<p>There must be other American born and bred parents who don’t give two cents about the World Cup and are brave enough to admit it. Come on. Be honest. While most of us have experienced (or are experiencing) our kids engaging in community and school soccer programs, how many of us actually sit down and watch people play who are unknown to us? Again, be honest. </p>
<p>Saying native Americans care about the world of professional soccer is as nutty as saying one day we’ll care about cricket. The “soccer will finally sweep Americans into its grasp” is a canard that has been trumpeted since Pele signed with the old North American soccer league back in the 70s. Every few years there is another media blitz about “the beautiful game” and that Americans will finally embrace the sport that is most popular on the rest of the planet. Thirty plus years, people. It still hasn’t happened. Unless you happen to travel through immigrant neighborhoods in the northeast, southwest, West Coast or southern Florida, no one is captivated by soccer. We just aren’t. As a spectator sport in America soccer will never come close to football, basketball, baseball, NASCAR or even hockey for that matter. The problem isn’t that we don’t understand the game, as some non-Americans and recent immigrants insist. We understand the game because of our kids.</p>
<p>Name one American president, for example, and I mean EVER, who was seen kicking a soccer ball around and talking about “the beautiful game” as the media calls it? Not even our first non-white, non-Anglo Saxon president doesn’t do it. Yet every president throws out the first pitch at the World Series or to kick off a new season. Every president watches the Super Bowl and/or college basketball’s final four. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. Soccer IS a beautiful game. I disagree with the haters and xenophobes who ignorantly brand soccer as a “non-sport.” That’s absurd. It requires athleticism on a par with all of the aforementioned popular American team sports. It just isn’t in our DNA, our culture. We didn’t invent it. Just like Formula One will never have even one-tenth the popularity in the USA as NASCAR, soccer will never come close - not ever - to the widespread almost religious (in some states) fervor of American-style football. In most of the USA, the idea of soccer and the World Cup elicits one big American yawn. I think my problem -and perhaps the issue with a lot of Americans - is this: 1-0 and 1-1 games “ain’t makin’ it.” Not for Americans. One or two goals in most games? Americans want to see points scored. Lots and lots of points, and in soccer, the only way to score a point is by making a goal. Do SOMETHING to enable a hell of a lot more scoring, and maybe, just MAYBE, most Americans will start to pay attention.</p>
<p>What’s your opinion? Do you agree or disagree?</p>
<p>I don’t care about the World Cup, but I don’t care about professional sports (with the possible exception of baseball, only because I grew up going to games with a grandparent who worked for a pro sports team). I couldn’t have picked out Michael Jordan’s or Tiger Woods’ faces from a crowd, honestly. Just don’t care. An “achievement” that’s just not of interest to me.</p>
<p>I don’t care about the World Cup even though my husband and some of his students are over there covering it. I could have gone, but passed on that opportunity. </p>
<p>I don’t care about professional sports. </p>
<p>My passion is community theater, and fortunately for me, there are few sports fans involved in that. :)</p>
<p>I don’t really care about the World Cup, but I will watch some of it, mainly when the U.S. is playing. But honestly, it is the most boring of all professional sports to watch. Not enough scoring.</p>
<p>I can’t say I care. I pick and choose my sports. I like to watch baseball and tennis. And college football. Hey, I grew up with brothers and then spent over twenty years with my h and s. Became a baseball fan at age nine. And I think it’s fun to root for a team together. Son is now a BIG soccer fan. So I watched the last half of the US playing England. Very impressed by the US goalie. And I like that there are few game stoppages. Warming to it. But I don’t think I’ll ever be a big fan. Go Phillies. We are…Penn State. More my speed.</p>
<p>Oh…and I completely understand those who have no interest in sports…like some who have posted here. But I don’t like it when those same folks get snooty about it (not that anyone here has). It’s fun. One of my favorite friends, a retired English prof, is an ultra-intellectual…has over 25,000 books in his library. Love his Redskins and bets on horses too. Cool guy.</p>
<p>Disagree!!! Love watching soccer live or on TV - though can’t take too much time to watch it at this stage of the competition.</p>
<p>LOVE the excitement it brings to our house - S is a soccer fanatic on and off the field and he pumps us all up.</p>
