Never understood that, myself

I know the historic reasons why soccer is much less popular in the USA than in Europe and continental Latin America. But the pretexts posed by Americans to say that soccer is inherently inferior to the big American sports are illogical to say the least

Low scoring? Baseball and hockey defences are object of a lot of praise when they make the rival scoreless You can't use your hands? I don't know what game they are watching: Maradona was the greatest player ever because he used his hand. And it isn't like hockey and baseball players use their hands a lot, either The theatricals and contact rules? Acting bothers soccer fans too - and it's a necessity anyway because the referees will never grant the free kick if the player doesn't fall, because contact itself is not illegal; so it is either the intention or the danger in the play that is penalized. And essentially, this not that different to some of the rules of "American football" and hockey: in hockey you have body checking legal, tripping illegal. I would even argue that American football rules are more stringent than soccer's: holding? pass interference? Any given soccer corner kick has about 500 penalty yards, and especially if Italy or Argentina play The lack of replay for dubious plays? Soccer has never had an ethos of absolute justice the way most American sports have it: it prizes guile together with technique and athleticism - and I like it that way!

About the only reasonable criticisms are some that are also made by soccer fans from hardcore soccer lands: the offside rule, the extra+PSO tiebreakers