…do any of you actually care about it? Generally speaking, my attitude about soccer is that we should continue to suck at it, because it’s a harmless way for countries to triumph over us in something; but if people actually like the game and care about the results I don’t want to be intentionally rude. …Well, in this at least.
18 thoughts on “Before I start rolling my eyes at the World Cup…”
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I’ve loved the game for over 30 years. I really don’t give a squat what anyone else’s attitude toward it is. I mean, if people want to call a sport where the fans boo every time someone touches the ball with their foot ‘football,’ that’s their choice. I’d call it ‘passball’ myself. Because that’s what the rules are catered to. 😛
Honestly, I still like the college game. Goodall is sucking what little life there is out of the No Fun League. But I can keep it on for background noise.
I will grant this: Soccer and Ice Hockey are two sports you have to see live to appreciate on TV. Both are fast and fluid, and you don’t get a good picture at all of what’s happening in a game if you don’t have an understanding of what’s happening off the play. That said, I’d watch an NHL or MLS game live before I ever went to see another NFL game. The NFL is so geared for TV, that you have to sit through 5mins and more of deadtime, multiple times a quarter. Dreadful experience. At least college, you still have atmosphere to carry you through the interminable time outs.
ick, soccer. its only for countries/people that don’t know any better, bless their hearts.
Care? Well, I’d like to see commie-ball die in a grease fire…
I suppose that counts, in some small way.
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But which backwards country wins a meaningless trophy for excelling in a backwards sport? Nope. Not a bit of caring.
Haven’t seen the article that prove soccer=socialism?
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Low scoring, offsides, officials hiding how long the game lasts.
Funny you say that, because the European Leagues are pretty much the last bastion of capitalism in the Old World.
Whereas the NFL is a socialist, salary-capped, government protected NON-PROFIT monopoly.
Yeah, which league is socialist?
I could give two figs about professional soccer. It’s a very fun game to actually play, but dreadfully boring to watch. But, I have the same problem with hockey.
bite your tongue comparing hockey to soccer! the Stanley Cup final was tremendous (even if both of the double overtime games that the Kings won probably should have been won by the Rangers in regulation had it not been for bad calls/no-calls, and thus we should still have another game or two to watch, pity), every game except game 3 was great (and game 3 was the only one I didn’t watch, so maybe it was good too despite being one-sided on the scoreboard)
Wait.
You’re trying to compare hockey, a sport where the players strap razorblades to their feet, move across a slick sheet of ice at ridiculous speeds, carry clubs, engage in brutal hits, use a frozen rubber puck that can shatter teeth, and every now and then stop the game to have a fight, to soccer? A sport that utilizes no equipment, and rewards players for falling down.
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No. I really don’t think so.
Hockey is a sport where competitors strap on ridiculous amounts of padding, and carry silly equipment, to slide across an ice rink in a climate-controlled environment for sixty minutes while trying to push a little rubber disk past a man who should be able to stop pretty much every shot because he fills up practically the whole goal.
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Soccer is a sport where competitors pretty much only have shinguards to protect them, and only their skills and natural gifts to help them, running around an area larger than a football field — fully exposed to all the natural elements — for ninety minutes while using only their feet and heads to knock a ball past a man who doesn’t even come close to filling up the goal, and can only stop some shots by being a freakishly good athlete.
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You’re right. There really is no comparison. Soccer is clearly both superior and more manly.
I love soccer. I’ve been watching it ever since the ’94 World Cup, held right here in the good ol’ US of A. And my feelings toward those people who feel the need to fall all over themselves to hate on soccer because it’s “not American” or some such other nonsense hover somewhere on the line between pity and contempt.
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Yes, I know a lot of soccer fans are lefties. Yes, I know many of those people love soccer precisely BECAUSE it’s not a big sport in America — makes ’em feel more European or cosmopolitan, or whatever. (Also an attitude I feel pity/contempt for.) And I know some people can be insufferable about calling it “football,” and using all the “proper” terminology. I don’t care. Here, it’s soccer. It’s fun to watch with my friends over a few beers, and I can just blow off the self-appointed vocabulary and trivia police and have a good time. That is what sports are supposed to be about, anyway.
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But I do understand when people feel the same way about soccer that I do about, say, hockey. I don’t trash hockey, but — it doesn’t move me, I don’t see the point, and I honestly think it’s kinda silly. It would have to be at the level of USA-USSR in Lake Placid before I gave a crap. BTW, if that’s where you’re at with soccer, Moe, that’s perfectly cool with me.
I care. I started playing as an adult in 1981 and have followed the World Cup closely since then. I was up at 4AM, with one of my sons, in 2002, watching the US play Portugal. We won 3-2 against one of the top teams in the world at the time. It was a huge upset. We also beat Spain, ranked #1 in the world at the time, in the 2009 Confederations Cup.
I agree that there is some built-in suspense in sports with more discreet events, such as plays in football, but soccer is interesting if you understand it.There is some built-in drama to a 4-3 count in baseball with the bases loaded, or a 4th and long with 30 seconds left on the clock.
I don’t understand basketball, i.e., I don’t really know why the players make the decisions they make, and I find it boring. I still don’t find it interesting enough to watch most of the time.
I don’t care if other people don’t like soccer, but am mildly annoyed when people bother to proclaim their dislike/disinterest. I recognize that many people love to watch basketball and baseball and that’s fine with me. I never would bother to post anything about my personal lack of interest.
We’ve had soccer shoved at us for over 40 years, with the loud decree that Thou Shalt Like This.
We don’t.
You can force exposure, but not appreciation.
Instead, you will force resentment.
And, by gum, I resent being told that I must like soccer.
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Could I modify soccer so the American public would be inclined to enjoy it?
Sure.
Start with “all players can use your hands”. Not being able to use every tool at your disposal is repulsive. You can catch, you can throw, you just can’t carry the ball.
Shrink the field.
Any player can go anywhere on the field. Want to have your entire team on the same side of the field? Go for it.
If we *must* have Offsides, it will be modeled on hockey. The fast break is in full effect.
If a degree of physical contact is legal between players in baseball, it will be legal in soccer.
The clock will be displayed, and run in a countdown.
Do this, and soccer would become popular.
But not with the people who currently like it.
Bull. The establishment sports media is all about bashing soccer in this country.
No one has said “Thou shalt like it.”
And the sport ALREADY draws more fans than baseball and basketball in many cities. That’s with the rules you hate. So no. It doesn’t have to change.
I’m a swimmer. Don’t care about soccer; they can have all the World Cups their little hearts desire.
Yes I love the World Cup. Went to a friendly back in 1994 and took my son to his first game last week in Jacksonville. I’m only a casual fan though, maybe that would be different if there was a local team to root for.
Professional diving? No thanks.
That’s in every sport. Watch an NFL receiver flop when he’s held. Or QBs roll on the ground trying to get a roughing penalty.
It’s part of the nature of competition to try to get the referee to make a call. You may not like it. I don’t appreciate it either. But it’s part of EVERY sport.
Well, the only sport I care for is baseball, and there’s no diving there, save for deep fly balls in the gap.