# What are soccer players called in the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 16, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943 "2008-11-16T02:04:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/41 "2008-11-16T22:13:06Z")
> [@glee](#): > > But in the 1956 English Cup Final, Bert Trautmann played on with a broken neck. :eek: The (American Football) Giants actually had a kicker finish the game with a broken neck, off course he was originally a soccer player so that might not count. 😉 Soccer and Football are very different sports. As you said Football is like Rugby, Soccer I would say is closer to Hockey and of course Baseball and Cricket have some similarities in skill requirements. I think Basketball’s lack of a parallel sport might be part of the reason it is now penetrating Europe so well. It may well grow into the #2 world team sport if it is not there already. The only real reason soccer is dismissed in the USA is that it still remains a kids game (in the USA) that people grow out if here. It is not our sport and in general we just don’t care about it. Football holds a special place as it is an Event Sport and the big gambling sport at the same time. Baseball holds its own as it is the American Pastime and has all that tradition and history and legends and stats. Hockey has been slipping for decades and most seem to consider it Canada’s sport. Basketball is solid but except for Jordon just never could compete with the big two team sports in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/42 "2008-11-16T22:18:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I think Basketball’s lack of a parallel sport… Handball? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/43 "2008-11-16T22:29:32Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Hockey has been slipping for decades and most seem to consider it Canada’s sport. “Slipping” from where? Hockey is certainly no LESS popular in the USA than it was any number of decades ago. IT never was at the level of football and baseball. Of course it’s Canada’s sport, always has been. Its popularity in the USA is, however, probably a bit higher than it used to be. It’s still not on par with the really big sports and many of the southern franchises are obviously going to fail, but it’s now pretty well established in places it didn’t exist “decades ago,” like Dallas and Denver. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/44 "2008-11-16T22:33:42Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Handball? Is handball a popular sport in Europe? > [@RickJay](#): > > “Slipping” from where? Hockey is certainly no LESS popular in the USA than it was any number of decades ago. IT never was at the level of football and baseball. > > Of course it’s Canada’s sport, always has been. Its popularity in the USA is, however, probably a bit higher than it used to be. It’s still not on par with the really big sports and many of the southern franchises are obviously going to fail, but it’s now pretty well established in places it didn’t exist “decades ago,” like Dallas and Denver. Maybe this is regional, but hockey was much bigger in the 70s in the NY area than it is now and its ratings in the US are dismal at best. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/45 "2008-11-16T22:52:06Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > People always say that soccer will be the next big thing in the U.S. but that has been since the 1970’s and will never happen for a variety of reasons. Personally, I think it’s only a matter of time before soccer replaces hockey as America’s fourth sport. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/46 "2008-11-17T01:01:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > China’s most popular sport is ping pong, but that’s not usually a “Team” sport, so it’s probably… soccer. > > That’s about it. I’ve known that ping pong is very popular in China, but do they watch and follow it like Americans follow, say golf or tennis? Joe ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/47 "2008-11-17T01:37:41Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > For the Europeans. This is why the GQ area shouldn’t be joked in, even if badly. Soccer is not thought an effeminate sport here. Ummm, yes it is. Obviously not by everybody but by lots and lots and lots of people. > [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > If anything it’s thought to be to pugilistic and out of control in your countries. Not in my experience. I’ve heard this about the Latin American **fans** but never ever about the sport itself. > [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Both are accepted as a good sport here, so too bad you can’t see that from the postings. IN YOUR OPINION or IN YOUR EXPERIENCE. Not in everybody’s. > [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Maybe the sportsmen’s deriding attitudes can be controlled to actually answer questions truthfully on this subject for a change instead of inflaming people. True to who? True to you, maybe. I know far more people who think soccer is a sissy sport for girls than have any other feelings about it. Should I accuse you of not answering questions truthfully now because you said Americans think soccer “pugilistic and out of control” (which I really think is absurd to think that’s a more popular feeling here than soccer = wussy, but I’ll let you have it because you obviously got the idea _somewhere_)? When I was in school, a person who played soccer was a “soccer fag.” ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/48 "2008-11-17T02:05:08Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > No, but I know this has happened during the past two World Cups. > > In one instance the player down on the ground looked like he was at death’s door. I fully expected that, instead of a stretcher and medical people, four pallbearers would bring on a coffin accompanied by the strains of Mozart’s Requiem Mass (in D minor). Regrettably, the stretcher duly arrived and the stricken man was carried off. He made a miraculous recovery and was back on the field of play in no time at all. > > I’ve crawled all over the internet for a video of such antics but I’m unable to locate an example. Yeah, but did he get the penalty? > [@ruadh](#): > > So, first because of acting and second because of acting. Yup, exactly - and diving happens more often than serious injuries. It’s an indefensible tactic that doesn’t serve the game and - in at least one case - actively turns people off from the sport. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/49 "2008-11-17T02:37:27Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > How about eastern Europe? Is soccer the big sport there? I understand both basketball and water polo are big in those countries, although their relative popularity no doubt varies from country to country. How does soccer stack up against those two sports? It varies, but its one of the top sport in most Eastern European countries too. The Czech Republic, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania, off the top of my head, have all produced world class footballers recently. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/50 "2008-11-17T02:49:14Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > If you are going to make any comparisons between sports, then soccer and American Football isn’t the one to make, especially when considering the use of protective equipment. > > Reason the UK and its former Commonwealth might perhaps think of American football as a bit soft is the comparison with rugby, especially rugby league. > Rugby league the players will sometimes wear some form of head protection, however this has to be soft, so it generally only protects against scalp injuries. > > If it were not for the helmets worn by American Football players, perhaps much of the rest would be less necessary. > > A Rugby League tackle (as opposed to rugby union) is similar to an American football tackle, its usually one on one, and the play stops dead where the carrier goes down, and as a result the impacts are pretty huge. > > Occasionally they have Rugby League vs Rugby Union series, where they play 2 games against each other and swap codes. The Rugby League tackles tend to be much harder, but the player is expecting the impact and deals with it, in Rugby Union there is no point in a fully committed tackle, even if you stop the ball carrier he just feeds it back in a maul, and you have one of the defenders sucked into the play and cannot get back in place to follow the rest of the game which then makes its way further upfield. I’m a big fan of both footballs, the American and the European ones.🙂 The one comment that always drives me crazy from European or Aussies though, is the whole “American football players are wusses because they wear pads” meme. First of all, one of the major things allowed by wearing pads is letting players use their body as weapons with near reckless abandon. This produces collisions that are more violent than I’ve seen in any other sport. Second, I don’t want to minimize the contact in other sports, but in American football the contact is more pervasive. Just about every player on the field (minus those wussy corners) are hitting somebody as hard as they can on every single play. The only sport I know that comes close is Rugby, and having played both fairly extensively, I can say its not really that close. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/51 "2008-11-17T02:55:07Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Personally, I think it’s only a matter of time before soccer replaces hockey as America’s fourth sport. I would agree with this completely. I know a ton of people who really get into the Champion’s League and World Cup. My friend and I have pretty much converted our whole group at work. Hell, even MLS is finally starting to grow into something that isn’t a joke (although its got some way to go still), look up videos of the crowds at the conference finals these past two weeks, they were pretty impressive. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/52 "2008-11-17T02:59:45Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Is handball a popular sport in Europe? > > Maybe this is regional, but hockey was much bigger in the 70s in the NY area than it is now and its ratings in the US are dismal at best. But its ratings in the US were _always_ dismal. You can’t slip to bad from bad. Hockey in the USA was always tenuous after the 1967 expansion; many of those teams did not work out very well. Atlanta had to move to Calgary, and you don’t see the Golden Seals or the Barons around anymore. The NHL’s always been chasing a pipe dream with overexpansion, but some of them do take root. There’s at least twelve solid American franchises now, which is more than there used to be. And when did hockey start doing poorly in New York? