the problem America has is there's just not enough top level play at every level. I remember going over to Ireland, and the fifth graders could beat us high school soccer players. And that was Ireland.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Couldn't disagree more with everything in this post. Love the game and love the british vocabulary used to describe the sport in ways that we have never heard sports described.

Don't give a crap about the MLS stuff or the part about trying to get other people interested. Also, don't care that much about the acting, rarely does that annoy me as much as it seems to annoy those who aren't used to the sport.

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Is there anyone on this board who can honestly say that soccer is their favorite sport to watch?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think there are at least a few guys- kissrules and I would imagine Zizou.

My cousin's kid is a real top player for her age group. For sure she'll play on a full scholarship and she might make the national team. So he's a big soccer guy now. He started giving me shit about not watching that last game. He brought up the fact that I used to play and couldn't believe I had no interest in this tournament. But like I told him, I still consider it a game for foreigners. Sure, every kid now seems to play at some point, but then they grow up and most of them follow American sports more avidly. Even most of the guys I played with in the 70s who were all immigrants or first generation Americans follow baseball and American football more than they watch the Champions League. It's just not part of the fabric of American life.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It is very far down the list for most hard core American sports fans. Sure, a bunch of first generation immigrants and dads whose six year old plays youth soccer profess to love the sport. The kids of those first generation immigrants will start playing baseball and football, and by gen three, they'll watch the NFL. And for those who cite the high participation rates in youth soccer, how do those numbers look in high school?

No where in my world do people talk soccer. Out of an office of 80 people, I think two Americans gave a crap. A few of the European computer guys were also interested.

I am not crapping on soccer's parade. If you like it, go for it. Just stop trying to convince me why I should like it. I happened to look at the standings for the Chicago Fire yesterday. They had more ties than wins and losses combined........that seems really exciting. For all the banter that it's the world's favorite sports, people neglect to consider that China, India and America have very little use for the sport. That constitutes close to half of the world's population.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Also known as 7th place in the NHL's Eastern Conference

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Folks hit me with, "well you like hockey, soccer is the same thing". Really? What is the difference in shots per game? How about the relative speed of the game? The only thing that is the same is that you have to put the "ball" in a net.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Those are probably two names that would, but I'd still be interested to know if they simply like soccer a lot or if it's their #1 sport. I just think it would be hard to be an American soccer fan with such a poor league here.

Watching EPL games on weekend mornings can only provide so much.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Overseas EPL fandom is a weird thing, too, because people only seem to like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and maybe I guess smatterings of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. (To the limited extent that I like soccer, I like Tottenham Hotspur, but for the love of God, don't quiz me.)



Oh, I know, more than anything it was a shot at the NHL rewarding its tiresome play-not-to-lose mentality.

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TV show watch like football or attend watch like baseball?

Soccer doesn't need to change to become more popular in the US. The ethnic makeup of the US is shifting in a trajectory that is amenable to soccer in its current incarnation.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

That is true, but you're forgetting one thing- America's culture has a stronger pull than the home country. Many of us descend from Europeans, and yet we like baseball, basketball, and football more than soccer. The same will happen with the hispanic population, I am guessing. By generation three, they will probably like American sports more than soccer.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Hasn't it already? We have a domestic league that will be heading into it's 19th year of existence, we have the major leagues from Europe and Mexico on air here in the States and this year's Cup interest has been at all time high. Is that not catching on? Or is the argument, "well it's not of the four major sports" so therefore nobody cares? If so, why can't there be five major sports or six or seven? I'm sure to those who follow golf, tennis or Nascar those are major sports so what makes us any different?

And what of the professional basketball leagues in Europe and Asia? Can we say basketball has caught on there or not until they make rule changes to align more with how some feel a game they didn't invent should be played? And why is there the need for some to attack soccer as though their favorite sports are under siege? I feel like Josh Baskin in a business meeting, "I don't get it. What's fun about that?"

