Monday, November 26, 2012
Soccer problems in America?
Soccer, or football as its called in the rest of the world, is known as the most watched, and most played sport in the world. Being as it is the most popular sport in the world, and the U.S is normally dominant in sports, why is it that we have not been able to excel in soccer at the international level? With the idea of American exceptionalism, and the idea that Americans are the best at everything, you would think that we would want to excel in the worlds most played game. But throughout the years, time and time again our men's soccer team just has not been able to put it together. Could it be that because it is not an American made sport that we don't excel in it? This could make sense, except for the fact that we have excelled in other foreign sports like tennis, hockey and golf. What could be the reason? We obviously have the resources to excel in the sport, we just never have on the men's side.
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I think the reason lies in the idea-at least my understanding of it-that American Exceptionalism is associated with things that are very American-like American football-or things that have been adopted as being American i.e. golf or tennis. If it does not constitute one of those categories, such as soccer, its just not American and therefore there isn't a desire to excel or put an American stamp on in, despite the fact that it is the world's most watched sport. Just because it's special to the world doesn't mean it's special to the US and that's what is so special about the US, that it has aspects that set it apart from other nations. It's probably the same reason why Cricket isn't popular in the US when it is also an internationally played sport. I think with time soccer will grow here and once it is embraced as something "American" then we will see the Messi's and Ronaldo's of the world in our stadiums too.
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