Soccer - "The Un- American Activity"

Interesting article on soccer in last weeks New Yorker by Jeffery Toobin.  Here are a few excerpsts :

Soccer fans in America are evangelical in their fevor, yet cultish in their numbers


In all, the World Cup in 2006 suggested another false dawn for soccer in America. The game the capivates the rest of the world - where it is a source of rapture and revenue remains only a niche product at home.

Soccer is the Canada of American sports, viewed less with contempt than with indifference.

On losing to the Czechs:

"The problem wasn't just a dearth of skills but a lack of mettle.The Americans had more World cup experience but the seemed timid by comparison"

"The game was an object lesson in what haunts American soccer -- The curse of the mini van"

"Every kid in the American suburbs owns a pair of shin guards. Soccer accords nicely with baby boom parents notions of sports-- every kid gets to play and there are lots of trophies. They wander away from the game by adolescence. Soccer in America serves mostly as a bridge between Barney and Nintendo.

" MLS survives largely because of Phil Anschultz - the right wing media mogal" who owns 4 of the 12 teams and is willing to subsidize heavy losses."

 

How many players are there on a soccer field at one time? How many players are there on a football field at the same time? Not sure how that solves the every kid gets to play argument.

 

I think the observation is apt. basically if a kid can stand on 2 feet they can start playing soccer around age 5. The earliest a kid can start playing football is age 8 if they can handle the physical and mental aspects. That makes up a very small group.

All kids can play soccer and feel like they are doing something and not feel over matched.

 

Yeah, but that doesn't mean they're any damn good at it.

 

Soccer was "accepted" a decade or two ago as a youth sport de jour, taking its place alongside youth football, basketball and baseball/softball.
It's popularity among American parents was in no true way parallel to the religiousity that others in other parts of the world accept soccer.
The sport, among American youths, is largely a lily-white entity.
These American parents who did, and often didn't, play youth sports of their own, are often of the breed who enjoy living vicariously through their kids and the pursuits of the little ones.
Soccer is all-inclusive.
It allows the kids to get out and achieve maximum cardio workouts on a routine basis.
It also gets the little ones "field-time", when many of them would not get that time if they played football, basketball or baseball.
Kids sports, as we've already discussed on this board, are much more pussified than was the case 20 or 40 years ago.
Soccer's quality is great at all age levels in most parts of the world.
In the U.S., it stinks.

 

I'm not sure I'd take Jeffrey Toobin as an expert on soccer in America.

 

Twoback, maybe he's not, but that's what made the article interesting. It was a good writer taking on this subject from the outside looking in. I thought he did an excellent job with it - observing, explaining, etc. In a general interest magazine, I'd rather read this piece than something by some soccernik who will be able to break down Bruce Arena's roster selection but can't necessarily write about the big picture.

Toobin's piece was very good. I'm no soccer fan, but I read it in one sitting.

 

It would be a nice read if it wasn't completely full of shit.

Sorry, it just doesn't work. The more things like this are written, the more the author is exposed.

 

God, I just had a flash to that King of the Hill episode..."that damn lawyer-ball."