Maybe the MLS is not ready, but I hope they get there someday.

Anyways, would love to here everyone's thoughts, and now I return you to your regularly scheduled discussuin of disallowed goals in the World Cup.

I think the MLS needs to work on getting more of their games on the air. I think people, just getting into the sport, would much rather watch domestic clubs as opposed to foreign ones.

Baseball has been a staple of this country for well over 100 years. Where as I can see soccer gaining in popularity, I seriously doubt that soccer is going to over-come America's past-time.

Kush15 wrote:

Baseball has been a staple of this country for well over 100 years. Where as I can see soccer gaining in popularity, I seriously doubt that soccer is going to over-come America's past-time.

Bill Harris made a post that got me thinking along those lines:

Also part of what's happening is demographics. I dug up a Gallup poll from 2008 that asked for Americans to identify their favorite sport to watch. Results:
Football: 43%
Basketball: 12%
Baseball: 11%

Soccer was at 3%.

More revealing, though, were the age-related demographics. In the 50+ demographic, 14% said that baseball was their favorite sport to watch. Soccer didn't even register.

In the 35 to 49 demographic, 10% said that baseball was their favorite sport to watch. 3% said soccer.

In the 18 to 34 demographic, though, only 7% said that baseball was their favorite sport to watch, while 5% said soccer.

That's baseball's problem: lots of their best fans will be dead soon.

I don't know if soccer will eventually replace baseball as the third most popular sport, although I think there's a good chance of that happening. Wait, that's not really how I feel. I really do think that it's going to happen in the next 15-20 years.

As the US continues to become less white over the next few decades I think those trends will continue.

Lucky Wilbury wrote:

I think the MLS needs to work on getting more of their games on the air. I think people, just getting into the sport, would much rather watch domestic clubs as opposed to foreign ones.

True. I've watched more EPL games this year than MLS. Sometimes it's just casually on in the background on Sat morning, but it's on. My tv tends to hit an ESPN channel more often than not.

Also not being in an MLS city I have no hometown team to root for or anything. I feel just as disconnected with MLS as with EPL... except I've heard of many of the EPL teams and players that are famous worldwide.

Not sure what would be more beneficial... upping the MLS profile, or getting more US players in the EPL. Probably the latter, for the US cup chances. As big a deal as was made of David Beckham playing MLS when he first came over, I still don't see the popularity of MLS on the rise.

It's not a matter of market share on television, it's a matter of getting young athletes willing to make a career out of soccer and the dollars just aren't there for American males. A lucky few get a shot at a high-paying job overseas, but there's none to be had here; no one is going to make $300 million playing MLS soccer. If the US wants to win the World Cup, it needs to cultivate an entire team of Landon Donovans; it needs to make soccer a major focus of the American sports world not just for one month out of every four years but every single year. However, soccer still is just a minor sport in the US and with the NFL, NBA, and MLB throwing heaps of cash at young men, that isn't going to change any time soon.

Kush15 wrote:

Baseball has been a staple of this country for well over 100 years. Where as I can see soccer gaining in popularity, I seriously doubt that soccer is going to over-come America's past-time.

Baseball hasn't been America's pastime for years, football has utterly crushed it.

Soccer is a big youth sport, but it's an affluent, suburban youth sport. There aren't huge leagues of urban kids rushing out to play soccer; that's more of a basketball thing. Every four years we hear how soccer's just about to take off. It's not happening; kids will continue to play football, basketball, and baseball first. Soccer's had multiple chances to take off and hasn't, and I don't see any reason why it would start now.

Rat Boy wrote:

It's not a matter of market share on television, it's a matter of getting young athletes willing to make a career out of soccer and the dollars just aren't there for American males. A lucky few get a shot at a high-paying job overseas, but there's none to be had here; no one is going to make $300 million playing MLS soccer. If the US wants to win the World Cup, it needs to cultivate an entire team of Landon Donovans; it needs to make soccer a major focus of the American sports world not just for one month out of every four years but every single year. However, soccer still is just a minor sport in the US and with the NFL, NBA, and MLB throwing heaps of cash at young men, that isn't going to change any time soon.

Rat Boy is right on the money. A talented young athlete has a bunch of options, and (salarywise) there's not a lot of reason to consider soccer - at least in the US.

