Our Never-Ending "Soccer" Embarrassment

[rightwinger]

Sports are generational. At one time, baseball was the biggest sport in America. In the 80's and 90's, basketball was king. Now, football has taken over.

Will hockey and soccer ever be king? Not any time soon. But, they're both capable of making serious in roads. More and more kids are playing youth soccer. And they have US Soccer, EPL and MLS, NWSL on TV while they do so. These things were not so even a generation ago.

I follow NBA and NFL. But we take it for granted that they'll always be top of the heap. They won't. There will always be shifts. The question is not if, but how long.

I heard the same arguments in the 70s. North American Soccer League, Pele was going to transform the sports. Millions of kids were in soccer leagues and would be lifelong fans.

It never happened

I heard the same thing when the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup. Millions of little girls were soccer fans. Women's soccer was going to take off

It never happened

Throwing women's soccer into the equation is like me bringing up WNBA or the lingirie bowl. It just doesn't belong.

And perhaps the arguments you heard in the 70s rang true. The US made the world cup by 90 and hosted it by 94. It's been growing ever since.

No it hasn't

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

...for you.

Talk about illogical....

Yea and everyone else who lives in reality too.

Different people have different skills. Soccer is not going to be the most challenging sport for everyone.

How much you play and the competition are also going to play a factor in the difficulty.

I was talking from a fitness perspective, not a skill perspective. Skills are mainly learned anyways.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Yea and everyone else who lives in reality too.

Different people have different skills. Soccer is not going to be the most challenging sport for everyone.

How much you play and the competition are also going to play a factor in the difficulty.

I was talking from a fitness perspective, not a skill perspective. Skills are mainly learned anyways.

That's why the last WCQ got the highest WCQ rating ever?

 

[Unkotare]

I think, however, you may be mistaking endurance as the only form of fitness and skill.

I'd bet good money that any decent Div.1 lineman, no matter how large, could outrun our soccer-obsessed friend there over 10 yards. Then if he tried to line up against him in a game, well, no need to go into all the macabre details of what would happen to him.

And while he might be oh-so-proud of himself for jogging around after a ball for an hour and a half, plunk him in a pool to swim 1500m competitively and I have no doubt he'd be reassessing his "fitness" level before he got halfway through.

Put him on a wrestling mat with even a good high school wrestler and he'd be gasping desperately for air in under three minutes.

Etc., etc. ... you get the idea.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I think, however, you may be mistaking endurance as the only form of fitness and skill.

I'd bet good money that any decent Div.1 lineman, no matter how large, could outrun our soccer-obsessed friend there over 10 yards. Then if he tried to line up against him in a game, well, no need to go into all the macabre details of what would happen to him.

And while he might be oh-so-proud of himself for jogging around after a ball for an hour and a half, plunk him in a pool to swim 1500m competitively and I have no doubt he'd be reassessing his "fitness" level before he got halfway through.

Put him on a wrestling mat with even a good high school wrestler and he'd be gasping desperately for air in under three minutes.

Etc., etc. ... you get the idea.

You are seriously blabbering. And plenty of division one linemen are total fat asses, so you know.

 

[Unkotare]

I think, however, you may be mistaking endurance as the only form of fitness and skill.

I'd bet good money that any decent Div.1 lineman, no matter how large, could outrun our soccer-obsessed friend there over 10 yards. Then if he tried to line up against him in a game, well, no need to go into all the macabre details of what would happen to him.

And while he might be oh-so-proud of himself for jogging around after a ball for an hour and a half, plunk him in a pool to swim 1500m competitively and I have no doubt he'd be reassessing his "fitness" level before he got halfway through.

Put him on a wrestling mat with even a good high school wrestler and he'd be gasping desperately for air in under three minutes.

Etc., etc. ... you get the idea.

You are seriously blabbering. And plenty of division one linemen are total fat asses, so you know.

Fat ass or not, over ten yards they'd smoke you. If you are "seriously" honest with yourself you'll admit that all three examples I provided (and of course there are many more) are true.

 

[Immanuel]

Small point: Soccer (football) is NOT a "great game."

No game that prohibits the use of the players' hands can possibly be a great game. Soccer focuses on the limbs and appendages that are LEAST capable of doing great things (because they must also transport the players during play).

A reasonably-athletic ten-year old can THROW a ball much more accurately than the best soccer player in the world can kick it.

For this reason alone, it is a stupid game.

