vegasdriver

Well, many of us are baseball, basketball, football, e.t.c., fans but few are soccer fans. Even fewer of us are soccer players. The 06 World Cup was watched by one billion people and 200 countries!
We would have thought that by now the sport would be more mainstream here in the USA. However, it seems that there is a long way until the game catches on and we have some loyal fans.
How many of you can even name the pro-soccer team nearest to you?


vote and comment below:

lludacrisboy

i love soccer. its thrilling and fun and the fact that i play and have played for so long i understand it and fell liek i know how are feeling playing. and its a great worldwide sport that everyone knows

jct

you left one on there, not really a sports fan...

thats me, not really a sports fan

surfcity40

soccer is not mainstream in the US because we field the #5 ranked team and tank, over and over. US fans are bandwagon fans who generally follow winners. we don't win in soccer. we field underachievers. if we fielded a team that advanced on the international level the fans folk would come around....maybe. "no real good national team" wasn't an option in your poll. countries fields one team.

also, soccer is the world's sport. we can't call the mls championship the "world soccer championship" like we do with mlb's "world series" when we're the only ones invited (sry, and the blue jays).

we don't watch soccer for the same reason we use inches, yards and miles when every other country uses the metric system....the same reason we use fahrenheit when the rest of the world uses celcius. because we're difficult. the rest of the world can call play this game involving your feet and call it futbol, we've got our own version of rugby....i think we'll call it...football!

k, i ranted a bit but the real reason americans don't watch soccer is because we have never had national success at it and it is low scoring. low scoring is interpreted as boring. why do you think we award six points for a touchdown, three points for a field goal, juice baseballs for more home runs, love basketball's 110 to 100 games? "results" baby. it's the score that counts here, not the playing.
three hours later and one to nothing, is just....unamerican.

TempleOwl

I don't care what other people think about futbol, but I will always be a fan in the US. It helped that I lived in London for 6 weeks.
I will always follow the NBA of futbol, the Premiership. Maybe the EPL needs to play more exhibition games here in the US. I'd like to see my squad Everton play in Philly.

hayalex6

the only soccer I watch is the world cup. only NBA I watch is the finals. I don't watch and MLB (basebally is boring), I watch a ton of NFL, and all College sports.

iyzmi

Yeah, same here.

kytc

I'm just like him, I only really like the final games in professional sports. Now college sports is a different story, maybe it's because they do it because they still enjoy it and it's their passion, not a way to be ridiculousy overpaid

BCS

I play soccer. I love to watch it. The local team here is the Seattle Sounders. They aren't that bad. They did go on a 5 game losing streak last month, but that's alright. The only downside is that they aren't shown on TV, so I either have to go watch them live, which I usually can't do, or just read about it in the paper.

They just had an exhibition match last weekend against Club America (who ironically are from Mexico), but they lost that one 2-0.

They are probably the closest that Seattle has to a pro soccer team. The closest MLS teams are either LA or Colorado.

Celt

I LOVE football ( def: A ball you kick with your foot)
I watch FSN for the premier league.
Sir Alex Ferguson is an excellent manager and SCOTTISH too
I dont play much, I prefer to play rugby!!! a real mans sport

Itgb

It's going to be very hard for soccer to ever get popular in the US for the biggest reason of there being no money in it. Why would you want to pursue a soccer career to earn peanuts in comparison to other major sports in the US?

But I still love soccer. I just wish I had been in Germany to experience it, not just watch it.

surfcity40

young american players who can play go to other countries and make a fortune. as other country's player wind down their careers they will be coming here. there is money here btw, as well.
in fact, beckham will be here very soon...it's just a question of whether he plays in NY where he wants to play or in LA, where posh wants him to play.

Itgb

Oh yea, there's money here. The galaxy paid a sh!tload to get Donvan, and look what a great player he is. And I don't think it would be that easy for young Americans to get into the good teams in Europe and make a lot of money. I don't know of any that even play in Europe besides some of the older players like Keller, Reyna, Beasly, etc. There's only enough money to draw aging stars(like Donadoni in the beginning of MLS and possibly Beckham). I'm talking about money to bring rising stars like C. Ronaldo(even though I think he's a punk) and Messi.

surfcity40

american players (i'm talking men btw, because our women soccer players are the best in the world-probably because the rest of the world doesn't appreciate women athletes as we do) have to rely on the "friendly" matches to get player exposure unlike the rest of the world.

it's changing though and odp (olympic development program) players will get international exposure because of the european and international coaches and players coming here to help us get up to par.

it is a matter of time....probably a long time but still...a matter of time.

