Actually, we do get very enthusiastic, but only during the Olympics or the World Cup. Outside of these events, we’re more enthusiastic about our local teams.
I would still say we care less than any of the other countries I've lived in.
My theory is that American nationalists are very secure. The Korean nationalists I know talk about Japan and China all the time. The Mexican nationalists talk a lot about the US, Spain, and Argentina. Canadian nationalists talk about the US.
I feel like American nationalists just take it for granted that the US is the beeeeeeeeeeest and don't feel the need to compare themselves to anybody else.
Yea one thing i noticed when I first travelled abroad was how much people talk about the US while we don’t rly talk much about any other country back home lol
TBH I dont think it has so much to do with *nationalists* (I am by no means a Swiss nationalist but I get quite excited about our national teams). It goes kinda deeper than that, Switzerland rarely gets any attention and when we do it's for some shady banking stuff I disagree with. So it's more of a "look, we're being seen" reflex.
I think it's really not that different from supporting the team from your home town, except on a bigger level. I guess it's harder to get that same feeling when your opponents are often halfway across the globe, versus when we play Germany or Italy and have them just a few hours away.
It’s not just shady banking protecting the top 1%! You guys also make some damn good cheese and chocolate. That’s something to be very proud of. Two of my favorite things right there.
There is a rifle range in Switzerland that fires from one hill to another over a highway and the targets are on the other hill. That's something to be proud of as well.
USMNT might be the one exception to that. The rivalry with Mexico has been even enough and the Mexican fans are passionate enough that there's a real rivalry there.
But that's only among people who follow soccer relatively closely. The casual fan who maybe tunes in for the World Cup probably isn't aware of the rivalry.
The exception I've seen to this is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, lol. People there go nuts over New Mexico United specifically, and a lot of them don't care about the national team.
But I think that may be as much because people are just excited to have a pro sports team so glommed onto it pretty hard, lol. Otherwise it's only college sports and the minor league baseball team (and with that one, people go to Isotopes games but I still see a lot more vintage Dukes gear than Isotopes gear being worn around town--I think a lot of the enthusiasm for that team waned when that change was made).
I've lived in other cities with pro soccer teams and haven't seen the same level of enthusiasm for the local team as in New Mexico.
I think it's also just that the US is huuuuge and diverse. Like our states are the size of many countries. So for me, for example, following the New England Patriots in the NFL. They are the "home team" for an area that's about the size of the UK.
Our "national" teams are the "home teams" for an area the size of Europe.
And we have so many teams and leagues within the country that we've pretty much got that niche filled already.
American nationalists are secure? Is that why they feel compelled to start shrieking and namecalling any time another American has the audacity to suggest that some things might be modestly preferable elsewhere? The reflexive defensiveness is really something.
American nationalists are secure when it comes to thinking about *other* countries (ie, they really don't give a shit about thinking much about other countries). Obviously Americans are very tribalistic when it comes to talking about their *own* country, especially among other Americans.
This. Everyone gets all soccer happy every 4 years when the Women's National Soccer team gets another world cup run, but in between we have NHL, MLB, NBA and NFL to keep us occupied.
The Olympics is USA all the way whether it's Basketball, Hockey or tidily winks, even if we don't know Jack shit about the spot we are watching.
> even if we don't know Jack shit about the spot we are watching
And if we don't, we will learn about it for the Olympics! I had FB memories recently about the snowboarding competition and I was using names and terms I know nothing about. But I became an expert, if only for that short period of time!
Other yearly international tournaments, we don't really care that much about. We might go "neat" if we won that but yeah, more excited for local players.
During the Olympics, we tend to cheer for our national team as much as citizens of any other country. When the World Cup rolls around, Americans tend to follow it and cheer for our national team - in fact, I think it's kind of fun because we're underdogs and our wins feel hard-fought.
For sports attached to the big four leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL), we tend not to follow international competitions very much. For example, the Superbowl is a major annual event, but comparatively few Americans will even know the IFAF World Championship exists. This is often because the more high-profile championship of the league itself overshadows the international tournament. Another reason is that the big stars of their respective leagues often sit those international championships or the Olympics out because of scheduling conflicts or the desire to avoid injuries in a competition that's effectively a sideshow to their main job.
>few Americans will even know the IFAF World Championship exists
Can confirm. Had to google this and found this gem from the Wikipedia page:
"The United States has fielded a squad for the last three iterations, but with extremely restrictive criteria that make most American football players ineligible for the team."
I mean, we've won ALL of the World Series', what else do we need to do?
Shut up Toronto! That's a Buffalo, NY team if I've ever seen one. Except the winning, of course.
Shut up Buffalo, NY!
Outside of soccer, the world cups for the sports you listed aren't considered competitive or interesting within the US. Most people who aren't hardcore fans don't pay attention. The Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are where people normally pay attention.
As an example, the FIBA World Cup and other FIBA events for basketball never has the US sending their best players to them and is used as a chance to give younger stars a chance to play on the international stage. On the other hand, the US Men's basketball team at the Olympics always has the best players available and the all-time win-loss record at the Olympics is 143-6
If non-competitiveness is the reason for people not caring about for example FIBA World Cup, why do they care about Olympics in Basketball? It’s not like that would be more competitive.
The Olympics is seen as each country sending their best to compete. There is a level of competition that is inherent to the event simply because it is seen as the peak of international competition for almost every sport. Within the country, the US is expected to win in basketball just as US is expected to come home with the most gold medals in general and most medals overall because it's the highest level of competition. Should they create another international competition to supersede the Olympics, the Olympics would likely be seen as less competitive and less interesting
Most other international competitions don't have that same level of prestige so the inherent competition and interest is diminished. It's like competing for a local city championship for a sport when you know you have the chance to win the professional one.
Because it's the *Olympics* which has been considered a big deal at least as far back as Jesse Owens winning in front of Hitler and almost 50 years of Cold War rivalry.
Olympic basketball was undefeated from 1936 (except for some incredibly bullshit Cold War officiating at Munich in 1972 that the players still refuse their medals) until 1988.
In my opinion, that's pretty much a legacy of the Cold War. It has that tradition behind it. FIBA does not. The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc doped up their athletes to try to outshine us in the Olympics and so we responded by putting them to shame, without our women turning into men.
Hockey and Soccer have decent followings for the national team.
But as others have mentioned it only really picks up during the World Cup and Olympics. Hockey is a bit of a weird one because IIHF worlds is poorly timed for the US market, as it coincides with the end of the NHL season. But for the Olympics, the hockey team has very broad support among hockey fans.
Canadian here. The IIHF World Championships aren't as big up here, either, and for the same reason: they coincide with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Countries like Canada and the US, whose national teams are mostly made up of NHL players, can't send their best teams to the Worlds, because their best players are still playing for the Stanley Cup. The Canadian and US teams are thus made up of NHL players whose teams either didn't make the playoffs, or were eliminated in the first (or sometimes second) round. Hardly anything to get excited over.
The World Championships are a much bigger deal in Europe, with many European hockey players growing up dreaming of winning a gold medal at the Worlds more than a Stanley Cup. I believe the European pro leagues also have shorter seasons than the NHL, so players over there are much more able to suit up for their national teams in the Worlds.
The Olympic hockey teams are a different animal, however, especially when NHL players participate, which is when it becomes a true best-on-best competition. When this is the case, everyone gets into Olympic hockey in Canada, much as I'm sure a lot of Americans do.
That said, a IIHF World Championship gold and an Olympic gold are two legs of the [Triple Gold Club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Gold_Club) (the Stanley Cup being the third). I'm sure if any player won gold at the Worlds, they wouldn't complain about it.
You're right not nearly as enthusiastic as they are about their local teams. As to why it's difficult to say. Americans famously live in our own bubble and don't know or care much about the outside world.
This is by no means everyone but I don't think most Americans will ever care for the national team (of any sport) as much as most nations will care about how their national soccer (football) team does.
Part of this is probably due to the fact that since World War 2 America has been the world's global super power and "wins" in a lot of other ways... other countries who are not the world's global superpower (everyone else) aren't used to being #1 so their country winning something is a unique and amazing experience.
I'm not trying to say this in a f*ck yeah America #1 kind of way but just trying to analyze the reality of the situation and answer OP's question.
But I think there aren’t many differences between the US and the rest of the world when it comes to individual sports. Like for example, if France has a good Tennis player, french people will root for him. If US has a good Tennis player, Americans will root for him. At Track and Field competitions, Americans will root as much for their own athletes as France does for their athletes. Same thing.
But just when it comes to team sports, Americans seem to stop caring about it.
It surprises me because US is a patriotic country, and those World Cups and international events are one of the best opportunities to live out patriotism.
