Why more United States Citizens aren't into Soccer

The US is doing very very well in the World Cup. Both my mother and brother are following and watching. I may tune in soon myself. My brother, a natural athlete, played pretty much every sport imaginable in school and growing up - but by far his favorite was soccer, and it is the one that he still played at the University level and well into adult hood. I too, have tried every sport imaginable - didn't excel at any of them, but I did like soccer - it made sense, there was a skill level required that honestly isn't in most of the other sports. Also unlike most of the other sports - the action is non-stop, and very fast.

Why aren't a lot of people in the US not into the World Cup? (Note not all, I know a lot of soccer fans, and have worked with quite a few. One of my co-workers toured the US on a soccer team, and got into a University in the US on a soccer scholarship, he also coaches inter-league children's soccer. And I had a former boss who was a soccer coach and involved with inter-league soccer. Plus most of my friends watch it. Also note, I'm stating the US, because in the Americas? Most people are more into Soccer than the other sports. Interesting, don't you think?)

Anyhow, without getting into a highly subjective discussion of sports, and look at it from an objective and logical perspective. More Mr. Spock, less Kirk. (Because only a die-hard American Football or Baseball fan could possibly state either sport was more entertaining than soccer, and only one who clearly never played the sport or watched it. But that's again a subjective statement.)

1. Nationalism

Soccer is a sport that originated outside the US. It is not really a "national sport". Unlike Baseball, Basketball, American Football - Soccer was not created by the United States. The Origin of Soccer - shows it's an old sport, originated over 2,000 years ago. And transitioned into football or as US calls it Soccer by the British.
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American football descended from rugby football, played in the United Kingdom in the mid-nineteenth century.

American Football is actually a very young sport, that only dates back about 200 years if that. And it was an off-shoot of a far more brutal and strategic sport in the UK - rugby. Note - everywhere else they play rugby, the US plays American Football not rugby, which should tell you everything right there about the US establishment's take on sports?

2. Sexism

Women's Soccer has done better than Men's Soccer on the world stage and national stage. Along with the Olympics, and in college.
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3. Money, Marketing, and Advertising

There's not a lot of money in soccer. Because we haven't put in the infrastructure behind it. Remember that line in Field of Dreams - "build it and they will come?" Well, we don't really have soccer stadiums or if we do, not that many. To my knowledge - NY doesn't have one, but it does have two baseball stadiums and a football stadium. It also has not one, not two but three football teams. But no prominent soccer teams that I'm aware of. We have ice hockey arenas, we have grid-iron football stadiums, and we have baseball and even basketball stadiums, but not a lot in the way of soccer.
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4. Indoctrination

Sports are introduced to kids at any early age. And the vast majority of the US is, unfortunately, segregated, and introduced to just two sports - grid-iron football and baseball. Unless you live in an urban area, or a more affluent one, or diverse one with a lot of immigrants, you probably didn't see much outside of grid-iron football, and variations on baseball (a la Softball) growing up.
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Today's accomplishments included:

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Outside of that, I laid about, talked to mother, watched television and got into a pointless debate online about spectator sports with two people who cared about them, while I don't. Pointless - because it's not like I watch them or am remotely emotionally invested. [It should be noted that generally speaking? I find spectator sports involving a ball - frustrating to watch, dull as toast, and anxiety inducing. Fun not so much. Enjoyable - meh. I could live without them frankly.]

Me: Folks online posted about how Americans weren't as invested in soccer as Football and Baseball - because it wasn't as exciting.
Mother: What? That makes no sense. [Unlike me, mother likes watching sports with balls.]
Me: I know, it's complete BS, also the ensuing debate made me dislike baseball and football and want nothing to do with them.
Mother: Uhm, did you ever like them that much to begin with? Or want anything to do with them?
Me: Well, no...
( me and spectator sports involving balls )

**
Television

Watched the US vs. Netherlands match - the US lost. Although, it was hard to be that upset about it - since the Netherlands have never won a World Cup and they've been playing longer. I may try to catch the Brazil vs. Netherlands game, since I would root for either. I prefer it when I like both teams. Guy in front of me at the pharmacy the other day - was hunting back pain relief..."I need it because I play too much soccer, either that or I'm getting old."

Me: Possibly both?
Guy: Most likely. But I need to be in good shape to root for my team, Brazil in the World Cup. I'm hoarse from screaming, I mean cheering them on.

House of Dragon

One of my co-workers, Mel, convinced me to finish House of Dragon. I'd made it to episode 8, and she said I had to see the last two episodes, because they were great.

She's right they were - far better than the rest of the season actually. Although still filmed a tad too darkly - it was hard to see what was happening. A problem with the latter seasons of GoT as well. Did they hire a poor lighting and production staff?
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Another co-worker wants me to try Wednesday next. It's either that or finishing Andor. I also should go back to the Crown. Mother, at brother's suggestion, is watching English on Amazon Prime.

***

Books

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Lie aka Mathew Perry memoir about addiction

Perry paints an interesting picture of an addict. However, it is disturbing how into fame and prestige, he became. He name drops a lot, and talks about how he dated these successful women, dropped them because he disliked himself, and was into sleeping around. He comes across as a bit of a womanizer - he worships and demeans women at the same time.

He's an addict. When he stopped drinking - he substituted sex. And didn't want lasting commitments. Curious as to why women would date him or go for that? Not all did. But there were quite a few. Is he charming? Very. But you'd think they would have seen through it at some point?

The Princess and the Rogue

Feels very much like fanfic. The characters feel slightly off at times. It is getting better now that they've left the Ewoks and Endor behind. (I am not a fan of the Ewoks, who are kind of silly, and a touch offensive.)

"I find social media to be a soul sucking void of meaningless affirmation" - Wednesday Addams

Social media has been pissing me off today. It does occasionally. Mainly because I try to connect on it - and it doesn't always jive. Also, I've admittedly been irritable of late. A lot of suppressed anger that I can't do anything about. I am furious - but I can't kick or punch or scream at the people that I'm furious with. The good news is I'm not alone, a lot of other people are equally furious. Misery loves company and all that.

Latest? Twitter couldn't understand why people can't remember to use Jim and I went to the store, as opposed to me and Jim. And when I said that it's a rhythm thing - about how the other just sounds better. (Also I have an audio/visual type of dyslexia and tend to flip it and have to flip it back all the time - but I didn't lead with that.) The Twitter poster stated that it was probably from poor upbringing and lack of education. Her Mom was a lawyer and spoke with great punctuation and perfect grammar. (Funny most of the lawyers I've worked with suck at it, but I chose not to mention that. My god, most lawyers write run on sentences.)

My response?

1. I'm a lawyer. 2. My mother is educated and a speech therapist. Both have graduate degrees. My father has published six books. 3. I have a learning disability that causes me to flip things in my head.

Moral? Don't make assumptions and generalizations on social media, particularly about people you don't know.

Also, have I expressed how much the grammar police annoy me on social media? I think it's because they are such hypocrites about it. I read their posts - they don't use good grammar all of the time either. And make all sorts of mistakes. We all do. It's inevitable - unless you have a grammar and spellchecker that fixes all the mistakes.

Wednesday the Television Series

Saw the first episode - it's good. Some really good lines in it.

My favorite so far?

"I find social media to be a soul-sucking void of meaningless affirmation.”

Kinda of true. I'm also kind of rooting for Twitter to crash.