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/53 "2008-11-17T03:06:42Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > But its ratings in the US were _always_ dismal. You can’t slip to bad from bad. > > And when did hockey start doing poorly in New York? After the strike I believe, but it was much more popular in the 70s from what I recall. This is not scientific of course, just my memories. Hockey was one of the big four sports. Now kids are only into the three team sports. I live in whitebread suburbia so it is really only Football and Baseball for the kids around here. I came out of the Bronx and grew up in a racially diverse town so Basketball was fairly well watched and talked about. Hockey seems like an afterthought and it is reinforced by the local sports-talk stations where the realized Hockey is of marginal interest and gets minimal coverage and talk. Nationally ESPN spend little time on Hockey. I think I will stand by my statement Hockey is less popular now then 35 years ago in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Piker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@Piker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/54 "2008-11-17T04:03:51Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > When I was in school, a person who played soccer was a “soccer fag.” Yeah, I don’t know why it matters that lots and lots of people say its a wimpy sport. One thing that people don’t realize is that soccer, like hockey, has real concentrated, but significant, support in the United States. I grew up in the Bay Area, watch a handful of soccer games a week on tv or in person with friends and family, and rarely did anyone bat an eye. I moved out to DC a few years back for grad school, and feel like I have to explain myself to many suburban-raised East Coasters when I tell them I’m going to a United game. Just completely different cultures, much like hockey must have been like before it made its big push for nation-wide acceptance in the 90s/Bettman era. It just different regions of the country. I don’t get it when people say that Americans don’t like soccer. Looking at facts, the claim is a little ridiculous, considering the amount of soccer games are available to the American public each weekend and the ratings for soccer events on ESPN/ABC/Univision. I think the 2006 World Cup Final drew considerably more viewers than any single game of that year’s NBA Finals, and was similar in ratings levels with that years NCAA basketball championship and World Series. Usually the rejoinder to that by people is that the World Cup Final draws a lot of special event viewers that aren’t real fans, but I don’t see why that wouldn’t extend to the NBA, NCAA, or MLB championships as well. For a less well known example, the ratings for the United States-Mexico Gold Cup final a couple summers back (the tournament is basically a glorified friendly) outdrew any game in that year’s Stanley Cup Finals. And when the Champions League Final is moved from the middle of the Wednesday workday US time to Saturday afternoons in a couple years, the ratings for that are going to soar. The reason why people think soccer is not popular in this country is because its popularity is diffused among the tens of different leagues and competitions that soccer fans watch. The NHL has it good, everyone who cares a whit about hockey in this country cares about the NHL and the Stanley Cup playoffs. MLS, which to anyone who pays any attention to the league, is an quality league, but has the unenviable task of going against the EPL, Spanish League, Italian League, Mexican League, etc. every weekend. And obviously fan loyalties are pretty entrenched with those leagues. Looking at ratings for aggregated soccer games against hockey, the two sports are probably closer to each other than either than them are compared to the Big Three. And also, at my high school, calling someone a “soccer fag” could have gotten your ass kicked. It doesn’t mean that soccer is totally accepted in U.S. culture, just as much as your high school experience doesn’t mean that soccer is rejected by American culture. It’s just different regions of the country, with soccer areas being urban areas on the coasts and spanish speaking regions in the southwest that are completely accept soccer. Just like hockey, just because its not on Sportscenter, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an intense following. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/55 "2008-11-17T04:14:36Z")
**Piker** The ESPN and FSC ratings for MLS games are not very good. They get orders of magnitude less viewers less than the big three. The WC rating are a combination of drawing in people that don’t care about soccer at all, and drawing in fans of Mexican or European soccer that don’t watch MLS games. The Gold Cup isn’t a glorified friendly. It’s this region’s championship. I was at the last final in Chicago, it certainly wasn’t played like a friendly. It’s certainly not a World Cup game, but it’s the second most important tournament for the US. ---
**Author:** ![Piker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@Piker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/56 "2008-11-17T04:24:52Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > **Piker** The ESPN and FSC ratings for MLS games are not very good. They get orders of magnitude less viewers less than the big three. The WC rating are a combination of drawing in people that don’t care about soccer at all, and drawing in fans of Mexican or European soccer that don’t watch MLS games. Yeah, that was the entire point of my post. People point to MLS ratings on FSC and ESPN2 and act as if they are indicative of soccer’s popularity in the US, an act that is