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OFFTOPIC: That's one annoying thing about american sports...I can't get how you people deal with so much interruptions on a trivial game that's suppose to last 1 hour (such as football) to turn into a painfull 2.5 hours or so.
Now, going back to topic, I believe US Soccer Federation might be starting to realize that soccer (like any other sport) is all about growing a winning generation from it's base. Can't say much 'cuz I don't follow all of MLS or how their teams prepare their youth to play at early ages but we've seen plenty of european soccer teams who put lots of money and time on recruiting and training young talented players only to see and harvest results 5-10 years later. (Take Messi as example and his whole lifetime in Barcelona).
That brings us back to a cultural bottom line: Soccer is yet far away from getting attention of US children (and parents) as a recreational sport. Baseball, football, basket are much more appealing to them...So it's hard to recruit children if they're not really into soccer.
Last but not least, MLS teams still seem to be more interested on bringing on experienced foreign players instead (Kaka, Ibraihmovic, Beckham, Ronaldo) just to make money on ticket sales.
All that reflects on a weakened National Team, short of resources to put on field and win matches.
Geographically, soccer is large in the northeast US. Many schools have soccer programs, many universities now have soccer team scholarships, all parks have soccer games going on, northeast soccer rec and travel leagues are booming, MLS attendance increases each year. American football participation is declining at many northeast schools also. The local stores sell the Panini soccer sticker books! There are a lot of 7-14 yr olds very interested in soccer and disinterested in American football. In 10-15yrs time you'll see more effect - probably a big regional divide. Interest in basketball isn't dropping, but interest in baseball has been steadily declining for some time.
Would be amazing if people would support american soccer.
Quite puzzling where your info comes from.
They do.
From youth soccer on up to National Teams and World Cup. It may not be at the level of all people's expectations, but it exists. On the other hand, you may not realize that you're painting America with a very broad brush with your statements.
Would be amazing if people would support american soccer.
Supporting American soccer has nothing to do with it, in my opinion. It's the numerous sports that have divided up the american talent. Baseball, basketball, and football are American invented sports and will be popular for the foreseeable future.
Supporting American soccer has nothing to do with it, in my opinion. It's the numerous sports that have divided up the american talent. Baseball, basketball, and football are American invented sports and will be popular for the foreseeable future.
I'll give you basketball, but American football and baseball are derived from rugby and rounders respectively.
Football (Soccer)
Rugby - Union and League
Cricket
Athletics
Formula 1 & Motorsport
Horse Racing
Tennis
Golf
Boxing
Snooker
Darts
Swimming
Rowing
Granted, but when you look a the main sport, there's only a couple (max 3) for each country. For most of the world, Soccer is #1, with Rugby or Cricket landing #2 (the two seem to be exclusive outside of the UK), and hockey coming in just behind, unless you live in Canada or Russia, where it ties with soccer for #1. But in the US it's Baseball and Football at #1 (which exactly is #1 will be argued forever) and Basketball and Hockey fighting for #2, with soccer being a distant 5th. It's not the only country where soccer takes a back seat: the Phillipines barely bothers with it, focusing on volleyball and basketball, and India is almost exclusively cricket country.
Putting in things like motorsports and golf is silly. We're talking about team sports leagues here, and those are a completely different animal. Anyway, back to the US: MLS tries hard, very hard, but they're essentially 5th in line for athletes after MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL. I don't think there's any country out there where the local soccer league is actually 5th in line...unless it doesn't exist in the first place. Most of the world actually considers MLS to be a developmental leage for EPL, Bundesliga, and Liga MX.
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