Why is the U.S so good at soccer?

Question

The United States has three national sports (four including ice hockey). Soccer is not one of them. Explain how the US manages these diverse interests and is still able to compete with other countries where soccer is the only national sport? Countries devote their whole lives to soccer, and not only have they never won a World Cup, but they find it difficult to make it into the finals. How is it that the US consistently qualifies for the World Cup and is steadily improving? The US public does not view elimination from the group rounds as a time of national mourning. Wouldn’t the US comfortably make it to the semifinals, if they were as fanatical about soccer as other countries? America dominates other sports such as golf, boxing, tennis, swimming, cycling, and athletics (again, these are not national sports) showing that it is the greatest sporting nation in history. Give reason as to why America’s sporting prowess will easily transfer to a US team winning the World Cup in future years

I'm not American.

Answer 1

I don't think it is all that surprising to to the US competing and pretty competantly in the 2006 World cup.

Hey ...but the US benefits from a vast pool of 298 million inhabitants - the 3rd largest country in the world. It also has money, healthcare, training and sports facilities that many countries can only dream of. Don't forget that you have a massive headstart.

Ecuador got thru to the knock out stages and they are not known as world class footy players. Only 6 million people in what is a poor country.

Australias national sports are Aussie rules football (where you can pick up the ball) and cricket - but they do pretty well for a country of 20 million - and look set to get to the knock out stage.

I'm not knocking the US at all, in fact its good to see them doing so well - the match against Italy was particularly good. But I'm more surprised to see Togo at the world cup than the USA team.

Cheers.....

Answer 2

Good points. The downside is that America only gets on the bandwagon of a winning team or person. The support for soccer in the US is not as it should be.

I do agree that if the US put as much effort in soccer as we do to the other sports, we could have a better national team that could compete in the World Cup.

Let me remind the world that in 2002 we were a bad call away from making it to the semi-final by beating Germany. We lost that game 1-0 to Germany. So now, we do not suck in soccer.

Answer 3

The US does not support professional soccer in general.
You have to remember, the US invented Football(American), Basketball and Baseball(sorry, it was not the English). These are the major sports in our nation.
Even though they had a bad World Cup, 4 years ago they had a great World Cup. Previous to this tournament, they were ranked #5 in the world.
They will probably never be as good at soccer as the Brazil's or England's of the world, but they will get better.

Answer 4

When I saw the question, I thought you were being sarcastic. I don't know where you got the information from, US sucks at soccer. Other than the hosting country, every country has to play the preliminary round in order to qualify. The preliminary rounds are regional. US is under the North and Central American region. The top 4 in this region would be qualified to the 32-team group stage round. Other than Mexico, not a whole lot of strong soccer countries in that region. (Mexican team is not bad but I wouldn't say they are strong either). US's soccer sucks and most of the soccer teams in North and Central America are even worse. Comparing to other weak teams, yes, US is stronger. But you put US in the world, US still has a very long way to go in order to compete with the stronger teams.

Answer 5

I'm sorry that you're confused. The US is TERRIBLE at soccer. We're good at all sports EXCEPT soccer. Lol, did you see the
Ghana-US game? It was pathetic. We really can't compete with the world in soccer, we just get lucky and get spots in the World Cup for no good reason.

Answer 6

Mexico as many have said before. And they will only continue to get stronger because it was just announce that young leagues such as the sub-15, sub-17 and sub 20 will be developed. That way many youngsters will already have experience once they get to the first division in Mexico and wont take them that long to go to europe as some have given the excused that before mexican players go to europe they need more experienced. So im looking forward to the Mexican League. And To David Please do not bring the national team into this please how can you compare Landon Dodavon with someone like Rafael Marquez and the thing about Freddy Adu at least Mexico doesn not give citizenship to foreign players right away so they could play with the national team, at least Gio has a Mexican mother and was born in Mexico.

Answer 7

What have you been smoking?
The US only gets through the elimination round and qualify to the World Cup because they are in the less competitive area of football.
It hasn't improved, if any they are getting worse and it's highly unlikely they will win a World Cup any soon.
And the match against Italy was crap, their goal was a mistake made by one of the italians.
And to the one that talked about Ecuador: we have 13 million people here, not 6.

Answer 8

i agree with what everyone says about how the US has the most TALENTED squad ever. HOWEVER, for some reason they just play sh*t together. i dont know if it is the coaching or what but whenever i see them play i just have this feeling that they could be playing WAY better. during this world cup it was like they didnt care, like they didnt want it. it seems like last world cup they were a lot better team. as for their qualifying for almost every wc. the only reason they do that is because the only other major competitor in their region is Mexico. if they had to play teams from other reagions to qualify they probably wouldnt make it as much.

Answer 9

The US can't play soccer.

Answer 10

make that 5 national sports. its called LaCrosse and its the best sport ever!!! you have to include Hockey because thats a great sport. Soccer is a national sport too, so I guess thats 6!