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1 - America is not the best at it yet so people dismiss it.
2 - More diving than any other sport. One second they're rolling around on the ground, grabbing their face acting like they've been shot, then the next second they're up and perfectly fine to keep playing.
3 - Low scoring, it's rare to see a game get more than 4 or 5 goals total. Basketball and football are scoring very frequently, even hockey which is more fast paced and usually gets more goals in the 8-12 goal total range in a game. Soccer is more tactical which makes each goal more special. That's the reason fans freak out when a goal is scored, it means more. Ever watch the first half of a basketball game? A few people clap when a field goal is scored and that's about it. It's not until the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter when fans actually get excited about points.
I'm a die hard soccer fan, always have been, always will be. It truly is the beautiful game and I find every single game fun and entertaining to watch, even when the teams playing don't really mean anything to me. These are just the most common and reoccurring complaints for the sport I've heard throughout my lifetime. It's grown tremendously in popularity in the past decade and a half, but it still has a lot of catching up to do. It's just going to take time.
I'm obviously not a die hard but I try to pay attention during the World Cup because I understand it's significance. As I watched I started to appreciate the skill but the low scoring made it a challenge to maintain interest. And of course I was all in for the USA.
But LOL at US Soccer Fan who proclaimed that we had arrived after advancing to the elimination round. Bragging about a 1-2-1 performance shows just how far below the rest of the world we are and where we will probably remain.
Are you serious? Have you watched an MLB game any time in the last, say, 20 years? How about hockey? Do you know that only a quarter of NHL players are American, and that's the highest it's ever been?
Yeah well, there's a professional LaCrosse league here in the States but it's so insignificant that it's not really a "choice" in terms of getting wide exposure and thus having a chance at a significant audience. Here we have 4 major sports that will draw tens of millions in attendance per season, plus college football and college basketball whose stadiums are sometimes even bigger than the ones the major professional leagues play in.
The more I think about basketball though, the more it occurs to me that basketball must be significantly popular in some parts of Europe considering the growing amount of NBA-level talent that is being cultivated there. Then again I wonder if play quality in European leagues suffer from having all their best players scooped up by the NBA. That's one problem plaguing MLS here, whenever a serious soccer talent gets attention he gets snatched up by some European team, meanwhile MLS salary caps are so severe that they can't recruit top talent from abroad to help improve the level of play, unless that changed while I wasn't looking.
I was talking about the basketball and hockey leagues in Europe, not soccer or rugby.
Yes, and no. Most of the world's best players end up in the NBA by the time they are in their mid 20s at the latest, but internationally they have been playing pro-level ball at some level since they were teens in Europe, not to mention national team experience.
There is a solid crop of guys that would be NBA level starters or reserves that choose to play in other leagues because they pay well (that said, NBA salaries are sky-rocketing, so this may change.) Spain jumps to mind here. Several of their Olympians are NBA quality guys who play in other leagues.
As for the Boomers, yes, basketball is growing in Australia. I think they started 4 quality NBA players......and their two best young players (Simmons, Exum) didn't make the trip. So while they were underdogs to the USA, it isn't too surprising they kept it close. Good players, great offensive sets, fun ball to watch. I am happy the NBA is adopting more "pace and space" style ball movement offenses. It is easy on the eye.
The fact that the USA is terrible at soccer doesn't help either. Some fans of other sports have an inferiority complex towards soccer and this is why they love criticizing it.
Boring to me, same as baseball. Now when it comes to football, I love the "Flea flicker" plays and the miracle catches and passes and the last moment win (Only when MY team does it) and THAT'S what I like.
Soccer AND American Football are both highly strategic and entertaining. The issue is that most people rarely become students of both games since great effort is required to understand just one of the sports. Soccer fans from other parts of the world hate American Football because it looks like a bunch of overweight dudes smashing into each other. They don't understand the difference between the Air Coryell, Spread or Read Option. Explaining the intricacies of the Cover 2, Cover 3, Quarters vs. a single high safety look (and being able to identify it pre-snap when a defense is disguising its' coverage) is not even worth the trouble. Just like non-soccer fans will never understand "offsides" and why pacing and touch are important in advancing the ball.
Watching English Premier League and even the UEFA Champions League exposes you to high quality play and intensity. The skill level is a stark contrast to what you generally see stateside (though MLS is slowly improving, it will never be a top league). The biggest issue for Americans is that our sports leagues are generally the best in the world: NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB have the best hockey, basketball, football and baseball players on the globe respectively. MLS and other past U.S.-based leagues do not/did not have the top-of-the-line talent and it shows on the field.
Using basketball as an example, the U.S. based NBA is to hoops what EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga etc., are to soccer. American soccer is like Chinese or German basketball. We try, but we aren't that great at it yet.
Soccer is the best sport ever and this is why it's the most popular sport on earth by far. I feel like in North America some people are jealous of soccer because it's the most popular sport in the world while their favorite sport is irrelevant worldwide and this is why they love criticizing it often.
Basically, it's what we let our kids do in the US until they grow up and pick a better sport to participate in.
Aside from the orange slices and juice boxes, I had no use for soccer growing up.
To start off, I am not a fan of any sport really. But that doesn't mean I equally hate every sport. It's all nuanced.
I passionately loathe rugby/AFL. I can't understand how people enjoy it. It's such a primitive sport. The players look and act very savage. If they love fighting then they should've done boxing or professional fighting. Cricket is also horrible.
With that being said, I do think soccer is the most watchable sport. It's very easy to grasp and it's much "softer". You don't have to be a primitive beast to play it. Its players are also much more attractive. So it's also an eye candy type of sport for me. I like how simple and gradient the scores (it's 1, 2, 3, rather than 10-20-30 as practiced in rugby). I also like how "exotic" it is, considering the locations that are used for it (Rio, Rome, Madrid, etc).
After 2 hours a team finally wins with 1 point. Yawn.
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