When you have an argument between extremes, you find the truth is in the middle.
I don't think soccer is a threat to America nor do I see the USA ever becoming a soccer nation. Ann Coulter of the right sees interest in soccer as an erosion of America's cultural identity while some goofball on the left think America will be a socialist paradise.
Both sides are wrong.
Ann said something to the effect that "if your grandfather was born here, you hate soccer."
My parents were born overseas and I don't hate soccer.
It is also not my favorite sport but I don't hate it. My sport is football (American and Canadian), followed by hockey. Lacrosse, invented by the Iriqoouis indians, is #3 and clearly the most American of sports. Soccer comes in around fourth place. Baseball might drop in at fifth. Maybe if the Pirates were not so bad, I might take a greater interest.
It is a beautiful game but Americans like lots of scoring and you don't see that in soccer. I don't like the clock counting upward but that sees to be a tradition that is not going anywhere soon. Still, it is a fun game.
The attraction of the World Cup is that it is something the whole world watches. The US has had teams in competition for it since the very first World Cup back in 1930. We actually came in third!
The United States has the Atlantic and Pacific on its shores and Canada and Mexico for neighbors. We have never been seriously invaded. The US is, by nature, rather isolationist in cultural matters. That does not mean you ignore the world. I don't think you can. But you don't have to hate it.
Embrace what you like and stay away from what you don't like.
Go Steelers!
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