It's not uncommon for MNT and WNT players to be in some type of relationship with each other, romantic or otherwise- and if they aren't, I promise they know someone who is. Some of the most entertaining soccer-related posts on social media are when one player is throwing a little shade on another player from the other team. They're pretty well involved with one another, and in general they know each other quite well. If the women consistently do not dive (they don't) and one of the men does dive at an important moment, he's going to hear about it whether the cheating is successful or not- and that means more to these players at a personal level than it does in most other countries. People who follow these players and teams pretty closely are aware of that dynamic. It does mean something to the players at a personal level, and that can have an indirect effect on media presentation and on the way that fans and supporters look at it too. What the women say and do makes a difference. It is not everything, but it has a noticeable effect that is greater than what you would normally expect just about anywhere else. Other factors may be more important, and I don't think this is the one that's most directly responsible for the net effect. Actually, there's a common force and reason that's also behind the women's aversion to diving. US culture and ideals and a US mindset drives all of it. When we see the women consistently succeed and dominate with that mentality, however, it makes it pretty well impossible for the men to adopt a parallel mindset and compromise their honor for a cheap win.
In a YouTube video of siblings (not athletes or sports fans) who competed against each other, the boys said that they girls jousted rougher than the boys. The older girl complained about the younger girl that the object is to knock the other person off, not to kill the other person. FIFA is writing a lot about female players, and many of them didn't have girls' clubs and started by proving themselves against boys. How many of the USWNT competed against boys for fun before an organized youth club?
Hard to believe the US men would dive if playing in Europe, would dive in MLS but won’t dive for the USMNT because they are worried the USWNT would frown upon it? Unless the suggestion is no USMNT member would dive anywhere because they don’t want to offend the USWNT.
Selling a foul is one thing. Diving is another. I played both basketball and soccer growing up and my dad and uncle were basketball coaches. Both of them taught me how to take a charge and taught me (as a guard) to go at bigger players in order to get fouled. Both also hated it when I went down on legit fouls in soccer. One thing I've noticed in both women's basketball and women's soccer is that fouls seem more legitimate. I've watched hundreds of men's and women's basketball games and scores of men's and women's college and pro soccer games and on the women's side, in order for a whistle to be blown, you have to commit a hard foul (unless you're trying to stop the clock). If you watch college basketball, the ease at which fouls are called have almost ruined the game for me. Men's soccer isn't there yet, but I can see a day where it could be.
During the last couple of World Cups, the morons were out in full force on the far right, like Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck, deriding soccer in every way possible. They were using the same tired "Communist, gay, foreign" non-sense that has been used against soccer since the Cold War. If these comments were made about Rugby Union or Aussie Rules, players from those sports would've beaten him black and blue.
Been going on since as long as I've been following soccer which is now almost 30 years. In '98 I remember an article where the columnist was celebrating the US team getting eliminated. In 2010 I really confused a co-worker when I told him I was going to Africa to watch a soccer tournament. Not sure which he found weirder, that I wanted to go to Africa, or was interested in watching soccer. And then to try and show he had some knowledge he made a statement about how none of our team actually came from America. It confused him even more when I explained as calmly as a could, while trying not to call him a liar, that actually a vast majority, including all the big stars, were born and raised in 'Merica. As far as Rugby goes I've actually heard those comments about Rugby too especially from old school American football types who don't like the new rules against tackling with your head*. *ironically leading with your head is actually using poor form in American football, there's a phrase good coaches use see what you hit.
I am married into an Argentinian family and haves lived there for extended period of time for the last 11 years. Vamos Sabaleros! This is purely a cultural difference. The US is very much into the idea of fairness and justice (note I did not say practice properly, etc.) The idea of someone getting ahead due to cheating is abhorrent here and yes, I get the hypocrisy in that statement In Argentina, if you put yourself in a position to get ********ed, sticking your foot in when you ought not, you should get ********ed. That the dive is an expression of tactical awareness and street smarts. For an example scenario of someone breaking into your car to steel your sunglasses: US- “ah man, what a dick move. I wish we could just shoot assholes like that” Argentina - “Che, que boludo sos. Porque lo quedo en auto?” Or- “dude, you are such a dumbass. Why would you leave your glasses in the car?” Just like a game of Truco, you are respected if you are sly like a fox and trick the other asshole into making mistakes. Just a perspective differential in my opinion
It's not uncommon for WNT and WNT players to be in a relationship. Congratulations to Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris on their engagement!
