(Make sure to read the counterpoint: Waiting on a savior)
It is almost halfway through the MLS season and all-star voting is underway.
The LA Galaxy currently has the best record, but people follow the beer pong championships with more passion than the MLS.
It is OK if you do not care about soccer. Neither do I, and neither do most Americans.
While soccer may be the most popular sport in the world, it will never gain popularity in the United States because it’s about as entertaining as watching grass grow, among a variety of other reasons.
The athletic career of nearly every American kid starts with soccer, yet somewhere along the way kids lose interest in soccer and adhere to other sports.
Walk-off home runs, a field goal as time expires and buzzer-beating jump shots are some of the most exciting events in sports. However, the timing structure in soccer does not allow for last minute heroics.
Unlike all other major sports, soccer has a running clock. To make up for lost time, the referee gets to add on time at the end of the game. This may seem fair, but the fact that it is so subjective is ridiculous. In addition to the fact that the referee gets to choose how much time to add, he also has the power to end the game at any point.
Imagine the referees or umpires ending a basketball, football or baseball game in the middle when they felt like the teams had played enough – it is simply absurd, inexplicable and annoying.
A team does not even need to be winning for the referee to end the game, which is just as frustrating as not knowing when the game will end.
Why would anyone want to spend time and money to watch their favorite team compete and have the game end in a tie?
No one wins, no one loses, it is as if the game never happened and everyone wasted his or her time and effort.
Americans do not like ties, as evidenced by the 2003 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
There was an outcry over a tie in an exhibition game, yet in the World Cup, the highest level of competitive soccer, ties are perfectly acceptable.
American sports fans like to either win or lose; ties are unacceptable in this country, yet soccer does need seem to mind whether anyone wins or not.
However, the clock and ties are not the only problems with soccer.
The game is also frustrating because the games are incredibly low scoring and the players constantly flop and feign injury in a desperate attempt to draw a foul.
While soccer seems to be popular in almost every country except this one, it will never gain popularity until the United States experience success on a national stage.
This country likes to win and enjoys being the best.
We are not the best at soccer, which also takes away from the appeal of the sport.
Sports are supposed to be fun and entertaining, yet soccer seems to induce complaints and naps.
