When was the last time you went to a soccer game and didn’t fall asleep at some point? Actually, when was the last time you watched a soccer game at all? We Americans have branded soccer as a game that is too uninteresting and subtle to understand. This dull-slow-moving game will never be exciting enough for us action-addicted Americans, and besides, our existing sports are so well-established we simply won't have room for another.

As Americans, we have very short-attention spans. For example, we can’t wait two minutes in traffic until we start honking, we are always pushing other shoppers out of the way to the checkout line in the supermarket, and we love eating at fast food places(That name says it all!). Some of our most popular sports also appeal to short-attention spans.  In basketball, most games end with over 60 points scored and there is a basket every minute. In hockey, the puck is always flying all over the rink and there are dozens of collisions and at least one fight per game. Even though baseball is also one of our major sports, it is still fast in terms of action. There is a lot of running, the ball flies everywhere, and dust gets kicked up all over the place.
On the other hand, (or in this case, the other foot) soccer consists of players going back and forth, repeatedly stealing the ball, hopelessly trying to score a goal. If that sounds interesting, well, that’s all there is to the game! Soccer doesn’t keep us on edge like our favorite entertainments do. Too many soccer games end with no goals scored at all. It’s way too boring to watch compared to reverse slam dunks, homeruns flying into the second deck, and 60 yard touchdowns passes for the win with the clock running out.

Soccer has had plenty of time to catch on here, but has always been a tough sell with us. The first recorded U.S. match was a game on November 6, 1869 between Princeton University and Rutgers University and the game itself has been around since the 2nd and 3rd century’s B.C. In other words, after 150 years, it's still not popular here! Other than Leo Messi, most Americans can’t name even one major league soccer player. With our excellence in a wide variety of sports, such as basketball and football, there is simply no space for soccer. 43.5% of Americans reported in a 2013 survey that they already watch sports on TV for 5-8 hours a week. Can we really afford to waste more time on soccer? Fan support for traditional American sports like baseball, basketball and, football has remained consistently strong, and that simply won’t change.
  

Besides, we Americans just aren’t good at the sport. Our country loves to take pride in its athletic accomplishments, and soccer simply hasn't been one of them. The European teams have more talent than ours; Europeans live for soccer, maybe because they have few major sports in comparison to the United States. Just look at their favorite sports after soccer: cricket, tennis and swimming. Do American sports fans seriously care about any of those?

Another issue is that soccer can’t be properly shown on TV because the sports networks wouldn’t make enough off the broadcasts.  Networks other than ESPN can't make money off of it because of the lack of natural commercial breaks. The game only pauses during halftime, overtime, and time out. The continuous clock in the game is an advertisement killer, thus resulting in little to no pay off. In other countries, they show the advertisements in a scrolling bar at the bottom of the screen. If they were to show it on TV here, we short-attention Americans would never adapt. I suppose the networks could try to put in an advertisement when they felt things started getting boring, but if a team suddenly scored that network would be majorly screwed. The lone-closet-full of American soccer fans would get really angry about missing a goal (probably the only one in the game) and that network would probably have fans breaking down the doors of ESPN with jackhammers and chainsaws.
NASCAR breaks its nonstop clock by incorporating the advertisements onto the cars themselves; unless sports networks can put ads large enough to see on the soccer ball or the uniforms, there is no way to advertise soccer. After all, the money earned off advertisements is a big deal for networks because the more money you have in America, the greater fame you receive. Just look at Bill Gates. You could ask people who he was and they’d be able to tell you in an instant, but Leo Messi? You know who that is; he’s currently the most famous soccer player in the world?

Americans still view this one-of-a-kind kick starter as a child’s game than a sport. Despite the millions of kids who play soccer, adult Americans, even the ones who played soccer as kids, still see it as a game for children and not worthy of the same interest they give to MLB and the NBA. Ask yourself this: If soccer made it to broadcast television, would it even have as many viewers as wheel of fortune or jeopardy?