Alan Abrahamson: The US Isn't A Soccer Country - what do you think?

I heard a statistic that there were more US fans attending the world cup (besides home country Brazil) than any other country in the world. The lets run posters including myself may not be soccer fans. But a decent amount of people in the US are soccer crazies. But I agree with Alan, I just don't see the soccer intensity nationwide keeping up with Europe and South America.

Walter White wrote:

I heard a statistic that there were more US fans attending the world cup (besides home country Brazil) than any other country in the world. The lets run posters including myself may not be soccer fans. But a decent amount of people in the US are soccer crazies. But I agree with Alan, I just don't see the soccer intensity nationwide keeping up with Europe and South America.

By a long shot. Americans bought about 200,000 World Cup tickets. Argentines bought the next most, just 60,000. Now, the US is obviously a big country, but it's pretty remarkable when you consider that Argentina have a shot to win it and are right next door.

Actually, you've got it backwards. The US has better national team supporters than any country in the world, and they're proving it in Brazil. In other countries, club soccer is king, and international soccer is a sporadic nationalist event.

I think the reason for this is that we don't have a top tier league. Most American soccer fans I know follow EPL more closely than MLS, and while the usually pick a team to "support," it's not the same when you don't live in the town where the team plays. International soccer is the one opportunity for American soccer fans to support a team that's really theirs in a premier competition. Ask an Englishman whether they'd rather England win the World Cup or their club with the Premiership, and they'll ALL say the latter. No American soccer fan would ever say that.

You're drawing a false dichotomy between "true caring" and getting involved in a fan community. Being a fan of ANY team in ANY sport is ALL about the sense of belonging. Nobody "truly" cares about a team in a vacuum. Foreign soccer fans also support their teams because they want to be part of a community. That's why Barca claims to be "mas que un club" and why Liverpool fans "never walk alone."

Now, of course it's possible to be a fan of a sport for intellectual and aesthetic reasons. This is how many of us watch track, in fact. When I watch a match between teams that I don't support, I just like to see a good game. I may generally prefer that a team playing a given style be rewarded, but I'm certainly not going to paint my face, sing songs, or cry if my team loses. Those are behaviors that only make sense as tribal rituals. There is NO fan out there who "truly" cares, apart from his or her feeling that he's a part of something bigger. This goes for Brazilian soccer fans, US soccer fans, and even college football fans.

And I realize that whether the US is "a soccer country" depends a great deal on how you define the term. We're certainly not a soccer country like England, Spain, or Italy. But you're absolutely wrong to say that we're not a soccer country like "most countries." A country whose fans fill 50% of the stadium when their national team plays on a foreign continent is at least some kind of a soccer country.

Star wrote:

Americans don't watch soccer.

But they put their kids in soccer at high rate.

Youth soccer is huge in the US.

Soccer is the sport you play as a child if your mother doesn't want you to get hurt.

4runner wrote:

Star wrote:

Americans don't watch soccer.

But they put their kids in soccer at high rate.

Youth soccer is huge in the US.

Soccer is the sport you play as a child if you're athletic.

FTFY

These articles are a waste of time. Of course USA is not a soccer country. But interest soccer is growing rapidly. So much so that ESPN now televises the European champions league, the English premier league and the European cup of nations. This was unthinkable as recently as 2002. And by the late 90s, there was hardly any soccer on sports center. Those sports center anchors were more interested in trashing soccer.

In my area at least, soccer is the #1 sport for girls. They start out playing soccer and the best players stay in soccer in high school. The US women's team has fared pretty well.

Not passionate???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKTgbUaqAX8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NODVExA3EAc

Of course the US is a Soccer Country. Pretty much anyway you measure it but the most important standard is our youth participation. When I played youth soccer back in the 70's there were only 4 teammates (including myself) that weren't first generation Americans. Now the percentages are reversed in 30 short years.

Will this translate to a level of fan passion the rest of the World enjoys? Of course it will, in due time, but again, that is not what it takes to be a soccer country. Every Dad of the sons I coach are watching World Cup, many for the first time, with their kids and loving it - that is what it takes to be a soccer country. Developing a passion for the game is a multigenerational thing and is not something that most Americans, especially Abrahamson and Sir Lancelot, can wrap their minds around.

yhrebray wrote:

4runner wrote:

Soccer is the sport you play as a child if you're athletic.

FTFY

No. It is because your mom doesn't want you to get hurt.

It is not like football, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse, and baseball are sports for klutzes.

