Is American football "hate" of soccer overblown?

One of the comments on my piece helped shed some light on the issue for me. In fact, the comment suggested that it is not in fact American football haters, but bitter soccer fans, that are at the center of the problem.

I admit it, as I re-read my article, I did come across sounding pretty damned sanctimonious. Click to continue reading...

My new friend, Chris Courtney from Letters From Vagabondia, has written a great piece tracking the evolution of the American player in Europe. Chris had the enviable job of actually getting paid to cover US Players in Europe as a writer and reporter for Soccer Times! He has done a great job of capturing the trends and key names in his Part 1 post (1980s to the mid 1990s). Click to continue reading...

According to an AP report, Beckham says, "Soccer is definitely changing in this country, and it is getting bigger and growing...but it is going to take time, and I said that at the start. It's not just going to happen in a year or two. It's a long-term plan to raise the profile for this game in this country. Click to continue reading...

FxB of So Many Balls and I have sparked up a well reasoned debate on the subject of MLS expansion and something I'll call, fan commitment. Because well reasoned debates are so rare on the internet, I'd like to keep it on the front pages rather than the comments for now...and of course encourage others to weigh in. Click to continue reading...

In my earlier article "MLS in Atlanta? Why Not Make it a Double?" I brought up quite a few areas that warrant further exploration. Several of the discussion points centered around how to make soccer in America as popular a spectator sport as it is a participation sport. My ideas I'm sure are not new, but there seems to be a paucity of information out there for the interested, yet unknowing, average American sports fan. Click to continue reading...

3.8 million Americans tuned in to ABC to watch the network's first ever U.S. broadcast of a European Championship final. And as we know, they were treated to a great match of attacking, honest football.

Of course 3.8 is a fraction of the number who tune in to watch the NFL's championship game, the Superbowl. Click to continue reading...

Well, this wouldn't be a proper blog without some "celebrity" stuff now would it? So this is Gruffgoat's first installment of what might become a fun diversion from the normally serious world of football. If tons of celebs start showing up at matches - ahem - then we could turn this in to a weekly sightings post. Click to continue reading...

In response to a lame comment that goes something like "You kick a ball around a field. Wow."

NOW, finally someone is starting to understand it!

The root of the game is its seeming simplicity. You think, "hey, this ball is round, all I need to do is kick it right?"

Here's the thing - try controlling a round object without using your hands. Click to continue reading...

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/q-a-soccer-globalization/

This is an interesting little phone interview from the NY Times' Jeffrey Marcus with Franklin Foer, the editor of The New Republic, who wrote "How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization," and published in 2004. Click to continue reading...

What the people who suggest "soccer will never be popular in the US" are trying to say is, "soccer as a professional spectator sport will never be popular in the US". Near term - probably, long term - maybe, never - unlikely. What most conscious people have known for about a decade or so now is that football is the most popular participation team sport (approx. Click to continue reading...