I am certainly in the minority as I’m an American who happens to actually enjoy watching soccer. My love for Fernando Torres and his mighty right foot is well known amongst my group of friends. Despite this fact, I can understand why Americans think the game is boring. Sometimes there aren’t a lot of shots on net, ties are abundant and a major part of the game, the players have been known to flop from time to time. This doesn’t mean that soccer sucks, but it may need some help in sparking interest in the minds of the American public.
I am certainly in the minority as I’m an American who happens to actually enjoy watching soccer. My love for Fernando Torres and his mighty right foot is well known amongst my group of friends. Despite this fact, I can understand why Americans think the game is boring. Sometimes there aren’t a lot of shots on net, ties are abundant and a major part of the game, the players have been known to flop from time to time. This doesn’t mean that soccer sucks, but it may need some help in sparking interest in the minds of the American public.
Currently most of my friends associate soccer with the World Cup, which is probably the soccer event that gets the most publicity and attention in the United States. Due to the most recent World Cup they also associate soccer with the annoying buzz of a vuvuzela. Soccer is much more than that. It’s the beautiful game.
So what can make Americans care about soccer? Social media. Soccer players are just like any other athlete, they love to go onto their Twitter accounts and make fools of themselves by going on rants or posting fairly idiotic posts. This is the kind of stuff that can get soccer talked about on ESPN, and then maybe sprinkle in a few actual soccer highlights and interest will start to grow. If it’s on Sportscenter people seem to think it’s very important (think about the recent Ozzie Guillen scandal).
Will soccer ever truly catch on with the average American? Probably not, but if we start paying attention to some of the more eccentric soccer players and their social media presence we’ll at least get some interesting stories that may get people to watch a game or two (hopefully the ones they watch don’t end 0-0).
If you’d like a free marketing consultation, please get in touch with fishbat social media agency.
