Prep Soccer Popularity in U.S.

Back during the crazy period of my mid to late 20's, I spent some time in Brazil. I had visions of importing motorcycle helmets from Taiwan where I was living before I digress. One of my favorite things about the daily "grind" of life in Sao Paulo was nap I would take (you know, to make my adoptive family feel more at ease) shortly after lunch. I remember one day lying there in mid afternoon app bliss with the window open to the sounds of city just beyond the wall. It wasn't terribly hot and the window allowed airflow as the weather changed every 15 minutes. All of a sudden, I heard a giant roar across the city. I shot up in my bed with that panicky fight of flight feeling although I'm not sure what the fight would amount to. The roar seemed to come from every building all at one time and also filtered from my friends in the other room. I stumbled out of the bedroom to figure out what the Brazilian equivalent of an earthquake is. It's turns that there was a World Cup Soccer game going on and Brazil had just scored a winning goal against it's rival...might have been Argentina or Germany. This was around 1995. I stood there stunned to realize that a soccer goal was the the source for what seemed an end of earth even from my window. Soccer was serious stuff in Sao Paulo. The fact that this was surprising to me can only mean one thing...I was from the U.S.

So what gives? Why isn't soccer as popular in the U.S. as in pretty much any other place in the world. In fact, soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It's only in the U.S. that it doesn't translate yet. The strange thing is that it starts off so strong. Go out on any fall Saturday and take a look at the local middle school sports fields. They're likely to be packed with kids running around brightly covered AYSO soccer jerseys. Just dozens of them. It's one of the most organized and popular youth sports you'll find in the U.S. Where does it drop off and why?

At PrepSportFantasy.com, we love all high school sports and prep soccer is right up there. If there's a ball, we're all in. So what's our un-informed and unscientific take on soccer's relative position when compared to other countries. The only thing we can think of is American football. If you look at other sports, others are very popular in different countries as well. Baseball is huge in some countries and basketball is one of the fastest growing in popularity that you'll find. Only American football doesn't have a foothold in almost every other country. In fact, it's one of the least international sports you'll find. It really is unique to the U.S. Why does this matter? Ask any 8th grader. Early middle school is about the time that most prospective high school athletes make decisions on which sports to focus on. If you're a really good athlete on the soccer field, the skills translate well to American football and all you have to do is go to a friday night high school football game and take a look around to know which team you want to be on. Americans love their football and soccer might be the zero-sum game victim of this love. Don't rule soccer out yet though, it's steadily increasing in popularity. Maybe one day, we'll hear the roar across Los Angeles or New York from a World Cup goal.

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