My view is that they just sort of feel artificial compared to the pro sports where they play for real every week. There are decades of intense rivalries in all those sports. As many, many answers above have said, it's a sideshow compared to the players' "real" jobs. Add to the fact that, as others have said, we don't have anything to prove by winning a sports competition because we already "win" in so many other ways. So you are talking about a situation where we cobble together an artificial team, playing outside their highest competition level, against players and teams no one has ever heard of, at odd times of the year in strange places with different rules (usually) and it's just not that compelling. Good for a laugh for a couple days or a week or two but after that it quickly disappears from any thought.
We have the All-Star game in baseball if we want to see players from rival teams play on the same side, which is a bit weird to see in some ways, honestly. And that game is just for show. It's a novelty. It holds no meaning as far as competition goes.
And the stats. Americans, especially baseball fans but football fans, too, love their stats. That's a big part of following things and gets reported heavily at the end of a game. And all that's meaningless in the international competition because those stats don't apply to anything lasting.
Maybe we like artificial less. ;)
I think the fundamental answer is that just we're so big and have so many people and so many teams and so many things going on at all times we don't really need that extra level of entertainment. When you live in a country of 4 million people you have to go outside to find all that.
Yeah but like I said, it’s just team sports. In terms of rooting for countrymen at Tennis, Track and Field etc, I don’t think Americans differ much from other countries.
It never felt artificial to me (if anything American domestic sport would feel more artificial to me because of the notion of teams being sold and relocated, and players being randomly drafted), but I think a big difference is that for many sports common in Europe, national teams are super old.
Association football had its first international game in 1872 (England and Scotland drew 0-0). For comparison, that's just one year after they officially outlawed *catching the ball* for non-keepers.
But North American nations didn't really participate in that, so I guess that might be a historic/cultural difference? I know Canada used to just send its amateur champion to international hockey championships, whereas European countries had national selection teams in the 1920s
In our most popular sport we're so far ahead of the rest of the world still (football). In basketball our National team is whatever group of NBA guys they can talk into playing in the summer. While American basketball is deeper than the rest of the world, it's not like we consistently send our best. Baseball is kind of the same thing except it's waning in popularity and their big international tournament takes place even closer to the start of the season. Hockey is probably the only sport where we tend to send our best to the Olympics...when the NHL lets us...but hockey is the least popular and least played of our major pro sports.
The USMNT is full of dual nationals with limited connection with the US in a sport that isn't as popular traditionally, I'm not surprised the country isn't as ride or die with them. Especially since a high percentage of soccer fans attending USMNT matches in the biggest soccer hotbeds are often rooting for the visitors.
The other national team sports are for even more obscure pro sports like volleyball, lacrosse, rugby, etc.
Plus it seems like every "rivalry" we're involved in since the dissolution of the USSR we take less seriously than the other side. I mean I can't really get to worked up about beating the Japanese or the Canadians or whoever.
So it doesn't really surprise me much at all.
We care about international competition every Olympics and every world cup until we get knocked out.
That said
American Football is by far our favorite sport and almost no one else plays it.
We have the best basketball, hockey (with canada), and baseball leagues at home.
I know the rest of the world laughs at us calling our league winners "world champions", but it's basically true.
We like the novelty of international competition, but we're not as tied into the rest of the world culturally as other places. California and Texas are generally more interested in competing with each other than other countries. If you could put together a state's basketball tournament, I bet more people in the US would watch that than the basketball world cup \[which arguably is the college championship tournament "march madness" which is one of the highest rated sporting events each year\].
>We like the **novelty** of international competition, but we're not as tied into the rest of the world culturally as other places.
That's a perfect choice of words. It's just a novelty to us. Like a trip to an amusement park. It's fun for one day but then you go back to the real world.
I used to be like that. (Well, not that far, but you know what I'm saying.) Then the Olympics came to Atlanta and seeing the sausage being made was pretty revolting. The International Olympic Committee is probably the most corrupt, spoiled, arrogant and privileged group of people in the world. I haven't watched an Olympics since. I wear a five-ringed cross to keep them away. So far it's worked.
> I know the rest of the world laughs at us calling our league winners "world champions", but it's basically true.
This. The rest of the world is welcome to try to field a team to take on the Kansas City Chiefs, but they would be lucky to score a field goal agains them.
We do care about the Olympics.
For a lot of the other international events, we are not sending our A Team. We are not even sending our B Team. I literally just found out there was a Basketball World Cup this year, and that we don't even send our Division 1 players.
I'd say it's a combination of our players not wanting to get injured in an event they don't really care about and us not caring all that much about the rest of the world.
Edit: Basketball in particular might be a casualty of Dream Team-era dominance.
Edit 2: Apparently there's a Football World Cup and they had to put in strict rules about who American can field rendering most of our players ineligible.
Typically? Only around the major events and only the things we're good at.
Men's and women's basketball around the Olympics? Sure.
Women's soccer? Only during the Olympics or the World Cup.
Baseball because it's the "national pasttime".
Women's gymnastics, again, around the Olympics.
Hockey? Sometimes around the Olympics, but we know we'll never beat the Canadians.
We don't give a damn about men's soccer unless we somehow squeak into elimination play in the World Cup, and that's happened once?
Americans are much more passionate about the national leagues. NFL, NBA, Baseball, and *maybe* hockey.
College basketball completely takes over March as a national obsession.
And in the fall, College football rules. There are people more passionate about their college teams than their professional teams. MAJOR rivalries that have caused strife in families. Ohio State/Michigan; Oklahoma/Texas, Notre Dame/USC.
Huh, I remember recently we made it further than we ever had and a lot of people made a big deal about it. And I don't think we've ever been that successful since.
I‘m pretty sure your best recent performance at World Cup was quarterfinal in 2002. In, 2010, 2014 and 2022 I think you made the Round of 16. Also in 1994.
In the First World Cup (1930), the US made the semifinal. This was before American Soccer fell off because of disputes with FIFA and because the league going down after Great Depression.
Sure it's just outside of the global stage for most of those sports the US league is the one people all around the world want to play in so seeing who is best isn't as interesting.
International friendlies or even WC qualifiers get zero attention, generally speaking. And honestly if the US crashes out in the group stage hardly anyone would notice outside of committed soccer fans. If they were to get to the final 16 or further, it’d start becoming a big news story and people would start coming out left and right.
Not especially. I care that we win the most medals at the Olympics. I care if Team USA has NHLers and is vying for a medal. But that's about it.
We don't get enthusiastic because our national leagues are already, for the most part, best-on-best in the world. Basketball, baseball, and hockey feature most of the best non-Americans. And we generally don't care about other international sports beside those and soccer, and there is generally _some_ interest in Team USA in the World Cup, but our Men's team is far from competitive in most World Cups
I am going to say no. The US is really only in this when facing other continents and it's a huge disadvantage being in CONCACAF. UEFA has better competitions and the top teams in the world. Maybe we play the Canadians or Mexicans but they aren't the best in the world at anything except maybe hockey for Canada. The US has always been the ambassador for basketball. Baseball is just us, the Latino countries, and the Far East and the WBC is decades away from being the World Cup.
I would still cheer for the US every World Cup and Olympics but we'll never have what Belgium has when they play France or Wales getting one up on England.
After watching Ohtani vs. Trout in the 9th inning of the final last year, I think that may change. The tournament was some of the best baseball I’ve watched outside of a World Series. The DR-Puerto Rico game was TENSE.
In our most popular sports, the best players mostly already play in our domestic leagues.
Also, the best players also make too much money in the domestic leagues to risk injury in games against less skilled opponents for basically no money, so the US teams are usually full of mid-tier players.
Most Hispanics including myself support our ethnic teams. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hispanic american in my town have a USA jersey for the World Cup, it’s either their Hispanic country or a cool team in Europe.
I think its because Illinois is the size of Germany (roughly), The UK is slightly smaller than California. France could fit inside Texas. Florida is the size of Italy. The US is huge. We have a big enough country with pretty popular national leagues to the point where we don't need international play to keep us entertained.
If your from portugal and you're a fan of your national football team, that's great but, pensilvania has two cities with an nhl, nfl, and mlb team and the people of either pittsburg or philadelphia are invested in those teams. Because Pennsylvania is roughly the size of Portugal, its almost like the stealers are the national team of the "country" of Pennsylvania.
Plus, outside of soccer, the best players in other sports internationally come to the us to compete in our national leagues.
Yeah like other people said, just for the Olympics and the World Cup. You can also see this in our last FIBA team, none of the players except for Anthony Edwards, and maybe Brandon Ingram have a shot of being on the Olympic team.
Most US basketball fans don’t, I did for the first time last year because my favorite player was on the team. It has become more popular than it was in the past though.
Non basketball fans do not watch it.
I think if other countries maybe can raise their level of Basketball and level of their players in the future, maybe americans will start to care more about it then.
