First of all I'd like to say that I am a big fan of American Football, I watch the Texans all the time. Even when they are 2-13. I'm anticipating the Texas vs. USC title game. I don't knock Football. However, everytime I hear people criticize soccer, the first argument is that there is so little scoring. First of all, soccer and football have equivalent scoring. If you forget about field goals, extra point kicks, safeties, and 2 point convertions, then the scoring is about the same. Usually a normal Football score is 24 to 17. That breaks down to 3 to 2 touchdowns! Inflating the score with 2 field goals, and 5 extra points. Soccer scores are typically 2-1. And then you have to realize that the soccer players are going for the whole game, and if they have to sit, they can't come back. Without time outs. So it's really all psychological. If you hate soccer, don't knock the scoring, because it's usually equivalent. Look for something else. (if you want scoring, don't forget that penaly kicks usually provide plenty of goals). But everyone and their brother criticizes penalty kicks!!
I like a lot of low scoring games. Baseball though is probably my favorite. I'm not the biggest football fan, but I love watching a few teams play.
I think soccer is just aggrevating to watch. They advance the ball for a bit then it gets intercepted or they kick it out of bounds. This goes on for a long time. It is more like both teams just really suck and neither can advance the ball worth half a ****. American Football is exciting to me because of the immense chess game that ensues. Sure, a great defensive struggle isn't exactly a sight to behold, but it still atests to superior game-planning by opposing coaches. Strategy and preparation along with hours and hours of intense practice... all leading up to a game that can be decided by one miscue in any facet. So what if they're running around the entire game? There are eventually breaks. Playing Linebacker in one NFL game is equivilent to being in an automobile accident, it takes a great deal of endurance not to succumb to cramps and the beating the body takes. Soccer is a hard game to play, I don't doubt that. I just find it particularly dull as a spectator sport.
I suck in playing soccer player. I'd always play goal keeper up until I played in a park in Houston against some guys that were from Latin America. That's the last time I played because, Heck I'm never trying to stop a soccer ball in my life, that thing almost killed me (I still have the bruises on my forearem). Dribbling the ball in Soccer is annoying, because if you don't know what you're doing, someone will take the ball away from you in seconds. And don't think about making a pass because, if you don't have years of experience, you won't be able to place the approporiate touch necessary to make the effective pass. Contrary to what a lot of people think about soccer, not everyone on the field is there to score goals. This task is usually left to 3 or 4 guys per team. Just to keep the ball an advance that ball is tough. Everyone on the field is loaded with talent. Soccer is a chess match as well. You have different types of games based on countries. In England, Germany,and Brazil you have an attacking style that gets great deals of loyal fans. In Spain, Italy, and in Mexico you have a game that relies more on ball control. You can't watch one game, and think that all soccer is like that one you are watching. Some of those game in England and Spain are truly amazing to watch. That is why people go nuts over the World cup, you have so many different soccer philosophy's going against each other. And cramping in Soccer games is a no brainer. Every game, they cramp througout the game. Controling the ball then, going full steam ahead, and stoping on a dime requires a fitness usually equivalent of NFL position players and NBA players. "The best reason I like Soccer is that anyone can play it, unlike Football and basketball where you have to be a certain size to be successful." I'm Mexican, and I'm 6 feet tall, but most of my cousins and family members are 5'6" and 5'8". Soccer gives them an opportunity to compete agaisnt the world if they are good. Mugsy Bogues is probably the best player to have ever played the NBA. He was 5'3" and he played for a long time. And the only reason people remember him is because of his height. How many players have there been who was a tad bit worse that him, but they never made it becuse they were too short. Bogues was probably better than Michael Jordan, but he was playing with giants. Soccer is a fair sport to all people. Maradon was like 5'6" (from what I recall, I could be wrong on the precise height) or something, and he was the best player in the world for years!!!!
Great analysis Zacetacas. I never thought about it that way. I can now use it in my aresenal against the infidels of soccer.
I think the problem is that the MLS sucks. If Americans were exposed to elite level soccer such as Ronaldo, Henry, VAn Nistelrooy, Owen, etc etc then it might be a little different. I was like the majority. I thought soccer was boring and slow, but I remember the cinderella run the US put in the world cup 2002 and I started paying a little more attention to soccer, but mainly on the US level (MLS). During my first year of college thsi guy in my dorm got the whole hall into FIFA 2004 on ps2. We'd seriously sit around all day and skip class to play this game. People who didnt even like soccer would start putting money on games -- it was pretty much like Madden to us. But anyways, I think the problem is that Americans dont have an elite superstar player to latch onto. I think if you guys sat down and watched an elite club or an elite country play soccer (world cup 2006 in germany), you'd realize some of the stuff those strikers pull is jaw dropping. The skill level in the MLS isnt the best. It's like trying to get someone in Europe into baseball by taking them to a Round Rock game you know? American interest in soccer isnt going to happen until the competition in the MLS gets better.
That is true...try watching the English Premier League or La Liga from Spain, great soccer. Especially teams like Barcelona who are playing great soccer now anchored by players like Ronaldinho and Eto.