THIS is a perfect example of how anti-soccer propaganda in the sports media works upon the typical American dumb ass. He's just parroting idiots like Jim Rome. Soccer is a game of great skill, fitness and strategy. Most the out of shape gimps who criticize soccer should go try playing a serious pick-up game of soccer sometime. Then they'll find a real respect for the game when their gasping on fumes.

That does not change the fact that Soccer is an extremely boring "spectator sport". There are a lot of sports that are a lot of fun to play but boring as hell to watch and soccer happens to be one of those. Ninety minutes of running the ball up and down the field with almost no scoring at all, and that is if there is even a goal scored. If you are not playing, you may as well be napping. If you really are interested, you can catch the 3.6 seconds of scoring in the game on ESPN's Sportscenter.

I will grant you that Soccer is a hell of a lot of fun to play, but it simply is nothing to watch.

Immie

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I'd bet good money that any decent Div.1 lineman, no matter how large, could outrun our soccer-obsessed friend there over 10 yards. Then if he tried to line up against him in a game, well, no need to go into all the macabre details of what would happen to him.

And while he might be oh-so-proud of himself for jogging around after a ball for an hour and a half, plunk him in a pool to swim 1500m competitively and I have no doubt he'd be reassessing his "fitness" level before he got halfway through.

Put him on a wrestling mat with even a good high school wrestler and he'd be gasping desperately for air in under three minutes.

Etc., etc. ... you get the idea.

You are seriously blabbering. And plenty of division one linemen are total fat asses, so you know.

Fat ass or not, over ten yards they'd smoke you. If you are "seriously" honest with yourself you'll admit that all three examples I provided (and of course there are many more) are true.

Yea, cos you know the first thing about my fitness level.....You should try a little more of that serious honesty that you're promoting.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Small point: Soccer (football) is NOT a "great game."

No game that prohibits the use of the players' hands can possibly be a great game. Soccer focuses on the limbs and appendages that are LEAST capable of doing great things (because they must also transport the players during play).

A reasonably-athletic ten-year old can THROW a ball much more accurately than the best soccer player in the world can kick it.

For this reason alone, it is a stupid game.

THIS is a perfect example of how anti-soccer propaganda in the sports media works upon the typical American dumb ass. He's just parroting idiots like Jim Rome. Soccer is a game of great skill, fitness and strategy. Most the out of shape gimps who criticize soccer should go try playing a serious pick-up game of soccer sometime. Then they'll find a real respect for the game when their gasping on fumes.

That does not change the fact that Soccer is an extremely boring "spectator sport". There are a lot of sports that are a lot of fun to play but boring as hell to watch and soccer happens to be one of those. Ninety minutes of running the ball up and down the field with almost no scoring at all, and that is if there is even a goal scored. If you are not playing, you may as well be napping. If you really are interested, you can catch the 3.6 seconds of scoring in the game on ESPN's Sportscenter.

I will grant you that Soccer is a hell of a lot of fun to play, but it simply is nothing to watch.

Immie

Poll after poll has shown that people like watching a good pitching dual to a homerun fest. You don't think that throwing a ball through hoop doesn't get monotonous? Any serious sports fan will tell you that it's about the intricacies of any sport that make it truly mesmerizing.

But, sure; if we're talking about games for the typical unenlightened dumbass, maybe soccer is not going to be the sport of choice. Listen to the differences in soccer anouncers and basketball announcers. It's laughable, the chasm of sophistication.

 

[Pop23]

THIS is a perfect example of how anti-soccer propaganda in the sports media works upon the typical American dumb ass. He's just parroting idiots like Jim Rome. Soccer is a game of great skill, fitness and strategy. Most the out of shape gimps who criticize soccer should go try playing a serious pick-up game of soccer sometime. Then they'll find a real respect for the game when their gasping on fumes.

That does not change the fact that Soccer is an extremely boring "spectator sport". There are a lot of sports that are a lot of fun to play but boring as hell to watch and soccer happens to be one of those. Ninety minutes of running the ball up and down the field with almost no scoring at all, and that is if there is even a goal scored. If you are not playing, you may as well be napping. If you really are interested, you can catch the 3.6 seconds of scoring in the game on ESPN's Sportscenter.

I will grant you that Soccer is a hell of a lot of fun to play, but it simply is nothing to watch.

Immie

Poll after poll has shown that people like watching a good pitching dual to a homerun fest. You don't think that throwing a ball through hoop doesn't get monotonous? Any serious sports fan will tell you that it's about the intricacies of any sport that make it truly mesmerizing.

But, sure; if we're talking about games for the typical unenlightened dumbass, maybe soccer is not going to be the sport of choice. Listen to the differences in soccer anouncers and basketball announcers. It's laughable, the chasm of sophistication.

Chess anyone?

 

[Toro]

The media has tried to hype soccer and it hasn't caught on. It is not the medias fault. They had full World Cup coverage and the US gave a collective yawn.

It's just not our sport

Sports are generational. At one time, baseball was the biggest sport in America. In the 80's and 90's, basketball was king. Now, football has taken over.

Will hockey and soccer ever be king? Not any time soon. But, they're both capable of making serious in roads. More and more kids are playing youth soccer. And they have US Soccer, EPL and MLS, NWSL on TV while they do so. These things were not so even a generation ago.

I follow NBA and NFL. But we take it for granted that they'll always be top of the heap. They won't. There will always be shifts. The question is not if, but how long.

I heard the same arguments in the 70s. North American Soccer League, Pele was going to transform the sports. Millions of kids were in soccer leagues and would be lifelong fans.

It never happened

I heard the same thing when the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup. Millions of little girls were soccer fans. Women's soccer was going to take off

It never happened

It is happening right now.

I'm not arguing whether or not you or anyone likes the sport. That's a personal preference and I totally respect that. I'm just looking at the raw numbers. Exactly $0 was spent on full-time professional soccer in the US a generation ago. Today MLS generates close to $400 million a year. The World Cup was sold for $425 million. NBC spent $100 million to start broadcasting English Premiership matches over the next few years. Think about that. Except for the Olympics, I can't think of any sporting event outside of the United States for which a US network shelled out that much cash for the broadcast rights. That's serious money for something that apparently isn't catching on.

 

[Unkotare]

You are seriously blabbering. And plenty of division one linemen are total fat asses, so you know.

Fat ass or not, over ten yards they'd smoke you. If you are "seriously" honest with yourself you'll admit that all three examples I provided (and of course there are many more) are true.

Yea, cos you know the first thing about my fitness level.....

I know the first thing about the fitness level of highly trained athletes. I'm very confident about my estimation.

 

[Unkotare]

Listen to the differences in soccer anouncers and basketball announcers. It's laughable, the chasm of sophistication.

"Sophistication"


What a pretentious douchebag.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Listen to the differences in soccer anouncers and basketball announcers. It's laughable, the chasm of sophistication.

"Sophistication"

What a pretentious douchebag.

You're the last person that should be objecting to pretension.

Fat ass or not, over ten yards they'd smoke you. If you are "seriously" honest with yourself you'll admit that all three examples I provided (and of course there are many more) are true.

Yea, cos you know the first thing about my fitness level.....

I know the first thing about the fitness level of highly trained athletes. I'm very confident about my estimation.

You shouldn't be. Most 270 lb plus linemen have no wheels to speak of; DUMB ASS.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Sports are generational. At one time, baseball was the biggest sport in America. In the 80's and 90's, basketball was king. Now, football has taken over.

Will hockey and soccer ever be king? Not any time soon. But, they're both capable of making serious in roads. More and more kids are playing youth soccer. And they have US Soccer, EPL and MLS, NWSL on TV while they do so. These things were not so even a generation ago.

I follow NBA and NFL. But we take it for granted that they'll always be top of the heap. They won't. There will always be shifts. The question is not if, but how long.

I heard the same arguments in the 70s. North American Soccer League, Pele was going to transform the sports. Millions of kids were in soccer leagues and would be lifelong fans.

It never happened

I heard the same thing when the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup. Millions of little girls were soccer fans. Women's soccer was going to take off

It never happened

It is happening right now.

I'm not arguing whether or not you or anyone likes the sport. That's a personal preference and I totally respect that. I'm just looking at the raw numbers. Exactly $0 was spent on full-time professional soccer in the US a generation ago. Today MLS generates close to $400 million a year. The World Cup was sold for $425 million. NBC spent $100 million to start broadcasting English Premiership matches over the next few years. Think about that. Except for the Olympics, I can't think of any sporting event outside of the United States for which a US network shelled out that much cash for the broadcast rights. That's serious money for something that apparently isn't catching on.

Exactly what I've been saying. I'd still classify soccer as something of a niche market; world cup aside. But, there's no denying the upward trend of soccer in America.