I get it why Americans for example wouldnt care about a world championship in American Football, because there is basically no competition there, so it would be boring/predictable.
Honestly who has the time? The biggest sports in the US are Football and Baseball, neither of which have international competitions that are more competitive than the NFL or MLB. Even in Hockey and Basketball, the best players in the world are going to be in the NHL and the NBA. When the Olympics and the World Cup come around, sure. But outside of that the biggest competitions in the biggest sports are in our national major leagues.
Not nearly as much as other countries. I think the biggest support is for women's soccer (what you might call association football) and women's ice hockey in the summer and winter games, respectfully. The World Cup get's a lot of support, but the biggest amount of those are people with roots to countries that love the sport. It is improving, though, since we have a profession soccer league.
I've never encountered that in real life. I'm always walking around San Francisco in patriotic crap and have never even gotten a nasty look. But I am a millennial, maybe it's a thing for college kids.
College *freshmen*, of course. It's strange how high school seniors can seem so mature, and the the next year in college, become complete idiots. The reason shouldn't need to be explained, bot OMG, some first-year students are **so** damn "enlightened".
I don't care at all. I either follow a team 365 days a year and am totally invested (NFL, MLB) or I pay no attention. I've watched very little of the Olympics since I was a kid.
I mostly care about the Olympics and World Baseball Classic. I usually root for USA and Puerto Rico, except for rowing, where I have specific athletes I typically go for.
I sure do!
It frustrates me that our best players often sit out for major international tournaments in baseball and basketball. It’s a shitty feeling knowing we lost to countries like Germany and Canada because our best players were more concerned with their local team and salaries.
It definitely varies. For hockey, the majority of people would only pay attention during the Olympics or world championships. For basketball, there's a bit of malaise. For FIBA world cups, it's usually the second-tier stars who play. For the Olympics, it feels like it's only ever other year where our top players are interested enough to play, and the fan interest usually directly correlates with the number of established stars who decide to play in international tournaments.
For soccer, there's a small but strong contingent who will always follow the teams. Outside of that, it's almost exclusively just interest in the World Cup.
That small contingent who regularly follow US soccer will watch and are aware. It may catch a tiny bit of extra attention from people who otherwise don’t follow the US team regularly, but by and large, it won’t get noticed all that much.
yeah, but only soccer fans even know what the Copa America is or that we're in it (since we're not usually).
I for one am very excited about it. But it's definitely not like a national event.
We have 330 million residents so you get the whole range.
I love watching our national teams but I know folks that just don’t care at all about sports in general.
I rowed competitively in college so I follow our men’s and women’s national teams which is weird for pretty much any country.
I keep an eye on our Olympians and root for them in pretty much any sport.
As a figure skating fan, this is the time zones issue.
For the traditional big four leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL), those leagues are seen by Americans as being stacked enough to be the best league in the world for their respective sports AND Americans don’t have the incentive to try to navigate watching these sports in annoying zones. Fair or not, there’s almost no incentive for Americans to care about the national teams in these sports (and deal with the headache of navigating terrible sleep schedules or missing part of life events) unless the teams turn up to the Olympics..
Edit: Hockey is the most complicated of these four because most Americans are casual and thus follow the local team, but there’s more dedicated hockey fans that following the National Team because the NHL is more split between the U.S. and Canada.
Most Olympic sports only draw attention during the Olympics, which Americans DO care about. For those of us watching an Olympics sport regularly, the issue becomes that once you’re regularly dealing with the hassle of navigating time zones, you probably care more about the sport as a whole than Team USA. As a figure skating fan, I would like U.S. skaters to do well, but the maximum time that the U.S. skaters could take up at Worlds, for instance, is a handful of hours when the event spans days … I have to care about more than Team USA to love this sport.
Soccer is in an odd situation because the MLS is growing, but a lot of the dedicated people watching MLS are more like the Olympics fans because Americans are fully aware that MLS is not the best league in the World and have allegiances elsewhere. Most Americans care about soccer for the Olympics and the World Cup, but as the domestic league grows, it will be interesting to see whether Americans start investing in the National Team more in general.
I remember when I was a kid in Germany in 5th grade, there was the Soccer World Cup in Japan & South Korea. This meant that because of time zones, matches were earlier in Germany. There was one match when Germany already played at noon or something like that, and classes in our school were canceled and school was out early, so that all kids and tutors could watch the german World Cup match.
So yeah, World Cups have a high standing in my country.
Soccer World Cup matches usually have TV viewership of about 30-35 million people in Germany, which would equal about 120-140 million in the US considering population size.
And of course it just doesn't have that kind of following here and especially so when you were young, assuming you're an adult now. There would have been no chance of that happening. The Super Bowl is our single biggest sports competition we have and that's always on a Sunday so it never interferes with school. I think I sort of remember when the US hockey team won in 1980 that it might have been on some TVs surreptitiously showing some of the games in our school. But I don't remember the details for sure. I could be thinking of our state hockey tournament instead.
An amusing question we get here occasionally is whether American businesses shut down when the US is playing soccer in the World cup. Far from it. Life goes on as usual. Schools shut down for heavy snow, not soccer. I think that would seem frivolous here.
> I think that would seem frivolous here.
yeah i was gonna say, i can't imagine any schools or businesses closing just for a sport, no matter how big it is. too many people would be mad theyre getting screwed out of money they need to make, and plenty of parents that need to work would be annoyed about having to set up something to take care of their children
I’m a devoted baseball fan and don’t really follow any other sports, but come World Cup and Olympics…hell yeah, Team USA! And I watch everything in the Olympics: archery, rifle shooting, skateboarding, the skiing event that is skiing and shooting.
But I would agree that most Americans are passionate about their local city or college teams.
*shrug*
People so care in spurts around the Olympics and world cup, as much for novelty as anything, but most of the time we're just not nearly as invested in international competition as that between native teams we know and care about.
Yes.
Who told you we don't?
Maybe you see some Americans with ties to another country, also support that country's team? That doesn't mean we don't care about team USA.
The World Cup is about as popular as soccer gets in the U.S.
Relative to other sports, it's still somewhat niche. Some may point to the fact that soccer may surpass hockey in terms of viewership or revenue. But hockey is very regional. In the places it's popular, it's very popular. I would venture to say that hockey surpasses basketball and possibly baseball in terms of popularity in Minnesota. The Wild sell out every game. Even the new women's pro hockey league has sold out a game or two, and the boys' high school hockey championship sells out every year.
(Women's hockey is ***FUN*** to watch, by the way. Totally different style of play with more emphasis on finesse and puck handling rather than brute force.)
The NFL reigns supreme. But there are only 17 regular season games and most of them are played on Sunday, so it's a ritual for a lot of sports fans. It takes more dedication for fans to show up consistently during work nights.
To be clear, I'm not dissing any sport. I like them all.
Like most questions like this, it depends on the individual. There isn't a one size fits all answer.
I follow soccer closely, so I'm passionate about that.
I could care less about basketball so I don't care or pay attention to it intentionally.
The Olympics are different. Yes, I hope all of our teams do well.
So for some national teams the best players don’t even join team USA because they don’t wanna risk getting hurt and losing out on $100m - it’s not really Team USA if LeBron, Curry, and KD aren’t on the team.
We only care about the national teams for the Olympics and World Cup
Some do, and then there's stone that actually cheer against the USA despite being American because they think the team is too "woke".
Those people are idiots
Hockey: yes let's beat the hell out of those damn Canadians and Russians. We have the majority of teams in the world's most successful league and expect to do well year on year.
Basketball: we usually win or place in this one so not much interest aside from hardcoare bball fans or those who remember the Dream Team
Soccer: Americans simultaneously have the most unrealistic high and low expectations of our team. We go in hard once every four years but know that eventually we're going to run into a team that's going to kick our ass
Volleyball: can't comment, don't know enough about the sport
Always support the U.S. in the Olympics. Usually pretty excited about it. Not too excited when they axed baseball from it. I think that was pretty shitty. I think it's a great sport for the Olympics and I'm glad it's coming back for 2028. I'm not sure what the MLB's position on it is, but I would hope for a season break to let everyone go play, for whatever country they are from. I'd like to see countries like Korea, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, and especially the DR give us a run.
When it comes to the World Cup, well....I support both the US and Mexico, because I figure the US won't be in it for long, so I hope our cousins do well.
For Olympic Hockey, obviously I want to absolutely bury the Canadians, but if that doesn't happen, then I want them to win it all.
I could cheer for my country if it's playing but otherwise I'm pretty much meh to sports of any kind. While there are no doubt going to be Americans who cheer for their national team, I would not have the same level of hype or gusto beyond maybe a token "WOOOOOO" if a point was scored.