You lost me at that argument. Just because you are shorter, doesnt make you better than everybody skills wise. In that case. You're telling me that Manute Bol was good, Gheorge Mureseaun (sp), and Shawn Bradley were good. Bogues better than Michael Jordan. Man, please. You could have said, he was short, but he played well at 5' 3'' because he could move well, and get by people, and crap like that, but you're telling me, pound for pound, that Bogues is better than Jordan. That's Bogues. get it? hahah. Bad ass. I gotta slap me another tomahawk on my keyboard.
Point well taken Kam. However, I'll try another ill faded atempt of a retorical question. Having the same physical attributes except height, If Michael Jordan was 5'3", would he have played in the NBA? Contrary, if Mugsy Bogues was 6'6", there is no telling how much better he could have been. I hope MJ would have, because his skills were so good; but the championship would not have been there. Kind of like Iverson, if Iverson were 6'6" he'd be another version of MJ. My entire point is, how many players out have better basketball skills than people who are in the NBA? All of that gets lost in height when you get to a certain level. Usually height wins out in the NBA; and when height is no longer a factor, the individual skills seperates the all stars from the stiffs. I'm not proposing height restrictions. I really enjoy watching elite level basketball. It just so happens that when your genetics make you taller, you have certain ADVANTAGES, than the rest of us. And for you to superceed that, your skill levels have to be at the highest level possible. NOW BACK TO SOCCER!!!!! A sport that embraces at the elite level anyone in the world who top out thier own athletic potential.
umm baseball is not meant to be a low scoring affair... it's meant to be a smashfest. it's only a low scoring when the team's offenses suck, baseball is all about the 500ft bombs(with one hand). I want each score to be in double figures by the 3rd, or Im getting pissed. That is all.
Disagree. Some of the best baseball games I have ever witnessed were dueling pitchers going 9 innings in a scoreless game. I don't know about you, but pitching, to me, IS what's most intriguing and fun about baseball. There's nothing like watching great pitching. But see, I am a much deeper person than you are, I understand the intrinsic value of baseball and soccer and other similarilyscoring-challenged sports. You're a shallow person and even worse you don't understand sports at all. Now, having said that, what do you have to say Potter?
Soccer is boring. It's fun to play but boring to watch. I never saw it played in person...but on TV, it is certainly boring to watch.
For the life of me I can't understand how people can say soccer is boring but can seriously say baseball, golf and nascar are sooooooo amazingly fun to watch. Scoring is only a small part of soccer. There are so many tactical things that go into the course of a game that most people (mostly americans) know nothing about. The game isn't about about 22 players running around on the field trying chasing a ball. Every team has their style of play with different line formations such as 4-4-2 (4 defense 4 midfielders 2 forwards), 3-5-2, 5-4-1 and variations to this with each player serving a role. Some teams attack through build up from the midfield while other do it from the sidelines and cross it in. There are other battles that occur between great defensive players and great forwards, great midfielders controlling the flow the game (Zidane is a perfect example). There are plays, like give and goes, thru balls, players making runs to get open through the defense, lob passes, control of the ball, driblling, shots, fouling. There are so many little things that occur within a game that the common person watching can't understand unless they truly watch it. I hate when ignorant people (and there are quite a few here at clutchfans) hate on soccer and say it is boring but its all good because they are missing out on watching the greatest sport in the world and some of the best worldclass athletes out there.
I find EPL and UEFA to be awesome. I find MLS to be agonizingly ho-hum, I cannot sit through a gamel. Atmosphere (and seeing the best players play) goes a long way.
That is a super accurate description of the game. Regarding the people who knock soccer, I don't think it's their fault. People knock it because that's what they heard when they were growing up "It's a sissy sport". In this country when I was growing up in gym class, it was common knowledge that the girls played Soccer (refer to the dominance of the women in the FIFA) and the guys on the other hand played football or basketball. Anyone can play (H.O.R.S.E )shoot a basketball without learning to dribble, but nobody can play soccer without learning to dribble first (you'd have to be a r****d to enjoy it). People don't like feeling like r****ds, therefore they learn to loath the sport. And attack IT. I have a feeling most coaches who teach gym in this country don't even have any idea how to effectively dribble a ball or make an effective pass. Soccer just hasn't been taught to American of the 70's or 80's decades. And everyone here who's played it has gotten fustrated by the sport without proper guidance. But, be fore warned, if your genetics dictate that you are somewhere between 5'5" and 6'0", your children will have the best opportunity at sucess playing soccer. Not Basketball, Football, or even baseball (where the shortest players are usually like 5'11") Support your kids and let them gain confidence in something they might be able to become great (perphaps a millionaire some day). Don't generalize the sport because you never know if you are hurting those you love most and their dreams of being great. My whole point of this thread is for people who don't enjoy is just not to watch it. Don't demean it to justify your ignorance of it (ignorance is simply meant as lack of knowledge of the sport).
I don't like succor, not because there is a lack of scoring, but because I don't find it entertaining. I don't care that they play for the whole game without a break (which is BS by the way, but I won't address that in this post). I don't care how skilled some players are. To me, it is a boring sport. I don't understand how people can watch golf or NASCAR either, a bunch of old dudes walking around hitting a little ball with sticks, oooh. 50 Rednecks driving around an oval, ahhh. Might as well watch bowling, there is strategy, and the people are amazingly skilled, also, there is tons of scoring. Bleh.
