The Sad Predicament of Soccer in America

Having watched, played and coached football both sides of the Atlantic I feel well qualified to assess its condition in those two geographies. In America, Soccer is played universally right up to high school. 50% of US households participate in AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization), or something like it!  But when the kids go to High School soccer participation drops off precipitously. But Why?  You may well ask – things seemed to be going so well for our beautiful game among those young cohorts. So why did they quit?  The answer is very simple. They became adults!

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. — 1 Corinthians 13:11, King James Version. And the exact same effect for those who became Women!

So, in the US, soccer is a childish thing!  Of course players hang on gamely through college and the MLS (and NWSL!) but in very much reduced numbers. With the unbridled success of the USWNT our game enjoys brief salvoes of enthusiasm especially when the Women’s World Cup rolls around!  It’s kind of tribal but we’ll take it!  

What then are the mannish (and womanish) things our new adults gravitate toward?  Answer!  Grown-ups prefer: NFL 65%; NBA 51%; MLB 42%; NCAA (grid-iron) 30%; NCAA (basketball) 25%. By the way NASCAR is 24% and Formula 1 is 18%!

(for more info read Alex Kerai’s article in reviews.org)

Why such despondency?  Messi came to Miami, didn’t he?  I’m afraid that one swallow does not a summer make!

Bottom line MLS popularity is a woeful 12% and the NWSL doesn’t even move the needle!  But surely, things are on the upswing, even outside those young cohorts.  Not really!

It’s just not in the average American’s blood.  Most were raised on the glitzy and the ginormous they salivate over deformed torsos and brutal violence.  They admire individual feats of great skill and athleticism, but they look for them in the three home-grown American sports.  Could the grace and vigor of ‘Soccer’ win them over?

Well, just take a look at the world!  Look at the USA!  Apart from the occasional bullying in foreign lands, America has become steadily more self-absorbed.  MAGA preaches parochialism.  And in the world at large treaties and accords are being torn up.  Aid is denied to our starving brothers and sisters.  Funds are diverted to finance militias and fight border disputes.

Once, not long ago, the world was more connected.   Glasnost prospered.  Walls were torn down.  But inclusion’s flame flickered.  The dark forces of intolerance and repression snuffed it out.  The ideologs came back out of the closet.  Internationalism was battered in this climate.  Like Frost’s smallholders, America has been mending its walls.

Of course there will always be devotees, fanatics even.  But to my way of thinking the chances of the average American sports fan embracing the beautiful game in the foreseeable future?  Close to zero!