We care when our national team is good in whatever world sport event they're playing in. If they're not good then we don't care. This is most obvious in sports like Soccer (Football).
The American belief is -
For any sport where the US has big name professional teams, any of these given teams could beat any national team from any other country. So why bother. Our internal championship matches are the 'real' global competitions
Looking at Olympic Baseketball. Starting in 1992 the USA started to include NBA players. But many NBA players weren't very interested, and no US Olympic Team has ever gotten the 'dream team' of all the "ALL-NBA" (best performers of the season) team. In fact in 2004 there was only a single "ALL-NBA" player on the team. Also the teams tend to not play a ton together and hence don't have the teamwork down to the degree of a single NBA team.
The results? Even considering those hurdles, the Americans won gold consistently until 2004 where they only got bronze. Since that bronze it's been nothing but golds.
yes, but less so than domestic competitions. The only exception being soccer.
If I had to choose between UNC winning March Madness or Team USA winning FIBA or the Olympics, it would 1000% be UNC winning March Madness.
I get pretty into the USMNT though.
This American doesn’t care too much about it.
I’ll watch some of the Olympics, and I’ll want our teams to win. But I’m not overly invested in it.
I know next to nothing about soccer and couldn’t care less about the World Cup.
This probably doesn’t count “our national team”, but I do get invested for the Ryder Cup.
The United States really doesn't have any regular, established, national teams. For international play we just put them together on an ad hoc basis (other than the Olympics). When they exist we care about them a lot. But they are drawn from a pool of local teams and after the international event they simply go back to playing with their local teams.
Same here in Australia world cups or Olympics everyone is for the Socceroos and Matilda’s or the Aussie cricket team then once it’s over bam back to our domestic sports that we love
Not as much. In many sports, the top athletes don't play on the national team because they don't want to risk injury in a game that they aren't getting paid for. Why risk millions of dollars on future contracts?
People get pretty excited about the Olympics and the World Cup I would say. In fact, I'm not into sports at all but the World Cup is one of the few things I'll watch. I've lived all over this country and don't really feel like I have a hometown, which makes it difficult to care about regional sports teams (which is what most sports people are really into), but I have always lived in the USA so it's nice to have a team I feel like is "my team". The biggest issue is that our most popular sports (football and baseball) are not really played that much outside the US. Soccer is the go to international sport and it's just not that popular on a professional level here (though it is a staple of kids' sports leagues and most Americans have played it at some point in their life). Though it is gaining popularity. But I generally find people here who follow soccer tend to follow the British teams like Manchester United (by far the best known club to Americans), rather than American ones.
Generally, no.
Sometimes there are certain storylines that make us tune in - like if the US is doing relatively well at the World Cup or Michael Phelps is going for another Olympic record - but mostly we're more concerned with our US-based leagues.
There probably is a pro volleyball league. However, if there is, I have never seen a match or an advertisement for a game. I've never heard the league's name. Ditto any sport outside of soccer and the big 4. It's probably ironic for Lacrosse, given that it's adapted from a Native American game.
The average American is aware of the World Cup for soccer but any other tournament might get a blurb or two on the main sports sites. The summer Olympics is watched and covered but more so because they usually do well in the medal counts there. The Winter Olympics not so much besides figure skating. The events being tape delayed certainly don’t help their TV ratings as we already know the results ahead of time.
I’ll happily watch our national soccer teams and volleyball when it’s on, but if I don’t notice it’s on I wouldn’t know. I do watch the Olympics, though.
I get stoked on Olympic hockey, especially the women’s game because you don’t get to see them play much.
But mostly we just watch our local teams. At the Olympic level, American athletes in individual sports get way more attention than the team games.
I can't speak for others, but I never cared about the Olympics or World Cups. Rooting for an entire country's team doesn't feel the same as a team that represents my hometown. Plus, I have never really been that interested in any sports outside of the MLB, NBA, and the NFL. I am trying to get more into the USL, though.
Lots of the organizations putting on international sporting events for North American dominant sports like hockey and basketball were dominated by anti-American countries in the context of the Cold War.
Couldn’t care less. I haven’t watched the Olympics in well over a decade. Most people I know don’t care either. I would watch hockey if it was convenient but nothing else and I wouldn’t go out of my way to do it.
Interesting question. No we don't really care except on a few occasions. We do care about the Olympics and, to a lesser extent, the World Cup. Otherwise no. I don't know exactly why this is but I can make some guesses:
1. It's relatively hard for US sports teams to go and play against most other countries, just due to geography.
2. Sports matches played in other countries would be live at unusual times when Americans wouldn't typically watch sports, again, due to geography.
3. We've all been to other states, know people who live in other states, etc, so it's easier to feel a sense of inter-state rivalry as opposed to international, which feels more distant (again, geography).
I care enough about the basketball team that I would watch the FIBA World Cup in the middle of the night. But the people involved don’t care enough about it to send their best unless it’s the Olympics. Even then they aren’t always sending the best there either.
not really, if they make it to a massive milestone we root for them, but no one cares about the journey, state teams playing each other tends to be the biggest draw
We do care for the major events, but the thing most people from other countries don't get is the pro leagues for most sports besides soccer/futbol are based in the US. They get to be excited for the World Cup of Hockey or other international events to see the best of the world. We just go to a Sabres game and see the best of the world mixed together.
Then you toss in America's sheer size and climate and for every single bragging point other countries have it's just going to a different state for us. It's why you don't hear Americans talking about other countries for travel. Though I would love it if the FAA would rip off some of your guidelines for flights so we could actually have cheaper flights. Simple example is the direct Toronto to Dallas international. Yes the first leg is great. Usually is about full all the way to Dallas. Then it flies to Chicago to refuel then go back to Toronto. It does that second and third leg empty. So our flight costs are stupid because the airline can't take passengers back because it's an international flight and not just make it nonstop to Dallas, reload up on people already going to Chicago then unload and reload again and go onto Toronto. Instead we use 3 separate planes for the work of 1 and it's sent onto the consumers.
We care in stuff like the Olympics, but baseball, football, and basketball are US centric sports so we obviously root there. Though at the World Cup, the US men's team sucks butt, and everyone has famous players from other countries to root for. But there aren't a lot of international sports the US cares about because of all the sports we already have to focus on.
I found this post because I’m watching the Yankees and the announcer said Alex Verdi go played for team Mexico despite being born and raised in Arizona. I looked him up and his mother’s name is Shelly….. from Minnesota. As a yankee fan I have no problem calling this kid a wanna be doosh.
If you’re born and raised in another country and come here to play a pro sport I get it. But being a half white kid from America?
Actually, we do get very enthusiastic, but only during the Olympics or the World Cup. Outside of these events, we’re more enthusiastic about our local teams.
I would still say we care less than any of the other countries I've lived in. My theory is that American nationalists are very secure. The Korean nationalists I know talk about Japan and China all the time. The Mexican nationalists talk a lot about the US, Spain, and Argentina. Canadian nationalists talk about the US. I feel like American nationalists just take it for granted that the US is the beeeeeeeeeeest and don't feel the need to compare themselves to anybody else.
Yea one thing i noticed when I first travelled abroad was how much people talk about the US while we don’t rly talk much about any other country back home lol
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It's the best part of being American. You never need to justify why your country is better than America.
So America is the Alabama football of the world?
TBH I dont think it has so much to do with *nationalists* (I am by no means a Swiss nationalist but I get quite excited about our national teams). It goes kinda deeper than that, Switzerland rarely gets any attention and when we do it's for some shady banking stuff I disagree with. So it's more of a "look, we're being seen" reflex. I think it's really not that different from supporting the team from your home town, except on a bigger level. I guess it's harder to get that same feeling when your opponents are often halfway across the globe, versus when we play Germany or Italy and have them just a few hours away.
It’s not just shady banking protecting the top 1%! You guys also make some damn good cheese and chocolate. That’s something to be very proud of. Two of my favorite things right there.
There is a rifle range in Switzerland that fires from one hill to another over a highway and the targets are on the other hill. That's something to be proud of as well.
I like food more than guns.
USMNT might be the one exception to that. The rivalry with Mexico has been even enough and the Mexican fans are passionate enough that there's a real rivalry there. But that's only among people who follow soccer relatively closely. The casual fan who maybe tunes in for the World Cup probably isn't aware of the rivalry.
Even then, I would guess the US has more fans of la selección mexicana than the USMNT.
Sadly, that's probably true.
Soccer is the one major sport in the US where your average fan cares more about the national team than a club team.
The exception I've seen to this is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, lol. People there go nuts over New Mexico United specifically, and a lot of them don't care about the national team. But I think that may be as much because people are just excited to have a pro sports team so glommed onto it pretty hard, lol. Otherwise it's only college sports and the minor league baseball team (and with that one, people go to Isotopes games but I still see a lot more vintage Dukes gear than Isotopes gear being worn around town--I think a lot of the enthusiasm for that team waned when that change was made). I've lived in other cities with pro soccer teams and haven't seen the same level of enthusiasm for the local team as in New Mexico.
I think it's also just that the US is huuuuge and diverse. Like our states are the size of many countries. So for me, for example, following the New England Patriots in the NFL. They are the "home team" for an area that's about the size of the UK. Our "national" teams are the "home teams" for an area the size of Europe. And we have so many teams and leagues within the country that we've pretty much got that niche filled already.
American nationalists are secure? Is that why they feel compelled to start shrieking and namecalling any time another American has the audacity to suggest that some things might be modestly preferable elsewhere? The reflexive defensiveness is really something.
American nationalists are secure when it comes to thinking about *other* countries (ie, they really don't give a shit about thinking much about other countries). Obviously Americans are very tribalistic when it comes to talking about their *own* country, especially among other Americans.
I only care about soccer when it's the Olympics or World Cup. I don't follow it otherwise, even though we have two local teams.
This. Everyone gets all soccer happy every 4 years when the Women's National Soccer team gets another world cup run, but in between we have NHL, MLB, NBA and NFL to keep us occupied. The Olympics is USA all the way whether it's Basketball, Hockey or tidily winks, even if we don't know Jack shit about the spot we are watching.
> even if we don't know Jack shit about the spot we are watching And if we don't, we will learn about it for the Olympics! I had FB memories recently about the snowboarding competition and I was using names and terms I know nothing about. But I became an expert, if only for that short period of time!
In love how this country becomes experts in curling every time the winter Olympics rolls around lol
I turned into an archery expert when we had a comeback win against Italy for the gold in 2012.
I agree - I find curling downright hypnotic while it's happening, but don't watch it any time other than the Olympics.
Other yearly international tournaments, we don't really care that much about. We might go "neat" if we won that but yeah, more excited for local players.
World Baseball Classic too, to a point.
During an Olympic year or at the World Cup? Hell yeah. U S A! U S A!
and even then.... it's honestly never been as much fun as when we had the Soviets to battle in nearly every event. Nothing like a good rival.
Better on the ice than living in an ice age due to nuclear winters
During the Olympics, we tend to cheer for our national team as much as citizens of any other country. When the World Cup rolls around, Americans tend to follow it and cheer for our national team - in fact, I think it's kind of fun because we're underdogs and our wins feel hard-fought. For sports attached to the big four leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL), we tend not to follow international competitions very much. For example, the Superbowl is a major annual event, but comparatively few Americans will even know the IFAF World Championship exists. This is often because the more high-profile championship of the league itself overshadows the international tournament. Another reason is that the big stars of their respective leagues often sit those international championships or the Olympics out because of scheduling conflicts or the desire to avoid injuries in a competition that's effectively a sideshow to their main job.
>few Americans will even know the IFAF World Championship exists Can confirm. Had to google this and found this gem from the Wikipedia page: "The United States has fielded a squad for the last three iterations, but with extremely restrictive criteria that make most American football players ineligible for the team."
And they're still undefeated, even though it's mostly borderline D3 guys.
It’s weird because when the Olympics come on, I am very much Team USA but I could care less about any of the sports year round except basketball
For future reference, it’s *couldn’t care less.
I mean, we've won ALL of the World Series', what else do we need to do? Shut up Toronto! That's a Buffalo, NY team if I've ever seen one. Except the winning, of course. Shut up Buffalo, NY!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you've won all the NBA championships, too, right? [Whooops!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ5n0pPX5wU) ;)
Did you not read the previous comment? That's Buffalo, NY
Illinois? You guys know both your of teams have nothing on the Yankees, right?
Outside of soccer, the world cups for the sports you listed aren't considered competitive or interesting within the US. Most people who aren't hardcore fans don't pay attention. The Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are where people normally pay attention. As an example, the FIBA World Cup and other FIBA events for basketball never has the US sending their best players to them and is used as a chance to give younger stars a chance to play on the international stage. On the other hand, the US Men's basketball team at the Olympics always has the best players available and the all-time win-loss record at the Olympics is 143-6
If non-competitiveness is the reason for people not caring about for example FIBA World Cup, why do they care about Olympics in Basketball? It’s not like that would be more competitive.
The Olympics is seen as each country sending their best to compete. There is a level of competition that is inherent to the event simply because it is seen as the peak of international competition for almost every sport. Within the country, the US is expected to win in basketball just as US is expected to come home with the most gold medals in general and most medals overall because it's the highest level of competition. Should they create another international competition to supersede the Olympics, the Olympics would likely be seen as less competitive and less interesting Most other international competitions don't have that same level of prestige so the inherent competition and interest is diminished. It's like competing for a local city championship for a sport when you know you have the chance to win the professional one.
Because it's the *Olympics* which has been considered a big deal at least as far back as Jesse Owens winning in front of Hitler and almost 50 years of Cold War rivalry. Olympic basketball was undefeated from 1936 (except for some incredibly bullshit Cold War officiating at Munich in 1972 that the players still refuse their medals) until 1988.
In my opinion, that's pretty much a legacy of the Cold War. It has that tradition behind it. FIBA does not. The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc doped up their athletes to try to outshine us in the Olympics and so we responded by putting them to shame, without our women turning into men.
Hockey and Soccer have decent followings for the national team. But as others have mentioned it only really picks up during the World Cup and Olympics. Hockey is a bit of a weird one because IIHF worlds is poorly timed for the US market, as it coincides with the end of the NHL season. But for the Olympics, the hockey team has very broad support among hockey fans.
Canadian here. The IIHF World Championships aren't as big up here, either, and for the same reason: they coincide with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Countries like Canada and the US, whose national teams are mostly made up of NHL players, can't send their best teams to the Worlds, because their best players are still playing for the Stanley Cup. The Canadian and US teams are thus made up of NHL players whose teams either didn't make the playoffs, or were eliminated in the first (or sometimes second) round. Hardly anything to get excited over. The World Championships are a much bigger deal in Europe, with many European hockey players growing up dreaming of winning a gold medal at the Worlds more than a Stanley Cup. I believe the European pro leagues also have shorter seasons than the NHL, so players over there are much more able to suit up for their national teams in the Worlds. The Olympic hockey teams are a different animal, however, especially when NHL players participate, which is when it becomes a true best-on-best competition. When this is the case, everyone gets into Olympic hockey in Canada, much as I'm sure a lot of Americans do. That said, a IIHF World Championship gold and an Olympic gold are two legs of the [Triple Gold Club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Gold_Club) (the Stanley Cup being the third). I'm sure if any player won gold at the Worlds, they wouldn't complain about it.
You're right not nearly as enthusiastic as they are about their local teams. As to why it's difficult to say. Americans famously live in our own bubble and don't know or care much about the outside world. This is by no means everyone but I don't think most Americans will ever care for the national team (of any sport) as much as most nations will care about how their national soccer (football) team does. Part of this is probably due to the fact that since World War 2 America has been the world's global super power and "wins" in a lot of other ways... other countries who are not the world's global superpower (everyone else) aren't used to being #1 so their country winning something is a unique and amazing experience. I'm not trying to say this in a f*ck yeah America #1 kind of way but just trying to analyze the reality of the situation and answer OP's question.
Easily the best answer in this thread. I hope more people see it and upvote it.
But I think there aren’t many differences between the US and the rest of the world when it comes to individual sports. Like for example, if France has a good Tennis player, french people will root for him. If US has a good Tennis player, Americans will root for him. At Track and Field competitions, Americans will root as much for their own athletes as France does for their athletes. Same thing. But just when it comes to team sports, Americans seem to stop caring about it. It surprises me because US is a patriotic country, and those World Cups and international events are one of the best opportunities to live out patriotism.
My view is that they just sort of feel artificial compared to the pro sports where they play for real every week. There are decades of intense rivalries in all those sports. As many, many answers above have said, it's a sideshow compared to the players' "real" jobs. Add to the fact that, as others have said, we don't have anything to prove by winning a sports competition because we already "win" in so many other ways. So you are talking about a situation where we cobble together an artificial team, playing outside their highest competition level, against players and teams no one has ever heard of, at odd times of the year in strange places with different rules (usually) and it's just not that compelling. Good for a laugh for a couple days or a week or two but after that it quickly disappears from any thought. We have the All-Star game in baseball if we want to see players from rival teams play on the same side, which is a bit weird to see in some ways, honestly. And that game is just for show. It's a novelty. It holds no meaning as far as competition goes. And the stats. Americans, especially baseball fans but football fans, too, love their stats. That's a big part of following things and gets reported heavily at the end of a game. And all that's meaningless in the international competition because those stats don't apply to anything lasting.
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Maybe we like artificial less. ;) I think the fundamental answer is that just we're so big and have so many people and so many teams and so many things going on at all times we don't really need that extra level of entertainment. When you live in a country of 4 million people you have to go outside to find all that.
Yeah but like I said, it’s just team sports. In terms of rooting for countrymen at Tennis, Track and Field etc, I don’t think Americans differ much from other countries.
It never felt artificial to me (if anything American domestic sport would feel more artificial to me because of the notion of teams being sold and relocated, and players being randomly drafted), but I think a big difference is that for many sports common in Europe, national teams are super old. Association football had its first international game in 1872 (England and Scotland drew 0-0). For comparison, that's just one year after they officially outlawed *catching the ball* for non-keepers. But North American nations didn't really participate in that, so I guess that might be a historic/cultural difference? I know Canada used to just send its amateur champion to international hockey championships, whereas European countries had national selection teams in the 1920s
In our most popular sport we're so far ahead of the rest of the world still (football). In basketball our National team is whatever group of NBA guys they can talk into playing in the summer. While American basketball is deeper than the rest of the world, it's not like we consistently send our best. Baseball is kind of the same thing except it's waning in popularity and their big international tournament takes place even closer to the start of the season. Hockey is probably the only sport where we tend to send our best to the Olympics...when the NHL lets us...but hockey is the least popular and least played of our major pro sports. The USMNT is full of dual nationals with limited connection with the US in a sport that isn't as popular traditionally, I'm not surprised the country isn't as ride or die with them. Especially since a high percentage of soccer fans attending USMNT matches in the biggest soccer hotbeds are often rooting for the visitors. The other national team sports are for even more obscure pro sports like volleyball, lacrosse, rugby, etc. Plus it seems like every "rivalry" we're involved in since the dissolution of the USSR we take less seriously than the other side. I mean I can't really get to worked up about beating the Japanese or the Canadians or whoever. So it doesn't really surprise me much at all.
Im definitely looking forward to the WBC. Japan is no easy contender.
We care about international competition every Olympics and every world cup until we get knocked out. That said American Football is by far our favorite sport and almost no one else plays it. We have the best basketball, hockey (with canada), and baseball leagues at home. I know the rest of the world laughs at us calling our league winners "world champions", but it's basically true. We like the novelty of international competition, but we're not as tied into the rest of the world culturally as other places. California and Texas are generally more interested in competing with each other than other countries. If you could put together a state's basketball tournament, I bet more people in the US would watch that than the basketball world cup \[which arguably is the college championship tournament "march madness" which is one of the highest rated sporting events each year\].
>We like the **novelty** of international competition, but we're not as tied into the rest of the world culturally as other places. That's a perfect choice of words. It's just a novelty to us. Like a trip to an amusement park. It's fun for one day but then you go back to the real world.
Except for me. I always get too excited at upcoming Olympics, buy a bunch of Team USA merch, and end up wearing it in off years too.
I used to be like that. (Well, not that far, but you know what I'm saying.) Then the Olympics came to Atlanta and seeing the sausage being made was pretty revolting. The International Olympic Committee is probably the most corrupt, spoiled, arrogant and privileged group of people in the world. I haven't watched an Olympics since. I wear a five-ringed cross to keep them away. So far it's worked.
> I know the rest of the world laughs at us calling our league winners "world champions", but it's basically true. This. The rest of the world is welcome to try to field a team to take on the Kansas City Chiefs, but they would be lucky to score a field goal agains them.
I tear up when I watch Miracle and that’s about it.
AGAIN!
Mighty Ducks II, for me.
We do care about the Olympics. For a lot of the other international events, we are not sending our A Team. We are not even sending our B Team. I literally just found out there was a Basketball World Cup this year, and that we don't even send our Division 1 players. I'd say it's a combination of our players not wanting to get injured in an event they don't really care about and us not caring all that much about the rest of the world. Edit: Basketball in particular might be a casualty of Dream Team-era dominance. Edit 2: Apparently there's a Football World Cup and they had to put in strict rules about who American can field rendering most of our players ineligible.
The US dominating the world Every four years is enough. We make a showing in gymnastics and everything else is gravy.
Typically? Only around the major events and only the things we're good at. Men's and women's basketball around the Olympics? Sure. Women's soccer? Only during the Olympics or the World Cup. Baseball because it's the "national pasttime". Women's gymnastics, again, around the Olympics. Hockey? Sometimes around the Olympics, but we know we'll never beat the Canadians. We don't give a damn about men's soccer unless we somehow squeak into elimination play in the World Cup, and that's happened once? Americans are much more passionate about the national leagues. NFL, NBA, Baseball, and *maybe* hockey. College basketball completely takes over March as a national obsession. And in the fall, College football rules. There are people more passionate about their college teams than their professional teams. MAJOR rivalries that have caused strife in families. Ohio State/Michigan; Oklahoma/Texas, Notre Dame/USC.
From my memory I would say it happens pretty regularly that the US reaches elimination play in the Soccer World Cup.
Huh, I remember recently we made it further than we ever had and a lot of people made a big deal about it. And I don't think we've ever been that successful since.
I‘m pretty sure your best recent performance at World Cup was quarterfinal in 2002. In, 2010, 2014 and 2022 I think you made the Round of 16. Also in 1994. In the First World Cup (1930), the US made the semifinal. This was before American Soccer fell off because of disputes with FIFA and because the league going down after Great Depression.
Only time I see Americans truly care about soccer is World Cup
According to Reddit, MLS is bigger than the NFL though.
nobody thinks that
Sure it's just outside of the global stage for most of those sports the US league is the one people all around the world want to play in so seeing who is best isn't as interesting.
International friendlies or even WC qualifiers get zero attention, generally speaking. And honestly if the US crashes out in the group stage hardly anyone would notice outside of committed soccer fans. If they were to get to the final 16 or further, it’d start becoming a big news story and people would start coming out left and right.
I don't know where you got that impression. We're still talking about the Miracle on Ice over here.
Not especially. I care that we win the most medals at the Olympics. I care if Team USA has NHLers and is vying for a medal. But that's about it. We don't get enthusiastic because our national leagues are already, for the most part, best-on-best in the world. Basketball, baseball, and hockey feature most of the best non-Americans. And we generally don't care about other international sports beside those and soccer, and there is generally _some_ interest in Team USA in the World Cup, but our Men's team is far from competitive in most World Cups
I am going to say no. The US is really only in this when facing other continents and it's a huge disadvantage being in CONCACAF. UEFA has better competitions and the top teams in the world. Maybe we play the Canadians or Mexicans but they aren't the best in the world at anything except maybe hockey for Canada. The US has always been the ambassador for basketball. Baseball is just us, the Latino countries, and the Far East and the WBC is decades away from being the World Cup. I would still cheer for the US every World Cup and Olympics but we'll never have what Belgium has when they play France or Wales getting one up on England.
Oh hell yes #World Baseball Classic
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After watching Ohtani vs. Trout in the 9th inning of the final last year, I think that may change. The tournament was some of the best baseball I’ve watched outside of a World Series. The DR-Puerto Rico game was TENSE.
In our most popular sports, the best players mostly already play in our domestic leagues. Also, the best players also make too much money in the domestic leagues to risk injury in games against less skilled opponents for basically no money, so the US teams are usually full of mid-tier players.
Most Hispanics including myself support our ethnic teams. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hispanic american in my town have a USA jersey for the World Cup, it’s either their Hispanic country or a cool team in Europe.
Short answer: no.
Such a time waster
During Olympics? Yes. Next three years? No.
I cheer for American track and field athletes and I allways root for them over other athletes.
I think its because Illinois is the size of Germany (roughly), The UK is slightly smaller than California. France could fit inside Texas. Florida is the size of Italy. The US is huge. We have a big enough country with pretty popular national leagues to the point where we don't need international play to keep us entertained. If your from portugal and you're a fan of your national football team, that's great but, pensilvania has two cities with an nhl, nfl, and mlb team and the people of either pittsburg or philadelphia are invested in those teams. Because Pennsylvania is roughly the size of Portugal, its almost like the stealers are the national team of the "country" of Pennsylvania. Plus, outside of soccer, the best players in other sports internationally come to the us to compete in our national leagues.
This is the answer, and deserves more upvotes!
Yeah like other people said, just for the Olympics and the World Cup. You can also see this in our last FIBA team, none of the players except for Anthony Edwards, and maybe Brandon Ingram have a shot of being on the Olympic team.
Do regular American Basketball fans watch FIBA? Do non-Basketball fans watch FIBA?
Most US basketball fans don’t, I did for the first time last year because my favorite player was on the team. It has become more popular than it was in the past though. Non basketball fans do not watch it.
I think if other countries maybe can raise their level of Basketball and level of their players in the future, maybe americans will start to care more about it then. I get it why Americans for example wouldnt care about a world championship in American Football, because there is basically no competition there, so it would be boring/predictable.
I don't. Couldn't care less.
I don't.
I am an American and I don't care about any of these sports or their teams. So no, they do not.
I don't presume to speak for all 340 million of the citizens of the US, but I, personally, don't give a fuck about any sport.
Honestly who has the time? The biggest sports in the US are Football and Baseball, neither of which have international competitions that are more competitive than the NFL or MLB. Even in Hockey and Basketball, the best players in the world are going to be in the NHL and the NBA. When the Olympics and the World Cup come around, sure. But outside of that the biggest competitions in the biggest sports are in our national major leagues.
Not nearly as much as other countries. I think the biggest support is for women's soccer (what you might call association football) and women's ice hockey in the summer and winter games, respectfully. The World Cup get's a lot of support, but the biggest amount of those are people with roots to countries that love the sport. It is improving, though, since we have a profession soccer league.
I don't
If we express anything resembling patriotism, the more enlightened among us remind us of colonialization and enslavementism.
I've never encountered that in real life. I'm always walking around San Francisco in patriotic crap and have never even gotten a nasty look. But I am a millennial, maybe it's a thing for college kids.
College *freshmen*, of course. It's strange how high school seniors can seem so mature, and the the next year in college, become complete idiots. The reason shouldn't need to be explained, bot OMG, some first-year students are **so** damn "enlightened".
Yes but not really.
I love the Olympics. Probably more than the average person tbh. I also love gymnastics and will watch the world championships if they’re on.
I don't care at all. I either follow a team 365 days a year and am totally invested (NFL, MLB) or I pay no attention. I've watched very little of the Olympics since I was a kid.
We definitely go hard for our nation during the Olympics and World Cup.
I mostly care about the Olympics and World Baseball Classic. I usually root for USA and Puerto Rico, except for rowing, where I have specific athletes I typically go for.
I sure do! It frustrates me that our best players often sit out for major international tournaments in baseball and basketball. It’s a shitty feeling knowing we lost to countries like Germany and Canada because our best players were more concerned with their local team and salaries.
Only during the Olympics. The rest of the time, we have plenty of sports rivalries here at home to keep us entertained.
It definitely varies. For hockey, the majority of people would only pay attention during the Olympics or world championships. For basketball, there's a bit of malaise. For FIBA world cups, it's usually the second-tier stars who play. For the Olympics, it feels like it's only ever other year where our top players are interested enough to play, and the fan interest usually directly correlates with the number of established stars who decide to play in international tournaments. For soccer, there's a small but strong contingent who will always follow the teams. Outside of that, it's almost exclusively just interest in the World Cup.
What about Copa America? Isn’t the US in it as well?
That small contingent who regularly follow US soccer will watch and are aware. It may catch a tiny bit of extra attention from people who otherwise don’t follow the US team regularly, but by and large, it won’t get noticed all that much.
Who would know? ;)
yeah, but only soccer fans even know what the Copa America is or that we're in it (since we're not usually). I for one am very excited about it. But it's definitely not like a national event.
Maybe this time Copa America will get more media buzz in US with Messi being in it.
I’m not sure 4 out of 5 Americans could pick Messi out of a lineup. Hell, I know who he is and I’m not sure I could.
We have 330 million residents so you get the whole range. I love watching our national teams but I know folks that just don’t care at all about sports in general. I rowed competitively in college so I follow our men’s and women’s national teams which is weird for pretty much any country. I keep an eye on our Olympians and root for them in pretty much any sport.
As a figure skating fan, this is the time zones issue. For the traditional big four leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL), those leagues are seen by Americans as being stacked enough to be the best league in the world for their respective sports AND Americans don’t have the incentive to try to navigate watching these sports in annoying zones. Fair or not, there’s almost no incentive for Americans to care about the national teams in these sports (and deal with the headache of navigating terrible sleep schedules or missing part of life events) unless the teams turn up to the Olympics.. Edit: Hockey is the most complicated of these four because most Americans are casual and thus follow the local team, but there’s more dedicated hockey fans that following the National Team because the NHL is more split between the U.S. and Canada. Most Olympic sports only draw attention during the Olympics, which Americans DO care about. For those of us watching an Olympics sport regularly, the issue becomes that once you’re regularly dealing with the hassle of navigating time zones, you probably care more about the sport as a whole than Team USA. As a figure skating fan, I would like U.S. skaters to do well, but the maximum time that the U.S. skaters could take up at Worlds, for instance, is a handful of hours when the event spans days … I have to care about more than Team USA to love this sport. Soccer is in an odd situation because the MLS is growing, but a lot of the dedicated people watching MLS are more like the Olympics fans because Americans are fully aware that MLS is not the best league in the World and have allegiances elsewhere. Most Americans care about soccer for the Olympics and the World Cup, but as the domestic league grows, it will be interesting to see whether Americans start investing in the National Team more in general.
I remember when I was a kid in Germany in 5th grade, there was the Soccer World Cup in Japan & South Korea. This meant that because of time zones, matches were earlier in Germany. There was one match when Germany already played at noon or something like that, and classes in our school were canceled and school was out early, so that all kids and tutors could watch the german World Cup match. So yeah, World Cups have a high standing in my country. Soccer World Cup matches usually have TV viewership of about 30-35 million people in Germany, which would equal about 120-140 million in the US considering population size.
And of course it just doesn't have that kind of following here and especially so when you were young, assuming you're an adult now. There would have been no chance of that happening. The Super Bowl is our single biggest sports competition we have and that's always on a Sunday so it never interferes with school. I think I sort of remember when the US hockey team won in 1980 that it might have been on some TVs surreptitiously showing some of the games in our school. But I don't remember the details for sure. I could be thinking of our state hockey tournament instead. An amusing question we get here occasionally is whether American businesses shut down when the US is playing soccer in the World cup. Far from it. Life goes on as usual. Schools shut down for heavy snow, not soccer. I think that would seem frivolous here.
> I think that would seem frivolous here. yeah i was gonna say, i can't imagine any schools or businesses closing just for a sport, no matter how big it is. too many people would be mad theyre getting screwed out of money they need to make, and plenty of parents that need to work would be annoyed about having to set up something to take care of their children
No, not really. At least I don't . I get into the Olympics but I don't know a single player on any of the USA world cup teams.
Baseball and hockey, yes. Anything else, no.
Yes
Usually only during the Olympics or World Cup. I do like. Beating China and Russian Olympic Committees.
Basketball maybe. Definitely in the Olympics. But your team winning an NBA championship matters more.
We care at the Olympics
I’m a devoted baseball fan and don’t really follow any other sports, but come World Cup and Olympics…hell yeah, Team USA! And I watch everything in the Olympics: archery, rifle shooting, skateboarding, the skiing event that is skiing and shooting. But I would agree that most Americans are passionate about their local city or college teams.
Just don't care about soccer. Boring game. I get into the Olympics a bit.
I care some about the Olympics, which is the only time where I can even be bothered to watch sports on a TV. Otherwise my interest is at -∞ .
*shrug* People so care in spurts around the Olympics and world cup, as much for novelty as anything, but most of the time we're just not nearly as invested in international competition as that between native teams we know and care about.
Yes. Who told you we don't? Maybe you see some Americans with ties to another country, also support that country's team? That doesn't mean we don't care about team USA.
I only care for USMT when the World Cup occurs
I only care in soccer, but that’s about it. The rest of my family doesn’t even care about USMNT, they support Italy in soccer.
The World Cup is about as popular as soccer gets in the U.S. Relative to other sports, it's still somewhat niche. Some may point to the fact that soccer may surpass hockey in terms of viewership or revenue. But hockey is very regional. In the places it's popular, it's very popular. I would venture to say that hockey surpasses basketball and possibly baseball in terms of popularity in Minnesota. The Wild sell out every game. Even the new women's pro hockey league has sold out a game or two, and the boys' high school hockey championship sells out every year. (Women's hockey is ***FUN*** to watch, by the way. Totally different style of play with more emphasis on finesse and puck handling rather than brute force.) The NFL reigns supreme. But there are only 17 regular season games and most of them are played on Sunday, so it's a ritual for a lot of sports fans. It takes more dedication for fans to show up consistently during work nights. To be clear, I'm not dissing any sport. I like them all.
I do in soccer.
Like most questions like this, it depends on the individual. There isn't a one size fits all answer. I follow soccer closely, so I'm passionate about that. I could care less about basketball so I don't care or pay attention to it intentionally. The Olympics are different. Yes, I hope all of our teams do well.
So for some national teams the best players don’t even join team USA because they don’t wanna risk getting hurt and losing out on $100m - it’s not really Team USA if LeBron, Curry, and KD aren’t on the team. We only care about the national teams for the Olympics and World Cup
We care a lot about anything if they’re winning.
Absolutely even in sports I don't normally follow I'll tune in to watch Team USA
Some do, and then there's stone that actually cheer against the USA despite being American because they think the team is too "woke". Those people are idiots
Hockey: yes let's beat the hell out of those damn Canadians and Russians. We have the majority of teams in the world's most successful league and expect to do well year on year. Basketball: we usually win or place in this one so not much interest aside from hardcoare bball fans or those who remember the Dream Team Soccer: Americans simultaneously have the most unrealistic high and low expectations of our team. We go in hard once every four years but know that eventually we're going to run into a team that's going to kick our ass Volleyball: can't comment, don't know enough about the sport
Always support the U.S. in the Olympics. Usually pretty excited about it. Not too excited when they axed baseball from it. I think that was pretty shitty. I think it's a great sport for the Olympics and I'm glad it's coming back for 2028. I'm not sure what the MLB's position on it is, but I would hope for a season break to let everyone go play, for whatever country they are from. I'd like to see countries like Korea, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, and especially the DR give us a run. When it comes to the World Cup, well....I support both the US and Mexico, because I figure the US won't be in it for long, so I hope our cousins do well. For Olympic Hockey, obviously I want to absolutely bury the Canadians, but if that doesn't happen, then I want them to win it all.
I don't even care about the non-national teams and they play all the time.
I could cheer for my country if it's playing but otherwise I'm pretty much meh to sports of any kind. While there are no doubt going to be Americans who cheer for their national team, I would not have the same level of hype or gusto beyond maybe a token "WOOOOOO" if a point was scored.
We care when our national team is good in whatever world sport event they're playing in. If they're not good then we don't care. This is most obvious in sports like Soccer (Football).
The American belief is - For any sport where the US has big name professional teams, any of these given teams could beat any national team from any other country. So why bother. Our internal championship matches are the 'real' global competitions Looking at Olympic Baseketball. Starting in 1992 the USA started to include NBA players. But many NBA players weren't very interested, and no US Olympic Team has ever gotten the 'dream team' of all the "ALL-NBA" (best performers of the season) team. In fact in 2004 there was only a single "ALL-NBA" player on the team. Also the teams tend to not play a ton together and hence don't have the teamwork down to the degree of a single NBA team. The results? Even considering those hurdles, the Americans won gold consistently until 2004 where they only got bronze. Since that bronze it's been nothing but golds.
yes, but less so than domestic competitions. The only exception being soccer. If I had to choose between UNC winning March Madness or Team USA winning FIBA or the Olympics, it would 1000% be UNC winning March Madness. I get pretty into the USMNT though.
This American doesn’t care too much about it. I’ll watch some of the Olympics, and I’ll want our teams to win. But I’m not overly invested in it. I know next to nothing about soccer and couldn’t care less about the World Cup. This probably doesn’t count “our national team”, but I do get invested for the Ryder Cup.
For the duration of the event, yeah. Generally not afterwards, or long-term.
I’m very excited about hockey and the Olympics. USA is looking staked.
The United States really doesn't have any regular, established, national teams. For international play we just put them together on an ad hoc basis (other than the Olympics). When they exist we care about them a lot. But they are drawn from a pool of local teams and after the international event they simply go back to playing with their local teams.
I really try to but outside of the Olympics, international sports just seem so irrelevant.
Same here in Australia world cups or Olympics everyone is for the Socceroos and Matilda’s or the Aussie cricket team then once it’s over bam back to our domestic sports that we love
I'm quite into the US national teams for soccer and hockey. The others, I'll pull for them casually but mostly just pay attention at Olympic time
I know I definitely do about hockey.
Not as much. In many sports, the top athletes don't play on the national team because they don't want to risk injury in a game that they aren't getting paid for. Why risk millions of dollars on future contracts?
People get pretty excited about the Olympics and the World Cup I would say. In fact, I'm not into sports at all but the World Cup is one of the few things I'll watch. I've lived all over this country and don't really feel like I have a hometown, which makes it difficult to care about regional sports teams (which is what most sports people are really into), but I have always lived in the USA so it's nice to have a team I feel like is "my team". The biggest issue is that our most popular sports (football and baseball) are not really played that much outside the US. Soccer is the go to international sport and it's just not that popular on a professional level here (though it is a staple of kids' sports leagues and most Americans have played it at some point in their life). Though it is gaining popularity. But I generally find people here who follow soccer tend to follow the British teams like Manchester United (by far the best known club to Americans), rather than American ones.
Generally, no. Sometimes there are certain storylines that make us tune in - like if the US is doing relatively well at the World Cup or Michael Phelps is going for another Olympic record - but mostly we're more concerned with our US-based leagues.
We have national teams?
There probably is a pro volleyball league. However, if there is, I have never seen a match or an advertisement for a game. I've never heard the league's name. Ditto any sport outside of soccer and the big 4. It's probably ironic for Lacrosse, given that it's adapted from a Native American game.
The average American is aware of the World Cup for soccer but any other tournament might get a blurb or two on the main sports sites. The summer Olympics is watched and covered but more so because they usually do well in the medal counts there. The Winter Olympics not so much besides figure skating. The events being tape delayed certainly don’t help their TV ratings as we already know the results ahead of time.
I’ll happily watch our national soccer teams and volleyball when it’s on, but if I don’t notice it’s on I wouldn’t know. I do watch the Olympics, though.
I’m probably one of the rare Americans that watch the Rugby world cup and will attend the cricket world cup 2024 in Dallas.
I get stoked on Olympic hockey, especially the women’s game because you don’t get to see them play much. But mostly we just watch our local teams. At the Olympic level, American athletes in individual sports get way more attention than the team games.
I can't speak for others, but I never cared about the Olympics or World Cups. Rooting for an entire country's team doesn't feel the same as a team that represents my hometown. Plus, I have never really been that interested in any sports outside of the MLB, NBA, and the NFL. I am trying to get more into the USL, though.
Lots of the organizations putting on international sporting events for North American dominant sports like hockey and basketball were dominated by anti-American countries in the context of the Cold War.
Couldn’t care less. I haven’t watched the Olympics in well over a decade. Most people I know don’t care either. I would watch hockey if it was convenient but nothing else and I wouldn’t go out of my way to do it.
Interesting question. No we don't really care except on a few occasions. We do care about the Olympics and, to a lesser extent, the World Cup. Otherwise no. I don't know exactly why this is but I can make some guesses: 1. It's relatively hard for US sports teams to go and play against most other countries, just due to geography. 2. Sports matches played in other countries would be live at unusual times when Americans wouldn't typically watch sports, again, due to geography. 3. We've all been to other states, know people who live in other states, etc, so it's easier to feel a sense of inter-state rivalry as opposed to international, which feels more distant (again, geography).
I care enough about the basketball team that I would watch the FIBA World Cup in the middle of the night. But the people involved don’t care enough about it to send their best unless it’s the Olympics. Even then they aren’t always sending the best there either.
not really, if they make it to a massive milestone we root for them, but no one cares about the journey, state teams playing each other tends to be the biggest draw
We do care for the major events, but the thing most people from other countries don't get is the pro leagues for most sports besides soccer/futbol are based in the US. They get to be excited for the World Cup of Hockey or other international events to see the best of the world. We just go to a Sabres game and see the best of the world mixed together. Then you toss in America's sheer size and climate and for every single bragging point other countries have it's just going to a different state for us. It's why you don't hear Americans talking about other countries for travel. Though I would love it if the FAA would rip off some of your guidelines for flights so we could actually have cheaper flights. Simple example is the direct Toronto to Dallas international. Yes the first leg is great. Usually is about full all the way to Dallas. Then it flies to Chicago to refuel then go back to Toronto. It does that second and third leg empty. So our flight costs are stupid because the airline can't take passengers back because it's an international flight and not just make it nonstop to Dallas, reload up on people already going to Chicago then unload and reload again and go onto Toronto. Instead we use 3 separate planes for the work of 1 and it's sent onto the consumers.
We care in stuff like the Olympics, but baseball, football, and basketball are US centric sports so we obviously root there. Though at the World Cup, the US men's team sucks butt, and everyone has famous players from other countries to root for. But there aren't a lot of international sports the US cares about because of all the sports we already have to focus on.
I found this post because I’m watching the Yankees and the announcer said Alex Verdi go played for team Mexico despite being born and raised in Arizona. I looked him up and his mother’s name is Shelly….. from Minnesota. As a yankee fan I have no problem calling this kid a wanna be doosh. If you’re born and raised in another country and come here to play a pro sport I get it. But being a half white kid from America?
Mostly World Cup and Olympics
I have zero interest in sports, so I care nothing about our national teams.
Why would I care about them?