 

[Montrovant]

Sports are generational. At one time, baseball was the biggest sport in America. In the 80's and 90's, basketball was king. Now, football has taken over.

Will hockey and soccer ever be king? Not any time soon. But, they're both capable of making serious in roads. More and more kids are playing youth soccer. And they have US Soccer, EPL and MLS, NWSL on TV while they do so. These things were not so even a generation ago.

I follow NBA and NFL. But we take it for granted that they'll always be top of the heap. They won't. There will always be shifts. The question is not if, but how long.

I heard the same arguments in the 70s. North American Soccer League, Pele was going to transform the sports. Millions of kids were in soccer leagues and would be lifelong fans.

It never happened

I heard the same thing when the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup. Millions of little girls were soccer fans. Women's soccer was going to take off

It never happened

It is happening right now.

I'm not arguing whether or not you or anyone likes the sport. That's a personal preference and I totally respect that. I'm just looking at the raw numbers. Exactly $0 was spent on full-time professional soccer in the US a generation ago. Today MLS generates close to $400 million a year. The World Cup was sold for $425 million. NBC spent $100 million to start broadcasting English Premiership matches over the next few years. Think about that. Except for the Olympics, I can't think of any sporting event outside of the United States for which a US network shelled out that much cash for the broadcast rights. That's serious money for something that apparently isn't catching on.

What other sporting event outside the US would even be available? Cricket? Rugby?

Soccer is far and away the most popular spectator sport worldwide, of course it will command the most money to broadcast (outside of US sports).

On the other hand, compare that to the billions in tv rights for the NFL. Hell, even the NHL gets something like $200 million a year, and they have been seemingly in decline for years (damn you lockouts!).

Soccer certainly has some popularity, and changes in the makeup of our population may increase that, but for now it's still a bit of a fringe sport in the US.

 

[Montrovant]

Different people have different skills. Soccer is not going to be the most challenging sport for everyone.

How much you play and the competition are also going to play a factor in the difficulty.

I was talking from a fitness perspective, not a skill perspective. Skills are mainly learned anyways.

That's why the last WCQ got the highest WCQ rating ever?

Is there a particular reason you are responding to your own post with a question?

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I heard the same arguments in the 70s. North American Soccer League, Pele was going to transform the sports. Millions of kids were in soccer leagues and would be lifelong fans.

It never happened

I heard the same thing when the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup. Millions of little girls were soccer fans. Women's soccer was going to take off

It never happened

Throwing women's soccer into the equation is like me bringing up WNBA or the lingirie bowl. It just doesn't belong.

And perhaps the arguments you heard in the 70s rang true. The US made the world cup by 90 and hosted it by 94. It's been growing ever since.

No it hasn't

There ya go.

That's why the last WCQ got the highest WCQ rating ever?

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I heard the same arguments in the 70s. North American Soccer League, Pele was going to transform the sports. Millions of kids were in soccer leagues and would be lifelong fans.

It never happened

I heard the same thing when the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup. Millions of little girls were soccer fans. Women's soccer was going to take off

It never happened

It is happening right now.

I'm not arguing whether or not you or anyone likes the sport. That's a personal preference and I totally respect that. I'm just looking at the raw numbers. Exactly $0 was spent on full-time professional soccer in the US a generation ago. Today MLS generates close to $400 million a year. The World Cup was sold for $425 million. NBC spent $100 million to start broadcasting English Premiership matches over the next few years. Think about that. Except for the Olympics, I can't think of any sporting event outside of the United States for which a US network shelled out that much cash for the broadcast rights. That's serious money for something that apparently isn't catching on.

What other sporting event outside the US would even be available? Cricket? Rugby?

Soccer is far and away the most popular spectator sport worldwide, of course it will command the most money to broadcast (outside of US sports).

On the other hand, compare that to the billions in tv rights for the NFL. Hell, even the NHL gets something like $200 million a year, and they have been seemingly in decline for years (damn you lockouts!).

Soccer certainly has some popularity, and changes in the makeup of our population may increase that, but for now it's still a bit of a fringe sport in the US.

Those are American domestic contracts. Other countries have their own networks.

 

[Unkotare]

Most 270 lb plus linemen have no wheels to speak of; DUMB ASS.

Most elite linemen have extremely explosive speed over very short distances. You'd know that if you ever played a real sport, dumbass.