<\/a>Every four years, when the World Cup comes around, Americans have to figure out how to respond to the fact that soccer is the \u201csport of the world\u201d in virtually every country but the US. Many Americans respond by saying that \u201cwe\u2019ll show them that even though it\u2019s ‘their’ sport, we are Americans and once we put our minds to it, we can defeat anyone at their own game.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately, there are lots of good soccer players in the United States, many of whom are first or second generation immigrants. Soccer has long been a staple sport in Catholic schools, and over the past thirty years most public schools have come to field teams. It\u2019s a good sport for children of all ages because (a) it\u2019s played outdoors, (b) a lot of kids can play at one time, and (c) it truly lends itself to teaching team play.<\/p>\n There are certain norms that are engrained in the four major professional sports in the U.S., not including soccer. These sports are: (a) baseball, (b) basketball, (c) football [that is, American football, as opposed to soccer], and (d) hockey. The norms include:<\/p>\n While I played soccer through high school, it never was as exciting for me as baseball, football or hockey. I understand that soccer is the sport of choice in most of the rest of the world. One reason for this might be that like basketball, it\u2019s very inexpensive to play. All soccer needs is a ball and a flat surface with two goals. Basketball needs a ball, a flat surface and two hoops. It is no surprise that these two sports are universally played.<\/p>\n There are few indications that soccer is a declining sport on the global scene. For that reason, its basic rules should probably be left alone. But if I was tasked to make the sport into one that Americans would more fully embrace, I would take a year to try \u201cexperimental soccer\u201d with changes such as:<\/p>\n In some ways, it is awkward to make suggestions such as these. I truly object to the notion of American exceptionalism and feel that it\u2019s important for this nation to continually be eating humble pie. On the other hand, there are countless times when the United States can have ideas that are beneficial to other countries. This just may be one of them. The chances of these changes occurring may be as\u00a0likely as the U.S. turning into a democratic socialist state, but theymay still be worth trying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every four years, when the World Cup comes around, Americans have to figure out how to respond to the fact that soccer is the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,304],"tags":[2301,2302,2300],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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