[Dr. Sivana]

Steyn is Canadian, but he understands the American's feelings towards soccer.

[ArtDodger]

If you think soccer is dull, try reading a review of a wicket game.....

[Rummyfan]

Few Americans seemed familiar with even the most basic technical terms. At a Hollywood victory party, a BBC reporter asked Richard Gere if he was planning to get rat-arsed, but the colour drained from his cheeks and he had to be helped to a chair.

One of Steyn's all-time great lines!

[Cincinatus]

I look for America’s interest in soccer to gradually expand over the coming years, as the generation of kids from the 1990s (remember the advent of “soccer moms”?) grow up, wussified and antagonistic to competitive, brutal American sports, like real football.

[sphinx]

Steyn is a little behind the times. The U.S. is said to have the second largest contingent of supporters at the World Cup, after the hosts. I don't know if that will change after group play, as the Latin Americans, being next door neighbors, may decide to drop in en masse if they can get tickets.

Most sports are boring if you don't know them well enough to understand what is going on. Try taking an Englishman to a baseball game sometime.

[driftless2]

Hey, I'm making an honest attempt to watch and uh enjoy the games. I've seen about five or six so far not necessarily in their entirety. Because in a number of the games, I've left at certain points to perform necessary house and human functions only to return to the same scoreless tie.

Now yesterday I was watching the Argentina-Nigeria game where both teams scored in the first few minutes. I thought to myself, is this going to be one of those transcendent games where the score ends up 10-9? Alas, both teams only scored three more goals together, and the final score was 3-2. That meant once more most of the "action" consisted of players kicking the ball down the field, losing it to the other team (while the announcers got their knickers in a twist), repeated until the end of the game.

Here's the problem....at least for most Americans watching. When there's a decent chance that a player might score, the game gets exciting. Even the soccer haters probably enjoy watching a player like Messi attempt a shot. The single most exciting situation is watching a player attempt a shot on goal where the goalie has to make an excellent play to stop the ball. But the reality is there are so few decent shots on goal compared to the what seems endless kicking (and losing) of the ball. I don't see anyway to fix the problem unless drastic changes are made in the sport...like less players.

p.s. And I didn't even mention the numerous players falling down and grabbing their ankles after being touched by an opponent. Oops!

[JacksonCalhoun]

Things that really appeal to me about soccer are the length of the games and lack of timeouts. About 1 hour and 52 minutes every single time, at least for the group stage. No 3 hour baseball snooze-fests or NBA games where the last 2 minutes take half an hour or NCAA games with as many as 18(!) timeouts.

Also, no “competition committees” changing the rules every year like the NFL to favor offense even more, basically turning the game into Arena Football, and aside from crazy biters like Luis Suarez, no idiot “look at me” wide receivers like TO, Keyshawn, etc, etc thumping their chests after every 20 yard completion.