Other... No. I am not interested in women's soccer. Although it's possible if they make the final, I happen to be home at the time, and I happen to stumble across it flipping channels, then I may watch for a bit.
I am quite sure I will have to time shift some matches. I intend to watch every WWC match and every Gold Cup match and even some other "interesting" matches that might materialize over the next couple of months. Women's soccer is different than men's, not better not worse but different. As far as watch-ability I find women's soccer a bit more watchable than men's because there is less cheating, pretending to be hurt, stupidity and general poor sportsmanship in the women's game than in the men's. It is not that there is none of that, just less. Also there is the purely sexist point of the fact that, even at my advanced years, I enjoy watching women get hot and sweaty quite a bit more than I enjoy watching men do the same. All soccer is fun to watch and I sometimes watch local HS, low level college or even youth soccer in my area just to watch soccer. I even watch the junk mostly provided by the MLS but I have to admit that the MLS' pretense of good soccer while actually, mostly, putting a poor and boring product on the field is somewhat of a turn off. A good, tightly contested U14 match is often more entertaining than what the MLS produces. BTW: I have enjoyed the U20 WC for the most part. I REALLY wish the older men would provide the same level of entertainment the young guys have.
The thing that makes it "worse" to me is that it is like watching the Harlem Globe Trotters vs. the Washington Generals most of the time. We can pretty much say who is going to win this thing from a handful of teams while the rest are pretty much minnows. And there is really no passion. Some would say that the Mens game is similar with the handful of teams winning it premise but that is a bit different. There's more of a history and a prestige and whole world watches with passion. Outside of maybe 5 countries the rest of the world won't care or celebrate if their Womens team wins. There won't be millions of people in the streets celebrating and crying and rejoicing. Nope, most countries would put it on the back page of their newspapers and life goes on as usual.
Sort of like the US and the men's WC if the US is not playing. You get almost no reporting of it in newspapers and even on the TV or radio news in a lager part of the country. It is not important news in much of the US. In fact even the WC final is often second or third level sports news, it comes behind the local HS track and field or the latest tractor pull results.
While the men's world cup has a ridiculous number of viewers (3.5 billion in 2018), we probably shouldn't say most don't care. The women's World Cup did have 750 million viewers in 2015, and that number will likely increase). So while no it won't compare with the men's game, that is a huge number of eyeballs on the screen from a variety of regions of the world. Top viewing totals by country for the women in 2015: South Africa 6,151,000 China 313,998,000 Japan 68,199,000 Korea Republic 13,429,000 Canada 21,975,000 Mexico 13,607,713 USA 112,717,000 Australia 4,187,955 Brazil 25,294,714 France 19,352,000 Norway 3,267,800 UK 24,258,860 Global total 764,003,923
Most do not care compared to the Men's game. As I said, most cities will not celebrate in the streets with millions if their teams win. The passion is just not on the same universe scale.
If the USA wins you better believe that there would be a bigger parade than the women's team at their ticker tape parade. And it would make front page news and first headline focus in every tv or radio show.
That just says that the US does not support "soccer" but rather we just support what we win and only when we win it. The US has no real interest in soccer regardless of the sex of the players. As far as soccer goes we are a third or fourth world country but we have a strong patriotic value for anything we play well. BTW: I very much doubt there would be nearly as much TV/radio coverage for a men's US WC win as your hyperbolic remarks seem to say. Yes there would be a lot but in rural US settings I doubt a WC win could supplant even minor high school sports in prominence. The only way I could see the kind of jump in coverage you seem to believe would happen would be if it got spun into a "The US is better at everything" political bent. Now that could almost make the HS homecoming queen and king second place news.
lol I was in Germany last women's world cup and they had a pretty good team but you would never even know the tourney was going on...makes sense they aren't on your list.
They weren't in the official FIFA TV ratings that I quoted... I listed all countries that were provided. Regardless, in 2003 when Germany won the title, More than nine million television viewers — an impressive 55 percent market share — watched the final, making it one of the most-watched broadcasts of the year in Germany. Tens of thousands of cheering fans turned out to welcome home the team.
I will not got out of my way to watch.. if I find myself watching through happenstance so be it. The level of play is very low relatives to the mens game. The same reason nobody watches the NWSL. The full womens national team has a hard time competing with the U17 mens. It's just not that entertaining.
I think you are confusing "level of play" with "strength of play." At and below U12 or so girls and boys are abut ever and girls are often bigger and stronger and faster. Once puberty sets in, which seems to be happening younger and younger these days, the differences produced by the hormonal changes favor the boys and in sometimes just a few months boy become bigger, stronger and faster. That is why women's teams cannot compete with any boys teams that are well into puberty. It has nothing at all to do with skill or even ability, the boys are so much bigger, stronger and faster that the women just cannot keep up. The reasons that leagues like the NWSL struggle around the world does have something to do with skill however. The girls and women do not often get the same level of coaching or encouragement therefore the lag behind in overall skill world wide. But that is cultural not for any other reason. At the top end I find the women about as skilled as the men and, in the US, the women have greater skill, they are just not as big or strong. I think some of my bad feeling against the men in the US comes from the VERY poor refereeing that allows thugs to be prevalent in the men's leagues and almost never punishes the divers and fakers. In the women's programs there is much less of the lack of sportsmanship and that, for me, makes the women's game more entertaining a lot of the time. I enjoy watching both but, right now, the men are all about gaming the game and not about skill whereas the women at least really try to play the game as it is intended. Popularity does not always equal quality and in the case of US soccer that is clearly proven.
Doubt it all you want, there is nothing bigger than a Men's World Cup and it would be hyped up everywhere. Even Rural America.
Eh, we win all our games anyway. It gets boring winning the World Cup over and over. In all seriousness, yeah I’ll watch all USA games.
I grew up in rural America... The U.S. qualified for the World Cup in 1990. At that time I was the first player from my area to qualify for state level ODP. The Local TV news show had me on to interview to talk about the World Cup and the popularity of soccer in the United States. That was in 1989. That was in a state where there was not much tradition of soccer culture.
Luckily, the rest of the world is catching up. France did take us behind the woodshed this past year. It is not as competitive as the men as far as the variety of countries, but it is growing significantly. I plan on being at viewing parties for the women's matches, just as I was in 2011 for the women and 2010 for the men.
I give up. That is true in most of the world but rural US does not care at all for the most part about anything "soccer" as it is seen to be "foreign" and therefore "subversive."
Yup. And with social media and instantaneous news at the touch of everybody's fingers the hype would be exponentially magnified and pumped up for everyone. Not just big municipalities.
I like women. I like soccer. So I see no reason not to watch women playing soccer. I'll catch the US games and a few others from the better teams. I honestly don't understand why I see so many people getting pissy about the women. Just turn the channel and watch the men if you don't like the women. No one is forcing them on you. There's plenty of men's soccer to watch regularly. The men make plenty of money and don't need our sympathy.
Then again rural America account for something like 15% of the US population, so I’m not sure why anyone would care that a tiny slice of America isn’t paying attention Yes, I’ll watch as much as I can.
Things have gotten a little away from the game for my tastes but I'll catch my fair share of the matches.
Don’t follow the women’s team at all and never been a fan of watching women’s soccer. Wish them the best of luck and I’m pulling for them but I won’t be tuning into to watch.
I may watch some of the knockout games that the USWNT will play in. Depends if the team's doing well or not. If they're doing well, I'll watch, because the games will be exciting. If they're doing poorly, or grinding out 1-0's, I'll pass.