A question about football (soccer) passion.

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As a stereotyped American sports fan, I don't watch soccer nor know much about it. But I do have some interest at times.

The one area that makes me interested, is the passion that fans get all over the world. From gathering in the stands, outside the grounds, or pretty much anywhere. For example:

Making huge banners, firing flares - and I mean tons of them at the same time.
Throwing tape, paper and even a few flares and smoke bombs on the pitch, and even a few fanatics running around like crazy on the pitch - in the buff.
Singing, flag waving and all kinds of passion. Do these fans even sit? Do they even have seats in some stadiums still?

We don't get that kind of passion in the States. Not even Pro American football (except for the few crazy ones). Collegiate Am. Football has tradition and passion for alumni, especially during homecoming and rivalry games which usually is the last game for most teams.

The other thing I enjoy is seeing a derby match between clubs from the same city and how people react. Seeing how clubs don't really represent just geography but rather social class, religion and politics. Kind of like Glasgow's Old Firm Derby between Celtic (catholics) and Rangers (protestants).

Buenos Aires' Superclásico between Boca Jrs. (the working class, poor) and River Plate (the elitists, the rich).


Or non-derby rivaliries such as FC Barcelona (catalan nationalism) and Real Madrid (spanish nationalism).


We probably have something like that here in the US, but it isn't really mentioned. We mainly have geographical rivalry more than anything else at times.

My short question is does anyone here on the boards, especially outside the US get really interested in this passion, or know people that do?

Just want to get advice and thoughts from those who witness and hear about it.

I'm a rabid football/soccer fan. I study in the US (but have lived elsewhere most of my life), and have also observed the relative lack of enthusiasm of US sports fans. When England played a friendly against America, the small section of English fans totally outsang the American fans. I was sitting in the US section and could hear the English loud and clear. The Americans had no traditional cheers at all, only sporadically chanted "USA", and for the most part treated the game as mere entertainment - many were more preoccupied with their food than with the match. I'm not sure if the Americans truly lack passion, or whether they just express it differently. But I also find the traditional rivalries between European clubs quite gripping -- I enjoy watching the Milan and Rome derbies even though I don't usually follow the Serie A. I was not brought up in London, yet whenever Chelsea (whom I've been a fan of for 8 years) plays a London derby, I can't help getting caught up in the frenzy, even though I know it is irrational. English club fans also tend to have a lot of interesting (if vulgar) songs, witty banter, and such (although of course there also exist moronic ones).

Now we do have the MLS but when it comes to passion, it is dead compared to the Premiership or any major league in the world. The best you get is a few drum beats and a couple of blowhorns.

In San Jose, or Los Angeles, you end up getting bigger crowds for Mexican league friendly or league matches than you do a MLS match featuring the SJ Earthquakes or the LA Galaxy. And many here shouldn't be surprised about it.

I saw that LA Galaxy took on Real Madrid in a friendly match as part of a world tour for "los merengues" it was crowded but I don't know who made up most of the crowd. (Americans, Hispanics, Loyal RM fans). It didn't look noisy or passionate, the noise was probably from the non-US crowd.
I know a lot of the American fans went because they wanted to see some of the Madrileños and of course they really wanted to see David Beckham, who is probably the only known team member, to the American media eye.

There is a huge ethnic difference in soccer here in the states, as over here it is more of a suburban game. But then you have the Hispanic community especially in the southwest, who focus more on the Latin American nations.

So when it comes to the environment of fans, yeah ol' USA is left in the dust. So if you want to see attend a soccer match with any passion, I say attend a Latin American league match hosted here. You probably won't see very many typical Americans though as those games are probably gonna be full of Latinos (US born or foreign).

When I was at school, soccer was considered by the kids to be the poofter (gay) sport. I know in Europe it's completely the opposite. Not that I'm trying to discourage you from playing it though. I live in Australia, dunno what America's stance is.

Americans like sports where you can use your hands. Games that are fast paced, yet baseball is not fast paced, but can produce high scores. Football isn't fast paced either, but can produce points. Basketball is fast paced though.

Soccer is considered too slow to the American eye, and doesn't produce enough points/goals to be scored.


As I said before, soccer here is more of a suburban priviliged game, with the Latin community as the exception, only they prefer the Latin Am. game instead.

I think Soccer's considered wussy because it's relatively easy to play. They score too rarely too.

Last edited by thatrsdude on 28 Jul 2005, 8:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's not like Am. football, well the scoring isn't always big there either.

But ausse football, now there's a lot of points there..

20 Goals and 10 Behinds for 130 Points.


American football, 21 points, take it or leave it. A couple measley touchdowns. And a couple Field Goals. Maybe a safety and a 2-point conversion.

Rugby, maybe a few trys, conversions and a penalty, but not much other than the ruckin' and maulin'

It's not so much how high the scores are as much as how often they score. Otherwise, it's just numbers.

How is it easier?

Well it may not be easier to win, but you only need to run around and kick a ball basically. Don't want to sound like I'm dumbing it down, but in comparison, other sports require you to learn a new skill that 'unco' people like me aren't capable of. But a sport can only be easy to play, it can never be easy to win, because the easier it is for you the easier it is for your opponents.

this thread is the funniest thing I've read in ages, seriously

you guys haven't got a clue have you?

where do I start with that?


well you need to try a bit harder then

football is a tribal thing here; I'm not too interested in the sport itself to be perfectly honest, cricket is much better.

It's more to do with where you come from and your loyalty to your roots* so I'm totally committed to supporting God's Chosen Football Club otherwise known as Wolverhampton Wanderers.

* apart from Manchester United fans

Football (not soccer, we named it football first ok) is the best team sport ever and the most popular. The best club is Celtic. There, now there is no excuse for anyone here not knowing anymore.

there's only one Jackie Mac...

Your welcome to him. He deserves to play for a small club. He was never one of our better players anyway. Dump the deadweight and move on i say.

but you would though wouldn't you?

Well it looks like thats exactly what celtic done. Imagine a workmanlike player such as jackie try to hold to ransom a club of celtic's magnitude. In saying that there are two sides to every coin. Maybe they did mess him about.