Our Never-Ending "Soccer" Embarrassment

[Montrovant]

Given that baseball - America's national pastime - has roughly six minutes of action, criticism of other sports by Americans will be taken with a really, really big grain of salt.

Baseball may be called America's pastime, but it's an empty title nowadays. NFL football became America's most popular sport a while ago.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I follow US Soccer. For the Costa Rica game, we lost our most important player (Michael Bradley) to a type two ankle sprain in pre-game. Not many players are going to beat the second best team in their region on the road when that occurs. He is world wide elite play maker. Despite that, we were down 1-2 when Clint Dempsey hit a shot off the post that would have tied it in about the 70th minute.

Now, I don't mean to whitewash things. There are serious issues with our back line that we need to straighten up by the WC. Currently, it's the least stable back line, I've seen in the modern US soccer era (25 years). But, our attack is as good as it's ever been. It's ironic, cos in the past we were a defensive oriented team that looked for over the top offensive counters. Now, we are much more technically skilled than ever and we have a shaky back four. But it's not all bad news. At the center back, Gonzalez, Goodson, Besler, Cameron, Brooks; between those 5 decent player, we can hopefully find a combo that works great. At the ends of the line, we've been dealing with some injury issues and that has hurt. But, a guy like Fabian Johnson who can attack from the left wing is great. Fortunately, we have a relatively large amount of time to figure this out before the World Cup. But, ideally, this issue would have been solved by now.

 

[Unkotare]

Given that baseball - America's national pastime - has roughly six minutes of action, criticism of other sports by Americans will be taken with a really, really big grain of salt.

The difference is that nobody sits at a baseball game during a pitching change screaming like maniacs, tearing their hair out, blowing on vuvuzelas, starting fires, or otherwise pretending it is something other than the game of a certain pace that it is. I wonder if soccer fans sit at home screaming and crying as they watch paint dry so they can convince themselves it's "beautiful" and pulse-pounding excitement.

I bet someone has done all of those things at a baseball game at one time or another!

It's too expensive to get that drunk at a baseball game.

 

[Immanuel]

Given that baseball - America's national pastime - has roughly six minutes of action, criticism of other sports by Americans will be taken with a really, really big grain of salt.

True, baseball is America's pastime. It helps us pass the days from Super Bowl to Hall of Fame Game and damn those can be some long days!

Immie

 

[Toro]

Given that baseball - America's national pastime - has roughly six minutes of action, criticism of other sports by Americans will be taken with a really, really big grain of salt.

The difference is that nobody sits at a baseball game during a pitching change screaming like maniacs, tearing their hair out, blowing on vuvuzelas, starting fires, or otherwise pretending it is something other than the game of a certain pace that it is. I wonder if soccer fans sit at home screaming and crying as they watch paint dry so they can convince themselves it's "beautiful" and pulse-pounding excitement.

You're right.

I was once told to be quiet at an MLB game by a stadium attendant because we were being too loud 20 rows up from the home dugout.

True story.

 

[Toro]

Given that baseball - America's national pastime - has roughly six minutes of action, criticism of other sports by Americans will be taken with a really, really big grain of salt.

True, baseball is America's pastime. It helps us pass the days from Super Bowl to Hall of Fame Game and damn those can be some long days!

Immie

I have Sunday Ticket because I like the NFL. It's a great game to DVR because you can watch a game in about 30 minutes.

 

[Montrovant]

Given that baseball - America's national pastime - has roughly six minutes of action, criticism of other sports by Americans will be taken with a really, really big grain of salt.

True, baseball is America's pastime. It helps us pass the days from Super Bowl to Hall of Fame Game and damn those can be some long days!

Immie

I have Sunday Ticket because I like the NFL. It's a great game to DVR because you can watch a game in about 30 minutes.

Football does have a lot of down time. The actual playing is a lot more fun to watch than baseball or soccer, though.

 

[Immanuel]

True, baseball is America's pastime. It helps us pass the days from Super Bowl to Hall of Fame Game and damn those can be some long days!

Immie

I have Sunday Ticket because I like the NFL. It's a great game to DVR because you can watch a game in about 30 minutes.

Football does have a lot of down time. The actual playing is a lot more fun to watch than baseball or soccer, though.

Not as much downtime as baseball, but I have to admit the last few times I went to an NFL game it sure seemed like the game has slowed down a hell of a lot. Used to be action all the time now they seem to have delays for TV Commercials between every damned play. I guess I don't notice it as much when I'm watching the game on TV and doing other things i.e. posting here.