Tom_P

To be honest, I tried giving soccer a shot during the World Cup and I just couldn't do it. Watching it just made me mad. First, I have never seen athletes flail and dive so much in my life. Guys trip and they get taken off on a stretcher like they just got shot. (Notice that when that American player got hit in the nose and was bleeding he didn't need a stretcher.) Second, what's up with the offsides? You MUST have a defender in front of you or else you get called offsides? That's like saying a wide receiver couldn't get past a DB. Third, the shootout is completely stupid. Change the overtime to sudden death, and if it goes on for 4 hours then so be it. I doubt soccer will ever catch on here. That's my rant.

JDMbB

i think the last place david beckham and other superstar players would come to play would be in the U.S. they come here when they retire not while they are in their prime.and even when they retire, they still stay in europe. they play on the european leagues because of the money and better competition. americans are scrubs at soccer no offense cause there are exceptions, its not a sport that they are generally good at and i personally think they should stop trying to give all this hype to a team that really sucks. i will always be loyal to the colombian soccer team. they have potential, they just need to get it together. and on a side note the announcers on espn blow dinkey d*ck. no emotion while announcing a soccer game. a soccer game is is a game filled with passion that only hispanic, european and very enthusiastic americans(very few) can portray through the announcing.

my .02

vegasdriver

Did not see many of you stating which prosoccer team is closest to you so here is a list from MLS:
http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/mls/teams/

Eastern Conference
Chicago Fire – Bridgeview Stadium
Columbus Crew – Columbus Crew Stadium
D.C. United – RFK Stadium
Kansas City Wizards – Arrowhead Stadium
Red Bull New York – Giants Stadium
New England Revolution – Gillette Stadium

Western Conference
Club Deportivo Chivas USA – The Home Depot Center
Colorado Rapids – Invesco Field at Mile High
FC Dallas – Pizza Hut Park
Houston Dynamo – Robertson Stadium
Los Angeles Galaxy – The Home Depot Center
Real Salt Lake – Rice-Eccles Stadium

Expansion 2007
Toronto FC – National Soccer Stadium (opening April 2007)

evosky

DC United is closest to me (i'm in DE). They're probably the most famous of the MLS teams, along with LA Galaxy ...

Tom_P is correct in his conclusion that soccer will probably never catch on in America like it does in the rest of the world . However, it's exactly that mindset that is hindering it from catching on.
American sports are typically brute force (NFL) or racking up ridiculous amounts of points (NBA). I think many people miss the true beauty of soccer, which is the footwork, teamwork, and play buildup. there is so much strategy involved and planning involved into making a goal that sometimes it's just boring for those who don't understand the game as well as us players do.
it might also be a lifestyle issue too. American lifestyle is a lot more lax than most other countries, and soccer is a constant movement sport. thus, something like a 4 hour overtime is just ridiculous. maybe it may work in sports similar to baseball or football, but those sports are about 7 seconds of action and then 2 minutes of rest.

i played on club rec and rep soccer teams, and the experience you have on the field is nothing like any other sport that i have been involved in (XC, tennis, track, ultimate).

i think the closest sport to the style of soccer that is widely accepted by American fans is probably basketball because they both involve a bit more grace and technical creativity when playing. However, i think points come too easily in basketball and after about 50 points or so, i just say whatever.

i guess i'm just way too partial to soccer because i've played since i could walk. it's just so much more satisfying to get that goal because you work so hard for it.

rwf

um.. i dont follow soccer cuz its hard to follow. They dont promote it enuf in US. I dont know any stars on the US team, is there even any? And its kind of boring with the low scoring, and the shootout is just stupid. I watch NBA all the time, and the best and most exciting part is at the end of a close game, down to the very last shot. Over time just makes it even more exciting, just look at the 3rd lakers vs suns game in the playoffs. Now that was an exciting game. But it wouldnt have been that good if at the end of that game they did what they do in soccer, and instead going down to the last shot in the last few seconds they do a free throw contest to see who wins. How boring would that be.. -_-

ricktoyota73

Maybe it's because Pro Soccer is too "classy" for us Americans

Maybe once all the uniforms have Budweiser on them, it's called Nextel Cup Soccer, and we have trash-talking players with purple hair and multiple facial piercings, people will be interested.