If by soccer, you mean football, then you must understand that it won't be popular among Americans for many reasons. Americans copied the name 'football' for one of their own sport (American football) which didn't help make their copy as popular as the real football. Real football is one of the most popular sport in the world. In fact the FIFA World Cup and Euro series attract more crowds and viewership than even the Olympics. The amount of wealth of major football leagues like Manchester United or Chelsea dwarf even major American corporations.

Despite the desperate and relentless campaigning by NFL, American football hasn't even penetrated as much non-American viewership as leisure sports like tennis or WRC do. Hence it is only natural that Americans feel threatened by Association football, jealousy is a natural emotion when their most popular home grown sport looks like a cheap and weak fake compared to real football (or as Americans call it, soccer).

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The average American's understanding of military strategy comes from popular video games like Call of Duty and Counter Strike.