But as journalist Franklin Foer observed in his 2004 book, How Soccer Explains the World, it’s not really about soccer. Soccer simply offers a new turf to play out the “culture wars” between cosmopolitanism and traditionalism. It is a divide, driven by globalization, between a relativist worldview that embraces diversity and global culture and an outlook that aims to maintain what they see as traditional American culture.

These two worldviews represent different responses to globalization that don’t always break neatly along political or class lines. An affluent Republican is as likely to have his kids enrolled in soccer as the lower-middle class liberal down the block. And a blue collar Democrat who sees his job as jeopardized by new immigrants might be just as hostile to soccer as your average Fox News viewer.