I don't see Lancelot in this thread. Wait, on second thought, is T-Rexing the same guy? They both seem to worship a particular kind of orthodox ideas in the same way, like "talent is everything", "Kenyans are genetically superior", "arterycloggingsaturatedfat makes you fat", etc., etc.

I don't think we are a soccer country but it's big damn country. We all don't need to be involved in it to be good at it. Uruguay has a population of 3 million, Portugal 10 million. How many national soccer players have come from just California, I would imagine a pretty good amount. Using college soccer as a judge is pretty bad, considering many people view it as a detriment to US soccer (for men at least).

I think the right answer is we cheer out of national pride. The olympic hockey ratings were huge, the final between the us and canada in 2010 was somewhere north of 20 million. Does that mean everyone embraces hockey, of course not. How many watch track and field at the olympics? How many follow up the next year and watch the diamond league?

I'm not sure why every for years there is an argument about whether soccer will finally take off in this country. It will never be at the same level of Europe and South America simply because we have too much else to do. We've got football, baseball, hockey,basketball, auto racing, and tons of "olympic sports". Soccer around the world lasts the entire year with barely a break in june and july. The only way the US will ever be at the same level is if soccer takes a dive in the rest of the world.

Lastest stats show that Soccer is the number one sport for people under the age of 18. It is number two for ages 18-29 behind Football. The same stat shows that the average age where people claim Soccer as their favorite sport is 37, Football was 46, and Baseball was in the mid 50's.

One more stat: less than 2% of people that watched the World Series this past year were under the age of 18.

If these are correct than 10 years from now Soccer will pass Baseball, and Basketball making it the # 2 sport in the country. 15-20 years from now it will take over as the number one sport.

Conclusion: the world will be a better place once the Baby boomers die out..

Doc Holiday wrote:

Lastest stats show that Soccer is the number one sport for people under the age of 18. It is number two for ages 18-29 behind Football. The same stat shows that the average age where people claim Soccer as their favorite sport is 37, Football was 46, and Baseball was in the mid 50's.

One more stat: less than 2% of people that watched the World Series this past year were under the age of 18.

If these are correct than 10 years from now Soccer will pass Baseball, and Basketball making it the # 2 sport in the country. 15-20 years from now it will take over as the number one sport.

Conclusion: the world will be a better place once the Baby boomers die out..

Great stats, uh soccer is fun for kids to play and it's hard to watch.

We are not a soccer country. we are a country where young people play soccer.

soccer has taken hold in college because of title 9, it adds women athletes to balance the football numbers.

A gal at my High school. Might be the best female goalkeeper in the state. full ride D1 pac 10 soccer and she kicked extra points on the FB team. nobody every asked he about soccer or went to the games, but she always got asked about Football.

I live in Portland. Merlo stadium has 4500 seats and one of the best college soccer teams in America most years. Sometimes they fill it. Portland state D2 football that nobody at the school cares about averages over 5000 fans for a team that sucks.

Soccer can only tie itself to the olympics and world cup in mass numbers anything else nobody really cares.

asu guy wrote:

I live in Portland. Merlo stadium has 4500 seats and one of the best college soccer teams in America most years. Sometimes they fill it. Portland state D2 football that nobody at the school cares about averages over 5000 fans for a team that sucks.

Soccer is not a college sport but Portland is the biggest soccer city in North America.

Timbers have sold out every game since they've been in been in MLS. There are 8,000 fans on the season ticket waiting list.

Screw "football" and baseball. We're the most passionate fans in America, if not the World!

Seattle Sounders may have had 68,000 attendances but they still suck!

PT FC wrote:

asu guy wrote:

I live in Portland. Merlo stadium has 4500 seats and one of the best college soccer teams in America most years. Sometimes they fill it. Portland state D2 football that nobody at the school cares about averages over 5000 fans for a team that sucks.

Soccer is not a college sport but Portland is the biggest soccer city in North America.

Timbers have sold out every game since they've been in been in MLS. There are 8,000 fans on the season ticket waiting list.

Screw "football" and baseball. We're the most passionate fans in America, if not the World!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZH1e8tRndA

Seattle Sounders may have had 68,000 attendances but they still suck!

My mom worked for the old timbers and the fans were just as passionate in the 70's just less of them :)

It was the only job in the country where if you kicked a soccer ball and broke something in the office, Nobody could yell at you :)

and the Hatred of seattle was and will always be there!!!!

It's great that Americans bought the most World Cup tickets by a long shot. How many of those are supporters of USA soccer? Just because the ticket was bought by a person in America doesn't mean it wasn't purchased by a person supporting another country's team. I would imagine that a good percentage of those tickets puchased by "Americans" were purchased by expatriates.