I think it is mostly in the US, but pretty much everywhere else it's not.
Yeah, that was half-joking.
In the US, you only hear about it when it's the women's team, and even in middle and high school, you only see them compete with girl's teams. Boys just aren't interested, while girls go to it because it's one of the only "real sports" besides maybe tennis where they can get as much if not more of a spotlight than the boys. If we stopped having a men's professional team, I don't think anyone would notice.
That said, I'm surprised with all the furor still going on around this thing. Considering the last I heard about FIFA, there was finally being a crackdown on its ludicrously corrupt practices, and it's being hosted in Russia, which just had a crackdown for how extravagantly it cheated during the olympics, the enthusiasm would be more curbed.
In the US, you only hear about it when it's the women's team, and even in middle and high school, you only see them compete with girl's teams. Boys just aren't interested, while girls go to it because it's one of the only "real sports" besides maybe tennis where they can get as much if not more of a spotlight than the boys. If we stopped having a men's professional team, I don't think anyone would notice.
That said, I'm surprised with all the furor still going on around this thing. Considering the last I heard about FIFA, there was finally being a crackdown on its ludicrously corrupt practices, and it's being hosted in Russia, which just had a crackdown for how extravagantly it cheated during the olympics, the enthusiasm would be more curbed.
Because any country have a fair shot at the title of Champion, and even reigning champions have a chance to go out miserably in the next cup like France, Italy, Spain and Germany did. Its full of salt and the high of triumph is all the more satisfying. Like Kancolle.
But in 2026 they ended up hosting again, this time together with Mexico and Canada to boot!
Just means they'll make another bid to try to get the Americans to care. It probably won't work. They've been trying since at least the 1950s to get Americans interesting. After elementary school, they just don't care much anymore. Even American sportscasters are uninteresting for it. The previous World Cup the other employees where I worked switched it over to one of the Hispanic channel because their sportscasters were at least excited about every little thing that happened.
Yes, the one team sports USA cant dominate. The country himself have the geographical and human potential to do it, with each states as big as a country in Europe or Asia, they could have a highly competitive football scene on par with the best of UK, Italy, Spain or Germany. But something in the Americans mentality is stopping them from stepping up the game. So unless a drastic change happens, we may not see USA lifting the trophy for a while. Hell even a Asian or African nation may do before USA ever will. Football/Soccer seems to be to USA what the metric system is, the entire world have gone with it, but somehow not USA.
Yes, the one team sports USA cant dominate. The country himself have the geographical and human potential to do it, with each states as big as a country in Europe or Asia, they could have a highly competitive football scene on par with the best of UK, Italy, Spain or Germany. But something in the Americans mentality is stopping them from stepping up the game. So unless a drastic change happens, we may not see USA lifting the trophy for a while. Hell even a Asian or African nation may do before USA ever will. Football/Soccer seems to be to USA what the metric system is, the entire world have gone with it, but somehow not USA.
As far as I can understand(and I think I don't), its a combination of "Amurikan stubbornness" and that good games in American sports are about action and big numbers while good "soccer" games are mostly about action and small numbers since the most entertaining games tend to be the ones where equal teams keep going against eachother without any side getting a real advantage.
As far as I can understand(and I think I don't), its a combination of "Amurikan stubbornness" and that good games in American sports are about action and big numbers while good "soccer" games are mostly about action and small numbers since the most entertaining games tend to be the ones where equal teams keep going against eachother without any side getting a real advantage.
While I'm not exactly a fan myself (of any sport, really - I don't understand why people watch other people play games when there's so many more interesting games they could actually be taking part in), I've repeatedly heard it portrayed as a matter of the marketing more than the game, itself.
American football became an even bigger sport than "America's Passtime" of baseball in large part thanks to being "destination television" that would have major games every week, compared to the constant trickle of baseball or basketball.
Likewise, things like Fantasy Football leagues turn casual fans into obsessors.
As for why it's able to thrive, as already mentioned, America is the third most populous nation, and the most affluent - American football is a multi-billion-dollar industry without ever having to step outside the country. How many nations would be able to support an endemic sport that popular without having some sort of international league?
Additionally, it's something of a feature to not have any other country compete, since the NFL works hard to stay as apolitical as possible. Football teams are just from specific cities and have different colors and logos, they don't have any implied identity beyond that. If you pulled in other countries, it would inherently start involving the politics of those other countries among some of the fans. (This is a country where wrestling has American "faces" get into fights with foreign "heels" so that crowds can scream "USAUSAUSA" with jingoistic bloodlust as "America" beats up "another country"...)
I too find sport infantile. However I think Americans like their version as a happy middle: it is more dangerous than Soccer, but very safe compared to Rugby.
Yes, the one team sports USA cant dominate. The country himself have the geographical and human potential to do it, with each states as big as a country in Europe or Asia, they could have a highly competitive football scene on par with the best of UK, Italy, Spain or Germany. But something in the Americans mentality is stopping them from stepping up the game. So unless a drastic change happens, we may not see USA lifting the trophy for a while. Hell even a Asian or African nation may do before USA ever will. Football/Soccer seems to be to USA what the metric system is, the entire world have gone with it, but somehow not USA.
It's the fact no one here gives even a tenth of the shit about it that Europe does. This won't change either because without the cultural brain washing already in place the US population isn't going to just stop watching the sports it has for a new one. Not unless it's in some way much more compelling or interesting and despite the ravings of it's zealots, Soccer is not on balance a better spectator sport in my view. Actually on balance I'd rate it lower then all of them here beside Baseball where I'd call it a tie (more is happening overall in the Soccer game, but the Baseball game has more peaks of higher action IMO, but that said both are pretty boring to watch).
