The results of PST’s Big American Soccer Survey are in, and our staff will be walking through the results of thousands of votes in a series of posts this week.
We didn’t realize you could acronymize it to BASS, or else we would’ve done it sooner. Today’s question: Where do Americans fall on the club or country debate?
[ MORE: All Big American Soccer Survey posts ]
Here’s one problem (of sorts) the United States faces when it comes to soccer versus the rest of the world.
Most of the country’s favorite team, here or abroad, is the national team.
Fifty-three percent of our voters said that, given the choice of club or country, they choose country.
Now unfortunately we don’t have the stats from around the world, but we’re assuming it’s much much different in nations with more storied domestic leagues (and this is largely not Major League Soccer’s fault, other than to debit its nascency).
Try to imagine this below story from Rio Ferdinand coming from any rivalry, from New York to Cascadia. It feels almost absurd, but over time perhaps that will change a bit.
Then again, perhaps our country is just a bit more rock, flag, eagle than the rest of the world. What do you think? Why is it country over club here?
Why Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard stopped talking. Brutal. pic.twitter.com/mjQUyknckJ
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) November 24, 2017