The great demographic shift is definitely in soccer's favor, though. A large influx of immigrants from football loving countries is making soccer into an urban game, especially since the financial bar for playing is so low. I don't see it surpassing any of the big three in revenue any time in the next decade, but it will almost inevitably become the fourth major sport, in terms of popularity. I also think that promotion of International tournaments other than the World Cup needs to be much better to engage people more than once every four years.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Kush15 wrote:

Baseball has been a staple of this country for well over 100 years. Where as I can see soccer gaining in popularity, I seriously doubt that soccer is going to over-come America's past-time.

Baseball hasn't been America's pastime for years, football has utterly crushed it.

Soccer is a big youth sport, but it's an affluent, suburban youth sport. There aren't huge leagues of urban kids rushing out to play soccer; that's more of a basketball thing. Every four years we hear how soccer's just about to take off. It's not happening; kids will continue to play football, basketball, and baseball first. Soccer's had multiple chances to take off and hasn't, and I don't see any reason why it would start now.

The German guy on ESPN this morning when asked a similar question said about the same thing. He also said most soccer players who get scholarships generally go to college to get an education and move on to a non-sports profession. Just as I don't see the MLS throwing money around like Al Davis, I also don't see colleges giving a soccer player the Reggie Bush treatment.

I hate to put it this way, but until Soccer is fully embraced by America's minorities, it's not going to make the kind of players that other nations have.

It strikes me because, especially in the inner city, you have an environment that seems ripe for enjoyment of the game. I was recently looking at the website for the Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park in New York, and was struck by how the kind of flashy, attack-oriented style of play with pleasing the crowd and humiliating the opponent dovetails so nicely with Freestyle (street) Football and Futsal:

Now, of course, anyone with a passing knowledge of the sport can tell you that just being good at Futsal and indoor soccer doesn't make you good at the 11v11 game, but, in the same way that Rafer Alston, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury got their starts and honed some of their skills playing street basketball, so did Robinho and Ronaldinho with Futsal.

Now, i'm not saying Futsal creates fully-rounded players, the game obviously focuses on dribbling and attacking (although a player with great touch is something the U.S. could certainly use), but it's always been a mild surprise and a bit of a dissapointment that USSF hasn't tried to advertise the game in this manner to different groups. Futsal and Freestyle soccer strike me as something that could catch on, given that you market it right. It's certainly not perfect, lots of inner city kids used to dream of being Willie Mays, now Football and Basketball are on nearly unshakable ground. But it's not about knocking one of them off, it's about just getting that interest.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

Rat Boy is right on the money. A talented young athlete has a bunch of options, and (salarywise) there's not a lot of reason to consider soccer - at least in the US.

This is true, sort of. Because they have been so very smart and not followed the disastrous model of the NASL and have focused on steady, continued growth, the MLS is always going to have to deal with being a nation that exports talent. Unless something spectacular happens in the next 10-20 years in Europe that sees the world's best talent stop plying their trade on those shores, players are always going to want to play against the best, and the best are in Spain, Italy, England, Germany, et cetera. But, if a player can get noticed by those clubs, the want and the money is certainly there. The big difference, I think, is in terms of the cultures of "when" you get that money. Kids coming into the NFL or NBA at 19, 20, 21 years old are pretty much guaranteed multi-million dollar contracts. A kid who, let's say skips the NCAA (which has been rather detrimental to the growth of American soccer if you ask me, especially technically) and goes straight to Europe to train at 18? Well, he's going to have to live with being in the youth team for at least one, two years, unless he's something REALLY special. He's not going to see first-team money probably until he's 20 or more, and while some European clubs pay rates comparable to to American sports (but not across the board), it's a matter of patience, which a lot of young American athletes probably don't have.

Badferret wrote:

The other big step I would like to see happen is a properly run, ESPN backed Champions League combining both N. American (CONCACAF) and S. American (CONMEBOL) clubs. Yes the S. American teams would probably win everything for a decade plus, but if they were willing to give up some marketing control it would probably help boost their teams marketing penetration in the American market. Maybe the MLS is not ready, but I hope they get there someday.

The only issue with this is that the amount of money American networks would have to throw at the South American clubs to get them interested in astronomical. I think, if CONMEBOL thought there was interest (and FIFA wouldn't sh*t a brick), they'd love to break into the American market this way. But one, they've already got their own highly lucrative continental club competition, and two, excluding the Latino population, a lot of soccer fans (myself included) in the U.S. are Europhiles. I know a hell of a lot more about teams in France, Germany and Holland than I do about Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela. Not that i'd be unwilling to learn. Now, factor in that South American clubs, even the biggest ones in Brazil and Argentina largely stay afloat by developing and then selling their best talent to Europe, and the fact that American viewers are used to watching "the best" in any particular competition (this is one of the MLS's problems), and it's just hard to see that sell. Maybe, with the continuing demographic shift, but again, probably the last issue is that FIFA would poop its collective pampers at the notion of a intra-confederation Champions League that wasn't the already FIFA-sanctioned World Club Championship. That said, a bribe goes a long way these days, so YMMV.

