Barrack Obama, The President of United States, has announced that USA will be bidding for 2018 or 2022 World Cup. So here is the biggest question. Why? Even though we think that soccer is an activity which affected the whole world and almost become a religion, it is obvious that in the USA where sport is lived 24 for seven, soccer is doomed. Despite all efforts, marketing activities, success stories,soccer is still an unpleasant event for Americans. Even World Cup 1994, American Women’s Championship in 1999 World Cup (which they hosted), Mia Hamm and David Beckham – the latter was the final effort- couldn’t change the fact. For Americans what we called football is called soccer which I think it’s derived from the word sucker.
So why Americans don’t like the beloved sport considered the joy of life by their antecedents Europeans and the reason of existence by their neighbors South Americans? Here are the reasons.
1) The tie rule in soccer: I guess the tie rule is the biggest reason of why Americans hate soccer. Americans love winning and they don’t feel complete unless they win something. Therefore, a tie in a match or even worse a scoreless tie -a nil- nil- regarded as same as a game which have never been played. None the American sports has a tie rule, all games must be won by some one. The penalty kicks in soccer tournaments is a meaningless and awkward situation as an NBA game won by free throws. At short, if there is no winner so do Americans.
2) Soccer is a girl (sissy) game: When we look at what Americans call football, it is not difficult to understand why they call our version of football, a girl game. The harshest fault in soccer, all kind of harming kicks, even the fights happening in the derbies is light for American football. The technical and aesthetical aspect of soccer is considered feminine for Americans. It’s believed that soccer mums are the ones who want to protect their kids for harmful activities. As a result USA can win the World Cup with their women soccer team but never with their men team.
3) Lack of statistics in soccer: While watching American sports you can see a lot of numbers on the screen, commenter gives you a bunch of information as well. A player run how many yards in that season, who and how many times switched position in that game, number assists, double double, triple double etc… Continues bombing of numbers and statistics. In soccer stats are there but fans don’t care. The most important stat in soccer is the number goals scored and the number of games won. Do you remember of seeing on the screen, the number of corners used by that team in that season, or the number of assists made by a player in whole season? If you saw, do you remember? In US stats are well appreciated. In soccer there is less number there is the game itself.
4) No cultural and social background of soccer in US: For sure, the most exciting matches of soccer are derbies. Soccer cannot be thought without derbies like Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, Celtic vs. Rangers, Boca Juniors vs. River Plate. All these matches are based on a history and social –cultural conflict. The history of these matches are also the reflection of the history of that society. In USA soccer teams don’t have a history thus they don’t have any social connection which represents the society. For this reason there is no derby and excitement.
5) Lack of score in soccer: The match between Barcelona- Real Madrid ended 6-2 and Chelsea –Liverpool match ended 4-4 but besides those how many over scored matches do you remember? If we concentrated on a single league the number will be definitely lower than ten. But all American sports are generous in terms of score. In NFL a touchdown worth 7 points, a few NBA match ends without a team scores over hundred. Winning by scoring single point doesn’t suit to Americans.
To sum up, Americans have many reasons to not like soccer. Even the fashion and magazine icon David Beckham couldn’t change that. And even sports marketing have limits. So there is no need to push for World Cup or something a less, let Americans to continue to not like soccer.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Güzel çıkarımlar, teşekkürler…
May 6th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Soccer kelimesinin hangi kelimeden türediğini hiç düşünmemiştim. Gayet mantıklı geldi bana.
Gerçekten de çok güzel tespitler.
Bir de hentbol neden hiç yok Amerika’da onu merak ediyorum.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Soccer word was derived from “assocciation football” in the 1880’s. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football
There is another reason why Americans don’t like soccer: The game lasts 90 minutes and over 70% of this time passes without any action. It is boring to watch some tired, sweaty men just wandering around the field doing nothing for minutes or the worse: rolling over the ground and faking a weep like little babies. Americans like action and drama (real drama) in sports like in everywhere else, it is a mere cultural thing and nothing to blame for, soccer is just not their game and never it will be.