Pretty much every decade for the last half century has been it's zealots claiming the US is "just about" to go crazy over it, but it never happens. The response of the nation to missing the World Cup outside of said zealots was "meh", and all these supposed polls about the sports increased popularity have completely failed to translate over into any sort of cultural relevance or resonance. Soccer will likely continue to grow, if for no other reason the being driven by an expanding Hispanic population, but the chances it will ever hold a candle to the zeal afforded it in wider European or Latin culture is very remote.
It won elsewhere because it never really had competitors, it has four in the US.
I also find it kind of amusing how people act like soccer is some thing that everyone should want to be part of when it's only global to begin with because it was largely spread by centuries of colonialism and often supplanted and stamped out homegrown games in various places. Soccer is like the poster-child of a homogenizing globalist export that blots out local culture, but because it originates from Europe that's apparently a good thing in this one case.
It's the fact no one here gives even a tenth of the shit about it that Europe does. This won't change either because without the cultural brain washing already in place the US population isn't going to just stop watching the sports it has for a new one. Not unless it's in some way much more compelling or interesting and despite the ravings of it's zealots, Soccer is not on balance a better spectator sport in my view. Actually on balance I'd rate it lower then all of them here beside Baseball where I'd call it a tie (more is happening overall in the Soccer game, but the Baseball game has more peaks of higher action IMO, but that said both are pretty boring to watch).
Pretty much every decade for the last half century has been it's zealots claiming the US is "just about" to go crazy over it, but it never happens. The response of the nation to missing the World Cup outside of said zealots was "meh", and all these supposed polls about the sports increased popularity have completely failed to translate over into any sort of cultural relevance or resonance. Soccer will likely continue to grow, if for no other reason the being driven by an expanding Hispanic population, but the chances it will ever hold a candle to the zeal afforded it in wider European or Latin culture is very remote.
It won elsewhere because it never really had competitors, it has four in the US.
I also find it kind of amusing how people act like soccer is some thing that everyone should want to be part of when it's only global to begin with because it was largely spread by centuries of colonialism and often supplanted and stamped out homegrown games in various places. Soccer is like the poster-child of a homogenizing globalist export that blots out local culture, but because it originates from Europe that's apparently a good thing in this one case.
Ohhhhhh! Someone is salty!
And you know what? Sport is actually in the last possible thing they could have included in your so-called "brain washing" scheme. Unless modern sports change, they will continue to lost millenials because of short attention span.
because everyone knows that Soccer is a religion, and that its basically a global version of Eurovision in that the results of the match can either make or break wars if history is proven right 3rd times the charm right lads? Germany, Honduras... Germany???
I'm just excited that there exists the potential for the finals of the World Cup to be France vs England. Angevin Empire's comin back boys!
Im afraid about Les Bleus who plays not Well. There is none of that sweet madness from 98-2000. I remember skipping last weeks of school to watch all France matches. You could cut the tension during the penalty shootouts against Italy with a knife, the deathlike silence when Di Baggio (? Iirc) shot and hit the bar, the screams of joy that drowned my neighborhood. Glorious.
I think it's more of a case of limited eyeballs and prestige level than anything. NFL dominates Fall and early Winter, NBA and NHL controls late-Winter and early-Spring, and MLB rules late-Spring and Summer. There really isn't much room for another top-tier pro-league where it matters; the public's attention and their wallets.
Soccer has its niche, but that's about the best it'll do unless one of the above four falters big time.
Belgium/France and Croatia/England confirmed for Final Four matches.
Speaking of USA and football/soccer, it was chosen (together with Mexico and Canada) to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup for a variety of reasons. At the time the "United 2026" bid was chosen, its only competition was Morocco, which is comparatively a riskier option in terms of spending, profitability and the fact that several of its proposed stadiums have yet to be built. By comparison, USA, Mexico and Canada have the money and resources, not to mention existing stadiums, all with only a small risk of becoming white elephants in the near future. Besides, it seems FIFA still has fond memories of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the last time it went to the USA, which continues to hold world records for highest attendances, both on average per game (almost 70,000) and overall (6.3 million). One may cynically say it has something to do with the USA's abundance of gigantic stadiums made with American football in mind (e.g., the 100,000-seater AT&T Stadium in Dallas), and that America's (and Canada's) top-flight league, the Major League Soccer (MLS), is increasingly becoming the favored place for European stars to spend their last few years on the field (e.g., David Beckham at Los Angeles Galaxy), but the point stands that the USA, with its increasingly diverse population, is a giant football/soccer market waiting to be explored.
Belgium/France and Croatia/England confirmed for Final Four matches.
Speaking of USA and football/soccer, it was chosen (together with Mexico and Canada) to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup for a variety of reasons. At the time the "United 2026" bid was chosen, its only competition was Morocco, which is comparatively a riskier option in terms of spending, profitability and the fact that several of its proposed stadiums have yet to be built. By comparison, USA, Mexico and Canada have the money and resources, not to mention existing stadiums, all with only a small risk of becoming white elephants in the near future. Besides, it seems FIFA still has fond memories of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the last time it went to the USA, which continues to hold world records for highest attendances, both on average per game (almost 70,000) and overall (6.3 million). One may cynically say it has something to do with the USA's abundance of gigantic stadiums made with American football in mind (e.g., the 100,000-seater AT&T Stadium in Dallas), and that America's (and Canada's) top-flight league, the Major League Soccer (MLS), is increasingly becoming the favored place for European stars to spend their last few years on the field (e.g., David Beckham at Los Angeles Galaxy), but the point stands that the USA, with its increasingly diverse population, is a giant football/soccer market waiting to be explored.
Well, France is good (though I'm a bit ashame for Mbappe's action at the end just to stall some time, that was low). We only need England to do their part.