The cynic in me says that soccer won't succeed in America, because the television networks aren't keen about running 2+ hours of programming with about 15 minutes of commercials in that block.

Here are my thoughts (posted in the WC thread):

It was hard to watch USA concede another goal early, which I thought was a routine save for Howard. Stop that goal and we're in the quarters with a 1-0 win. Simple as that. As for extra time, we should have parked the bus and played a 5-3-2 or something similar and just play counters and wait for penalities. Howard is a much better keeper and I believe he would have saved at least 1, maybe 2 shots. Oh well...woulda, coulda, shoulda, etc.

Thoughts on the future:

1) I hated Bob Bradley for much of his time with the team but he's grown on me a bit and I'm ok with him staying as long as he identifies what we went wrong and addresses it.

2) The team needs an style change. This hail mary, relying on counter-attacking play has to change and we need to focus more on possession and calculated attacks. If the other team doesn't have the ball, they can't score so take it slow and improve on passing accuracy.

3) The defense needs an overall. Although Bornstein played well (thank God!), he has to go and we need a stronger, more talented LB. Gooch might be done with the USMNT unless he can improve on tendencies to get burnt. Cherundelo and Boca are ok but I think we can get do better. Demerit is a tough, gritty back but also prone to errors and he needs to go as well.

4) Bob needs to focus on team chemistry. I'd like to see him revamp the team and come up with a Starting XI that plays together a lot and builds chemistry. Stop with all of the lineup changes in every game and lets be more consistent.

5) Lastly, Altidore needs to be evaluated closely in the next few years and possibly replaced with a player that has better work ethic, energy, pace, and finishing ability. Maybe it's Buddle, maybe someone that hasn't played for the USMNT. As for Davies, he's a beast and I think he'll be crucial in 2014.

P.S. Freddy Adu seriously deserves another look. He's been screwed over so many times and I'd like to see him start over with a clean slate. Give the guy a chance to come to camp and show where he's at.

93_confirmed wrote:

I hated Bob Bradley for much of his time with the team but he's grown on me a bit and I'm ok with him staying as long as he identifies what we went wrong and addresses it.

For me, the biggest problems were (in order):

1) Strikers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think all the US goals this tournament were from our midfielders. At the very least, our strikers missed no small portion of wide-open chances.
2) Back line. Especially on the left side. Bornstein was okay, Onyewu was lousy (though I understand still recovering from an injury).

I liked what I saw of Freddy Adu, as well.

My vote would be to pull a Germany, and have a really young core for our next World Cup team.

93_confirmed wrote:

2) The team needs an style change. This hail mary, relying on counter-attacking play has to change and we need to focus more on possession and calculated attacks. If the other team doesn't have the ball, they can't score so take it slow and improve on passing accuracy.

That's going to take new players. You have to be technically sound to play that kind of slow, possession game favored by South European and South American sides. The U.S. has Dempsey, Donovan and Bradley, and then the technical ability falls off a cliff. A cliff that leads to another cliff over a chasm. And it's something that just can't really be taught, not at this point, at least. Xavi has it, Bastian Schweinstieger has it, Juan Sebastian Veron has it. Maurice Edu, much as I love his midfield harrying, doesn't.

As for Altidore, he's a lot like Davies, and a lot like the rest of the U.S. team. I think he's got great work ethic and energy, and showed it during the competition. The issue is that he thinks he can dribble like he makes himself dribble in FIFA 10, when he really, really can't. I lost track of the number of times Jozy got the ball, held it up well and thought, "well, i'll just turn on a dime here, beat two men with a step-over, a drag-back and an elastico, and smack the ball into the net with the outside of my foot."

He then clumsily attempts to dribble, whacks it five yards aimlessly ahead and loses the ball (assuming he's not immediately tackled). Davies has pace, but not any more technical ability.