<p>LOVE that this is the one event that I can witness the power in the sports world of it’s appreciation. Here at home, news about it is abundant. And, since it is summer, when we journey to our cottage in Canada - even in our location though rural, you see the excitement from another country’s perspective! </p>
<p>So, I embrace it. It’s a form of sports excitement - sort of similar to what the Olympics bring.</p>
<p>Are you kidding? I would only attend my kid’s soccer games if her dad couldn’t go. That being said, I was the faithful Softball mom and theater tech mom.</p>
<p>The kid is a rabid pro soccer fan so the games are on TV periodically. I did enjoy the opening ceremony. </p>
<p>Her last years in high scool, she had us watching Real Madrid games on and other teams GOL-TV who I have since forgotten. I (deliberately) mangled players names. but did enjoy the announcer. Ray Hudson…the guy with an Scottish accent calling play by play for games in Spain and Germany …and his odd comments…but watching World Cup? It’ll put me to sleep.</p>
<p>Isn’t it great it takes all kinds to make the world go round. As I tell my D, if everyone was an __________(you fill in the blank) this would be a really boring planet.</p>
<p>I am agreeing with Plainsman for the first time ever. I don’t care about the World Cup and I DO like many professional and, especially, college sports. Soccer just wasn’t/isn’t on my radar. I am also not a hockey fan- just never took to it.</p>
<p>I will watch people competing at anything remotely athletic, whether I have any interest in the underlying activity or not. Chainsaw competitions? Caber toss? Log rolling? Sure. It will keep my attention for at least a little while. But folks, I gotta admit…a 1-0 soccer match is at the edges of my tolerance.</p>
<p>I have never been able to get through an entire soccer or hockey game. They just bore me to tears. I was forced to watch a lacrosse game once because a neighbor’s kid was playing. I dated a rugby player so had to sit through lots of his games, but there were usually puppies and dogs on the sideline that needed walking or playing with so that was a good distraction. I agree that NBA basketball is a big snooze. Although I don’t consider race car driving a sport, NASCAR tops the worst list for me. I’d probably only watch the World Cup to get away from a NASCAR race.</p>
<p>Plainsman, fortunately for those of us who adore soccer, it really doesn’t matter if the US embraces it with the same passion as the rest of the world. Between Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN, and when necessary, GolTV and the Spanish-language stations, American fans have plenty of opportunities to satisfy their cravings for this sport. We’re a minority in the sporting market, but a happy one!</p>
<p>My husband and I watched the US-England match on Saturday at a packed pub in our town. The atmosphere was electric, enhanced by a sizable contingent of English expats among the pro-American majority.</p>
<p>What I do notice after 12 years of attending Chicago Fire matches, plus the occasional friendly between visiting foreign teams, is that soccer fans seem to be much younger than those at other sporting events. And there is certainly more of an international presence, as measured by people around me speaking Spanish or Polish (we were definitely in the minority at a Poland-US friendly in Soldier Field a few years ago, as Chicago has so many Polish immigrants). Both of these factors bode well for the future of the sport in the US. :)</p>
<p>And I admit I just don’t understand why people dislike the low-scoring nature of the sport…each goal is so much more meaningful than scores in other sports. (And I am a lifelong fan of everything but basketball). But then as an earlier poster wisely noted, the world would be dreadfully dull if everyone had the same tastes and preferences!</p>
<p>I could care less about the Superbowl. I don’t even recall who was in it this year. I hate professional basketball: too much scoring, too easy for the people who now play it. Everyone runs to one end: they score. Everyone runs back to the other end: they score. (Professional basketball players destroyed Olympic basketball.) Almost as excruciatingly boring as watching two professional tennis players who are dedicated baseliners and never come to the net. Almost as tedious as the hours and hours it takes to play a few minutes of football.</p>
<p>I like soccer. I like baseball. I even like hockey, although I don’t watch it much.</p>
<p>I don’t watch any professional sports, so not caring about the World Cup is not noteworthy. My husband and son both like watching soccer and have watched the WC in the past, though they haven’t watched a game yet this year. (Except while doing the stepper at the Y.) We don’t get cable, so it’s a bit hit or miss as to what we can find to watch. My husband likes watching tennis. I think there will be more interest in soccer soon - we’ve just raised the first generation of kids who played a lot of soccer growing up.</p>
…and his odd comments…but watching World Cup? It’ll put me to sleep.</p>