Why Soccer Is Unpopular in the Us
Football. Excuse me, soccer. The beautiful game. It's embraced everywhere around the globe, and the FIFA World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world. But the biggest sports nation in the world, the USA, seems to express little interest in soccer. Why? Some of the issue is that there is little exposure. If you don't have Fox Soccer Channel, all you get on a weekly basis is a Major League Soccer game or the occasional English Premier League game shown on ESPN. Some people say that there is no room for soccer—there are already four major sports, along with the lesser sports such as golf and tennis. A theory is that with America's history, they rejected the British-created football, and made their own version. But America is such a sports-crazed country, I think if people really got enthused about soccer, it would get great media exposure. During the World Cup, I personally saw people who could care less about soccer watch entire matches the US were playing in. After the World Cup, they could care less again. Part of the issue may be the MLS. MLS is growing fast, getting some great international players, although they may be in the later stages of their careers. MLS also has some great fan bases, such as Houston, Portland and Seattle, etc. MLS is a fine soccer league, but it doesn't feature the excitement the greater leagues in Europe offer. So you would think the improvement of MLS would create more soccer buzz, but many Americans don't even like to watch the most high quality soccer from Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, etc. So what is it that makes people so turned off of soccer? As a young child, I was not a soccer fan at all. I loved to play it, but I would have rather watched paint dry than a "boring" soccer match. And here I am today, with soccer as my favorite sport. I thought soccer was boring because of the lack of scoring. I couldn't believe they could play a ninety minute game and end without a single goal for either team! And that's a