So basically you're saying soccer is not fun and only if those poor bastards in other countries could experience other sports they'd move away from soccer too? Have you ever spent any significant time outside of the US?
If the youth in Europe had exposure to other sports like Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, Field Hockey, Handball, Korfball, Swimming, Track and Field, Skiing, Cycling, Volleyball, Badminton, Ping Pong, etc, then it is possible that they wouldn't be so crazy about soccer. But since none of these options exist in Europe, the youth are stuck to playing only soccer. And hence it is so popular there. Makes sense.
The topic is about why in US more kids give up soccer as teens at a much higher % than elsewhere in the world. I'm just speculating that in the US, a higher percentage of teenagers migrate away from soccer to other competitive sports because they have more options than teens other countries. I don't know for fact, but I'd guess that in England and elsewhere there are more teen age skill levels of soccer than we have in US as well. If a teen doesn't make the top flight team in their age group, there is a 2nd tier and 3rd tier etc. Soccer is more culturally engrained...its just what you do over there. Just like a large percent of generationally raised mountain and southern rural folks in US hunt and fish and buy a truck. Its just generational and cultural and what you do with little thinking involved. Here in US we are much more multifaceted with sports culturer. American Football is #1 but that is only because they need 50 players on a HS team (That is 2-3 soccer rosters) and we've decided over trial and error over time its the most fun to watch. Also look at how quickly in the US, MMA replaced professional boxing. We culturally just seem more open and progressive to looking for better options when it comes to sports and don't necessarily "follow the sheep" and only play 1 thing without asking ourselves what we enjoy more.
And none of those sports are as popular in Europe compared to baseball, basketball, hockey in the United States.
Do you think MLS is pioneering a change in the sport then with their 3's an audience, 4's a mob policy? I forget what it's called but supposedly this policy is supposed to demand more respect from players towards refs. Sometimes, I wish there was zero tolerance. One step at a time.
WTF? Rugby is more popular than soccer in parts of France. Was true for the whole country before the 1998-2000 golden run. Its what held the country together. Cricket is extremely popular in most of rural England. Going to a county game is a family routine for many people I know, and the nation is riveted when the Ashes comes along. As for Korfball, try telling any Dutch high school kid that its not popular. Its the only legit mixed gender team sport. I grew up in Amsterdam. If Korfball wasn't popular, I would have never had a single date in high school. And Handball is similarly popular among German high school kids. The idea that multiple sports is something unique to America while the rest of the world only knows soccer is straight from the Trailerparkville Arkansas School of World Cultural Studies. The only countries where soccer is the sole sport tend to have populations in the single millions. Heck, even in some parts of Brazil, soccer tends to lower on the popularity scale to other sports.
Actually, the original thread topic (I should know, I started it) was about that statement being an anachronism.
I'm not saying those sports aren't popular. I've lived in East Germany, I know how popular handball is. However, none of those sports have anywhere near the popularity of baseball, basketball, and football in the United States. Yes, other sports are popular in other countries. But, if you're trying to say that soccer isn't number 1' you're deceiving yourself. Soccer still, by and large, gets the best athletes in Europe.
LOL. Not this again. Compare midgets like Iniesta and Xavi to Rafael Nadal and Spain's Basketball team. You are seriously telling me Iniesta and Xavi are better athletes? Look at Chabal and the French Rugby team. You are claiming they are lesser athletes than Ribbery and Co? Or that Rooney and Lampard are more athletic than the worst player on the England Rugby team? You are digging yourself deeper and deeper. Not to mention that each of these countries individually have less than 25% of USA's population. On a per capita per unit popularity measure basis, there are more sporting options in European countries. And USA won't even compare to Australia in sporting terms by this measure. A population of only 20 million (around 7% of USA) and massive popularity of Aussie Rules, Rugby League, Cricket, Soccer, and Rugby Union in that order. PS.... can't provide a link readily, but the number of field hockey astroturfs per capita in Netherlands is more than the number of ice hockey rinks per capita in USA. Do you have any idea how popular ice hockey is in Russia, Scandinavian and Former Western Soviet countries? Arguably more than soccer. And minuscule populations.
Could say the same about you. By and large, soccer is the most popular sport in the vast majority of Europe, especially at the professional levels. The majority of kids grow up wanting to play pro soccer. There is more money in pro soccer than any of the other sports in Europe. Yes, there are regions where soccer isn't the most popular. Hockey is very popular in large portions of eastern and central Russia as well as Belarus. And yes, Xavi and Iniesta are great athletes. So are the players on the Spanish basketball team. Basketball is pretty popular, but soccer is still king. Sorts like basketball and handball are similar to where soccer is in the US.
