Why the world loves the world cup

[burythehatchet]

... but America does not

Especially republicans/conservatives. At least that what Ive noticed. Most Americans I know dislike the world cup and every conservative I know despises it.

I set out to ponder why. Why would there be such a divide? I now have a theory.

The world cup appeals to the world for the same reason all team sports enjoy popularity somewhere: A match between two teams is a conflict, but it is a conflict with one overriding trait - the rules apply to both sides and the match is refereed by an independent party. Theoretically, the only variable between the two teams relate to physical ability, strategy, coaching, and home field. Other than those factors, the match is played under strict rules that apply to both teams.

On the world stage, this is a very powerful notion. The fact that Trinidad, or Morocco, or Ivory Coast can "war" against England, USA, or Germany on the same terms is something that appeals to people all over the world. I believe this is the primary source of the immense national pride that countries like Brazil and Argentina feel about their warriors on the world cup battlefield.

The concept of fairness and playing by the rules is something that I believe is completely repulsive to the conservatives of today. Asymmetrical power is what pumps up their testosterone. The concepts of honor in battle, which is a big part of the world cup matches, is something that is "wimpy" for a conservative.

This is why I look forward so much to the world cup every four years. It is the epitome of battle with honor.

[Jim Warren]

1. The answer here has gotta be

somehow mixed up with the Victoria Gotti question.

[Waya]

2. Why the world loves the world cup....

... but America does not...

Because we suck at it.....even tho we have gotten a bit better over the years...

[burythehatchet]

16. US is ranked #5 right now

I would expect them to make to the 16 round.

[tridim]

3. I don't like it because it's boring

Although I will watch a game or two. Soccer is one of those sports that much more exciting to play than to watch, IMO of course.

Hockey on the other hand is actually fun to watch.

[Jim Warren]

5. Boring?

Well it ain't got the "hits" of the NHL.

That's 'cause it's "the beautiful game" as Pele coined it.

The games at the upper level of WC are definately NOT BORING with even a modicum of understanding of the skill and athleticism necessary.

[tridim]

7. I'm not saying there aren't short bursts of non-boring play

I really think the field, and therefore the neutral zone are just too large for the tastes of the average hockey fan. I also think American football and baseball are boring.

Edit: Another thing that bothers me about soccer is the "Who me?" attitude of the penalized. Just watching a bit of the Argentina game now.

[Jim Warren]

9. to each their own, of course

It's just those_100 yard thread the needle passes that are juuussst past the reach of three defenders_ and taken on one bounce, in stride, on the run, full out with a shot on goal are.....well.....pretty darn exciting.

'Course the Brazilians do that best.

As far as the 'who me' thing, guess you don't like the NBA then.:hi:

[burythehatchet]

17. The new ball is going to lead to a lot more goals

Its a seamless ball and acts like a knuckle ball. The goalies hate it. England had two goals because of the ball, I believe.

[mrfrapp]

41. Clarification request

"England had two goals because of the ball, I believe."

Which goals are you referring to?

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. They were probably thinking of Germany

Thr last German goal certainly swerved a lot; the first beat the goalie from quite a long way away, though I haven't seen a camera angle showing whether it swerved much or not.

[mrfrapp]

46. Okay

I would have to watch the goals again but surely any swerve on the ball would have been imparted by the player.
Is the ball simply lighter and it is therefore more responsive to spin?

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. A couple of articles on it

One says the 1st German goal had a strange flight; the other it was striaght; but many people think the new ball does swerve better than ever - lighter, as you say, and more uniform, which they are claiming means it respsonds better to the spin the kicker puts on it.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1794534,00.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2093-2220311,00.html

[burythehatchet]

53. Funny thing is, the first German, the ball did not spin al all

It reminded me of a knuckle ball in baseball. But the difference is that a knuckle ball cannot be controlled. It simply moves randomly. I'm anxious to purchase the new ball myself out of curiosity.

[burythehatchet]

47. Correction : Germany

[Kutjara]

4. We hate the World Cup because...

...its yet another uncomfortable reminder that there is a 'world' out there, full of people over which American has little control. Much more palatable is the 'World Series' where we can pretend that the world is really just the USA (with the occasional Canadian).