I want to believe in Freddy Adu, I do, but he's failed to make the cut at every European stop thus far. Maybe Aris (his current club) will finally give him the stability and the chance to start that he needs to develop (of course, that's supposing you believe he's actually 21). The potential there, however, is for him to be the kind of No. 10 that the U.S. has never been able to produce.

Prederick wrote:
93_confirmed wrote:

2) The team needs an style change. This hail mary, relying on counter-attacking play has to change and we need to focus more on possession and calculated attacks. If the other team doesn't have the ball, they can't score so take it slow and improve on passing accuracy.

That's going to take new players. You have to be technically sound to play that kind of slow, possession game favored by South European and South American sides. The U.S. has Dempsey, Donovan and Bradley, and then the technical ability falls off a cliff. A cliff that leads to another cliff over a chasm.

As for Altidore, he's a lot like Davies, and a lot like the rest of the U.S. team. I think he's got great work ethic and energy, and showed it during the competition. The issue is that he thinks he can dribble like he makes himself dribble in FIFA 10, when he really, really can't. I lost track of the number of times Jozy got the ball, held it up well and thought, "well, i'll just turn on a dime here, beat two men with a step-over, a drag-back and an elastico, and smack the ball into the net with the outside of my foot."

He then clumsily attempts to dribble, whacks it five yards aimlessly ahead and loses the ball (assuming he's not immediately tackled). Davies has pace, but not any more technical ability.

I want to believe in Freddy Adu, I do, but he's failed to make the cut at every European stop thus far. Maybe Aris (his current club) will finally give him the stability and the chance to start that he needs to develop (of course, that's supposing you believe he's actually 21). The potential there, however, is for him to be the kind of No. 10 that the U.S. has never been able to produce.

I agree with all of those comments on Altidore - all he's good for is drawing fouls and holding the ball until D&D make a run on goal. I do think Davies has more technical ability that you're giving him credit for. Hopefully we'll see some of it when he plays in the next friendly. Brazil vs. USA is their first game after the WC is over and I it's at the New Meadowlands Stadium in NJ.

As for Adu, news recently broke that he got cut by Aris. Not sure if it's been confirmed by the club yet. Regardless of what's happening with the club situation, I just want Bob to invite him into camp, evaluate him fairly, and give him some time in 2-3 friendlies. He has the speed and skill that we desperately need and he's shown this in several USMNT games.

Rat Boy wrote:

He also said most soccer players who get scholarships generally go to college to get an education and move on to a non-sports profession. Just as I don't see the MLS throwing money around like Al Davis, I also don't see colleges giving a soccer player the Reggie Bush treatment.

College is a no-go for America's soccer development. Title IX severely limits the available resources on mens sports other than football and baseball and as a result many BCS schools don't even field soccer teams at the scholarship level. Yes some great players have been produced by American schools, witness Clint Dempsey who played at Furman but by and large if our college system is only going to produce MLS talent.

That is why the current success of American players in European leagues is so important, as the stigma that American soccer players can't cut it is dissaperaing, and will hopefully lead to increased scouting of American youth players by European clubs. Would Dempsey be an even better player now if he had skipped Furman and gone straight to Europe?

Prederick wrote:

I hate to put it this way, but until Soccer is fully embraced by America's minorities, it's not going to make the kind of players that other nations have.

I agree and disagree. The Hispanic community in America already has a love for the game, but there needs to be continued effort to integrate Hispanic Americans into the American soccer establishment.

When it comes to other minority groups there remains a great disconnect between the sport and communities. Perhaps someone can start an inner-city development program that emphasis the financial potential of the sport. The NBA has always been a pipe dream for thousands of kids and is even more so now with the influx of European players taking more and more roster spots.

Some slick AAU coach should try and promote the idea to inner-city kids that if you are not 6'2" by the age of 15 then perhaps your point guard skills might have a better chance of making you money in another game.

It would not be a quick process, but as we are such a star driven society it might only take one or two urban success stories and perhaps a catchy one word name or nickname to help increase the sport's domestic viability. American soccer needs a Jordan or Kobe. Someone needs to find the kid who is not quite tall enough to be the next NBA Jordan but who could become that in soccer.

I will say that as a soccer fan, that I don't think watching the MLS will make more people in the US soccer fans. It just isn't a very good league at all. And the parity of the teams leads to even more draws, which is something that, for good or ill, American fans in general don't enjoy.

Badferret wrote:

Some slick AAU coach should try and promote the idea to inner-city kids that if you are not 6'2" by the age of 15 then perhaps your point guard skills might have a better chance of making you money in another game.

