Offside Soccer Blog - Why Americans Hate Soccer Part III

Americans don't like ties

They want clear, clean-cut winners. A tie? Boring. Such a mentality is ignorant to the fact that some of the most exciting matches of all time ended in a draw. Example? Watch this video of David Beckham's free kick against Greece.

Why is the crowd so electric? England would have failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup had Beckham not scored in that, the last play of the game which tied the game 2-2. The idea of an entertaining draw is very foreign to many Americans, obsessed with a sporting culture that centers around the concept of overtime. Take into consideration that soccer has penalty kicks which certainly feed into the sort of drama that Americans crave. In that sense, soccer offers the best of worlds.

Offside Soccer Blog - Why Americans Hate Soccer Part II

Americans don't like the fact that the games are low-scoring

Americans want points, points, points. They want field goals, home runs, three-pointers aplenty. In the scoring sense, soccer is the antithesis of basketball where scoring is constant and games often exceed the 100-point mark regularly. Somehow we forget that the world stood still thanks to Landon Donovan when he scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Algeria in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Who could forget? Look at these reactions to Landon Donovan's goal:



True, things get intense when it gets down to the wire at any sport. But Landon's goal is a perfect example of the drama that can come from a soccer game that no other sport could possibly hope to achieve.