comparable to pointing to the nationwide rating of a regular season MAC game as indicative of the popularity of college football in this country. > [@](#): > > The Gold Cup isn’t a glorified friendly. It’s this region’s championship. I was at the last final in Chicago, it certainly wasn’t played like a friendly. It’s certainly not a World Cup game, but it’s the second most important tournament for the US. OK, we’ll just have to agree to disagree about that, but the Gold Cup to many soccer fans in the US is a bit of a mickey mouse tournament. Surely, Mexican fans in the U.S. think the Copa America is much more important. My bet is that that intensity of the final in Chicago was more of a function of it being a Mexico-US rivalry game than any tournament that it was a part of; that was surely the source of my interest in the match. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/57 "2008-11-17T04:27:48Z")
> [@MichaelQReilly](#): > > It varies, but its one of the top sport in most Eastern European countries too. The Czech Republic, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania, off the top of my head, have all produced world class footballers recently. Bulgarians LOVE football and reaching the quarterfinals in the 1996 World Cup (or was it 1994? The one held in the US.) is still a big point of pride. (Hey, it’s Bulgaria. What else have they got? Besides poison-tipped umbrellas, I mean.) There are several teams in the country, with the two biggest, CSKA and Levski, playing in Sofia. One of the biggest mistakes in my English-teaching career was using CSKA as part of an example I was writing on the board. “Ivan likes watching CSKA” set off off five minute argument among my students which only ended when I erased the sentence and replaced it with something non-football related. Oh, and Bulgarian players playing in actually good leagues in Western Europe are tracked in the papers religiously. ---
**Author:** ![PopeJewish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@PopeJewish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PopeJewish)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/58 "2008-11-17T05:59:36Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I know far more people who think soccer is a sissy sport for girls than have any other feelings about it. Should I accuse you of not answering questions truthfully now because you said Americans think soccer “pugilistic and out of control” (which I really think is absurd to think that’s a more popular feeling here than soccer = wussy, but I’ll let you have it because you obviously got the idea _somewhere_)? > > When I was in school, a person who played soccer was a “soccer fag.” Wow, really? These people have obviously never played a real competitive soccer game in their lives, nor probably ever seen one. No offense, but soccer happens to be a pretty rough sport, we just don’t deck ourselves out in pads and only get 3 subs per game, so we generally walk our injuries off. But you try sprinting full speed and having someone who’s also sprinting full speed slide into you, it doesn’t feel like spring flowers I’ll tell you that right now (for that matter, try doing the sliding and havin the bastard fall on ya, usually with an elbow pointed at your gut). That said, I grew up in the bay area, and as Piker said, if you called someone a “soccer fag” you’d get your ass kicked, usually by a horde of about 20 soccer players all much bigger and stronger than you. Some of the Mexican dudes I grew up with regularly kicked the crap out of some of the football players for exactly this reason. As for the stretcher thing, if I’m not mistaken, FIFA rules state that if a player is on the ground for more than a period of time than a stretcher is sent out. The player is required to leave the field at this time (usually on the stretcher so he get’s a bit of a rest in) so that play can resume. It’s worth noting that in Soccer you get only 3 substitutions per game, including injury subs (and once subbed out, a player cannot return to the game), so players usually return to the field after leaving for an injury and the team just plays a man down until his return. There is a problem with diving in soccer, especially in some of the Latin American leagues, and it’s quite annoying. But refs have been clamping down on this in recent years, and it’s been getting better. Still, a valid complaint I like American football, but there are too many things that actively prevent me from watching it, but mostly I hate how slow the damn game is. It’s 60 minutes, but usually takes about 3 hours when they broadcast it on TV. That’s WAY too much downtime, and far too many commercials. Completely ruins the experience for me. I’ll play football, but watching it on TV is usually more of a hassle than it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/59 "2008-11-17T06:12:15Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Is handball a popular sport in Europe? In some parts, yes - parts of Eastern Europe, plus Germany, for instance. Although nowhere near threatening soccer for top spot. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/60 "2008-11-17T09:38:03Z")
Soccer isn’t a contact sport, but hey, never stopped Vinnie Jones 😛 (By the way! If anyone has the VHS that was released of his, er, “greatest hits” I’ll trade my soul and sexual favours, or money, for it!) He certainly had a [good grip](http://weirdpicturearchive.com/pics/vinniejones.php) on Paul Gascoigne, at least. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943.md?page=4)