There is a significant percentage of Americans who not only display ignorance about the world at large, but are actively proud of their ignorance. For example, there's a video on Youtube of ESPN commentators talking about Aussie Rules and they make almost no attempt to understand what's going on. This is the problem that all foreign sports in the USA have. The average American's unwillingness to understand anything non-American is incredible to behold. As an American myself, I don't know where it comes from.
I think it depends where you live. I'm now living 70 miles north of NYC and every time someone under the age of 30 hears my accent they ask me about either the Champions League or the Premier League. Their flaw is that they don't understand how I can be an active soccer fan and not give a crap about either competition.
Don't forget the ol' "Soccer will replace American footbal!!!!!l" strawman arguement. (I have never heard once any soccer fan claiming this, yet the sports media love to use this as a talking point for no reason just to remind everyone soccer isn't that important..)
When it comes to the media talking heads, think of it like your boss slapping you with a new responsibility to learn and master because it is the "new thing." There might be some resentment b/c your job description just got a bit more difficult and uncomfortable. I look at it this way. Mainstream old school talking heads like Kornheiser (in particular,) rather than learn the game, they are too lazy to do it. They know if they come up with an uninformed opinion, they will get skewered by soccer fans (partly our fault for being semi-elitist in that regard,) so they would rather talk about the German Nat'l team coach scratching his balls and sniffing his ass, fan violence, or when U.S. loses when they should win because population theory (we are like a huge country and have a ton of kids playing therefore win the world cup every year nonsense.)... Its simply laziness disguised with wise ass comments for the most part...
I hear the line about none of the USMNT players being American all the time. But... It turns out you have to go all the way back to 1994 to find a US World Cup squad that was less than 90% natural-born citizens, i.e. with with more than 2 naturalized citizens. (Note that Thomas Dooley was not naturalized, he simply filed papers to claim the US citizenship that was already his by law.) The 2014 squad, criticized for being loaded with dual nationals, was in fact the first-ever US squad to go to the World Cup with no naturalized players at all. Every single dual-national player in that squad was born a US citizen.
If Americans criticize soccer for being being foreign, you should ask why they think it's okay to do that while eating food that originated in foreign countries. I don't know anything about cricket, different forms or rugby, handball, and aussie rules. The most popular sport in the world that I know the rules of and dislike is tennis, although I root for Noah Rubin because he went to five of the same schools as me. He's 146th in the world. I tweeted about him and his mom liked my tweet.
I was thinking that, too. Many Americans will criticize soccer, but not even bat an eye when it comes to liking foreign food, film, or music. *shrugs* It's almost like they choose to display xenophobia through sport.
Xenophobia is popular and beneficial at the moment although I see it being used against soccer specifically a lot less than I used to.
The "soccer is foreign and therefore stupid" idea has always been dumb, although I have to say I also notice some American football bashing that seems to go beyond simply being uninterested in the sport, especially among soccer fans (both American and foreign). I think a big problem is that for a lot of people it's not enough to enjoy their thing of choice, they have to actively dislike something else in the same broad category.
On the awareness level, it's a bit of a one-way street. The women definitely know who the USMNT players are and watch some of their games. Most of the men don't really watch the women and may only know a couple of players, either personally or by reputation. But the USWNT do tend to date and/or marry other pro (or at least high level amateur) athletes. But not as many soccer players as you might think. Heather Mitts (NFL), Megan Rapinoe (WNBA + soccer), Abby Wambach (NWSL), Julie Ertz (NFL), Sydney Leroux (MLS), Andi Sullivan (USL), Ali Krieger (NWSL), Ashlyn Harris (NWSL), Kristie Mewis (NHL), Alex Morgan (MLS), Kelia Ohai (NFL), Mia Hamm (MLB), Lauren Holiday (NBA). I'm sure there are others (including some undisclosed), but I'm not going down the rabbit hole of the internet to find them right now. I think recent articles said that there were 4 husband-wife pairings of WNT/MNT couples. Leroux & Dwyer plus: JIM GABARRA AND CARIN JENNINGS-GABARRA CLAUDIO REYNA AND DANIELLE EGAN ZACH LOYD AND CASEY NOGUEIRA
I've heard plenty of soccer fans on BS claiming it, but they tend to be non-Americans or new Americans, in either case people who have no idea of how firmly entrenched American football is. They say the same stuff, with the same lack of knowledge, about how overtaking baseball is going to happen next week. I hope that it will happen, but I don't expect it in my lifetime, and probably not in my son's lifetime.
Well, there is the latest Gallup poll results on the question "what is your favorite sport?". 18-34 year old demographic has soccer tied with basketball for #2, well ahead of baseball. So there is that. But I know, that does not mean soccer will surpass baseball when that American demo is 50-66 years old. Baseball and it's institutional presence has really, really deep roots.