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Back when I first started publishing things online in an attempt to slightly amuse people, I wrote an article that has since been lost to the internet called “This Is The Year Soccer Will FInally Catch On In America. It was basically a Mad Libs that allowed you to update the names of the best teams and players at a particular point in time while making the same argument fans of the sport in the United States have been making for years without it really coming to fruition.
There’s little doubt soccer has seen a boom in interest in America over the past decade or so but the MLS still has plenty of work to do if it wants to even come close to rising to the same tier as the Big Four leagues that dominate the landscape on this side of the Atlantic as opposed to the various organizations that reign supreme on the other side of the pond.
You can point to a number of factors to explain why soccer hasn’t reached the level of popularity that people who’ve spent decades proclaiming it’s poised to be The Next Big Thing seem to believe it’s destined to achieve but I’d argue one of the biggest turnoffs is the blatant flopping that’s rampant in the sport. Sure, basically every athlete on the planet has oversold a penalty at some point or another in an attempt to draw a call but soccer players have a truly unparalleled flair for the dramatic and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a more Oscar-winning performance than one we were treated to on Sunday during a La Liga matchup between Cadiz and Granada.
Toward the end of the contest, Granda’s Roberto Soldado got into it with Cadiz’s Ivan Alejo, the latter of whom collapsed to the pitch after finding himself at the receiving end of an almost comical throat grab delivered by his opponent. However, Alejo basically acted like he’d gotten the same treatment Patrick Swayze gave to the guy with the necklace in Road House and continued to writhe in pain before being stretchered off of the field a few minutes later.
Soldado manages to avoid any discipline for his heinous action and Alejo made a miraculous recovery and returned before the final whistle blew to bring the 1-1 draw to an end.