It would not be a quick process, but as we are such a star driven society it might only take one or two urban success stories and perhaps a catchy one word name or nickname to help increase the sport's domestic viability. American soccer needs a Jordan or Kobe. Someone needs to find the kid who is not quite tall enough to be the next NBA Jordan but who could become that in soccer.

Not just inner-city but everywhere. I played soccer from 4-13 or so. But I chose to focus on basketball in high school. Growing up in Kentucky (or Indiana), basketball is by far the most important sport, nothing else is close. As a 5'10" white guy I had a much better chance of getting a scholarship or just playing soccer in college than I ever did of basketball. Knowing several of the guys I played with in middle school went on to play college soccer, I regret it a bit now, I could have been pretty good. Oh well.

Lot of good athletes out there choosing basketball or football for high school & college even though they could never play professionally, but that might actually have a shot at professional soccer.

Stele wrote:

Lot of good athletes out there choosing basketball or football for high school & college even though they could never play professionally, but that might actually have a shot at professional soccer.

Could it possibly be that they prefer playing those sports over soccer?

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Stele wrote:

Lot of good athletes out there choosing basketball or football for high school & college even though they could never play professionally, but that might actually have a shot at professional soccer.

Could it possibly be that they prefer playing those sports over soccer?

That's pretty cynical of you. Oh, wait...

bennard wrote:

The cynic in me says that soccer won't succeed in America, because the television networks aren't keen about running 2+ hours of programming with about 15 minutes of commercials in that block.

This.

Also, we are underestimating how big baseball is getting in Latino and Asian countries. At the very least, baseball is increasing in popularity in Latino countries at a much more rapid pace than soccer is here in the US.

With increasing Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Cuban, etc. players being signed by major league clubs, I think baseball will never fall behind soccer in terms of popularity in the US. Immigrants from Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean can come to the US and have their country represented in baseball by a handful of players (which is increasing). The same can't be said for the NFL, NBA, or NHL. That leaves soccer and baseball as the most easily adopted sport by immigrants from these locations. And, I would think, they would tend to lean towards baseball as the caliber of MLS play is not up to snuff from what they are used to in their native countries. Heck, anyone that lives here in the tri-state area knows what the vibe was like when the Mets made Omar Minaya GM and the Mets ended up with a largely Latino team. Latinos all over the area gobbled up Mets gear.

That said, I will make two predictions.

1) The US will never win a World Baseball Classic in my lifetime.

2) The US will win a World Cup before England wins another one.

Look at the teams fielded at the World Baseball Classic to see how far baseball's spread:

USA (naturally)
Canada
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Venezuela
Cuba
Japan
South Korea
China
South Africa
Australia
Italy (?)
The Netherlands (though they drew from their Carribean colonies)

I may have left some out, but that's at least one team from every continent excluding Antarctica, though I could picture an Emperor penguin making a good catcher.

Rat Boy wrote:

Look at the teams fielded at the World Baseball Classic to see how far baseball's spread:

USA (naturally)
Canada
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Venezuela
Cuba
Japan
South Korea
China
South Africa
Australia
Italy (?)
The Netherlands (though they drew from their Carribean colonies)

I may have left some out, but that's at least one team from every continent excluding Antarctica, though I could picture an Emperor penguin making a good catcher.

Hey? What? We have a baseball team.

*Googles*

*edit*

Ah, and we suck. That's not surprising.

Noone is mentioning the simple fact that soccer is a slow sport and will never succeed with americas high speed market. You have on the norm 2 full hours of not much happening with a flash or two of excitement. I will admit that if you know enough about the sport to recognize tactics and game flow and ebb it becomes loads more interesting but most americans would never get that far into it.

Soccer will only be popular in America during the times that the US is in the world cup and once they are out it will quickly disappear (remember when hockey was back after the last olympics..yeah that lasted)

Even if the US were to somehow win a World Cup the American attention span would never bleed much over into watching all the time.

The Dutch don't really play baseball, their participation is almost entirely based on their Caribbean possessions.

So, we have North America and the Pacific nations that play baseball, nobody in Europe or Africa or S. America really play baseball. I am pretty sure that the Italian team was made up almost exclusively of dual national Italian Americans, not sure about the S. African team.

I'm also not convinced that the growth in the number of international players in MLB has increased the popularity of baseball with minority groups in the US. African Americans are increasing disinterested in the sport.