And Australia is a great example. Look at how soccer has struggled there! It's very similar to the United States.
I gave up soccer after my sophomore yr in High School because 1. I was better at Ice Hockey and 2. I found after 24 games of soccer and only about a week to recover before hockey season started. I was having a hard time physically during first few weeks of hockey. So I decided to give up soccer.
Yes, maybe better instead of speculating on our opinions and theories why so many US teens give up soccer (although that is the fun part of these forums), maybe we just ask anyone on the board that stopped playing soccer in HS, why they did (and hope for unbiased honesty)?
Totally opposite. I live in the Washington DC area. I see people of all ages play soccer for fun. Athletic fields are always filled with people of all ages playing soccer. I seldom see people playing american-football or baseball for fun.
DC is a very international and cosmopolitan US city so that is probably why that is scewed in soccer participation "for fun" in area parks and on the Mall. Probably not the best model city for normalcy in US. I'll see recent latino immigrants in my town playing soccer at the local park "for fun" on a Sunday afternoon , but most American teen boys I seem to witness are probably passing their time on Xbox 360 more than anything. If they do partake in a neighborhood sport with friends it would probably be basketball #1, football#2 and wiffleball (plastic bat/ball baseball) #3. These are even boys I know that play soccer on an organized team, but they usually won't organize a pickup soccer game, unless there are enough local boys in the area that play on the organized team they all participate on to rope together a pickup game. Usually its a soccer coach organizing something in the offseason for fun and not the teens themselves.
In Boston all over people are playing soccer, street hockey, roller hockey, football, basketball. It all depends on the season. Most people don't play baseball per say they play wiffleball. Because baseball is a very hard to sport to play with 3 or 4 people.
Suburbs full of people of different nationalities is the new normal in this country. There are more people in Northern VA than in my entire home state of Nebraska.
And you base this on evidence, personal experience, or just a sense that America is 'special'? The point isn't that soccer isn't by far the most popular sport in Europe, but that it isn't for want of other options. Yeah I bet Bradley Wiggins wishes he was as fit as Wayne Rooney.
No shit there are other options in Europe. Soccer is still the #1 sport in the vast majority of Europe.
Sorry for the brain far on the statistics. In the US, is soccer the #1 participation sport amongst children under a certain age? I think to really get a good pulse on the information of this post it would be great to see by age group, the number of youth participants in soccer compared to other sports in US and then also by the other countries. Then with the data we probably can base more credible theories.
I don't accept the premise without better data and information. Everyone gives up a sport at some point to either decide sports are not for me or to specialize in one sport. So who are we saying is quitting the sport as teenagers? Those who suck or those who are really good and now choose to play other sports. I logically don't think either is true. Those who are really good at something tend to stick with that sport and those who quit who aren't are irrelevent to the discussion. The discussion isn't who quits soccer but of those who don't how can they get better at the game.
I agree. I think the spin of how the numbers of US youth soccer participation dwindles into teen years isn't as negative an issue as it really is. I just think a) its easiest/considered best optional sport for parents to sign their kids up to play when they are young compared to the other team sports and b) other sports are more culturally/socially relevant in US currently than soccer so as the kids grow more aware of social and cultural biases into their teen years, they gravitate towards the more popular US sports. With all that said soccer is growing year by year in high school participations across US from 1990 to modern day so I see this as the glass is half full. Numbers don't dwindle do to bad coaching experiences and such. Give me 1 bad soccer coach at U8 and I'll show you 10 bad football coaches at U8 that chase kids out of the game of football.
I sort of agree, except that I think we're chasing quite a few good and/or passionate young players away from the game with our skewed priorites, winning-over-development approach, and of course pay-to-play. I suspect quite a few kids who were "late bloomers" as far as athleticism or competitiveness gave up after being relegated to the margins by coaches and trainers who were focued on the older/bigger/faster/more aggressive kids at early ages, and did so before they reached the age where they were 'catching up' athletically.
You make a good point. I don't think we're chasing away soccer players away from the game because of winning over development. That narrative is changing. I do think we are chasing alot of players away from the sport because we still charge too many people too much money to participate in the sport. Tax dollars fund the majority of other sports development through HS. Unfortunately HS soccer can not keep up with the international level of soccer development. We arestuck between development and revenue. How do we get money to develop players when tax dollars can't really develop top level players.