Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The evidence so far would suggest otherwise regarding talent. And true, they love the game, but along the way a decision is made about which sport to focus on. The bigger sports almost always win that decision. Hell, MMA isn't even pulling the crazy athletes yet. Some of the best athletes in MMA failed at making it in other sports first. And that leads to another problem, soccer isn't the kind of sport you can just switch to later when another didn't work out. Like basketball you either play it all the time from a very young age so that the ball feels like an extension of your body or you don't. Soccer is not being picked first and, due to the high barrier to entry from a skill standpoint, cannot be picked up later.

Also, soccer does not match up well with American's most popular sports. Americans obviously love fast moving and violent sports. Soccer is not violent and, while the players are running all over the place, the game can feel very slow and aimless at times. Hockey, a much more exciting sport imo, cannot even get their playoffs on regular cable. Soccer will grow in the US but I don't think it will take any kind of meaningful foothold, at least not for a very long time. The poor, black, and/or urban areas of the country, which form the backbone of the major sports, are not switching to soccer any time soon.

edit: Should probably take any further discussion to the soccer thread or PMs.

Soccer in the US has been "going to blow up in the next 5 years" for my entire life.

Every time I've viewed pro soccer it sucks because faking injury/foul appears to be a prepared strategy. What do these worthless losers do in the off-season? Pretend to get hit at crosswalks I imagine.

The sponsors didn't do anything though. I'd feel sorry for him if he had to eat the entire McDonald's value menu.

"Take a bite"?

chthonic-anemos_sl said:

Every time I've viewed pro soccer it sucks because faking injury/foul appears to be a prepared strategy. What do these worthless losers do in the off-season? Pretend to get hit at crosswalks I imagine.

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This, in my opinion, is the biggest reason soccer isn't big here in the US currently. But we have a lot of slender hipster euro wannabes growing up now so I think in the next 10 years it will see a big enough following to garner more attention from our young budding athletes as a legitimate sports career choice.

There are plenty of reasons Soccer never made it big

1) Americans like clear winners in matches, draws are frowned upon and thus why they are rare in the "Big 4"
2) Americans hate flopping. It does happen in other sports, but we hate it/penalize it and Soccer seems to do it a lot more
3) It isn't a very good TV sport
4) Like hockey, it suffers from "lack of scoring" syndrome
5) With the exception of the Women players, soccer doesn't really have any huge, recognizable names in the US. This is part of the reason why it still has the "girl's sport" label in the US. If you pressed most Americans to name a famous American soccer player, you're more likely to hear a name like Mia Hamm or Hope Solo than any male player.

However, as stated above, the youth will help drive sports popularity. Soccer, and even stuff like Lacrosse, is benefiting from high youth participation. However, to transition from kids playing a game to professional league, needs money and motivation on the part of sponsors/athletic programs. Most colleges are more likely to sink their $$$$ into Football or Basketball than Soccer. I think that it may be able to gain some ground on Hockey and grab that type of viewership, but I don't see it supplanting the other major sports in the US anytime in the foreseeable future.

Watch John Olivers Message To Jack Warner That Aired On Trinidad TV


The Trinidad bought spot that aired.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

Soccer in the US has been "going to blow up in the next 5 years" for my entire life.

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Yeah its really dumb. If soccer was going to be popular it would be popular. Kids were shunning football for soccer in my generation and still no one gives a fuck. What next is Lacrosse going to be America's next great past time because that is so popular now?

Lacrosse is actually a very entertaining sport. It will never happen, but I wouldn't mind if that got popular.

Its basically even harder to follow hockey

Alex_sl said:

Lacrosse is actually a very entertaining sport. It will never happen, but I wouldn't mind if that got popular.

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Yes you would, because lacrosse players are the douchiest people on earth. Long Island is the lacrosse capital of the world.

Tenks_sl said:

Yeah its really dumb. If soccer was going to be popular it would be popular. Kids were shunning football for soccer in my generation and still no one gives a fuck. What next is Lacrosse going to be America's next great past time because that is so popular now?

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That's because they let girls play soccer and lacrosse. That's basically kryptonite for any sport.

khorum_sl said:

That's because they let girls play soccer and lacrosse. That's basically kryptonite for any sport.

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Not for volleyball. Especially beach volleyball.

Bonus: sand causing multiple equipment adjustments during the game.

Holy shit this piece of shit just backed Sarkeesian and Wu without any irony at all. Fucking A.

And that twitter psycho put "manslaughter" in quotes because he killed a woman, not because he didn't think killing someone was a crime. ~sigh