My problem with the entertainment value of soccer is that the ball-handling just isnt up to the level of skill needed to keep my interest. There are, in principle, tactics and strategy in soccer, but in practice there's far too much randomness in where the ball goes for too much of the play to actually implement those tactics beyond a rudimentary level. Sure, there are times when one guy has firm control of the ball and is personally moving it forward and having to beat defenders where skill is certainly evident and its exciting, but as soon as the ball starts trying to move from player to player accuracy and coordination drops drastically and it becomes so very much more of a random-flailing crapshoot, and thats just frustrating to watch for me, rather than entertaining. In the end, for me, there's no more exciting play per match than in a US football game, but at least in football you know when to watch, while in soccer you have to pay attention through all the boring and frustrating bits to have a shot at seeing the good bits. Its the same thing that makes baseball reasonably watchable for me- overall its not a fast game, but you know when to watch to extract maximum value from it.
Soccer is fun to play, but not to watch, for me. Same with basketball. Rugby is the best game to watch, for me. More action, more effective skill-on-skill time game etc, for me. In all games being there in person vastly changes the experience, of course.