[Renew Deal]

6. I just like the uniforms.

The World Cup is great. I think the Daily Show described it best. It's the Super Bowl, your wedding, and your first born all into one.

[BlooInBloo]

8. In America it's a fringe sport....

... typically followed by "fringe sports fans" - which happens to be the sme crowd who for a variety of reasons simply can't handle basketball and football.

That crowd found a perfect fringe sport in soccer, because outside of the US, it's NOT fringe - and hence the US fringe sports crowd gets to claim all sorts of "legitimacy" about their sport - "honor" "pure" and the rest of the hogwash.

In America, it's primarily just a happy-to-find-acceptance-in-SOME-sport-after-being-deemed-not-any-good-at-US-sports.

[burythehatchet]

25. I don't even know where to start in countering those comments

I suspect you might be writing in a sarcastic tone...if you aren't you are sadly mistaken, and strikingly ill-informed.

[tenshi816]

10. Excellent post.

Very good points. As a long time American ex-pat in England, you've now given me a concise way to explain America's relationship with the sport.

Thank you.

[Serenades]

11. over analysis

Nah. It's because most Americans don't watch soccer. We watch football, basketball, and baseball. Soccer just isn't popular here because we like football and basketball mainly. We're not all that exposed to soccer.

Our best athletes play basketball and football.

I don't really know anyone who "hates" the world cup but they just don't care about it because we're waiting for football season to start in the fall.

[crimson333]

12. correct

and also that is where the money is at in team sports in America

[burythehatchet]

21. Did you know that soccer is now played by more kids

than baseball. In fact, its the most popular sport at the grade school level.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

36. I hate it that the people in this country call it soccer.

It's Football. It's REAL football. American Football is a bunch of whiny crybabies playing half assed all geared up.
Duckie

[sandnsea]

23. Nah, its because we don't win at it

If we won at it, we'd watch it.

[BuddhaGirl]

29. technical correction

we "do" win at it - consistently, at the top level even: the U.S. Women's National team! :-)

[sandnsea]

31. Women don't count

That just helps label it a sissy sport. In the US, if men aren't #1 at something, it doesn't count. I thought that was pretty clear.

[Serenades]

30. perhaps

Perhaps I am speaking from my own perspective then. Win or lose, I'd have little interest because I don't watch the game.

I don't know many people who actually like soccer with the exception of friends from other countries.

[sandnsea]

32. Because we don't win at it

Why would a country watch a sport they never win at?? No fun getting beaten all the time, nobody watches, so nobody ever develops an interest in the sport or the players. If we won 5 years in a row, this country would become soccermania. It's the exact same problem the Democratic Party has, it's been labeled by the white males in this country and until that changes, we'll always have problems attracting loyal fans.

[ShaneGR]

24. Ya, not everything is about politcs... for example....

I've got a friend I went to high school, very very Republican. But he's excited about the World Cup because he's a huge soccer fan. I am not however, because I find soccer boring.

[SoCalDem]

38. And most of our attntion-spans have been so shortened

that we simply MUST have grunting, sweating behemoths rubbing up agaisnt each other,patting each other's asses or chasing each other back and forth,and stripper-esque girls shaking their ta-tas as they bump and grind to LOUD music to get us to pay attention to the sport..

Soccer seems to be populated by ordinary-sized people, who tend to wprk independently, while still maintaining a group-mentality in their game.. The game itself can be low scoring (a negative....but then there's hockey:shrug:..)

Soccer requires nuance and timing more than our sports tend to.. American sports seem to be more focused on stars, speed and hugeness of the players//....


Soccer is a thinking-game, not as dependent upon brute force and physical contact..

[USA_1]

13. Football/Soccer: The Beautiful Game

Football/Soccer is a sport of skill, endurance, and transition (that is, where an athlete must play both offense and defense). You win through a combination of all these traits. Not through violence and brutality such as in American football. This is why internationals love the sport so much.


Compare it with auto racing. Internationals love open wheel F 1 and the more enlightened Americans also love our brands of open wheel (IRL + CCWS). By contrast, rednecks love NASCAR which involves violent collisions rather than skilled driving.


It is most regretable that so many Americans love violence and physicality in their sports. But the smarter and more enlightened people such as yourself love REAL sports -- those which emphasize skill and artistic athleticism such as soccer!

