# Why do so many Americans actually hate soccer? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 20, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481 "2013-06-20T16:59:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/81 "2013-06-21T16:22:45Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I don’t care for them either, but I haven’t heard a vuvuzela since 2010, or before 2010 for that matter. Vuvuzelas are not an feature of soccer-watching, except in South Africa. Why single them out? I didn’t. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Oh, please. The sports media has been flogging the Inevitable Soccer Triumph for many years. You have some examples anyone calling soccer Next Great American Sport? The media is covering soccer more and more because demand is growing. That’s how the media works. ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/82 "2013-06-21T17:22:31Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > But I don’t see Americans and American expatriates abroad obsessing constantly about how foreigners don’t appreciate the sport and NFL Europe should have been a huge success and what this says about their cultures. There’s a reason for that. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/83 "2013-06-21T17:26:04Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > And obviously it’s not a North American sport. [You are very very wrong](https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mexico&aq=&sll=37.269174,-119.306607&sspn=9.87368,17.490234&vpsrc=0&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mexico&z=5) This thread is embarrassing to me as an American, a sports fun, and an SDMB poster. Not that it embarrasses me that Americans don’t like soccer. That’s just an issue of tradition and taste, neither good nor bad. But the smarmy, ignorant, xenophobic and gloating way that that dislike is expressed is just nauseating. The single most exciting sporting event I’ve ever watched was USA vs. Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Women’s World Cup. And that match extensively featured flopping, terrible officiating and stoppage time. [This picks up the action with the US trailing 2-1 at the very very end of overtime.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvGfV6qCiOI) ---
**Author:** ![davidborts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f17d59/32.png) [@davidborts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidborts)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/84 "2013-06-21T17:38:10Z")
[How about some facts](http://i.imgur.com/rzcHKrR.png) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/85 "2013-06-21T17:50:47Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > At least with soccer, 90 minutes means 90 minutes, more or less. The game’s over. Wait - there’s “stoppage time”, whatever the hell that is. This thing is going on until…whenever the referees decide we’ve had enough. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/86 "2013-06-21T18:36:07Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > … and huge in South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It’s not much played in Antarctica, and it’s only second ranking in Australasia. And obviously it’s not a North American sport. I was speaking from the perspective of someone who would dislike soccer to that extent. To those people, its European, because we’re more exposed to European culture than African or Asian culture. If pandas were first seen in the London zoo by Americans, we’d consider them British, get my meaning? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/87 "2013-06-21T18:46:22Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I think a big part of it is the seeming effeteness of the sport’s players relative to the American sports archetypical player. > > > [@](#): > > > > The archetypical soccer player in a lot of American’s minds seems to be some skinny Italian, Spaniard, Latin American or Brazilian guy with some sort of white-man jheri curl hairdo who flops on the ground in agony at the merest physical touch. > > Whereas on this side of the Atlantic we regard American football players as big jessies because they won’t go out on the field without full-face helmets and half a mattress stuffed down their jerseys. Proper football players don’t need any of that crap, and they get [hurt](http://twistedblood.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/terry-butcher.jpg). (Warning: bloody pic) FWIW, I specifically didn’t call out British soccer players. At least back 10 years ago when I used to watch Premiership soccer with some regularity, the prevailing attitude was one of toughness and “man up”. Then, when they had La Liga or Serie A on, it was just disgusting to watch, because those greasy fops would flail around after a solid tackle like they just got hamstrung by a rusty circular saw . American football’s just a different game; it’s not necessarily less painful or less rough or less dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/88 "2013-06-21T18:48:33Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > 2011 _ **Women’s** _ World Cup. There you go… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/89 "2013-06-21T19:05:23Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I’m not a sports fan, but I enjoy a ‘forensic’ look at professional sports. To me soccer is fundamentally a child’s game. For two reasons: > [ol] > [li]It requires no equipment other than a ball[/li][li]It essentially only has one rule: You can’t use your hands.[/li][/ol] I think this is so true. And it applies to other kinds of games, too! For example, only the immature are entertained by the simplistic rules and primitive tokens of the childish board game [Go](http://gailly.net/go-3women-534x716.jpg). In contrast, for centuries sages and philosophers have studied the intricacies, subtle strategies, and injection molded plastic of [Fireball Island.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ujgywX-z9c) ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/90 "2013-06-21T19:33:20Z")
