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