I am just a brazilian curious about how popular is soccer among americans at this point. The US performance in the last WC really impressed me and showed that America has awaken to soccer, but at what degree? I once thought that only about 0,001% of the american population was into the sport, but now I see that the average american does know what´s going on with their national team. Care to discuss? Can you guys foresee the US really taken by soccer like the rest of the world? What do you say about the possibility of street riots like what happens in Europe and South America? Thus said, congratulations for the progress so far and I hope to hear more about US shocks in the tournaments to come.
speaks pretty good english for a brazilian....Another thing if he was really from brazil he would spell it brasil. Sorry nice try
It's not clear how popular soccer has become here. What is clear is that it has become embedded the culture in ways one might not have thought possible. It can be seen in product advertising on television. In one ad, children dash out of the house, obviously to play soccer, and they cause a vase to rock and fall from a table. The mother deftly catches the ball on her foot and juggles it up to her hands so she can return it safely to its place. Soccer has became such a casual, wide-spread part of life that there is a "national vocabulary" of soccer imagery that is simply taken for granted. It's these little things that suggest soccer is indeed popular, in the sense of being as familiar as Pepsi Cola and pizza. And then there is Jim Rome....
I don't know if I should be pissed or flattered by your comments. At least now I know that all these years of study and practicing english on the internet were not in vain. And BTW, I have the help of a Babylon translator Ask me anything that can prove that I am brazilian and I will answer!
i have a curious question this is not aimed to trap you and is totally off the subject, but no one has ever been able to answer this and i have always been very curious about it....so here it goes...what does pele' mean and how did he get that nickname....I must know
Soccer's popualrity in the US has always been underestimated. It has a huge following among many sizable segements of the US population, most notably hispanics. What you seem to be asking is, when will soccer become a hugely popular spectator sport among white, middle-class, suburban America. That's a much different question than asking the more general "will soccer be popular in America" question.
The average American doesn't know very much about the US national teams or MLS (i.e., they don't follow the sport as a spectator). BUT the average American does have familiarity with soccer as a participatory sport. More than 20 million Americans play soccer in organized leagues. Since about 16 million of those players are 17 and under, that means a lot of parents who never played the game as children have been exposed through it through their children. Much has changed, for the better, in this country over the past 10-15 years. The gains are amazing when you step back and look at them. Still, soccer started from so very far back, it can seem, sometimes, as though those gains have been minimal.
If you look at the US demographically, there seems to be a 'line of demarcation' at around the ages of 40 - 50. Those over 50 by and large don't know, understand, or care all that much about soccer. But for those under 40, soccer is pretty mainstream. To Minnman's point, the sport's progress in this regard is nothing less than amazing. If you had told us 30 years ago where soccer would be today in the USA -- several pro leagues, soccer on TV all the time, endless amateur opportunities for youth and adult, competitive national team, dominance in women's soccer, front page articles in USA Today (today!), and all the pop culture references mentioned by Brownswan -- we soccer fans would have been very, very happy.
Sorry, I wouldn't know how to answer that. Like 95% of brazilian players are called by a nickname or a short that was given them during childhood so it´s not a big deal among brazilians to discover the origin of this or that nickname.
Pele means "The Black Pearl". He got the name because he was both good at soccer and black as a child. Oh, I'm not Brazilian, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Soccer is definitely growing. It needs to get bigger, but it is known by most Americans, but most just don't follow it. More kids play soccer then baseball. That really says a lot about where soccer is growing. With the facilities we have, we should be a world power pretty soon.
I remember reading that Bush made a call to the US team after the USA x Mexico game in the WC and said something like "you guys are making pround a lot of americans, like me, that don't know nothing about soccer". I think it best summons the state of soccer popularity among the average american. At least the idea that the rest of world has about it.
Hell, it's even on the cardboard wrappers on Jockey shorts. I bought several pair recently and on the chair next to the guy modeling the shorts was a soccer ball... Do you suppose that was directed at all those soccer moms?
i read an article in the times in london a few weeks ago that said that more young childen in the us are starting to play soccer than football, baseball and basketball combined.
I wouldn't combine the three. More kids do play soccer than baseball, but not basketball. Basketball is the most played sport by kids. All you need to play basketball is a ball, and it is not hard to find a court since they are all over the place. Basketball is very popular to play in this country for the same reason that soccer is in others, you don't need much to play it. To play football (which is the most popular sport to watch by far, it is my favorite to be honest), you need pads, a football, and a lot of space. With baseball, you need a bat, field, bases, and glove. Soccer is definitely being played by more kids than over before, but basketball is still played by the most kids. In the newspaper this week, I saw a list of the top played sports for kids under 17, this is what it was: Basketball Volleyball (I don't know how that got there, must have a lot to do with California) Soccer Football Baseball Hockey Soccer is doing pretty well I would say! However, basketball has nearly double the amount of kids playing it. It won't catch basketball anytime soon.
maybe the article i read meant in actual leagues, because it is fairly easy to pick up a basketball and shoot around at any one of the ubiquitous hoops in the us, but based on my experience in the us, youth soccer leagues seemed far more prevalent than youth basketball leagues.
joehooligan0303 Uhh. I am/was Brazilian and I only spell Brazil as Brasil if I am writing in Portuguese. Is it that hard to believe a Brazilian can write English without butchering the language.
DePauw University "Pele means "The Black Pearl". He got the name because he was both good at soccer and black as a child." WRONG..buzzzz...Pele does not mean black peal in Portuguese. HAHA. I've always wanted to do that.
I wouldn't, necessarily. At the very end of last year, CNN and the Gallup Group did their usual poll questions. One concerned what was Americans most favorite sport to watch. Soccer came in at less than 2%, behind figure skating which got 4%. There's still this business about loads of kids playing soccer up to a certain age but not watching it or following the professional league. It's as if playing it is fine, but it's not hip or cool or whatever to watch it on TV or go to the games. Is it lousy marketing or what? If they love to play it, why aren't they mobbing the stadiums or driving the TV numbers up?