or football as it's called over here! Just wondered if many of you from the States follow it? How it's expanding over there?

My team Manchester United played in a tour in the states in the summer. Did any of you follow that?

Also, we signed Tim Howard from New York/New Jersey Metro Stars? Have many of you heard of him, he's doing fantastic and fast becoming a fans favourite!

There's been a larger influx of American players entering the English Premiership in the last few years. I think since '94 when the US hosted the World Cup it is slightly taken more seriously but because of so many other popular sports in their nation it will never become recognised as the nations favourite or at least one of the favourites. Which is a shame because as a nation I personally think the US, if it puts it's mind to it can become the best at nearly anything.

Personally, I think soccer is an interesting and fun game as long as teams score. That being said, it has not carried over its notoriety into the States, and consequently isn't followed or accepted as American football is.

Also, Robin Williams has bashed soccer enough so that we're too busy laughing when we see a game

Football (or soccer) is great, my favourite team sport! Especially when watching old brazil matches from the 1970 world cup.
I'm not surprised at the fact that football (or soccer)isn't popular in the states. It's a non-contact sport which requires patience.

Or it could be that while it shows some good atheletic prowess, its a boring-ass game if nobody scores. :rolleyes:

Okay, better yet, what about baseball? If we are such an impatient and contact-wanting nation, why is baseball the American pastime? It has no contact (other than bat/baseball :p ) and requires patience, yet we Americans have gotten along with it for almost a full century.

Some of the best games i've ever seen have been with no scorelines. That's the problem (and I say this in a general term due to Double J's comment) why the Americans wont accept it yet.

With a 0-0 scoreline i've nearly torn hair out of my head, thrown heavy objects at the tv and in contrast also praised the goal keeper of my team whether it was England, Blackburn or Scunthorpe.

But I will also defend the US because they havn't grown up with it as being the national sport. You grow up with the traditions around you. If I grew up with baseball around me everywhere, the chances are i'd probably love it too. But being in a country where it is just a fabricated version of cricket I don't.

A lot of little kids play soccer here in the states. My nieces and nephews love playing it.

That's all I pretty much know about soccer. Go Ronaldo!

Turi- I do appreciate soccer, and in fact I called the play-by-play for games at my high school. The problem was that the score was too often 0-0.

It's hard to compete against the big 3 American sports: baseball, football and basketball. So much of our sports culture is built around TV and soccer isn't as adaptable to TV as the other sports. The others have lots of opportunity for commercials and that's what keeps TV going.

When I was in London I enjoyed sitting at the bar in the pubs and quaffing a pint and watching soccer. It was a nice cultural exchange. I was there during the Summer Olympics in 2000 and I did miss the American coverage of the Olympics. It was fairly sedate in the UK. A lot of horseback riding. The track team was suppose to challenge in the 4X100 relay. Well they dropped the baton and the commentators were rather disappointed.