That would imply that more than 30% of the population cares even the tiniest bit about the World Cup.aloofman said:
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The 2006 World Cup Draw
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Counterfit said:That would imply that more than 30% of the population cares even the tiniest bit about the World Cup.
Agreed - mention "football" to many people in the US and I betcha "soccer" is not the first thing that comes to their mind.
It's also probably hard for some people in the US to comprehend the World Cup as something pertaining to a competition which the actual countries of the world participate in as well - the Americans have their own "World" Series for baseball which they award to the "world" champions (even though all I ever see in those games are American teams, funny....)
~Shard~ said:Agreed - mention "football" to many people in the US and I betcha "soccer" is not the first thing that comes to their mind.
It's also probably hard for some people in the US to comprehend the World Cup as something pertaining to a competition which the actual countries of the world participate in as well - the Americans have their own "World" Series for baseball which they award to the "world" champions (even though all I ever see in those games are American teams, funny....)
In all fairness, most people care about the sports that their country is good at. And since we don't win any championships in soccer -- or even come remotely close -- we don't stay interested in it. It may be a chicken before the egg kind of thing where Americans start loving soccer when we win the World Cup, but that probably won't happen until our top athletes start playing soccer instead of basketball, football or baseball.
aloofman said:
Fair enough. Funny though, as being a Canadian, I'm not huge into lacrosse or hockey, yet I love football (i.e. soccer) even though Canada isn't good at it either.
I guess I try to have an open-mind, appreciate and make myself aware of the goings-on of the world around me when it comes to things (not just sports), and don't focus on purely "Canadian content" in my case. I guess maybe that's one reason why I love traveling around the world and experiencing life outside my home so much, as it makes me so much more well-rounded and gives me such an invaluable perspective on things. Speaking of which, I can't wait to go to South Africa for World Cup 2010 - it's going to be an amazing trip!
aloofman said:
i think thats just partially true it simply depends on the country... in austria it's clear: everybody goes nuts over "ski alpin" .. so nuts that the austrian ORF was sending it from 4pm to 6 am last weekend on their main channel, with broadcasting every sincle world cup race live with former skiiers as co-commentaries or camera-skiiers
and during the commercials breaks of course former and current skiing stars are presenting the latest fruit juice, frozen vegetables, insurance companies,banks
it's of course the perfect example of having successfull athletes in asport doesn't lead to increased interest in the world cup:while the US skier Bode Miller can't walk the streets in austrian without giving autographs (yeah he did a commercial as well as far as i remember) he can do whatever he wants in his own country without getting recognized
the thing is: the whole crazyness is completly seasonal with skiing... when the season ends the media is all over football again.... and austria wasn't that succesfull recently
Football is the most popular team oriented sport in the world and i guess also the most spread one
that aside during school the most popular team games were: Football, Hockey (the one played without ice or roller-skates)... and then perhaps Handball,Dodgeball just in front of an easy version of baseball played with tennis rackets ...
takao said:
In the U.S. soccer is very popular among kids. Just about everyone I know played in a youth soccer league for at least a little while. But by about age 10 kids have moved on to other sports. In this sense I think a sport's tradition is really important too. There's never been a feeling among child athletes that soccer is the sport to go into, so only the die-hard soccer kids keep playing it into adulthood. The rest get seduced by the celebrities playing the major sports here.
Maybe it's for the best. If we were good at soccer too, then the rest of the world would really hate us.
That's because whenever we see him on TV, he's got goggles and a helmet on. His face doesn't get plastered everywhere like Phelps or Picaboo.takao said:
