How to make Soccer More Popular in the USA; Steps 2 through 5.

I know I promised 4 more blog posts on Soccer. But I just couldn't do it.  Its just not in me.
So here are the next 4 steps in a single blog post.

Step 2 : Stop the Diving; Stop the Fake Injuries

There is not much more for me to add to this. It is without a doubt, the worst thing about the sport. 

Players are blatantly diving and faking injuries where little or no contact takes place. There are
other situations where contact takes place, but world class athletes fall down and roll around on
ground like 10 year old boys. I am half expecting a player’s Mom to come out on the field and
check on the “boo-boo”.   It is so bad, that when there was a more serious injury does take place, like
Neymar, it was hard to believe that he was actually hurt.

This is not the only sport with this problem. Hockey had the problem and basketball still has a 

bad flopping problem.

Here is the solution. First, introduce a penalty for “embellishment”. They have one in the NHL.

Rule 64.1 Diving / Embellishment – Any player who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or a reaction, or who feigns an injury shall be penalized with a minor penalty under this rule

Second, if play has to be stopped because of your injury, then you must come out of the game.  This 

happens in the NFL. It happens in hockey.  You can’t roll around on the field and then jump up and 

continue unless you are playing 10u AYSO.

Step 3: Change some rules

First, the offside thing stops a lot of offense. I would get rid of that rule and create a blueline like in hockey. 

You still have offside but only when you enter the scoring zone before the ball. This will create some 

breakaways and more scoring. The game definitely needs that.

Second, this penalty kick thing has got to be adapted. First of all, they should not be awarded for every 

foul in the penalty area. That Mexico/Netherlands game is a perfect case in point. The guy had about a 

5% chance of scoring, when he was arguably fouled. His reward was a kick from point blank range where 

there a 75% chance that you score. Worse than that, the primary way the goalie saves the ball is by 

“guessing right”. Are you serious!!!!! Why not move the shooting spot back a few meters to give 

the goalie a 50/50 chance. Its an easy fix.

Step 4: Put a New York team in one of the Top European Leagues

Americans are not going to watch the MLS. It’s like watching minor league baseball. All the world class 

athletes in the game play in Europe.  Americans might watch them. There are not going to watch Landon 

Donovan type players.

I know this will be hard, but some billionaire could buy his way into the league.  Balmer just paid $2B for 

the Clippers. We know money talks. If you had a New York team in the EPL or the Spanish league, 

Americans would get a view of world class soccer on a regular basis, rather than once every four years. 

It would be a big ESPN contract and I am guessing Sunday Night Soccer!

Step 5: Grow some American Soccer Stars.

Here is another base problem. Our best athletes play Football and Basketball. Imagine Lebron or 

Durant playing soccer; Or Kaepernick or Adrian Peterson or Calvin Johnson. I personally would
like to see Richard Sherman be a soccer player!  ( Do they test for Adderall in Soccer?)
We need to find a way to get one of those guys to be a soccer player and then maybe the floodgates
open.

Not sure exactly how that happens, but here is one contributory idea. Switch the High School
and Collegiate Soccer season to the spring. Right now Soccer has to compete for the best athletes
with Football and Basketball. Football is a fall sport and if your team makes the postseason, it
will overlap significantly with Soccer. The body needs a rest after the football season. You are
nursing a lot of aches and pains after a football season. Few want to jump in and play soccer.
Basketball is a winter sport and completely overlaps with soccer. If you make soccer a spring
sport, you can compete with Baseball and Lacrosse for athletes. And while baseball is popular,
you are not competing for the same type of athletes. Pitchers, corner infielders and outfielders
are not natural soccer players; you want football and basketball players. If they grew up playing
soccer, I think a lot of kids drop out of soccer because of this season thing. And you will never
get the best football player to come out for soccer, if it  is a winter sport.

Not sure this moves the needle, but worth a shot. If you couple it with Step 4, you might find some top 

athletes watching soccer on ESPN and choosing it over football or basketball.

OK. So there you have it. For a guy who doesn’t watch soccer, I think there are some nuggets of
gold in here. Please let me know the email address of US Soccer. I will pass this along.