Doesn't this make you cringe? The entire world laughs away as the fat snots of America watch this advertisement ready to get into debt for a stupid piece of exercise equipment.
Yes, this is fake, and an advertisement for a Europa League sponsor, poking fun at how Americans don't know anything about soccer. But isn't it somewhat... wrong?
I mean, the United States does have the passion for the beautiful game. Go into any soccer bar when Arsenal plays Manchester United, and you'll see how passionate people are. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but you should find at least one Mexican-gone-white taking some shots watching the game in a corner trying to drown out the yells of the NFL bar next door.
As negative as that is, there's not that many people that care about the Gunners or the Red Devils.
But the bar really is a place to find some soccer passion. The MLS has experienced enormous growth in the sixteen years that it has existed. But does anyone in a city like Phoenix cares about a team like the LA Galaxy. Does anyone in Nevada cares about the New York Red Bulls acquiring Thierry Henry (if they could even pronounce his name). The MLS has been very local, and very isolated. This is exactly why you will find more people passionate about soccer in cities with soccer teams, than cities out in the Midwest full of snobby fitness crazed ladies who can't care less about sports. In other words, local passion for soccer grew, and people flocked to sports bars to watch important MLS matchups. The lonely Hispanic ain't lonely no more.
If you really want to see the passion we Americans have for the beautiful game, go to the games. With about sixteen thousand people buying tickets for each game on average, its hard to say that the United States has no passion for soccer. Though some MLS franchises are indeed... in a horrible condition, many teams have made a name for themselves, often averaging more than 20k in attendance every season.
Then again, an average of 16k fans spread over 16 teams is pretty sorry compared to the 67k in attendance for each of the 40 or so teams in the NFL. As much as the NFL is criticized, the criticisms that it goes through is much less than what the MLS experiences. Plus, those criticisms aren't biased; they're usually rumors about how one guy cheated on his wife, or a locker room tussle. The only cristicism that the MLS has to deal with is "Soccer sucks." or "Soccer is boring" or (for the minority that is soccer literate) "I'll watch a game when they get some good players out on the pitch." While NFL Quarterbacks get attention for winning the Super Bowl, has FC Dallas ever been recognized for making the MLS Cup Final? Have the Colorado Rapids been recognized for winning the MLS Cup? No, they haven't.
In common culture soccer has never been very accepted. Very few cities have people talking about any soccer league or important match. Both the media and the old-country folk know about the next game of American football, and all those fatasses they call players (I see where common people get their eating habits from). But there's only urban outposts that have die hard soccer fans.
So I guess the video is pretty accurate. Soccer illiterate America only cares about fitness, and watching "fatball". Hypocritical indeed, isn't it?
