This week, many Americans did something they rarely do: they watched football.
In an important win on Tuesday, the US men's national soccer team beat Iran in the group stage at the World Cup in Qatar, advancing the team to the round of 16 for the first time since 2014. They will play the Netherlands next Saturday at 10 p.m. .m. ET.
The victory was a big boost for soccer in the US, which saw the domestic league, Major League Soccer, or MLS, break viewership records in 2022. But experts say that while the sport is growing, elite soccer in the U.S. is unlikely to maintain that level of attention after the World Cup ends.
Why hasn't professional soccer caught on in the US like it has in other countries?
“If I had the answer to that, I could be in the Nostradamus business,” says Northeastern Professor Emeritus Chuck Fountain, a former sports reporter and broadcaster. “That's a question people have been asking for at least decades.”
Part of the reason for Americans' relative lack of interest in professional football may be that the public's attention is divided between several popular sports. While a 2018 Gallup poll showed that soccer is gaining in popularity, the three favorite sports in the United States it's still football, basketball and baseball.
“We have a wide variety of sports that get our attention and we have a college system that gets a lot of attention,” Northeastern men's soccer coach Rich Weinrebe says.
Weinrebe, who says he has “watched an obscene amount of soccer” this World Cup, says that while many kids in the U.S. play soccer, they tend to play multiple sports. Then there comes a time, as it did for Weinrebe at age 12, when sports become too much to juggle and kids have to specialize in one.
“You end up choosing what you love or what your family is more grounded in,” says Weinrebe. The talent pool in football is, in turn, weakened. In addition, some of the best American players go overseas to play.
It's a similar situation in Canada, says Northeast soccer player Omar Da Naia, who hails from Toronto. He is one of several international players on the Huskies' roster.
Da Naia has been playing soccer since the age of three and is rooting for Canada in just his second World Cup appearance (Canada was eliminated in the group stage). “This is definitely new,” he says. Canada only recently started its own professional league, he says, as hockey is the dominant sport there.
But countries like Portugal are a different story. Da Naia's father was born there so he hopes to make their national team one day.
There, “football is like a king,” he says. “Portugal is in Europe, so they only watch football.”
“Everyone will have their eyes glued to the TV in the bars,” says Da Naia.
Football is also the priority in Norway, home of north-east footballer Tobias Wangerud.
“In Norway we don't have football, baseball, lacrosse, basketball” to distract from football, he says. “Even hockey is not a common sport.”
Wangerud was watching the World Cup on his phone while walking to practice or his next lesson. Norway didn't qualify for the World Cup this year, so Wangerud is playing for Argentina, along with the U.S.
“I also hope that the US does well so that the interest in soccer here grows even more,” he says.
More success could bring more attention to men's soccer in the US, but so would more media coverage, Wangerud says.
“A step forward would be to show more football on TV,” says Wangerud. “The more you watch and learn about it, the more invested you become and the more willing you become to watch games in person.”
In that respect, the World Cup is similar to the Olympics, Fountain says. People don't tend to invest in certain sports while these big events happen and are heavily covered. After the World Cup ends, he says, that level of interest will almost certainly wane.
In other cases, media coverage can create a chicken-and-egg effect: the less something is covered, the less people care about it and, in turn, the less it is covered.
“They have regular coverage,” however, he says. “It's not curiosity.” The sport just doesn't measure up to the level of interest for others, and that's not likely to change.
“I don't see the World Cup transforming America into a soccer country where MLS suddenly has 100,000 fans in the stands and a Super Bowl or NBA Finals-type TV rating,” he says.
The size and wealth of the United States do not necessarily matter.
Bermuda is a small country and has never been to the World Cup, but has come close to qualifying for the Youth World Cup, according to North East European footballer Ahria Simons, who hails from the island's Southampton.
The biggest difference he sees in how Bermuda approaches soccer is that “everyone” plays, since it's such an accessible sport. Kids don't even need grids to play and the rules are easy to understand.
“Every kid plays soccer,” Simons says. “Sometimes 50 guys in one ball. … Everyone is chasing the same ball.” He remembers the times he forgot to bring his soccer balls to school and played in his socks. By the end of the break, he says, his socks would be dirty.
“It's a sport that everyone can play and the reason it's so popular is the ease of access,” says Ahria Simons. The best countries in football are not necessarily the richest, he says. Population size and wealth they are not correlated with success. The the biggest predictor of successrather, it is a past success.
The US going to the World Cup could make all the difference. At least, Simons says, people will share the love of the game, if only for a little while.
“It's just a beautiful game,” says Simons. “It brings people together in so many different ways.”
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