Soccer in America **Unfinished**

As I watched the United States Women's Soccer Team compete against Brazil today in the Women's World Cup, I started to think about how much I enjoyed soccer and conversely how little the rest of the country enjoys soccer.  I then started to think about why soccer* was so easy to love and then this happened.  And I was quickly reminded why Americans find it so easy to hate soccer.  But then America came back to tie the score on an improbable header by Abby Wambach that had me literally up and out of my seat running around even though I was watching the game by myself.  After tying it, the Americans won in a penalty kick shootout and a storybook ending to the game had been written.

***Note to any crazy soccer fans reading this: I will not use the term futbol throughout this post.  I know that this is always seen as a crime in your eyes because I'm not calling it what the rest of the world calls it or whatever, but I don't really care.  This is America.  And in America, we call it soccer.  I'm sorry.  Don't kill the messenger.

It was captivating.  I was at the edge of my seat the entire game and couldn't have been more entertained.  Unfortunately though, that response puts me in the minority among Americans.  With this sad realization, I decided to attempt to dedicate this entire blog piece to attempting to figure out why soccer should catch on in America, but sadly never will.

Let's start with the positives.

Game Length

In the last decade, the length of time you take up consuming a sporting event in the United States has increased significantly.  The time of an average baseball game has increased to ridiculous amounts.  Now a typical game lasts around three hours with some American League games lasting close to four hours because of the addition of the designated hitter.  With commercial breaks between every touchdown, kickoff, and possession, the average time of a football game has increased to over 3.5 hours with some games going even longer.  It's difficult to find a sport in America that hasn't increased their average game time with constant commercial interruption and unnecessary stoppage.

This isn't a problem in soccer.  The clock is constant.  In every single game, you will have two 45 minute halves with a 20 minute halftime.  The only reason a game will take longer is because of extra time.  When totaling the two halves, halftime, and the stoppage time added to each half, a soccer game will take two hours out of your schedule.  There is no reason to worry about having your kid stay up on a school night because the manager decided to bring in a left handed pitcher, and then a right handed pitcher, and then a left handed pitcher to get out a tough part of the order.  That's just not possible because the length of a soccer game is constant.

Game Fluidity


Soccer is an absolutely beautiful game to watch.  The things each one of these players can do with their feet is incredible.  It's impressive to watch someone have such control and precision of a ball all while running full speed.  As a basketball junkie, it's easy for me to see the relationship between a great basketball game and great soccer match.  Both games involve teammates moving the ball, anticipating other's movements, and working together to score all while trying to beat a defense with a combination of skill, strength, and finesse.

Not only is the actual gameplay fluid, but the game as a whole is fluid.  There are no timeouts.  No stoppages in play when switching each possession.  The game keeps moving all the time.  Players are rewarded for hustling for entire game and not taking time off.  In soccer, if you take time to argue a foul called against you, the defense can make you play.  If the other team has stolen the momentum and charging towards your side of the field, there is no timeout to call to stop their advance into your territory.  As a team, you are forced to come together and stop them.  Sure there are corner kicks and throw-ins, but these stoppages are very short and can help increase the speed of the game if taken quickly.  There's no time to look away as a fan because if you do, you might miss the play of the day in that split second you glanced away from your television.

Extreme Fandom


In a sports culture that now needs to be shown how to cheer by the prompts of the arena's nerdy sound guy, soccer fans are a rare breed.  They don't need to be prompted to do a Let's Go Bucks chant by the scoreboard hanging from the rafters.   And they don't need a cheesy graphic that says MAKE SOME NOISE or a fake meter that monitors the noise in the arena.  Soccer fans are self sufficient.  They know when they need to make noise.  They know when they should chant.  In fact, most of them don't stop making noise.  There are chants that you learn when you are a kid.  There are songs to sing.  There is simply a crazy environment that is not present at many sporting events in the United States.  How is that not fun?  How can you not want to be a part of a sport that brings that to the table?


This is where I decided that this post was just about pointless.  It was a good argument to this point though, right?