Americans + Soccer = Never, Well, Maybe

Let's face it. Soccer and the United States of America are not the peas in a pod that many people hoped for. Soccer is so far off of American radar that even the, um, most questionable group of Presidential candidates ever assembled in American history had more popularity and views.

It is sad. Pretty sad. Just when you thought Americans would love another major sport, they politely rejected it. So, let's look at this more closely.

Soccer, or fútbol, is the sport of the world. Everybody loves soccer. Over four billion people watch soccer. Four billion! American football only receives a thousandth of that number, at four hundred million viewers.

Wow.

So how can this sport that is watched the absolute most around the world hands-down be so unpopular in one of the biggest countries in the world? What we can at least agree on is that soccer to the rest of the world is the same as football to Americans. It is dominantly a man's creepy lust in a sporting game that has nothing to do with anything except bragging rights and money from Vegas. Basically.

Well, let's look at this conundrum.

Americans love sports that are fast-paced. That is why football is so close to the hearts of Americans, along with basketball and hockey. That is also why baseball is losing fans. Fast. It is too slow for the average viewer. No one wants to watch a three-hour long game of slow baseball when football is three-hours of constant action.

Americans also love high scoring. Offense offense offense. Everybody loves when teams put up a bunch of points on the scoreboard and score nonstop. Once again football comes in big here. Offense and defense can score in football, and usually scores are pretty good. So double-check American football right there. You can also point at basketball, where basketball is producing an insane increase of numbers recently. Teams like the Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets, Thunder, Celtics, and others are lighting up scoreboards and drawing in fans like crazy to make the NBA the second most watched sport in the country.

When it comes to soccer, it lacks both. Soccer scores have been an average of 2.79 goals per game from 2010-2014 in a recent study done by the website Mirror.co. In comparison, hockey had 5.75 goals per game in 2016 according to Sportcharts.com. That is double soccer. Teams on average scored 2.73 goals per game that same year.

Regarding the pace of play, soccer is extremely slow compared to other sports. Soccer seems like a longer drag than watching Ben Affleck try to reenact Batman for two hours or listening to your boss complain about who knows what again.

Wow.

Another problem with soccer, maybe our most significant problem, is that the USA soccer team is terrible. They have only been to the FIFA World Cup ten times since their first appearance in 1930, where they finished third, their best finish ever. They have only cracked the top ten two other teams. They did not qualify for over 30 years from 1954-1986. However, since 1990 they have finished an average of about 18th place. Yikes.

Now people may say that they have performed great at the CONCACAF Gold Cup with six championships in 25 years. Come on, though. That tournament is only made of the best teams in North, Central, and Caribbean America, which are not even the best teams in soccer.

So, the U.S. has fallen behind in their competition for soccer. I won't even mention the fact that they recently didn't qualify for a spot in the 2018 World Cup. That would be pushing it to mention that.

Now, along with the lack of greatness in the country's team comes the lack of stardom. Let's face it, it is pretty damn hard to get a Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo or Neymar to come out of nowhere in the USA. I understand that. However, with a country so big on sports, how do we not have someone at least good enough to compete on a national level?

Look at our team. The only household names we have are Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, and Tim Howard. I can bet most Americans know at least one of those names and that is it. Sure we don't have a Messi, or a Ronaldo, or a Rooney, or a Rodriguez, or a Bale, or a Súarez. Yeah, that's a major blow. Sure there is no Tom Brady, or Derek Jeter, or LeBron James, or Sidney Crosby, or Dale Earnhardt Jr., or Jordan Spieth. Ouch another blow. Overall there is not much stardom in US soccer, but it still hangs on somehow, just not by a lot.

One of the other major blows to soccer in the U.S. is the MLS. I will say, though, that the MLS is growing. With eight teams joining since 2010, soccer is growing. However, according to Howmuch.net, the MLS only made $461 million in revenue in 2016, which is far from enough to compete with the other four major pro sports leagues in America. Another counter to that counter is that viewership on ESPN for MLS games has gone up 32% from 2015-2016, showing a rise in interest in soccer.

Maybe now it is time for soccer to attract more followers?

It is not so likely. This is not like Instagram where you can like everybody's pictures and then get people to follow you back. This is more like war where you have to fight for television spots and fight for sponsorships and money.

The poor world of soccer is just not a friend of the USA. Probably the main reason I can decipher from all this is simple. Forget about the low scoring, the slow-pace, the lack of national success and stardom, and the hilarity of viewership. That may be hard, but just stick with me for a second.

The real reason no one watches soccer in the U.S. might just simply be that we do not need it. It is as simple as that. Americans do not need soccer.

We already have our own fútbol and we have three other sports that provide us with great entertainment. We don't need a fifth sport. It is unnecessary.

Soccer is not the first choice of Americans, but it is growing. That cannot be looked past. Soccer is rapidly growing with new teams being added to the MLS and a new wave of kids moving to soccer instead of the headache (literally, and pun intended) of football.

So, watch out America, because soccer may be coming, and you do not want to miss it when it does.

#America #Soccer #Football #MLS #NFL