<p>The World Cup is an event meant to promote more interaction between countries right? Hence the "Say No To Racism" embedded in the middle of the field. Even multi-national companies such as Nike, Adidas, etc. . all lately have themes, commercials, etc centered around the World Cup. Even Germany, this year's host, seems to be making an extra effort to be affable, probably due to their history of being the bad guy in the past 2 world wars . . . </p>
<p>BUT, compared to 66+ Americans who tune in to the super bowl, a measly 3 million watch the world cup, and americans continue to suck at the game.</p>
<p>While the colonists were travelling across the Atlantic the meaning of the word "football" became distorted due to mass hysteria causing a lapse in judgement and common sense. The country still suffers from that problem as it can't realize what the meaning of the word "foot" in "football" means.</p>
<p>If you're implying that Americans are not interested because they are racist, that's pretty far-fetched and I doubt the case. I think if our team were one of the best (think Brazil), then Americans would be more excited and cheering for it, and all that stuff. Americans generally don't watch soccer, so why would they tune in now?
Other countries aren't super interested in our super bowl or world series, so I see no problem.</p>
<p>Lol mahras, yeah their meaning of football is kinda ironic.</p>
<p>woth2try, I know, but see, World cup is like . . inter-continental. For those other countries not interested in AMERICAN football is understandable, it's not like americans, italians, etc tune in to Ghana Track every year. and i wasn't implying that at all, <em>obviously</em> america isn't racist. I'm just wondering why so many don't want to participate in these things . . I'm guessing the same sorta thing happens with the Olympics, americans probably aren't on top of that either. </p>
<p>i guess they just don't care besides for their own events.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with racism (I don't even see how that term applies here). Soccer just isn't a traditionally popular spectator sport in the USA. American football and baseball are and now auto racing is as well. Maybe this will change when the legions of young soccer players enter the age of the paying spectator. When I was a kid, soccer was only played when forced upon us in PE class, otherwise, it was football, baseball, basketball, etc.</p>
<p>To be fair, I'd say Americans are no less interested in soccer (the traditional top sport in many other countries) than the other countries are in the traditional top American sports. I've traveled to many other countries and it isn't like they're highly interested in our traditional sports at all even though they tend to be fanatical over theirs. I don't see anything wrong with this. It's just natural. It's not like there needs to be a single global most popular sport. I don't understand why you even think it's a problem.</p>
<p>I thought the world cup org was just trying to avoid the almost inevitable nationalist violence that usually surrounds the world-cup and avoid the injuries and deaths that result.</p>
<p>i was watching a world cup commentary session, and it was brought up; it's just a curiosity question. not really saying it's a problem, americans can do whatever they want. Huuuuge percentages of other countries tune in, and america is like. . "whatever". </p>
<p>It's also the same case when it comes to Americans watching Olympics (multi sports so can't really complain). . . more people in other countries watch these multinational events than americans.</p>
<p>I know this might not be the best example, but in England, when their own national competition comes to play (which happens to be in fUtball too), about the same amt tune into world cup also.</p>
<p>It even seems that Nike and such are trying to promote more interest, but are still failing?</p>
<p>Overall, the Cup is averaging about 3-3.5 million viewers per game in the US.</p>
<p>I'd say that part of it is timing, and the other part is only watching big games. Being on summer break, I'd say teenagers (speaking as an example) take the timing of the games for granted. Most of the games have either been at 11 a.m EST. or 3 p.m. EST during the week, a time when many Americans are working and unavailable to watch the games. (Granted it's a lot more convenient than 2002). </p>
<p>Also, another thing is that Americans are more likely to watch big games...for instance, the US-Italy game got around 10 million viewers, as did the Mexico-Argentina game. The casual fan would be less motivated to take time out of their day to watch Mexico-Iran, for instance.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say, "even Germany has been hard...due to their past..." like it's suprising. Without a doubt, Germany is the hardest country in Europe(if not the world) when it comes to racist crimes. There is a reason why you do not hear racial slurs towards soccer players in the German league, but when you go to Italy and England, they happen all the time.</p>
<p>Just never been a big soccer fan. I find the game boring. Back-and-forth, back-and-forth; put ball in their net, keep ball from entering your net. It's just like basketball or hockey. Boring.</p>
<p>I find this strange also. I'm absolutely in love with the World Cup, even though I'm not a usually a huge fan of watching soccer games. But I doubt that racism or the US team has much to do with it. American football is just a tradition in the States; it's part of the American life. That's why it draws so much viewers. International football, to most Americans, is "just another sport."</p>
<p>yeah it's on during the day.... what do you expect... the only people really home are old people and young people... and actually a lot of teenagers I know watch a lot of it... it's definitely catching on with our generation</p>
<p>I heard two points that are completely false.</p>
<p>1) Americans don't follow soccer because we're bad at it.</p>
<p>We're ranked number 5 in the world. We made it to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup. Our performance in the World Cup this year was a failure and quite unexpected. The US had its chance to advance, but we just couldn't do it. It's not because we're bad, we just lacked the heart.</p>
<p>2) Americans are just as enthusiastic about soccer as other fans from around the world.</p>
<p>Heck no! I don't know what countries you visited, but from my experiences other fans are incredibly avid about soccer. In India, people adopt other teams like Brazil because India will never qualify for the World Cup. Mass depression fell upon India when Brazil was ousted a few days ago.</p>
<p>Some of the other points that were mentioned were probably true. Americans frankly couldn't give a damn about soccer. They don't know who's playing or what's going on. Most people just think it's boring.</p>
<p>If you want Americans to be more open to soccer, then you should also start asking the rest of the world to start treating football(as in American football) as a real sport too. </p>
<p>I like both sports, but when I go abroad and tell people about football, they always respond, "Oh, but isn't it boring, just running into each other back and forth?" I just want to say, "Well isn't it just as boring kicking a ball around for 90 minutes?" The ignorance goes both ways here. It's not just Americans who are ignorant about soccer, most Europeans and Asians are pretty ignorant about football as well.</p>