By VictorM:

Sports Illustrated has improved its covered of soccer, with writers who know the sport well. Clearly a positive trend that I wish continues. But they are not above the usual, ignorant, remark about the sport. The latest comes in the form of an editorial:

American sports fans adore stats, the more the better. We revel in points per game and games per home run and home runs per home stand. Stats provide context; they empower us. You tell me Kobe is better than LeBron? I tell you 30.4, 8.0 and 7.3.

Which leads me to the problem with soccer, or at least with pro soccer in the U.S.: not enough numbers.

Are we suppose to believe that the American sports fans who think that soccer is a communist sport, for sissies, too low scoring, with unAmerican ties, and is boring and plain stupid is all of sudden going to be taking the whole family to the nearest soccer game if only the sport had more stats? And what numbers are we talking about? How many times David Beckham scratches his goldenballs? How many times each players blows his nose? The notion that numbers are the problem is utter silliness.

Look, soccer does not have a problem. It hasn't made it to major league status in the USA because Americans have three great sports, with great and long traditions, which attract the greatest of athletes, and are deeply embedded in the culture. Asking Americans to accept a sport they did not grow-up with and is not part of their culture is asking the impossible. If soccer is going to make it here, it needs to do what those three other sports took decades to do: grow slowly, attract great players, mix it with good business people, and most importantly, become part of the culture. That's not an easy task, as American football has discovered when trying to win over Europe.

Right now, the only numbers that soccer needs are more butts in the seats. And slowly but surely, that's happening, without the help of dumb stats.