The major soccer event is about to happen in summer 2014. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th international men`s tournament. It is taking place in Brazil from June 12 to July 13. Thirty-two teams around the world are going to compete with each other to gain the titleof the best team in the world.
Soccer is an international sport; it is played everywhere by people of different ages. Kids around the world know how to play soccer from an early age, and they follow different soccer events their entire lives. The countries around the world participate in the World Cup once every four years. That is why World Cup is the most recognized, watched and anticipated sport event.
United States is in the list of countries going to Brazil this summer. In North America, though, soccer is not a widely popular sport. An argument supporting the absence of soccer in North America is that the United States, for example, already has football, basketball, and baseball as major sports, and Canada is famous for its hockey. According to SportingLife.com, even professional golf has more viewers in North America than soccer.
Plus, Americans learned to play and love these games long before soccer was widely introduced in their country.
Matthew Abbot
“I believe it is not as popular as other sports in the United State, because all the other sports were being played more often than soccer. Soccer didn’t start up in the United States for several years after baseball and basketball started,” says Matthew Abbot, assistant men`s soccer coach of the Allen Red Devils team.
Another possible reason why soccer is not widely popular sport inAmerica is that “too many people don`t understand the rules and they still don’t this day,”he added.
Although soccer is not a major sport in the North America, people do follow the World Cup. People find it interesting because it is countries that are playing it, not just league teams. They root for their countries and consider the World Cup as an event that is worthwhile to watch.
Julio Guerrero
A player from the Red Devils men`s soccer team, Julio Guerrero, follows the World Cup and is very excited about the upcoming event. He says, “Soccer has grown a lot in the U.S. and is more popular than what it was.” Julio plans to watch the international tournament and root for Mexico because “that is where my dad is from.”
According to FIFA.com, World Cup 2014 is supposed to be the most competitive men`s tournament this year as there are eight previous winners of the FIFA World Cup ready to take part in Brazil. One of those, of course, is the host nation; Brazil has won the World Cup a record five times, the last of which came in 2002. The other previous winners are Italy (four wins), Germany (three), Urugua and Argentina (twice each), and England, France and Spain (once each).
The United States will be seeking its first title.