[malaise]

15. Beautifully put

which is why I love cricket and real football. What a great game by Trinidad and Tobago today.

[TahitiNut]

33. ... and a great player need not be a pituitary anomaly.

It's competition where impeding another's performance is outlawed. Far too many Americans seem to think the way to 'win' is to disable the competition. My sport in college was swimming. I obviously don't think that way.

[ClusterFreak]

14. I don't believe everything in this world has a political component...

Soccer is to me personally, a howling bore.

I am a liberal.

So what does that mean?

Nothing.

[burythehatchet]

19. Soccer on the world stage has an incredibly political component.

Soccer is boring to many people. Personally, I think the athleticism of the game is truly poetic. I also think baseball is an incredibly interesting game (I grew up with cricket). Why you don't like soccer I can't say, but obviously it has nothing to with your political leanings. My commenst were of a more general, esoteric nature.

[Swamp Rat]

18. Futebol has been my favorite spectator sport desde Pelé e Garrincha

Corporate owned, highly commercialised 'American' sports turn me off (except the minor leagues). Unfortunately, corporations have sunk their teeth into soccer and cycling too.

[burythehatchet]

20. Swamp rat, I had the distinct pleasure to watch Pele

at Randall's island park, playing with the old NY Cosmos. They also brought over Chinnaglia (sp?) and Beckenbauer. Although those guys were all fairly over the hill in soccer years, they still were electric. Pele led the team in goals if I recall correctly.

[Swamp Rat]

26. Yes, I've seen him to - he is AMAZING!

Still, my favorite player was Garrincha, who tragically died of alcoholism. Supposedly he taught Pelé a lot of his moves.

http://usr.solar.com.br/~juliocba/garrincha.htm

[burythehatchet]

27. "kickin" it old school. :)

[Bad Penny]

45. Garrincha. Just watching him in old film footage

is exciting. Yeah I think it's safe to say Garrincha was the catalyst for the modern Brazilian style made famous by the Pele led teams of the 60's and 70's. He was doing stuff ahead of its time in the '58 World Cup. A true soccer God. There were shades of Garrincha in Careca (my all time fave Brazilian player)when he was at his best a few years ago.

[sandnsea]

22. And yet we love the Olympics

Sorry, I don't think ridiculing the World Cup has anything to do with fairness and rules. It has to do with the US not being #1 at soccer and consequently ridiculing it so that it becomes unimportant. Classic wingnut behavior, they're just a bunch of arrogant bullies.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

37. And our olympic coverage is boring because they just show the USA

losing at a lot of stuff. I'm interested in England and Germany and those little countries who send a few people and try their hearts out to win. THAT is in my eyes olympic spirit. Not someone who came from the suburbs in the US trying overcome nonexistant odds blah blah blah...
Duckie

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Because so many Americans hate the thought of a draw?

(or do Americans call it a 'tie'? I can't remember - in cricket, the two terms actually have different meanings - anyway, in football it's normally a 'draw'). This does tie in with your "wimpy" diea for conservatives - American professional sports use overtime or similar to avoid a draw whenever possible, even in league games where a draw is actually a vitally important result. There is honour in a draw, and it may be a conservative thing to think that's not true - while liberals are happy for people to be roughly equal, conservatives may see life, as well as sports, as a 'must-win' thing. games like football only use extra time or similar when the format demands it, eg a knockout competition to be completed in a fixed amount of time (in the main knockout football competition in England, a draw means you replay the fixture at the other team's home ground before trying extra time; only in the last couple of rounds do you go straight to extra time and then a penalty shootout).

[Bad Penny]

34. I found it interesting how

most Americans I talk to online completely blew off the World Baseball Classic a few months ago as an unimportant nuisance. Was that deep insecurity talking? A way to cushion themselves if they lost from the inevitable backlash at their years of claiming to be 'world champions'?

In any case, whether arrogance or insecurity, Most Baseball fans seemed not to care too much about playing the world's best teams to prove their self proclaimed number #1 status.

Soccer is my favorite sport. Most of my fellow Canadians think it's a howling bore too. Buti t's only boring if you don't understand it, or you're trapped watching a boring game, which is no different than saying all movies are boring because you once saw an Antonioni film. The World Cup so far has been fast and end to end. Take a look at some of the goals thus far and say it's a bore.

