| There is a question that every mother finds | | | | the game. Athletes with unpronounceable |
| herself asking her child at some point in | | | | foreign names are hard to talk about in sound |
| their lives. "If all of your friends jumped | | | | bites and at the water cooler. While a few |
| off a bridge, would you do it too?" The | | | | foreign players have made it in the American |
| answer of course is "no" but the question | | | | sports they are generally the exception and |
| serves to illustrate our potential as human | | | | not the rule, and you'll find the American |
| beings for enacting popular behavior. If you | | | | media has given them nicknames to help the |
| ask a citizen of the United States, "If | | | | country manage the challenge of different |
| everyone in the world watched a certain | | | | languages. The national tendency towards |
| sport, would you?" The answer, if the sport | | | | isolationism works against Americans ever |
| were soccer, would be "no". Popular or not, | | | | becoming a part of the global soccer |
| Americans simply don't get soccer. | | | | movement. |
| | | | |
| Low scores | | | | No history |
| | | | |
| One of the major complaints Americans have | | | | While there are some fans, largely people who |
| about professional soccer, or football as | | | | played soccer in college, within the United |
| it's known in the rest of the world, is that | | | | States the country as a whole has no real |
| it is so low-scoring. It is not uncommon for | | | | history with the sport or its concepts. While |
| a game to go through an entire course of play | | | | some may argue that human beings have been |
| and end up with a score of 2 to 1. To the | | | | kicking the ball as a form of sport since |
| American mindset, fed by basketball, football | | | | time began, soccer's progress as an organized |
| and even hockey a score of 2 to 1 means | | | | game has simply not permeated American |
| nothing happened for an hour. The reason for | | | | history or consciousness. Americans grow up |
| the low scores is the slow play, another | | | | with baseball, spend every fall watching |
| minus to the American productivity mindset. | | | | football -- the kind played with the oval |
| Passing the ball back and forth from the wing | | | | brown ball -- and have developed a burgeoning |
| to the fullback seems less like strategy and | | | | interest in basketball. All three sports play |
| more like repetition. The final scoring issue | | | | to America's strengths as an individualistic, |
| for Americans offends the national sense of | | | | capitalistic society. Entering into any |
| capitalism and achievement -- ending in a | | | | professional sport as a fan requires a |
| tie. American professional sports go to great | | | | certain amount of desire an effort to learn |
| lengths to find ways to break ties and ensure | | | | players, rules, and standards. For soccer to |
| at the end of the game, someone will win. | | | | become a part of the American mindset would |
| Ending in a tie is simply un-American. | | | | require too much effort for too little gain. |
| | | | |
| Unknown names | | | | The good news for professional soccer is it |
| | | | doesn't need America. Soccer is statistically |
| While soccer enjoys the largest worldwide | | | | unchallenged in its dominance over the rest |
| audience of any international sport, the | | | | of the world. With a viewing audience twice |
| stars and players of this amazing game are | | | | the size of the Olympics, soccer will |
| relatively unknown in America. Part of the | | | | continue to forge ahead without the help of |
| reason Americans have a hard time investing | | | | that big country in the west. |
| in soccer, is the international specter of | | | | |