Why do Americans hate football(soccer) so much?

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

A) Don't generalize. Plenty of Americans like soccer.
B) It is called soccer, by the way, so shut up.
C) I don't think people hate it, most people (like me) are just indifferent to it.

 

[MisterShine]

I'll quote myself here:

First off I'd like to agree that it is stupid we still call it soccer and not football, I think we were intentionally trying to piss off the world when we made that decision.

Usually soccer isn't a big deal here outside of high school, but the media seems to be making a pretty deal about it here, and I know a lot of people who are quite excited, though I doubt its anywhere near the fervor the rest of the world has for the game.

Speaking of fervor, I just don't get it. It's not a very exciting game to watch. People aren't really allowed to hit each other, the game isn't especially tactical, there's no fucking scoring.. I don't get it. The sheer POINTLESSNESS of a 0-0 tie. Were they being paid millions of dollars to run the fuck around for a few hours?

A modest proposal: Make the nets bigger.

Or I guess make the nets smaller but no goalies. Those guys are cheaters anyway (It's football! no using hands!!)

edit: What I would absolutely love is for a huge Rugby world tournament. I'd be glued to my TV for that shit.

 

[Hudson_sir_he's_Hicks]

I wouldn't say that there's a lot of hate towards football, more a case of indifference amongst the majority of Americans. Football isn't part of the fabric of their sporting culture and as the USA hasn't won any major tournaments there will continue to be indifference towards it.

It also hasn't helped that the domestic league has struggled to establish itself with the collapse of the NASL and some of the founding teams of the MLS such as Miami Fusion and NY/NJ Metrostars going out of business (although I think the Metrostars simply rebranded as New York Red Bulls).

But I reckon that in about 20 years or so, there'll be a lot more passion for the worlds greatest sport once MLS has matured and captured a larger audience appeal and the national side continues to improve and progress at major tournaments.

I've been impressed with the USA fans I've seen at the World Cup, they are very passionate and have done their team proud with their support.

 

[Marble Dragon]

A bit of generalizing, yes, but it's really shocking how much hate this sport generates here in the States. At least in my area (Pittsburgh,PA). You ask someone about the World Cup, there's only three responses:

1 (most common)F**k that pussy sport! You can't even use your hands!
2 (less common)Whatever. I don't watch soccer.
3 (very uncommon)I love watching soccer! Go Team USA!

But Pittsburgh is not the United States. It is one of the states, but it is not the country. People in, say, Washington are vastly different from people in Kentucky. And people in Louisiana are different too. For example, here in Oregon, we have a lot of people who love football.

As for the question, I'd suppose I'd give these reasons:
1. We're horrible at it.
2. We're patriotic about crap, and we find handegg and baseball to be more American than football.
3. Some people still hate England because of that Revolutionary War thing, and England likes football. (Yeah, that's unlikely, but I'm having trouble thinking of good answers. Why? Because not all Americans hate football.)

 

[FoOd77]

To me, it's just a bunch of people briskly running up and down a field, while some guy occasionally kicks a ball

You sir, just described how American Football looks like.

Ah, but in American football, they THROW it, and then somebody has to catch it, and then everybody has to smack the shit out of the guy with the ball. And also, these people are all inhuman monsters jacked up on 'roids. Much more interesting than soccer.

Except that your football is actually and egghand or something like that. Very rarely anyone uses the feet.

It's not that rare at all, really. It's just not the whole team that kicks the ball, otherwise punting and field goals and whatnot, are all very important parts of the game, and involve kicking the ball, you know, with your feet. So it's not like the name 'Football' doesn't make sense in the context of the game.

You carry an egg-shaped leather object with your hands, kicking it once in a while.

How does the egg travel from person to person? Using legs? I don't think so.

But as I said, kicking is an essential, hell, game winning part of football. A great deal of games are won by kicking the ball through a goal. With your foot. The name isn't completely unfounded.

And for some reason the term "Handegg" conjures up images of a volleyball-like sport in my mind. That won't work.

Yes, and in soccer, people catch the ball with their hands. However, only two of them, those in front of the nets.

Still, how do you start every game? With a kick or with a hand throw? If I recall correctly, you pass it behind, and that person carries it in the hands or throws to someone else. Oh, and weren't touchdowns worth more than kick-offs or how you call them?

Also, the egg is thrown so often, it might as well be called "Volleyegg".

Actually, the game starts with one team KICKING the ball down field, and then each drive after that begins with a team KICKING the ball down field.

And yes, a touchdown is worth six points, yet immediately after scoring a touchdown, the team most often picks up an extra point by KICKING the ball into the goal, thus bringing the total up to 7.

