Americans Just Aren't Into Soccer

It's time for another World Cup post, an every-four-years tradition here at Writing The World. Here's what I said in 2010, in a post titled "Ghana Crushes The American Dream:"

I lifted the title of this post from time.com's article about the U.S. team's loss to Ghana in the World Cup and I find myself wondering - why isn't soccer a bigger deal here? It's a big deal right now, sort of, because of World Cup coverage, but I'm talking about the rest of the time. How come soccer isn't as popular in this country, year in and year out, as it is in the rest of the world? This will be a short post because not only do I not know the answer, I don't have any well thought-out musings on the subject. I don't even have any snarky "isn't this lame?" comments on the subject, because like most of my fellow Americans, I just don't care that much about soccer.

If I learn anything interesting about it, between now and, you know, whenever, I'll let you know.

Monday morning update: Time attempts to explain it.

And here's what I was thinking four years later, in a post titled "The Day After:" 

After the World Cup, that is. I did watch most of the game, and I don't want to be disrespectful about something that's so important to the rest of the world, but part of me just wants to say, Really? That's what all the fuss is about? 90 minutes of regulation play and the score is zero to zero? Germany finally scored in the "extra time" period and went out in something less than a blaze of glory, definitively beating the Argentines by a whopping 1 to zip.

I get that I don't get it.

Four years ago, during the 2010 World Cup, I wondered why soccer isn't as big here in the States as it is in the rest of the world, then confessed that I didn't have any well thought-out musings on the subject. It's still true, and unless something truly fascinating happens in soccer-world, I'll meet you back here in 2018 for another "Americans just aren't into soccer" post. 

Here we are in 2018 and I still don't have anything interesting to say about soccer. As I'm writing, the final match, between France and Croatia, has just gotten underway. Will they play to a more exciting conclusion than the one to nothing overtime win by Germany over Argentina four years ago? On behalf of soccer fans everywhere, I hope so.