As for DVRing a game... I have never found watching a game that has already been played and that I know the outcome of the game to be worth it. I may as well catch the highlights on ESPN. If you already know who is going to win who cares? It is like reading the final pages of a good book first... why bother reading the rest of the book if you already know the outcome?

Immie

 

[CrusaderFrank]

But millions of Americans DO care about soccer. Those with two-digit IQ's are crazy about American "football," but there are enclaves of soccer-mania in DC, Detroit, all over California, and elsewhere. If you add all these communities together, you would have a fairly populous "country" where soccer is at least as popular as, say, basketball.

I have nephews and neices who were playing soccer as soon as they came out of their mother's womb. They were competing as 4-year olds, going to camps. playing 11 months a year, in both school and traveling leagues. With thousands of other kids doing the same thing. Think they didn't care about soccer?

And Hockey is a different proposition altogether for unrelated reasons. First of all, it requires a lot of money, which excludes a large portion of the population. Second of all, it dramatically favors kids from colder climates, who are on skates at approximately the same time as they start to walk. Kids from Atlanta who want to pursue hockey start playing when they are 12. Kids from Edmonton are playing hockey at 5. Which ones will end up in the NHL?

Soccer will remain the 5th or 6th most popular sport in this country. What do I care if Liverpool beats Tottenham? Probably 1 - 0 b/c no one ever scores?

Our best athletes don't play soccer. Until that happens no one's going to care.

Who's a better athlete - Lionel Messi or Lebron James?

Neymar

 

[Toro]

Messi's better than Neymar.

FTR, James is a shareholder in Liverpool FC.

 

[Unkotare]

I have Sunday Ticket because I like the NFL. It's a great game to DVR because you can watch a game in about 30 minutes.

Football does have a lot of down time. The actual playing is a lot more fun to watch than baseball or soccer, though.

Not as much downtime as baseball, but I have to admit the last few times I went to an NFL game it sure seemed like the game has slowed down a hell of a lot. Used to be action all the time now they seem to have delays for TV Commercials between every damned play. I guess I don't notice it as much when I'm watching the game on TV and doing other things i.e. posting here.

As for DVRing a game... I have never found watching a game that has already been played and that I know the outcome of the game to be worth it. I may as well catch the highlights on ESPN. If you already know who is going to win who cares? It is like reading the final pages of a good book first... why bother reading the rest of the book if you already know the outcome?

Immie

If I can't catch a game I'll sometimes ask the Mrs. to record it for me. Then the hard part becomes getting home without hearing anything about the outcome. It's surprisingly difficult to do sometimes.

 

[longknife]

One of the main reasons why soccer is so popular world wide is simple - all one needs is a ball! It can be played anywhere by everybody.

 

[Montrovant]

Football does have a lot of down time. The actual playing is a lot more fun to watch than baseball or soccer, though.

Not as much downtime as baseball, but I have to admit the last few times I went to an NFL game it sure seemed like the game has slowed down a hell of a lot. Used to be action all the time now they seem to have delays for TV Commercials between every damned play. I guess I don't notice it as much when I'm watching the game on TV and doing other things i.e. posting here.

As for DVRing a game... I have never found watching a game that has already been played and that I know the outcome of the game to be worth it. I may as well catch the highlights on ESPN. If you already know who is going to win who cares? It is like reading the final pages of a good book first... why bother reading the rest of the book if you already know the outcome?

Immie

If I can't catch a game I'll sometimes ask the Mrs. to record it for me. Then the hard part becomes getting home without hearing anything about the outcome. It's surprisingly difficult to do sometimes.

I HATE when someone blabs the outcome of a game to me when I am waiting to watch the recording!

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

But millions of Americans DO care about soccer. Those with two-digit IQ's are crazy about American "football," but there are enclaves of soccer-mania in DC, Detroit, all over California, and elsewhere. If you add all these communities together, you would have a fairly populous "country" where soccer is at least as popular as, say, basketball.

I have nephews and neices who were playing soccer as soon as they came out of their mother's womb. They were competing as 4-year olds, going to camps. playing 11 months a year, in both school and traveling leagues. With thousands of other kids doing the same thing. Think they didn't care about soccer?

