Moderators lazarus Posted July 2, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 2, 2014 During the World Cup I've heard American radio hosts, political pundits, and even sports commentators say negative things about soccer. Why do some Americans dislike soccer? Growing up in the UK we watched Basketball and American Football and I can't remember anyone disparaging those sports. We just enjoyed watching them. What am I missing? Quote Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Kevin H Posted July 2, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 2, 2014 Yes, harder to fit in advertisements than in the other sports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Bravus Posted July 2, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 2, 2014 Fear of difference. Fear of an increasingly global world. Quote Truth is important Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators lazarus Posted July 2, 2014 Author Moderators Share Posted July 2, 2014 Fear of difference. Fear of an increasingly global world. You may be on to something: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/...-under-assault/ Turns out I underestimated the soccer-haters out there. Not just the folks who find the sport boring and are tired of the noise right now, but people who are truly offended by the clamor over the World Cup. That will probably subside a bit after Tuesday’s U.S. overtime loss to Belgium following 90 scintillating minutes of non-scoring. I’ve had some fun on “Media Buzz” poking fun at the low scoring and bizarre rules, such as the refs adding time to the end of the game but not having to tell players, coaches or fans just when the thing will be over. But there are folks out there who view soccer in a culture-war sense and believe the sport’s apparently growing popularity somehow diminishes America. I first saw this sentiment expressed when a viewer emailed this response to our first soccer segment: “The popularity of soccer is not with REAL Americans. It's popular with the NEW Americans. The MM will continue to jam it down our throats as the new football.” Quote Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Kevin H Posted July 2, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 2, 2014 Fear of difference. Fear of an increasingly global world. I'm not a big sports fan so don't watch much of any games, I like to watch some. But I enjoyed soccer in elementary school and that was one of only 2 sports that I did not play nearly as bad as the other sports. But also, one of my mom's cousins in Norway was married to a professional soccer player who was his team's captain and awarded the Norwegian Master's title in the 1940s among other awards, such as when his team played Russia the Russian's awarded him with a huge flower arrangement to congratulate him for his skills. And we have always been close to this family. Thus this makes me somewhat of a soccer fan. But on the other hand I am concerned of an increasingly global world as I understand this playing a huge part in last day events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted July 2, 2014 Members Share Posted July 2, 2014 I had a Uncle that played for his home town team in Germany. When my brother and I visited our family in Germany, we tried kicking the ball past him to get a goal, but couldn't. He was pretty good. I always liked soccer, but when growing up there was not much of an interest in it, so I played baseball, basketball, and football for the most part. Would have loved to see more soccer, but never really got into it. Awesome sport though. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fccool Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Nah... It's really the issue of familiarity. If you grew up with it - you like it. If you didn't you most likely find it unappealing. For example, I'm nor really into baseball or classic Rock. On top of it, there's this overwhelmingly change-resistant way of "bashing everything that we don't agree with" mentality... and people like Ann Coulter, who is really a political shock-jock living off the controversy (Skip Bayless version of political commentary if you will). I don't think that that mentality represents the majority of Americans, but unfortunately those types of people tend to be the loudest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aliensanctuary Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 I no longer would sit down in front of a TV to watch any sports game, but at work there are TV-watchers who enjoy sports. Soccer is much like hockey and polo where the goal is to get a shot into the net guarded by a goal-keeper. Maybe some American sports commentators don't like to commentate on soccer games because they like American football better. American football is more like a chess game than soccer, perhaps requiring a deeper level of strategy than kicking a ball back and forth across the playing field. Quote The Parable of the Lamb and the Pigpen https://www.createspace.com/3401451 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierrepaul Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 But there are folks out there who view soccer in a culture-war sense and believe the sport’s apparently growing popularity somehow diminishes America. This is mostly it. For some the rules/laws are unfamiliar. For others, the vocabulary is too foreign (e.g. "laws" instead of "rules"; "into touch" instead of "out of bounds"; "clean sheet" instead of "shutout"; "goalkeeper" or "keeper" instead of "goalie"; the score is "level" instead of "tied"; after the match it is a "draw" instead of a "tie"; it's a "fixture", "match", "test" or "tie" instead of a scheduled "game"; a "result" refers to a win or draw in the group stage. The "foreignness" of the sport is emphasized by the somewhat bizarre reborrowing of the word "football", which entered the Spanish and Portuguese languages as "fútbol" and "futebol" respectively, and now has been reborrowed by some English speakers and writers as "futbol" (I've even heard some English speakers insist that "futbol" not "football" is the correct name for the sport, as if the game is Spanish in origin. It also doesn't help that in the UK they've all but abandoned the British-invented word "soccer". As for the culture "war", this is not unusual. Sport is an aspect of culture and is an expression of cultural or national identity. In Ireland, certain people lament the decline of Gaelic football, as this is overshadowed by the rise of the foreign (i.e. British) association football (soccer) and rugby football. Here in Canada a number of people lament the fact that our own brand of football is overshadowed by American football (in the 70s there was talk of Parliament acting to prevent the NFL from expanding into Canada). In the USA, there is no risk of soccer challenging American football for supremacy among sports fans, but when one's instinct is to fear the foreign, the reaction is expected. Quote God never said "Thou shalt not think". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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