> [@davidborts](#): > > [How about some facts](http://i.imgur.com/rzcHKrR.png) Since when are commercials a function of the sport? ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/91 "2013-06-21T19:33:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The game’s over. Wait - there’s “stoppage time”, whatever the hell that is. This thing is going on until…whenever the referees decide we’ve had enough. It’s not complicated. Officials let everyone know how much stoppage time there is, you add that number to 45 or 90 and you know when it should roughly be done. It’s rarely more than 4 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/92 "2013-06-21T19:34:23Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Or that the small group is constantly obsessing about why soccer isn’t more popular in the U.S., that this reflects some gross defect in the American character or at least contempt for furriners who go nutso over “football”. This is the answer. We hate soccer because the fact that it isn’t popular here is constantly being cited as evidence that Americans are uncivilized barbarians. America already has 4 major sports that have nation-wide appeal. We aren’t interested in picking up a fifth one. Deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/93 "2013-06-21T19:46:58Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > This is the answer. We hate soccer because the fact that it isn’t popular here is constantly being cited as evidence that Americans are uncivilized barbarians. Is it though? It’s a rare soccer thread on this board that doesn’t have someone weighing in about “boring” “ties” and “flopping”. Do the NFL etc threads have equivalent threadshitters? ---
**Author:** ![davidborts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f17d59/32.png) [@davidborts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidborts)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/94 "2013-06-21T19:47:03Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Since when are commercials a function of the sport? They’re a function of what you see when you are watching the sport. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/95 "2013-06-21T20:16:33Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > This is the answer. We hate soccer because the fact that it isn’t popular here is constantly being cited as evidence that Americans are uncivilized barbarians. Baloney. This is one of those situations like political correctness or the '72 Miami Dolphins having champagne where there’s WAY more complaining about political correctness than there is political correctness. There’s WAY more complaining about the mysterious people who think that Americans not liking soccer proves something than there is actual mockery of Americans from these unnamed people. Furthermore, even if such people existed, that’s a profoundly stupid reason. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/96 "2013-06-21T20:28:10Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > It’s not complicated. Officials let everyone know how much stoppage time there is, you add that number to 45 or 90 and you know when it should roughly be done. It’s rarely more than 4 minutes. “Roughly”? Sounds like a plan. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/97 "2013-06-21T20:38:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > “Roughly”? > > Sounds like a plan. 🙂 Hey, it’s better than baseball which could be 3 hours or 4 or 6 depending on how many innings are tacked on before someone mercifully wins. 🆒🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/98 "2013-06-21T20:49:26Z")
At least if I want to DVR a soccer match, I don’t have to worry about how far past the scheduled end of the game I have to set things to either a) make sure I get the end of the game recorded or, b) make sure I have the first forty-five minutes or \*60 Minutes \*on there. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/99 "2013-06-21T23:08:15Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I’m not a sports fan, but I enjoy a ‘forensic’ look at professional sports. To me soccer is fundamentally a child’s game. For two reasons: > [ol] > [li]It requires no equipment other than a ball[/li][li]It essentially only has one rule: You can’t use your hands.[/li][/ol] > This makes it a perfect rudimentary, introductory team sport for grade-school kids (and third world countries), but why any adult could possibly find it entertaining to watch is beyond me. It’s like watching professional dodge-ball or kickball, it is so NOT a professional spectator sport, it is an easy to learn, play & officiate kid’s game. I know that sounds (and is) snobbish, but prove me wrong. People sometimes call baseball boring but it’s actually very similar to (American) football in terms of game play: > [ul] > [li]There’s a definitive and decidedly different offense & defense routine.[/li][li]Offense & defense are rigidly defined, quite different from each other, and exchanged between teams on a fairly even, regular basis.[/li][li]Both games require a long set of complex, difficult & diverse series of ‘plays’ in order to score.[/li][li]The amount of time that the balls are actually ‘in play’ is decidedly short, well defined, and everything else is just a build-up to this (i.e. the exciting parts).[/li][li]Even though scoring is long term & difficult, a few mistakes or skillful plays can cause that to change suddenly & unexpectedly, and yet there’s still usually a sense of this rapid scoring still being ‘earned’ by the offensive team.[/li][li]They’re both played on fields with markings & equipment specifically designed for their sport.[/li][/ul] > Soccer has none of these things. It’s essentially a small group of players playing on an enormous, plain, empty field doing only a couple of different ‘plays’ over & over & over, with the ultimate aim being nothing more than kicking the ball across a line. And even that only happens \*extremely \*infrequently. Like once or twice an hour! > > For all the above reasons I also find American basketball boring and pointless. It’s like soccer on a tiny little field, sped up 100 times. But it’s still a boring, monotonous back & forth drone of nearly identical activities. Too much ignorance here to fight. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481/100 "2013-06-21T23:48:26Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > This thread is embarrassing to me as an American, a sports fun, and an SDMB poster. Not that it embarrasses me that Americans don’t like soccer. That’s just an issue of tradition and taste, neither good nor bad. But the smarmy, ignorant, xenophobic and gloating way that that dislike is expressed is just nauseating. in our defense, we were _asked_ to explain why we hated soccer. Not exactly threadshitting. It was the point of the OP. It’s not xenophobia nor ignorance. Cricket, for example is played by foreigners and is a sport I am very much ignorant of. I do not, however, hate it or dislike it in any way. I’m sure there are many others. For soccer, as I tried to point out unthread, it’s the attitude that a mildly interesting sport is _ **the greatest god damn sport on earth** _ that brings out the worst in us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-americans-actually-hate-soccer/661481.md?page=6)