I am not arguing that soccer is better than baseball or that it should pass it in popularity, but I do think that within my lifetime the two will approach parity in the ranking of American sporting interest, though both will remain distantly behind football and basketball.

Cobble wrote:

Noone is mentioning the simple fact that soccer is a slow sport and will never succeed with americas high speed market. You have on the norm 2 full hours of not much happening with a flash or two of excitement. I will admit that if you know enough about the sport to recognize tactics and game flow and ebb it becomes loads more interesting but most americans would never get that far into it.

I agree with the latter sentiment -- once you are more aware of and understand the tactics and the way plays develop, soccer can become amazingly interesting when the ball is not even close to the goal.

I'm not sure I agree with the former sentiment. It seems a slow sport if you don't understand it, but baseball is an *incredibly* slow sport that can be described with the words you use here (only with a 3 hour timescale). I think the difference is that Americans have generally grown up with baseball, they've played baseball, so they have a greater ability to sit through an entire (interminable) game. Perhaps that is the hope for soccer -- as more of the population has played or watched it, it both will not seem as slow and will have some familiarity.

firesloth wrote:
Cobble wrote:

Noone is mentioning the simple fact that soccer is a slow sport and will never succeed with americas high speed market. You have on the norm 2 full hours of not much happening with a flash or two of excitement. I will admit that if you know enough about the sport to recognize tactics and game flow and ebb it becomes loads more interesting but most americans would never get that far into it.

I agree with the latter sentiment -- once you are more aware of and understand the tactics and the way plays develop, soccer can become amazingly interesting when the ball is not even close to the goal.

I'm not sure I agree with the former sentiment. It seems a slow sport if you don't understand it, but baseball is an *incredibly* slow sport that can be described with the words you use here (only with a 3 hour timescale). I think the difference is that Americans have generally grown up with baseball, they've played baseball, so they have a greater ability to sit through an entire (interminable) game. Perhaps that is the hope for soccer -- as more of the population has played or watched it, it both will not seem as slow and will have some familiarity.

I think there is some merit to the "slow" complaint if you stretch that logic to "violence." Sure, it can get pretty messy in soccer, but the hits don't come as hard or as often as in the NFL. Boxing's been completely eclipsed by MMA for that reason. You could also argue that bumping, tapping, and wall-slamming is why NASCAR is bigger than the IRL. And what generates more YouTube hits for baseball? Bench-clearing brawls.

Sorry guys. Soccer will never catch on. Every time a World Cup comes around the talk starts again and quickly dies after some poor rich bastards invest a small fortune in promoting the sport in the US and find that they just flushed their money down the toilet. Not enough people care.

The NHL, for example, is still fighting to get air time in the US since the strike years ago and it is a major money making pro sport in the US. We even stole a bunch of teams from Canada where it is the national sport and it is still the red-headed step child of US pro sports. How anyone thinks soccer has a snowball chance in hell is beyond me.

heavyfeul wrote:

Sorry guys. Soccer will never catch on. Every time a World Cup comes around the talk starts again and quickly dies after some poor rich bastards invest a small fortune in promoting the sport in the US and find that they just flushed their money down the toilet. Not enough people care.

The NHL, for example, is still fighting to get air time in the US since the strike years ago and it is a major money making pro sport in the US. We even stole a bunch of teams from Canada where it is the national sport and it is still the red-headed step child of US pro sports. How anyone thinks soccer has a snowball chance in hell is beyond me.

I'm not saying soccer has arrived, but the numbers for this World Cup are dwarfing the previous one. Here's some numbers:
http://blogcritics.org/sports/articl...

Tanglebones wrote:

I'm not saying soccer has arrived, but the numbers for this World Cup are dwarfing the previous one. Here's some numbers:
http://blogcritics.org/sports/articl...

I think Americans get excited about the World Cup and have fun with it, but it will be an every four years type of phenomenon. Sort of like how many people watch the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup Playoff compared to the number that actually watch Football or Hockey every week. It is a big Worldwide media event and competition, but it will never be able to garner enough support to sustain a profitable pro league in the US.

The only thing I can see changing things is a major demographic shift. In 100 years when the US has a lot more people whose families came from other countries where Soccer is huge, like Mexico/Latin America, then Soccer will definitely have a chance. But it has to become a tradition in this country before people really embrace and support it.

They try every four years to ride the World Cup wave and it never lasts. Even huge stars/soccer ambassadors like Beckham and Mia Hamm are not enough to get people in the stands and in front of the TV.

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