Soccer has got to be the most boring sport in the world to watch on TV. That's why it has never gotten big in the U.S.
I would speculate it's actually no more exciting to watch in person. However, it's a bit different in Europe. They have nothing else to do, so they all pile into the soccer stadium and out of boredom they start fucking with each other, fights break out, etc. So much like "rasslin", the true entertainment is watching the crowd, not the match.
I gotta agree with Mike on the popularity of soccer rising with youth along with this new generation of parents. They do not want their child to get hurt or feel inferior to other children who are better athletes and be ridiculed. So they play soccer.
You can take a kid who is a total spaz and put him in a soccer game and he can run up and down the field like an idiot and feel like he's participating even though he never gets involved in a play. Try that in football and because it's a true team effort he either gets creamed or by his inaction allows another parent's kid to get creamed and they scream bloody murder for the coach to get his spastic ass off the field.
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