A field goal on the other hand, gets a team 3 points, yet it doesn't require going the extra distance into the scoring zone, so as long as you have a KICKER that doesn't suck, you can score a field goal from 40 yards away, sometimes more, again, supposing the KICKER doesn't suck. Which is how games are usually won, with a field goal. Kicking the ball factors into the game a hell of a lot more than you think.

I've done as good a job explaining it as I can, it wouldn't hurt to watch a full game, so you're atleast somewhat familiar with the sport you're hating on. Hell, I've sat through two or three soccer games, as painful as it was, atleast now I can say I gave it a try, and didn't like it. At all.

 

[THEMANWHOIS]

Huge generalization. Major League Soccer blows, but I've had a lot of fun, even though all the teams I was rooting for (USA, England, Mexico) are now out. The only problem this World Cup has been the officiating.

 

[walhallafive]

#1 Diving - Grown men going down like they've been shot b/c a cleat grazes their shin guard. Don't pretend your sport is tough and then call out a stretcher to carry you off the field for a boo-boo.

#2 Whining - Along those same lines, seems like 18 or 19 out of the 22 on the field are drama queens every game. We have a few whiners in each sport, but they are the exception and they are known whiners. We can handle a few, but not the majority of the team.

#3 Long stretches where nothing happens - I don't mean "low scoring," rather 30 minute stretches full of bad passes, turnovers, no runs, diving and whining. Even the announcers seem surprised when a goal is scored or almost scored sometimes. Baseball is pretty low scoring, but there are still strikeouts and defensive plays to keep our attention in the mean time. I honestly don't know why this doesn't apply to NASCAR.

#4 Arbitrary calls by the ref - Graze a shin guard in the midfield, foul. Bear hug in the box on a set piece, probably not a foul. Combine this with the over-dramatic whiners and we feel like we're watching a poorly acted soap opera

#5 We suck at it - Americans have a sense of entitlement, we think we're the best in the world. Since we aren't competitive in soccer we put up a subconscious block that says, "this sport must not be important." Its the same with diving, rugby, and cricket.

#6 Our best athletes play something else - Our superstars aren't soccer players. Give us a superstar and our feelings will change.

#7 We are results oriented - We have a joke that says, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." We don't have any sports were being close to scoring more times then the other team feels like a win (with only rare exceptions). So going into halftime at 0-0 but having more corner kicks then the other team doesn't scratch us where we itch. And ties/draws in general are wholly unsatisfying.

 

[deadguynotyetburied]

#3 Long stretches where nothing happens - I don't mean "low scoring," rather 30 minute stretches full of bad passes, turnovers, no runs, diving and whining.

I don't know. Did you watch the Steelers/Seahawks Superbowl a few years back? Talk about nothing happening.

#5 We suck at it - Americans have a sense of entitlement, we think we're the best in the world. Since we aren't competitive in soccer we put up a subconscious block that says, "this sport must not be important."

I don't know about this, either. We go nuts over marginal talents in all kinds of other competitive sports, even knowing we're longshots. I do think our enthusiasm is somewhat tempered by our long and glorious tradition of never winning anything, but we're usually credible, and that's been good enough to keep Cubs fans in the seats for over 100 years.

 

[oktalist]

cause we suck at it

That never stopped England from enjoying it

 

[TheNarrator]

I would say the greatest difference between soccer and the sports that seem to be popular in the States is the frequency of scoring, really.

As a general rule, most sports popular in the US are sports that are eventful all the time, generally with many goals/points to be earned and few ties. In basketball, there's scoring every single minute, whereas a match of soccer can end with 0-0.

I don't really watch sports on the television, but soccer is probably my favourite sport to play with some friends. I appreciate the system of soccer. You can work for half an hour, or even an entire match, for a single goal. The rush when that goal finally hits the net is enormous, whether you are playing or watching the game. Well, not the watching in my case, but that's what I see with most soccer fans.

When you compare that to, say, basketball, you'll generally have a game with a lot more events and almost no chance of a really boring match (soccer, on the other hand can be terribly boring at times, if the teams are not playing well). The downside is that scoring just doesn't seem to matter. To me, watching basketball is like watching a slow-paced, boring game of soccer. Huzzah, another goal, one of the fucking 70 goals in the match. It's so eventful that whatever happens doesn't really matter, nothing really stands out. The only time when it can get exciting is when the scores are near-equal at the very end of the match, the only moment where that one goal actually does matter.

In the end, the difference is not that enormous. Do you like the few oasisses of excitement that soccer gives, or do you like to be satisfied with some action during the entire game? I prefer the former, but I can certainly understand people who prefer the latter.

 

[deadguynotyetburied]

We watch hockey. Of course, the playing field is much smaller, they're playing on ice-skates so the game moves a lot faster, and if the defense breaks down and you've got a guy behind all of the defenders, too bad for their goalie. That and you're rarely going to see someone rolling around on a sheet of ice faking an injury.