And Hockey is a different proposition altogether for unrelated reasons. First of all, it requires a lot of money, which excludes a large portion of the population. Second of all, it dramatically favors kids from colder climates, who are on skates at approximately the same time as they start to walk. Kids from Atlanta who want to pursue hockey start playing when they are 12. Kids from Edmonton are playing hockey at 5. Which ones will end up in the NHL?

Soccer will remain the 5th or 6th most popular sport in this country. What do I care if Liverpool beats Tottenham? Probably 1 - 0 b/c no one ever scores?

Our best athletes don't play soccer. Until that happens no one's going to care.

Who's a better athlete - Lionel Messi or Lebron James?

Neymar

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tezk-XsLiNY]Messi vs Neymar ? The Big Difference - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Immanuel]

Not as much downtime as baseball, but I have to admit the last few times I went to an NFL game it sure seemed like the game has slowed down a hell of a lot. Used to be action all the time now they seem to have delays for TV Commercials between every damned play. I guess I don't notice it as much when I'm watching the game on TV and doing other things i.e. posting here.

As for DVRing a game... I have never found watching a game that has already been played and that I know the outcome of the game to be worth it. I may as well catch the highlights on ESPN. If you already know who is going to win who cares? It is like reading the final pages of a good book first... why bother reading the rest of the book if you already know the outcome?

Immie

If I can't catch a game I'll sometimes ask the Mrs. to record it for me. Then the hard part becomes getting home without hearing anything about the outcome. It's surprisingly difficult to do sometimes.

I HATE when someone blabs the outcome of a game to me when I am waiting to watch the recording!

Hey, just in case you missed last night's game, I'm gonna spoil it for you...






































NOT!

Immie

 

[HUGGY]

Who cares?

Exactly. Just ban the soccor from U S soil. Problem solved.

 

[Merchant_of_Meh]

I'm soccer through and through and have been all my life. I've played it all throughout my school years and I still play with my local club. There are millions of Americans like that who never stopped playing the game after they grew up so this whole nonsense about soccer only being a kid's game is utter bullshit.

Secondly, anyone who thinks that it's just Hispanics who are fans of this games needs to watch a Seattle Sounders home game. Crowd is as white as the driven snow ffs and regularly sells out at 30K+ each game. Hell, look at the crowds of the USA games...they've slowly turned from brown to white, directly correlating with how good this team is getting. Obviously when we play sides like Costa Rica or Honduras or El Salvador, the ratio still turns against us in that regard, but that's slowly turning around.

Thirdly, as a soccer purist, I do not prefer high scoring games so while a 1-0 or 0-0 game seems boring, I find them rather eventful if the teams playing are good enough. There's plenty to look at from a tactical and technical level. Obviously, If we're watching 3rd division Polish soccer and you have scorelines like that...it's boring as ****. Sometimes games are played at a high pace, there's lots of action, but the ball just doesn't go in the net. That doesn't mean the game is boring at all, if anything, it's the exact opposite. What Americans don't like is that there isn't a definite ending to games like that...there isn't a winner or a loser and with Americans, there must always be a winner and a loser, regardless of the sport. It's almost a compulsion.

 

[Unkotare]

What Americans don't like is that there isn't a definite ending to games like that...there isn't a winner or a loser and with Americans, there must always be a winner and a loser, regardless of the sport. It's almost a compulsion.

The reason you have a 'competition' is to determine a winner and a loser. Otherwise don't bother to play. Just watch each other practice and then exchange compliments and pats on the back.

 

[Unkotare]

I'm soccer through and through and have been all my life. I've played it all throughout my school years and I still play with my local club. There are millions of Americans like that who never stopped playing the game after they grew up so this whole nonsense about soccer only being a kid's game is utter bullshit. .

It is just a game for younger kids in the US. By the time they are at the Jr High/High School level almost all boys with any real athletic ability have gravitated to other sports. Not all, but for the most part. Girls are another story.


And the results are accordingly predictable.

 

[Merchant_of_Meh]

What Americans don't like is that there isn't a definite ending to games like that...there isn't a winner or a loser and with Americans, there must always be a winner and a loser, regardless of the sport. It's almost a compulsion.

The reason you have a 'competition' is to determine a winner and a loser. Otherwise don't bother to play. Just watch each other practice and then exchange compliments and pats on the back.

There are games either so horribly contested or, in contrast, so evenly contested, that there simply doesn't deserve to be a winner or a loser based on the run of play because neither side has done enough. If that's true, then draws are exactly the right result and they make sense with soccer.