Iceland beats England

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Soccer, had to look it up. I'm not into watching guys run on a field for 2 hours to see a team to score once or twice.

Scored 2 goals is higher than normal. Many games ended with zero goal after 120 minutes(90 minute regular then 30 minutes extra if even after regular time) of playing. If the match is in elimination rounds, then penalty kick shoot out.

Originally Posted By: Pablo
And the Sunday Chile v. ARG match was a nail biter. Loved the Chile win. Talk about a working man's team.

The worst sport EVER? Basketball. TOO MUCH scoring. Stupid dumb sport. USA Football and baseball are fine, but soccer is a good balance. 90 minute game. Soccer's two weaknesses: diving, which the refs are are just starting to call foul and interestingly the refs influence on the game. If the ref would have touched Messi again last night, they should have just got a hotel room.

Lastly, no mention of Italy beating on Spain. Awesome!!

Spain league is very strong but most players are foreign so they can compete for Spain national team.

Italian national team is one of European best for more than 20-30 years.

It's very difficult to score a goal in soccer, everything must be perfect to score a goal. That why the best player scores less than 1 goal per game in his/her lifetime, especially in international matches.

 

[NHHEMI]

Originally Posted By: hatt
"Americans" really don't matter. Millions of people are coming here that know of no other game. Soccer is only going to get more popular.


I would say the people here in America matter a lot when we are talking about the popularity of the sport in this country. You may be right in the end but I have been hearing that for literally decades with little growth of the sport popularity wise despite the growth of immigrant numbers. Are there more Soccer fans now then there were 20 years ago? Sure. There are also more Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey fans too simply because there are so many more people. Doesn't mean Soccer is actually more popular overall. Maybe a little but it has not taken some huge leap vs the big 4 sports.

We actually have an MLS team locally and they barely fill 1/3 of the NFL football stadium they play in during a game. Even in the playoffs they don't draw great. They average around 15-19K per game whereas the NFL team in that stadium averages 67K+ per game and sells the place out every game( 68K seating capacity ). The MLB team in town sells out their stadium almost every game as well or at least comes close. They average 34-37K+ per game in a 38K stadium. Despite 2 last place finishes the last 2 years they still sold out or got into the low 30K range in all games.

Now, the MLS team in town draws about the same average per regular game as the NBA and NHL teams do( both of those play in same building ). That would seem to indicate popularity on par among the three at 1st glance. NOT! The reason the NBA and NHL teams only draw 17-18K per game is because that sells the building out. IF there were more seats those would sell too.

Listen to sports talk radio here. It is 99% the big 4 with the other 1% covering other sports like Soccer. Just no real interest in it. What about tickets? You can easily go to the stadium the day of the game and buy tickets for good seats for the MLS here but best of luck with doing that for tickets for the big 4. Ha! Those tickets are hard to come by and all 4 teams sell out most seats that are made available shortly after ticket sales open each year. The waiting list for season tickets to the big 4 is YEARS long for all teams. Want MLS season tickets? No problem.

Doesn't matter how many people move here from other countries where it was popular because it will never be enough of them to become a group of any real size. The US population is some 325 Million and rough estimates have immigrants( legal and illegal )making up about 40 million( US Census & Center For Immigrant Studies estimates ). The kids born here( or at least a lot of them )will assimilate into our culture and become fans of our sports. As you say, the immigrants do not know any other game. Once exposed to our sports I can easily see lots of them dumping soccer which to so many of us is boring to watch by comparison.

Soccer is a popular sport here in the US for kids to play( I actually liked it during gym in school - I was a brick wall in goal ). The thing with soccer is it doesn't hold up excitement wise to our other sports for watching NOR is there the money making potential for our athletes in Soccer that there is in the other sports( here in the US anyway ). As kids grow up and their sports become watched vs played the big 4 will easily take over vs Soccer. The kids who have the potential for a career in major league sports will swap from Soccer to Football, Baseball, Basketball, and/or Hockey where the money is. Heck, even Golf is more profitable if you are really good at it( again - here ).

There will always be people here( US )who like it and even people who play it( professionally and otherwise ). I just don't buy into the theory and arguments put forth by fans of the game that someday Soccer will rival the big 4. They have been saying that for too long and it hasn't happened. Just don't see it. For those who like it all the more power to you. Enjoy what you like by all means. I just wouldn't hold your breath waiting for multitudes of others to join you.

No offense meant by any of this. Just discussing.

 

[wemay]

Premier League
La Liga
Ligue 1
Bundesliga
Serie

All exciting this season. Down to the Champions League matches. But as NHHEMI stated, it isnt for everyone. I for one don't like baseball but am also not going to take potshots at it.

 

[hatt]

I think we have a chicken and egg issue with soccer in the US. We are use to seeing the best athletes, in their respective sport, in the world play. MLS is a 3rd rate league. The best soccer players in the world play somewhere else.

 

[weasley]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Spain league is very strong but most players are foreign so they can compete for Spain national team.

Italian national team is one of European best for more than 20-30 years.


Italy last won the World Cup in 2006. Spain won in 2010.
Italy last won the UEFA European Championship in 1968. Spain are the current champions, winning in 2008 and 2012.

Italy blow hot and cold and are one of the better sides in Europe, but not the best by any statistical measure.

 

[SeaJay]

During my school days in the 1960's we fielded soccer teams because the cost of football equipment was not in the budget. Over the years I've heard countless prognosticators discuss how soccer is ready to really go places in this country.

For a very short while in the 1970's (or maybe early 1980's) when Pele was here there was quite a bit of interest and there were some MLS games with sellouts that attracted a lot of interest. It was short lived however.

Still too many soccer games with a ton of action in the middle half of the field but precious little near the goals with many games being rather low scoring affairs. I have my doubts that soccer will ever be competitive in this country with the other major sports in terms of fan interest.

Logically, given the fan interest in the rest of the world, soccer should have been big in this country a long time ago, but that has not happened yet.

 

[Alfred_B]

I'm not sure why there is a sense that futbol is not very popular here. The stadiums are packed, it's broadcast on TV and we have a very good national team.