The World Cup is magic on so many levels I pity those who shut it out

[burythehatchet]

35. I'm sort of fearful that I'll end up spending so much time

watching every match. Three a day on the weekends does not make for a useful weekend.

[Bad Penny]

39. I'm with ya there, bro

I have only missed one live World Cup game since the '86 Cup in Mexico. And that was the US-Iran game in '98. Some dumbass workmen accidently severed my cable when they were chainsawing trees outside. It gets tougher the older I get

[ScreamingMeemie]

40. I live for watching soccer. My son picked it up last year and just this

year has become quite good at it. It is grace and athletics melded together in a beautiful set of 60 minutes (plus or minus for the little ones), and ( I say this as a Packer fan) there is no other sport I'd rather watch.

[burythehatchet]

48. Watching the 5 year old soccer "bee-hive"

is one funny sport as well.

[ScreamingMeemie]

49. heehee...We used to call it the "pack of puppies".

This year, the coach and my husband worked on getting them to know their positions and to spread out. They improved vastly. With a 8-3-1 record. I can't wait for next season. :)

[Donald Ian Rankin]

42. I don't get the impression that many Americans "hate" it.

Although not living in America, obviously that's not an informed opinion.

The reason it doesn't generate as much excitement in America as in other countries is because it's much more fun to watch sports one has played oneself, or has at least been exposed to a fair amount, and not many Americans have played football (they play some other game involving a non-ball-shaped object controlled with parts of the body other than the feet instead :-p ).

There's also the issue that football has longer periods of continuous play than the three most popular American sports (baseball, American football, basketball) without being broken up by points being scored, which I think many Americans find dull - no-score draws are not uncommon in football, but I believe unheard-of in all three main American sports.

[AlienPundit]

44. U.S. Ranking 5th is a big joke...and everyone knows it!

Correction, the U.S. is "tied" 5th with Spain, yet the world rankings mean nothing, especially when coming from FIFA and are calculated by a FIFA computer that assigns points and multiplies factors such as games away from home and number of international competitions....

According to FIFA do you seriously believe that U.S. soccer is ahead and superior to that of Germany, Italy and Argentina?????

Italy ranks 12th according to FIFA rankings!

FIFA's rankings were introduced by Coca-Cola in 1993 (a U.S. company, nonetheless!) and have no credibility whatsoever.

[burythehatchet]

51. I did not know that...thanks for the background.

I guess the quality of the team will be shown on the pitch

[Reader Rabbit]

52. I think it's more about our "instant gratification" culture

Many Americans consider soccer boring because it's usually a low-scoring game. Americans are programmed to think that more is better, so to them, a high-scoring sport is better than a low-scoring sport. And not only is there a great deal of scoring in basketball and football, but the score and lead are constantly changing, which helps those with short attention spans stay focused.

Soccer, on the other hand, is more about the potential to score and win. With every run up the field, a team has the potential to score, but more often than not, it doesn't. Those of us who understand the nuance of the game can see the excitement of a well-executed flick or a perfectly timed pass, but for a society taught to value the score, and not the effort, skill, sacrifice, and teamwork that goes into making that score possible, it stands to reason that they would find the "potentiality" of soccer boring.

Americans are all about the result. For the most part, we want what we want, and we want it now. And our society usually allows us to get what we want, when we want it. So when faced with a sport where we don't get the instant gratification of quick and prolific scoring, we immediately decide that it's bad and boring.

As a soccer fan, I would say that that's what makes the game so exciting. Scoring in soccer is all the more meaningful, because a team really has to work hard to get a goal. It's about trying and failing—repeatedly—but getting up, dusting off, and trying again. Of course, soccer fans want to see their team win, but their love is for the game itself, not for the score at the end. For Americans, the score is all—winning is far more important than how the game is played.

[burythehatchet]

54. Excellent analysis

When I watch a match between two South American teams, I am simply mesmerized. The artistry is simply magnificent. Comparable beauty is sometimes seen in hockey, though the violence takes away from the game, pitching in baseball when the pitcher is dominating, and basketball in the 70's and earlier. Every sport has its moments, but I find soccer to be 90 minutes of enjoyment.

[devilgrrl]

55. I'm not a soccer fan but I love the world cup...

the best players from all over the world... it's fun to watch. :shrug: