I'm glad the USA lost, now GO AWAY SOCCER

[Reggie 92]

I consider myself above average in terms of being patriotic, but I'm glad the US lost. In fact, I think it's patriotic to HATE SOCCER!! There's a reason soccer has never and will never matter here in America (In terms of interest in professional sports, I realize it's very popular among children). Maybe we can all finally stop hearing about this subpar, boring, piece of crap sport.

What a treat it's been to have been force fed the non-stop images of Nigerians, Iranians, etc. running around without purpose for 80 minutes only to end in a 0-0 tie.

[HarveyWallbangers]

The Nigerians didn't make the World Cup. I like soccer on the highest level. Soccer is slowly becoming more popular here. It will never surpass the big 3 or 4 sports, but I wouldn't be surprised if it continues to grow in popularity. MLS attendance is now around 18,000/game. The league is slowly growing in quality. The new "David Beckham exception" will likely bring some good exposure, as Beckham, Ronaldo, and Borgetti are good candidates to play in MLS--and before they are completely over the hill. Despite their effort in this World Cup, the USA soccer program has slowly gotten better. Their youth teams have been doing very well. NASCAR wasn't very popular about 10-15 years ago, and now it's off the charts. I see a lot more support for soccer, and it likely will continue to grow. The one thing MLS is missing is a couple of true American superstars. They need a home grown Pele. Freddie Adu isn't that guy.

BTW, soccer doesn't need universal appeal to make it here. They aren't looking to convert folks like you. There's a lot of people that can't stand NASCAR, but it's huge.

[Partial]

Yeah man, with all due respect, that was pretty cool getting behind the US and hoping they'd pull it off. I agree with Harv in the sentiment that the USA is improving and growing rapidly here.

It would have been nice to win our group. For once we would have gotten some good press in the rest of the world, and I thikn that would have been reallly beneficial.

4 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to tell you anything about the world cup or even when it was until it was underway. This year, a ton more people knew it was coming and got into it. I attribute that to our performance four years ago. I think even more people will be into it the next time, since this tournament was so dissapointing.

Overall, nothing bad comes from soccer growing over here. It's one of those things we should hope we're good at because of the international politics involved with it!

[HarveyWallbangers]

Yeah, how mint would it be have the USA be a soccer power? There'd be a lot of mad Frenchmen.

[jack's smirking revenge]

Re: I'm glad the USA lost, now GO AWAY SOCCER

In fact, I think it's patriotic to HATE SOCCER!!

With all due respect Reggie 92, I think this is the most asinine statement I've ever read. I grew up with soccer while stationed in Europe on a United States Military base. It is the biggest sport in the world, like it or not. Thus, it is equally patriotic to LOVE SOCCER.

tyler

[ny10804]

[red]

i posted this in the world cup thread and i'll post it here.

espn.com had a poll up a week ago asking what was the more interesting event. the world cup, nba finals, or us open. after over 120,000 votes the world cup was leading by more then 10%

soccer is catching on in the us, like it or not

[ahaha]

SOCCER, SOCCER, SOCCER! High flying! Low scoring! Ties....YOU BET!

For a sport that makes it so hard to score in regular play, they sure make it easy on penalty kicks. And all those offsides penalties are MADDENING!
WTF!

[Harlan Huckleby]

For a sport that makes it so hard to score in regular play, they sure make it easy on penalty kicks. And all those offsides penalties are MADDENING!
WTF!

Fixing scoring problem is simple: just make the goalies play in hip waders.
That's yankee ingenuity.

[bbbffl66]

How unpatriotic is it to be glad the ungerdog- Ghana- won? Isn't it American to root for the little guy?

[SD GB fan]

US soccer is overrated. #5 in the world my ass. hope they learned something and come back next 4, 8, or 20 years

[jack's smirking revenge]

US soccer is overrated. #5 in the world my ass. hope they learned something and come back next 4, 8, or 20 years

Very true. Here's to 2010.

tyler

[HarveyWallbangers]

Honestly, I wouldn't expect a lot of support for soccer on an NFL board. However, I think as much as anything, soccer has become sort of an "in" sport. Like NASCAR. I know folks that watch the EPL matches on Fox Sports, and follow the other European leagues. They are genuinely interested in the national team. They'd love for the MLS to be a quality league. Loads of people are interested, but there will be many that will never like it. Don't worry. It will never surpass the superior sport of American football. Football will always be #1 in my book, but I have no shame for watching NASCAR, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, and even soccer.

[Zool]

This debate seems to come up every 4 years. Soccer interest spikes during the world cup then dies down again till the next one. Its almost like its the Olympics.

[Row 67]

I wish they'd put some World Cup on prime-time regular television. I could care less about MLS, but I love watching nearly all kinds of high-level competition athletics, if not simply to appreciate the tremendous skill of the athletes. I'm continually amazed that those guys can kick a ball right out of midair, send it 60 yards almost within feet of another player, who can bring that ball down out of the air with his head and body, and drop that ball right down onto the ground in front of his feet and have immediate control of it. And the conditioning of those guys- most of them play, run, the whole game!

Whether you like it or not as a spectator sport, its probably the #1 sport in America by participation among kids under 16. Just about every park in the country has organized leagues going on every evening, all summer.