Why Soccer Is the Greatest Sport On Earth
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I wanted to talk about the state of soccer in America. No other sport illicits such negativity in the media. No other sport seems to generate such venom within the ranks of a few American journalists and sportscasters. No other sport uncovers the fear and ignorance of a select few who still have yet to see the light.
Let’s explore the facts and see if we can dispel the myths, and enlighten these towering juggernauts of intellect, the American sportswriter.
Firstly, we are 3 billion strong. More people in the world watch soccer by far more than any other sport. NFL has about 400 million fans worldwide. Baseball has about 250 million fans.
Secondly, if the writer has actually experienced the sport and understands it, and has lived it, and God forbid, actually tried playing it, he would realize, what the rest of the world does, that soccer is the most physically demanding, requires the most creativity, agility, overall skill and total athletic ability, more than any other sport by far. This is coming from someone who has played all sports in some organized manner, played high school varsity and college athletics and played two sports at the pro or semi pro level. I’m not knocking other sports which I know also take tremendous skill and ability to play at a high level, no matter what it is. I love all sports. But I know what it takes, from a sheer skill point of view, to play soccer…the only thing really coming close is MMA. This point will remain eternally debatable.
Thirdly, soccer is the most democratic sport on earth. Everyone on the playing field is equal. Everyone gets to touch the ball. Everyone can score, at any given time. Other American sports have a certain hierarchy where certain players are limited to certain tasks that restrict not only their function in the game but their overall playing time. So during the course of an entire game, which may last 3 hours or more, you have some players that may never touch the ball for the entire game. As a matter of fact, they may never touch the ball for a number of games. They may never touch the ball the whole season. This is what has always irked me about certain American sports – there is no equality of functions. Everyone is limited to his specialty task which swallows any creativity and joy of the game and reduces players’ positions to the functions of an automated machine rather than a creative individual playing within the confines of a team unit.
American media always complains about the lack of contact in soccer. If they would actually watch a game, especially a live game, they would see and understand that there are far more injuries, brutal, horrific injuries, and even deaths, in soccer, than any other sport. Soccer players don’t where helmets or pads. They only wear protection on their shins to keep from breaking their legs (which happens quite frequently anyway, even with the guards.). In soccer, you can kick, punch, elbow, trip, head-butt, tackle, push, hold, stomp, the opposing player and often not get called for it. This is just part of the standard flow of the game. Yes, often players overreact to falls or injuries, but this is only to generate a penalty against the opposing team and gain favor toward the win. I would challenge any reporter or sportswriter to find a local park kick-around and give it a try and not find any violent conduct. He is far more likely to get hurt or even annihilated playing soccer in a local park than he is at the beer league softball game or pick up basketball.
Soccer as a live sport and as one watched on TV in the U.S. has gained great strides in the last few years with the rise in popularity of MLS, bringing big name players to the states, and the greater access of matches on select cable stations. Five years ago I would be lucky to see a soccer game on TV. I would have to wait for the World Cup to see any matches. Now I have ample choices of games I can watch and tournaments that are covered. New stadiums are being planned and built, and current stadiums are seeing healthy crowd turn-outs, even in a depressed economy.
I understand that much of what motivates the American media when it comes to soccer is fear. They are scared of soccer. They are scared of soccer taking away the fan base of American sports. They are scared of lost advertising revenue because soccer is continuous play, without constant breaks for commercials.
My plea is, save the hate. There is already too much hatred in the world right now and often these reporters sound like the Taliban, wanting the American public to only believe what they believe and watch what they watch. As Americans, we distance ourselves even more from the rest of the world by spewing negativity, putting down other people and denouncing what they love and embrace.
If you don’t like soccer, don’t watch it. Don’t cover it. We don’t need you.
For some fans around the world and right here in America, soccer is joy and soccer is God. Don’t tell us our God doesn’t exist and we must believe in a different God. We don’t want to hear it.
