Some interesting email:

Dear Mr. Goldberg:
I’m another conservative who finds soccer boring. You know what else I find boring? NASCAR. But if other people get into those sports, good for them. By the way, a lefty friend of mine loves NASCAR and doesn’t care for soccer. I’ll have to e-mail her and remind her of what a racist she is.

And:

As an American who has lived in Europe for just over five years, it seems to me that even in upscale, sophisticated type places, the racism on this continent is like Mississippi Burning. English speaking Europeans here only use the n-word to describe blacks, and they universally think it is stupid to criticize them for it. And don’t even get me started on how much the white Europeans hate Jews. Holocaust denials, or worse, Holocaust endorsements are what I’ve heard from many. And they express shock–SHOCK, at the fact that I as a Gentile support Israel. I grew up in Kentucky, where at the time there was some racial tension, but I never saw the kind of racial hatred that I have encountered in 21st century Europe. If my WASP friends were alone together in 1980 in KY, talk like what you hear in Europe today would not have been tolerated.

And:

Jonah,
I am sure you have heard this many times over. I’m white, almost 50 had 4 kids who all at one time or another have played soccer – and two were good enough to play in college. They also played baseball, softball, hockey, basketball and were swimmers and cross country runners in their day. I can tell you that in the US soccer is a very rich sport because the rich suburbs are where most of the players reside. Whether they are liberal or conservative just depends what part of the country you are from – and in Indiana that means probably conservative. Unlike Europe where all the money is in soccer professionally and the money flows on down to the young with multiple strong clubs all within a few kilometers of one another and the parent doesn’t need much cash to have their kid play, in the US soccer is elitist not because it is European, it is because it costs a ton of money to play at the higher club levels because all the pro money is in basketball and football. Soccer is played by more kids than any other youth sport though probably not at an elite level compared to other sports in the US.
I never played growing up, although I was interested in the game. Having watched it while my kids played so many times I have learned to better understand its rules and appreciate its play, especially due to some of their higher level of success than the average kid who plays. It is very much an acquired taste I think because while fun to play, it can be tough to watch, and it doesn’t translate well to TV. I am watching the World cup matches with my son when I can and we can talk about what just happened. We watched the USA-England match at a local “pub” and it was packed – even a few Brits who we harassed when the English keeper screwed up. When the US scored it was as loud as any bar I have ever been in to watch any other event. But that is because they were all interested in the games, which only show up every 4 years. So far by the way, much of the World Cup soccer has been brutally bad. In the group stage that is not uncommon but this seems worse than usual.
Soccer will continue to grow in popularity because so many kids play and MLS teams are creating better environments to watch it live. Like any athletic event I marvel at the abilities of professional athletes to do what they do. But soccer is hated by some because it is a niche sport who the lovers of the big three, and add NASCAR and say four, are just tired of hearing it is the next big thing. Leave it alone and it will grow at its own pace. The original article was stupid, and as I perused the Nation comments section, most of their readers agreed it was stupid. That is some progress.

And:

I’ll start watching soccer when the national language is Esperanto and we’ve implemented the metric system.

And:

I have a liberal friend who’s rabid about soccer. He even writes as a blog/journalist on some soccer web sites. So I gave him my rundown on why I don’t like soccer and it has nothing to do with politics or low scores. And I think the majority of Americans probably would agree with it.
Single-dimensional game. Most American sports require multi-dimensional skill sets…throwing, running, kicking, hitting, tackling, catching, dribbling, shooting, etc…Soccer is single-dimensional. Running and kicking. That’s it.
Luck or skill? When only 1 out of 20 passes in front of the goal results in a legitimate shot on goal attempt, (score or no score), it starts to look more like luck than skill. With such a low percentage it gives the appearance (rightly or wrongly) that they just kick it around until somebody lucks into a shot. The “successful assist” percentage needs to be much higher. Imagine if only 1 in 20 basketball passes resulted in a shot. Hockey actually suffers from the same problem, but even their “assists” percentage is higher than soccer.
Kicking it away from the other team. Any sport where you deliberately just kick it down to the opposite end as far as you can just to get it away from your end is suspect. Once again, Hockey pleads guilty to this as well. At least in football punts are caught and run back and can potentially result in one of the most exciting plays of the game.
Athleticism… in the USA the best athletes play 1) football 2) basketball 3) baseball 4) hockey 5) the rest (including soccer). Any sport where our 5th best athletes can match up on the world level with the best athletes from the other countries doesn’t say much for the athleticism and skill level of the game as a whole. Our 5th best athletes should rightly be getting their butts kicked. If they’re not, then the other guys aren’t that good either. Which takes you back to…luck or skill (see #2).
Celebrating a tie….any sport where you celebrate a tie…especially when somebody else booted the ball to allow you to score…is suspect.
I really think soccer athletes just don’t match up to football/basketball/baseball athletes. Yes, they run longer distances…but so do marathon runners. They’re not faster, stronger, quicker, higher jumpers, etc…they just have more stamina. Other than that they’re not very impressive as far as “athletes” go…not compared to traditional-American-sport athletes. And that is why Americans don’t care for soccer. We’re just not that impressed.

And:

Jonah,
I’m a huge soccer fan. I was home schooled, graduated college, and I love Calvin Coolidge. I didn’t know that I was a liberal all this time. It should be noted that Israel is not allowed to play their neighbors. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan and other Arab nations refuse to play Israel (death to Zionists and all of that). So Israel has to qualify for the World Cup in Europe. How’s that for fairness? Israel is forced to play the best teams in the world in Europe and their neighbors aren’t punished. If we could all be so enlightened!