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Football? In America?

Allison on 2002-07-29T06:07:08

Okay, culture shock. Since when is real football enough a part of American culture to be featured in a car commercial? <shakes head> Someday we might even get the name right. ;)

Soccer?

pudge on 2002-07-30T17:54:41

If you mean "soccer", you should note a few things:
  • "Soccer" is a correct name for the sport as much as "football" is. If the sport has any proper name, it is the original name: "association football" (as opposed to "rugby football"). Both "football" and "soccer" are shortened versions of this proper name; I'm sure 100 years ago, rugby fans would have complained about you calling "association football" "real football." Of course, it's also true that the proper name of the sport is whatever people choose to call it, so MLS has its official name for the sport, FIFA has its, etc. But history certainly supports both the use of the name "football" for other sports, and the use of the name "soccer" to mean "association football."
  • Professional/international soccer has been steadily increasing in popularity since the '94 World Cup, which the US hosted. The win over Colombia (which I attended) and the second round 1-0 loss to Brazil on July 4, 1994, were extremely popular events. The next World Cup in 1998 was not very popular, of course, but the Women's World Cup, which the US won, once again put soccer into the limelight. And the most recent World Cup set all kinds of records for American viewership.

    In addition, the MLS is growing in popularity every year.

Perhaps it is not as popular as American football, or baseball, or some of the other sports, but it is plenty popular enough to warrant a marketer from putting soccer in a commercial, especially this close to the World Cup. The marketing blitz for that Women's World Cup victory was insane; those women were all over TV, for all kinds of products. Of course, they had two things going for them that don't count here: they won, and they are women. :-)

Re:Soccer?

Allison on 2002-08-08T17:31:39

Fascinating. I never knew where the two different terms came from. Thanks for another tidbit of linguistic trivia!

Re:Soccer?

pudge on 2002-08-09T00:23:56

Oh, my pleasure. :-)