For those who don’t know soccer and want to understand it better, watch the “NIKE: TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL” commercial on youtube.com
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but then just today they were supposed to broadcast a chelsea game and instead we got "Bassmasters"...
i'll check it out, thanks bro...
The American media sucks. I just a matter of time Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the United States. Look at all the kids playing it. Its knocking on the door.
All interesting points, but allow me to play Devil's Advocate.
1 - You claim to be 3 billion strong. The quantity argument is not valid to claim which sport is the "best". Some sports require a different climate, or more importantly and frequently, more money to play. Just because a sport is cheap does not make it great. The fact that most of the world plays soccer is simply a reflection of circumstance. It is not like the entire world is given a choice of ALL sports and chooses soccer. Interestingly though, out of the 10 most populous countries in the world...only 2 of them would refer to soccer as their top sport. Countries like the USA, India and China play many different sports...serving as an example that when given a choice....people actually are not playing soccer in as high a number. The exception in the top 10? Brazil and Nigeria.
Besides, if we all used the "quantity" argument, it would mean that GM makes the best cars, Windows is the best operating system, and Walmart is the best retail store. Doesn't seem to work does it?
Second, I agree is eternally debatable. But again, to play Devil's Advocate, I would like to throw Ice Hockey into the mix. Physically demanding? Out of the top 10 organized professional sports in North America, hockey has the most injuries per game/per player. This is according to the International Olympic Committee. You mention that soccer players have to wear shin pads because it protects them from breaking their legs. Well hockey players wear pads everywhere because EVERYTHING is at risk. By the end of the playoff season, hockey players have pretty much lost their teeth, have numerous stiches in their face, and surgery in the off-season is just part of the game. The puck flies around at 100mph and skating is faster than running, and ice is harder than grass. Physical impact happens at a higher velocity than any other sport. Players have died, and literally been sliced open by skate blades quite frequently. Oh...and you mention MMA? While, hockey actually allows full-out fighting. There is simply no where to hide in this sport, so to say that hands down soccer is more physically demanding? It is a lower body sport, hockey is full body and the risks are much higher.
Third? Let's stick with the hockey argument...because I like it! Democratic? Well...everyone touches the puck in hockey as well. Everyone scores, and has. Even goalies have scored (obviously on empty nets, or flukes...but same as in soccer) And it is interesting to think that in the World Cup of Soccer, the last final between Italy and France was decided on penalty kicks...which have nothing to do with a team...and more about....well....players having a specific function? I thought you didn't like that about American sports, yet the so-called biggest tournament in the world came down to a one-on-one battle...not very democratic.
And finally, you have a theme of your entire argument claiming that in America, they hate soccer, or the media, or the general fan. I know you are just painting a general picture, and not the entire country, but I thought is was kind of ironic that you attack the "American Media Machine" as slamming soccer.....then you direct people to a NIKE COMMERCIAL, the largest AMERICAN sports brand who practically invented sports marketing. Not sure I would use one form of propaganda to try and discredit another...especially when they are both from the USA.
Anyways, just found your article interesting and wanted to play the other side. Personally, I don't really like Football, or Baseball. I like soccer, hockey and basketball, as well as golf. But there are a lot of sports out there that are incredibly demanding. I think Tennis players get no love...they will play 3-4 hour matches every second day for 2 weeks...and that is an incredibly hard sport on your body.
makes sense to me...i wanted to mention tennis also which was voted third only to soccer and motocross for requiring the most overall athletic coordination...
To devils advocate....everyone knows hockey has probably more contact then any sports but where talking about football which is the most popular sport in american and is only played in america. Everyone here thinks its sooo amazing yet its not even that physically demanding as people think. You have constant break between plays, all the body protection you can ask for and the only creative players on the team are the coach and the quarterback. Everyone else just has one little task and thats about it. Hockey, Basketball, tennis, baseball and many other sports are played around the world but football is only played in the US. Like the article states is popularity comes from all the ads it produces from the constant pauses in the game. Actualy now that i remmember most people watch the superbowl because of the hilarious ad's it produces. So again its about money in america. In the rest of the world its about the love for the game.
This was a great hub in defence of soccer. I don't see why some Americans (note some) seek to put down the sport just because it is popular in other parts of the world. If it were not for soccer, American "football" would not exist. Association football (soccer) and rugby football were created around the same time. American Football is based on rugby football, with significant rule changes and equipment. Thankfully, more Americans are embracing the sport despite the prevailing misconceptions.
The Devil's Advocate raises some interesting points, but I'd offer one rebuttal to the idea of choice. Many countries play many sports and people have choice, but it is too easy to say that when people are given choice, soccer is not that popular. In India, cricket only became immensely popular when the Indian team won the 1983 World Cup against the West Indies. Before, it wasn't all that big. If more countries started experiencing success in the soccer world, they may have far more fans. If India qualified for a FIFA World Cup and performed well, many more Indians would turn to soccer instead of cricket and hockey.
To answer Devil's Advocate "Physically demanding" doesn't just refer to injuries suffered, but also technical skill. Hockey may be a tough sport to master, but it pales in comparison to soccer, which is possibly one of the hardest sports technically, if not the hardest. I doubt anyone could ever go pro without at least 10, possibly even 15 years of competitive training in soccer - this is in addition to it being as physically demanding as it is.
Also, while the hits may be harder in hockey, players get frequent breaks as they constantly change lines - not so in soccer, in which players usually are required to play the full 90 minutes.
Also going back to devils advocates, Soccer is the best sport, for the reason why many athletes require a high stamina rate or else they aren't worth it. Despite the fact that soccer requires more energy, in baseball even a fat person could play as well as the game being slow. When you mentioned people in hockey lose teeth and other vital parts of their body, how does that prove ts sport, on the contrary it proves that the sport is widely violent and shouldn't be played from its outcomes. Nevertheless, if you see all over the world soccer is played, even in the USA, ironically baseball isn't played in any other country apart from the Caribbean and Venezuela. Besides soccer is the best sport because you can play it wherever you desire and anyone can play tall or short, male or female. While baseball and other sports require more necessities. Besides soccer has the most dangerous fans, in classic rivalries people would oftentimes die for pride, since in the past this was how they were resembled. Even though many sports all ready existed, they weren't as popular, however, soccer were one of the first sports that every hit the charts, popularity wise.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the word. Poor, rich, blue, red, anybody around the world play it. The world cup is a real WORLD tournoment that only the 32 best soccer national teams out of 200 countries compete against each other.
Number one sport in the world.
Be careful with the word skill. Of all the sports I know of, baseball takes the most skill. It's hard to argue against that. I don't think that's what you mean, though.
I like money
greatest sport on earth who else agrees
I absolutely agree with this writer. I hear almost everyday that soccer sucks soccer this soccer that..if you have never watched it or played it don't comment about the sport negatively. It's annoying.
because there are most people sport,it's sport king,none other sport can over soccer.
i know more about that from here, every guy can take a look at here:
I played baseball for 5 years and it requires about a season of practice to become good. It's probably one of the easiest sports and it does not require any skill besides throwing and swinging.
Baseball is good spot for couch potatos.
One of the greatest games ever! No doubt about it!
Trevor 2 years ago
You're off when you talk about the media not wanting soccer to succeed.
In fact, ESPN sticks with soccer broadcasts despite low ratings because they believe and want it to grow. I once spoke to ESPN president George Bodenschatz who told me that poker gets 6-7 times the ratings that soccer gets, yet ESPN sticks with it because of the potential it has. ESPN wants it badly to succeed.
The media sees the popularity of the game worldwide and the enormous revenue possibility and absolutely wants it to succeed.
Final evidence of this, ESPN is going to broadcast its first ever 3D sports game this summer. And it will be a soccer game, the first game of the world cup.