Every year the media tries to hook the American public on soccer.

Who in this country is going to like a game where you kick a ball back and forth and the score is like 1-0. I was watching some highlights where the head line for the winning team was that they held "them" off with a final score of 0-0.

In the USA soccer is seen as training wheel sport. It is something you grow out of. Too little for tackle football and not enough dexterity for basketball or patience for baseball. And not old enough to drive NASCAR.

Soccer missed the boat in the USA a long time ago. It has nothing to offer us but yawns. And it really is offensive every year when our media tries to convince us there is an interest in it.

 :roll-laugh2: Yeah, not growing. I remember going to soccer games in Orlando where 18 people showed up in 1998 for and last year's championship match for a USL Pro Team (the equivalent to AA baseball, or the ECHL in hockey) having 21,000 fans show up in the same league. Not growing indeed. The top league, MLS is among the top 10 leagues (average) attendance wise in the world.

In the USA soccer is seen as training wheel sport. It is something you grow out of. Too little for tackle football and not enough dexterity for basketball or patience for baseball. And not old enough to drive NASCAR.

Soccer missed the boat in the USA a long time ago. It has nothing to offer us but yawns. And it really is offensive every year when our media tries to convince us there is an interest in it.

The rest of the world don't play those other sports though, so you cannot have a world competition in them.  You are just competing with yourself.

If the USA could win at soccer I am sure the whole country would be behind it.

Football is certainly not boring.  Cricket is boring.

More boring?  Watching men drive around in a circle for hours without a crash and a fireball.

And cricket.

Something else, crossbro:  25 million people watched the U.S. v. Portugal game last Sunday, more than watched the NBA finals, the World Series, or the Stanley Cup finals.

It may not be catching on with the entire American population, but there certainly is more interest in it that you realize.  There is absolutely no reason for you to be "offended" by it.

Almost all the games are decided by 1 goal so fans of any team can say it was close.  "We only lost a by a goal. My team could have won!"  

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In Latin America fútbol is the name.  Some Eurasian countries say futbal.

Every year the media tries to hook the American public on soccer.

But the World Cup happens only once every 4 years.

Who in this country is going to like a game where you kick a ball back and forth and the score is like 1-0. I was watching some highlights where the head line for the winning team was that they held "them" off with a final score of 0-0.

In the USA soccer is seen as training wheel sport. It is something you grow out of. Too little for tackle football and not enough dexterity for basketball or patience for baseball. And not old enough to drive NASCAR.

Soccer missed the boat in the USA a long time ago. It has nothing to offer us but yawns. And it really is offensive every year when our media tries to convince us there is an interest in it.

While I think I understand why you would have this outlook, it seems to me you're being a bit myopic.

I know some people who have done world traveling and have this kind of view, but they tend to be very unappreciative of other cultures and unable to imagine how the world looks through the eyes of someone in a distant land.  Any traveling they have done has resulted in them learning nothing of the foreign language(s) they were immersed in, for example.

Take your pick of the best 11 NFL players in America and put them on the soccer field with say the Brazilian team and the NFL would be dead by halftime.  They would be literally outclassed.

Quote from: crossbro

In the USA soccer is seen as training wheel sport. It is something you grow out of. Too little for tackle football and not enough dexterity for basketball or patience for baseball. And not old enough to drive NASCAR.

Soccer missed the boat in the USA a long time ago. It has nothing to offer us but yawns. And it really is offensive every year when our media tries to convince us there is an interest in it.

The rest of the world don't play those other sports though, so you cannot have a world competition in them.  You are just competing with yourself.

If the USA could win at soccer I am sure the whole country would be behind it.

Football is certainly not boring.  Cricket is boring.

All over the world, Fútbol means the game we call "soccer," in America.  And it's big business.  In the current World Cup playoffs (over 30 countries and 200 languages), most of the ads have something to do with a soccerball or a goalie net or one of the prominent players on the field.

I know a man from Portugal whose first exposure to American football left him with this reaction:

"Why is this game popular in America, when the players wear Motocross body armor, act like it's rugby, carry a pointed ball around in their hands, and call it "football?"  

Soccer is like the chess of sports.  Some of the most exciting games I've ever seen ended up 0-0 or 1-0.  You just have to know what you're looking at.  Baseball fans realize that this can be true also in baseball; that you can have great games ending up 1-0.  Americans like the high-scoring, etc. because they don't have the required patience and require constant stimulation.  Soccer is intellectually stimulating.  It's also the best sport for conditioning and footwork.  Football for younger kids is useless; they stand around in pads doing next to nothing.

I saw the Portugal vs. USA game on Sunday afternoon, and it was a hoot!  Portugal scored in the first 5 minutes on somewhat of a fluke (the USA goalie had slipped on his feet and they got the ball in over his head).  For the entire first half the USA offense was in chaos.  The best plays were in the second half, and some of the finest athletics went down in the last 10 minutes.  Portugal was on thin ice until the final 40 seconds of 5 minutes overtime, when they made a stellar goal after a second USA blunder.  Some Portuguese nationals told me this soccer team is going to face serious embarrassment when they go home for even letting the Americans come close to winning.  The final score was 2-2.  Both teams played extremely well, IMHO.

Something else, crossbro:  25 million people watched the U.S. v. Portugal game last Sunday, more than watched the NBA finals, the World Series, or the Stanley Cup finals.

It may not be catching on with the entire American population, but there certainly is more interest in it that you realize.  There is absolutely no reason for you to be "offended" by it.

It seems to me that the reluctance to enjoy watching soccer has more to do with racism, sad to say.  The rest of the world looks at Americans as very selfish, egocentric, narrow-minded and vulgar.  The behavior of football, baseball, basketball and hockey players is rather scandalous in their eyes.  In contrast, soccer players exhibit far more sportsmanship both on the field and off.  When the game's over they often times trade jerseys with the other team, as a sign of good will and friendship.  When a player falls on the field, the one who knocked him down often times turns around to help him back up onto his feet.  Can you imagine that in football or baseball?  

The rest of the world sees American sports fans as people who don't get out much.  Rather, they sit in their easy chairs, drinking beer and eating pretzels.  Or nachos.  Or pigs-in-blankets.  




The athletes who are the best at soccer don't drink alcohol.  With any of that in your system you won't be able to keep running over a 100 yard field for two and a half hours with one short break. (No halftime marching band or cheerleaders!)  Most of them are vegetarians or at least keep to a very strict diet of bare essentials and not too much fat.  Red meat is a no-no.  It's a whole different way of life compared to American football, where physical heaviness is an asset on the field but a detriment in retirement.

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Almost all the games are decided by 1 goal so fans of any team can say it was close.  "We only lost a by a goal. My team could have won!"  

The thing that strikes me right off the top is how soccer plays keep losing the ball.

The play for a given team goes from offense to defense and back to offense several times a minute, sometimes as many as 10 reversals in 5 seconds, which can happen up against the boundary line near the corner of the field.  So much for priority seating at the 50 yard line!  How the players can keep up with it is a real puzzlement.

In football, such reversals can happen, but it's not a constant occurrence.  Some football games have no play reversal at all, and the most it usually happens is three or four times in the whole game, such games being real "cliffhangers."  And most noteworthy is, when it does happen, it's very stimulating for the fans.  

Then there's soccer.  

In an average minute (there are 90 minutes in a game) the control of the ball changes direction two or three times.  Sometimes it changes every 5 seconds, for a total of 12 times a minute.  I haven't seen any games where this rate goes on continuously for all 90 minutes, though.  

(That would be 1,080 times in one game, compared to football's what, ten?)

But overall, it seems reasonable to say twice a minute average, which means generally speaking, 180 times per game the ball changes direction 180 degrees.  That's easy to remember, no?  

So then, on this basis alone, soccer is 45 times more stimulating than football.

But like Ladislaus says, you need to understand the game.   ("You just have to know what you're looking at.")

Whether a point is scored or not, the near occurrence of a point being scored can be pretty exciting.  In Sunday's EEUU/Portugal game, the American goalie protected the goal from two very dangerously near misses in less than 2 seconds.  That's virtually impossible in baseball and practically unheard of in football.  It does happen in hockey and basketball, though.  The contortions he had to make to keep that ball out of the net would have put you or me into the hospital, no question.

It's really amazing to me to see the soccer goalie come running out into the field, leaving the goal unprotected 20 or more meters behind him, to charge into a group of two or more opponents head on while they're looking backwards over their shoulder because the ball is being passed to them from behind.  His only advantage (besides the fact that his opponents might not notice that he's coming) is that he can grab the ball with his hands and then they can't touch him, lest a foul.  But any kind of fumble and he's sure to give up a goal.  So it would seem to be a serious gamble.  

Any way you slice it, it makes for more excitement from the spectator's point of view.

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