Soccer in America

This past week one of my favorite annual events occurred in sports journalism.  No, it wasn't the fluff pieces written during the MLB All-Star Break.  And it wasn't the stories about how the All-Star game can be fixed.  It was the annual onslaught of articles written arguing for soccer to have a bigger spot in the American sports landscape.

It happens once a year and is typically spurred on because of one particularly exciting game that the American team participates in.  This year the articles started to pour in after Abby Wambach scored a ridiculous goal and the United States was able to come from behind and beat Brazil.  Hell, I loved that game so much I was inspired to start writing one.  (Check out the start of my unfinished thoughts.)

And don't get me wrong, I LOVE soccer.  Absolutely, love the game.  I even love getting to read each of the articles because many of them give very good reasons why Americans should love soccer.  I think I even presented some pretty good reasons why people should love soccer, but the reality is it will never change.  Americans will never love the game.

I'm a huge proponent of American sports being a reflection upon American culture.  While other countries look to the arts for life lessons, Americans look to sports.  I'm not saying this is indicative of the entire population, but for the most part, Americans are going to choose a Yankees-Red Sox at Yankee Stadium over a night on Broadway to see the latest production of Phantom of the Opera.

With that being said, there is just no way that American culture will ever except soccer.

Americans do not have the attention span to watch soccer.  One of my favorite things about soccer is the constant, free-flowing movement.  There are no timeouts.  There are very few stoppages in actual game action.  There is very little walking.  As a fan, you HAVE to pay attention otherwise you can miss the most impressive play of the entire game.  This is something Americans do not want to do.  We want to talk to their buddy about the girl sitting three rows down in between pitches.  We want to go get some cheese fries from the concession stand between quarters.  We want to google where the point guard went to college.  We want time to take a picture with all of our friends and post it on Facebook and Twitter, so everyone knows that we were at the game.  Concentrating and focusing on game play is not something we want to do.  It's hard work especially considering its something we rarely have to do.  When I watch TV at home, I can guarantee I always have my phone in front of me and my computer open.  As a culture, we love to be distracted, but the game of soccer forces you to block out those distractions unless you are willing to miss something amazing.

Americans strive for perfection.  Everything must be fine tuned.  We hate mistakes and if we make them we correct them and figure out how they can be avoided in the future.  Soccer doesn't behave the same way.  It's a game of imperfections.  For every gorgeous cross from Rapinoe to Wambach to beat Brazil there are 30 crosses that go through the box and don't even get touched.  The ball can be turned over from team to team seemingly forever until finally one team strings together a group of passes and scores a goal.  For the Americans that are told to compare soccer to basketball, they see the point guard getting pickpocketed by the other team just for the other team to have it stolen from them and a seemingly endless cycle of steals and turnovers.  Where's the beauty in all that ugly play?  It's tough to see for a society that rewards perfection and have always been taught that turnovers are among the worst things to do in games that require possession (basketball and football).

Americans are technology obsessed.  We want the latest and greatest piece of technology.  I can use this device to call my friends.  That's cool, but what if it wasn't connected to the wall and I could do it from anywhere in my house?  What if I could take it everywhere?  What if I could look things up on it like a computer?  What if my phone was a computer? What if I could have a phone inserted into my brain and I could make calls by just thinking about calling my friend?

If some technology is good, obviously more is better, but soccer doesn't work that way.  In fact for the most part, sports aren't supposed to work that way, but all of that has changed in the last few decades.  With better technology, we are now able to correct the mistakes made by the human element that affects our sports.  It's no longer acceptable for an umpire to screw up whether a home run was fair or foul or for a referee to miss Aaron Rodgers stepping out of bounds.  We have technology!  We can correct the problem!  As sick as this sounds, I don't think we are that far off from umpires being replaced by a system that can calibrate strike zones and call balls and strikes for us.  While American sports are quick to adopt this system, soccer has passionately rejected these ideas.  There are no replays.  There are no challenges by coaches throwing little red flags on the field.  If a mistake is made, soccer fans are forced to trust that it will all even out in the end.  In a world where we have 30 different talking heads discussing the ramification of a missed call in a regular season Major League Baseball game, there is no rumor for soccer which is filled with missed calls.

I know that this post comes off as extremely pessimistic regarding the chances of soccer's acceptance in America, but that's truly how I feel.  Do I hope that I'm dead wrong?  Yes.  I hope this past month has captivated a nation and helps them support soccer, but I'm not expecting that to occur.  I'm expecting people to go back to not caring about the sport until there is another great tournament game in which we can all come together as a country and love soccer for a week.  And you know what?  I'm completely fine with that.

That's one of the biggest problems I have with many of the soccer fans in America or the journalists that cover the sport.  They all shake their heads at Americans and insult them for not noticing the nuances of the "beautiful game".  They yell at Americans for not paying attention to the sport, but fail to realize that Americans don't need soccer.  They already have three leagues that are the absolute best in the world in their respective sports with the NFL, NBA, and MLB.  They don't want to have to wake up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning to watch the best soccer teams in the world play.  Americans want to see the best in the world at their respective sport.  They don't care about watching the Portland Timber play the Columbus Crew.  They don't need to watch guys that are nowhere near the same caliber of player as the best players in the world.  Until the day comes that either American players are on the same level as the rest of the soccer players in the world or American businesses somehow support a league that can convince the best players in the world to come play here, soccer will only be relevant maybe once a year.    And you know what?  I'm completely fine with that.

I will willingly pack people on to the American soccer bandwagon while these people care.  Even though I know that as soon as the World Cup  is over many of them will stop caring, I still want to bring all those people along for the ride.  In the back of my mind, I always have hope.  Hope that just one of those bandwagon riders sticks around and the next time they invite all of their friends along for the ride.  And eventually there are more permanent riders than temporary ones.  It's not likely, but one can always hope.

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?