I've been following the game since 86 and I've run into the "this is why soccer sucks" crowd far more times than those who try to convert or belittle the non fans. That's not to say there aren't overzealous soccer snobs out there, there most definitely are. I just believe the anti soccer crowd is much much louder than the supporters of soccer. I'm sure most of us fans are okay with some not caring for Futbol the way we do, why can't you be okay with us liking it more than you? Either way, to quote Wanny, "we'll be fine."

Yes.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

And Champions League, Europa League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga.
If you have the right cable package, there are more than enough games in a week.
plus agree with whoever said it's a good excuse to start drinking at 7 am.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

well trolling has definitely caught on this year...prior to this world cup, anyone who didn't care about soccer didn't exist in this section. and none of them have a problem with the sport. they have a problem with it being "thrown in their face". what's funny is that the PTFB mentality doesn't seem to apply here. i pretty much hate politics or political shows...so i avoid the channels that carry them. i stay away from conversations that are political because i have really nothing to add to them. i don't go in and troll the politics section letting everyone know how much i hate it or that other people shouldn't care about it either because i don't.

i think they just want attention, frankly. that's the world we live in now.

Do the kids and others that actually play the game of soccer even care about soccer or professional teams?

Damn kids today don't care about anything. Little bastards.

You honestly don't understand why the soccer supremacists are annoying? We've been hearing for months about this World Cup will help bring soccer to the masses, and how the Seattle Sounders outdraw the Seahawks(or whatever the bogus statistic is), and how kids love soccer and hate baseball. When the Olympics happen, we don't have to hear about how short track speed skating or swimming are growing at a really fast rate.

Then, the United States goes 1-2-1, and looks pretty horrible for most of it, and we have to hear about how great they did and how we should all appreciate it. It just gets tiresome. Just let soccer be in it's place, and in 10 years, when soccer is more popular than hockey then talk about how it is really taking off.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

For the love of all things Darkside?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

"Soccer Supremacists?" That sounds like Bernstein "people on Twitter" bullshit.

Right, and trolling it is just as bad and useless. You and Ann Coulter are no different than the "soccer supremacist" who is "telling you" what soccer is. The bookends of the spectrum are no different...atheist vs. evangelist, wing nut vs. hippie...the extremes of both arguments are equally baseless and irrational.

I don't care whether you like soccer or not; but to invade this section simply to trumpet your angst really doesn't do anything to help justify your cause. You just sound like someone who's ranting for the sake of it because you don't possess the ability to turn your ears off. Like I said, there was a 2010 World Cup and we talked about it back then, and I heard nothing from the Anti-Soccer Camp.

Brick gonna Brick.

Find someone from Purdue to be on the USA team and he will change his tune.

Or maybe Cutler can play for the USA opponent.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I kind of agree with BRick. That said, most of my anger is directed towards the ESPN-ization of soccer.

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Who are these soccer supremacists?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I have a few of them on Facebook. They played soccer in high school and/or college and need to constantly validate their sport... very similar to the hockey guys I know.

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Well, ESPN is for sure.

If the WC wasn't broadcast by ESPN (and subsequently promoted/pushed by them) - the viewing audience in the USA would be cut by........at least 50%, wouldn't it? It is by far the most overplayed thing on SC every day now.

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ESPN has had World Cup TV rights since 1994. Did you really never notice that they pushed soccer every 4 years for the last 20 years until this time? In 1990 the games were on fucking TNT

No I noticed. Hence my post.

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Yeah, as WZ said we all must have missed the complaints about it in 2010, 2006, 2002, 1998, and 1994. Sorry but Wimbledon, mid-season baseball, and NBA free agent travel plans aren't very interesting. Should they not push their own product? ESPN wasn't NASCAR supremacists when they had NASCAR Now every day of the week and spent more than the 15 seconds they needed to list race results on SportCenter, even though no one cares about NASCAR.