 

[BoxCutter]

"Hate"? I don't hate soccer I was just not brought up with it playing a big part in my life, and therefore I am less interested in it compared to other sports. I haven't encountered the "rabid rage" you speak of.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I love playing soccer, but watching it is boring as hell. Also, the only hatred of the game that I have for it is pretentious American douchebags who refuse to call it soccer here, because everywhere else calls it football. We have our game that we call football. When abroad, feel free to call it football, but when here call it soccer. When in Rome, do like the Romans.

Though, any foreigners here calling it football is completely understood, but an American who is just calling it football to piss people off, can go piss off.

 

[UnusualStranger]

#1 Diving - Grown men going down like they've been shot b/c a cleat grazes their shin guard. Don't pretend your sport is tough and then call out a stretcher to carry you off the field for a boo-boo.

#2 Whining - Along those same lines, seems like 18 or 19 out of the 22 on the field are drama queens every game. We have a few whiners in each sport, but they are the exception and they are known whiners. We can handle a few, but not the majority of the team.

#3 Long stretches where nothing happens - I don't mean "low scoring," rather 30 minute stretches full of bad passes, turnovers, no runs, diving and whining. Even the announcers seem surprised when a goal is scored or almost scored sometimes. Baseball is pretty low scoring, but there are still strikeouts and defensive plays to keep our attention in the mean time. I honestly don't know why this doesn't apply to NASCAR.

#4 Arbitrary calls by the ref - Graze a shin guard in the midfield, foul. Bear hug in the box on a set piece, probably not a foul. Combine this with the over-dramatic whiners and we feel like we're watching a poorly acted soap opera

#5 We suck at it - Americans have a sense of entitlement, we think we're the best in the world. Since we aren't competitive in soccer we put up a subconscious block that says, "this sport must not be important." Its the same with diving, rugby, and cricket.

#6 Our best athletes play something else - Our superstars aren't soccer players. Give us a superstar and our feelings will change.

#7 We are results oriented - We have a joke that says, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." We don't have any sports were being close to scoring more times then the other team feels like a win (with only rare exceptions). So going into halftime at 0-0 but having more corner kicks then the other team doesn't scratch us where we itch. And ties/draws in general are wholly unsatisfying.

This is generally the the thoughts on this. Also....the recent major fallout of a completely bogus call on the American team turning a win to a tie seems like an absolutely corrupt call in a supposedly high profile game.

I don't consider myself well versed in any sports, but when I hear a corrupt call that effects a game from a win to a tie, and also is in the gaze of a majority of the world, I'm not sure if I can trust how the game is run.

Corruption happens, yes, but when no one knows why things happen in a game, but the decision stands anyway, something is wrong.

 

[tkioz]

The reason a large amount of American's hate Soccer (sorry I'm Australian, "football" will always be Aussie Rules to me) is the same reason they hate cricket and a huge chunk of other sports, for one they didn't "invent" it (despite the fact they didn't invent a lot of sports they claim as their own) so it's "foreign" (not just an American fault really) and secondly and most importantly.

They suck at it. No offence, the players in the US national teams (for soccer, cricket, etc) could beat the live crap out of me and 99% of the people on the planet, but when up against other professionals they get their asses handed too them. In some countries this means we rally around them, everyone loves an underdog, but in the US winning is everything.

heh anyone else remember that game a few years ago where the Australian under 20s went to the US and trashed the living crap out of the US national team? I giggle just thinking about it.

That's the reason the US doesn't like those kind of sports.

 

[Slaanax]

The reason a large amount of American's hate Soccer (sorry I'm Australian, "football" will always be Aussie Rules to me) is the same reason they hate cricket and a huge chunk of other sports, for one they didn't "invent" it (despite the fact they didn't invent a lot of sports they claim as their own) so it's "foreign" (not just an American fault really) and secondly and most importantly.

They suck at it. No offence, the players in the US national teams (for soccer, cricket, etc) could beat the live crap out of me and 99% of the people on the planet, but when up against other professionals they get their asses handed too them. In some countries this means we rally around them, everyone loves an underdog, but in the US winning is everything.

heh anyone else remember that game a few years ago where the Australian under 20s went to the US and trashed the living crap out of the US national team? I giggle just thinking about it.

That's the reason the US doesn't like those kind of sports.

Basically it boils down to this all of our best athletes growing up in the USA when to play Basketball and Football, so soccer loses out a bit on the talent pool.

 

[Cody211282]

I don't hate it, I just think it's boring as hell.

 

[blank0000]

We don't, lots of people get excited about it. You are ill informed.