The majority of people who said they tried to watch it, said they tried to watch World Cup or MLS. I think they may see it differently if they take in a Champions League match or a clash between the two top teams in the EPL (like the Man U-Liverpool match the other day). It's the same reason I just can't get into college basketball. The talent level just doesn't do it for me. Oh yeah and the stats thing that someone else mentioned is a really good point.
Most if not all posts in this thread only have one point of view. You either love soccer or you don't. The posts reflect it and the reasons for liking or disliking soccer / football are mostly limited to one's experience. I happen to grow up watching and playing soccer a little and I loved it. When I came to the US, for several years I kept looking for soccer games in TV to watch (there weren't many) and I could not understand football at all. Then I learnt more about football, started to watch it a little, I ended up a fan of the sports, started to follow it religiously. I knew everything and everyone in football (started with the Oilers' years, Dan Pastorini, Earl Campbell ...) and I gave up on soccer for many years. In fact, for a time, I could not sit and watch a complete soccer game. It's now come back full circle, my daughter plays soccer, I play with her and I start to watch soccer again and I can not get enough of it. I think, before you knock something, you ought to experience it earnessly. Don't go in with a pre-conceived notion to find faults with it and you might, just might, find out why billions of other people thoroughly enjoy that sport.
I skipped a few pages so I hope a similar post hasn't been made.... Anyway, Americans DO like soccer. I Don't think the MLS should worry about converting non-soccer fans to MLS fans, but instead target the millions of soccer fans already here. There are tons of latinos and euros in this country that are soccer fans, but just not of the MLS. They follow the leagues they grew up supporting. Fans have filled up Reliant Stadium on several occasions for soccer events, so the fans are here. Soccer will continue to grow in popularity, but not by converting current non-fans. It will be all those kids who chose to support the Houston Dynamo instead of of their parent's Club from another league.
Soccer does have a playoff system. UEFA Cup, Champions League and every country has their own playoff tourney: Coppa Italia, Copa del Rey and FA Cup. The FA Cup Final is the Superbowl of English football. The winner might not happen to be league champion, but that trophy carries considerbale prestige. Dude you have to watch more soccer. The pitch, the stadium and the players are all have some sort of advertising on them. Imagine Yao Ming's jersey full of Taco Cabana, Toyota, Bluebell, and Peta patches all over it and that is what almost every professional soccer palyer in the world wears. Well not those brands, but you get the picture.
http://rafer.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=164745 This is one reason I don't like soccer. What other sport gets fans (and now players) so riled up to kill?!
So this is not as beautiful as a fast break play in basketball? The only way one can not see the beauty of this goal below by Diego Maradona is if you are an ignorant soccer hater. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zg3uS4ZBHtM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zg3uS4ZBHtM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> I see a 5'5 player, dribbling in a 60 meter, 10-second dash towards the goal, leaving behind five English outfield players, performing intricate moves that are just as complicated as your fast break example.
But his last sentence was very appropriate. The "non-soccer" fan sees little more than a bunch of guys running around kicking a ball. There is beauty and intricacies in all of that movement and if non-fans understood that there is generally a scripted method to the madness, they would appreciate the game more.
I love great saves: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oEUiKTtR5SM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oEUiKTtR5SM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> And goals like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPgDHgEmDZE
But don't you agree that it would be worthwhile on a telecast for the announcers to use the telestrator to show how a team ran a particular play? All of the movement, the "give and go", running an opposing player into a legal "pick", setting up a triangle to move the ball into scoring position can somewhat correlate to basketball and Americanized sports. I don't recall ever seeing the announcers diagram particular plays and it seems it would be a worthwhile thing to do.
Nice clip, there. Sure - that was every bit as exciting as a fast break play in basketball - and a really good one at that. But a basketball game will have SEVERAL of those in one game. In soccer, that'll happen once or twice a season. Imagine a basketball game where there are less than 25 attempts to score by each team, and about 98% of those scoring attempts fail, resulting in a final score of 1 - 0. How utterly crappy would that be? Also, basketball (as long as you're making the comparison) has fast breaks, as well as strategic plays that result in a score, dunks, layups, jumpshots and various other ways in which scoring occurs frequently and beautifully several times in one game. Soccer has very very few of those in one game. yawn. No thanks. AND.... You soccer nuts are either (1) trying to convince people that soccer is fantastic... which you can just give up on. It won't happen. If we don't like it, we don't like it. or (2) bashing people who explain why they don't like it. Look - the thread was started to ask Americans why they don't like soccer. What kinds of responses are you expecting? Quit getting so upset about it - not everybody in the world has to the like the same things you do. Stop complaining and go enjoy your soccer game.
Some funny goals: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ArGtPvyTS68&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ArGtPvyTS68&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
You are utterly hopeless. You told soccer nuts not to convince non-soccer people that soccer is fantastic and not bash people who explain why they didn't like it and ... you turned around and do the same thing, you tried to convince soccer people why soccer is so crappy and bash them for believing so ... I know old peole like you are set in your way and won't change ... but you will get passed by ... there are millions of youths playing soccer in the US, they will decide what sports to play and watch ...
I LOVE it when people make my point for me. You clearly didn't read my entire post if you think that what you posted is an example that disproves what I said. You post something that to you is an amazing example of skill and athleticism, and I completely agree. Now take a look at what that guy does with his arms the ENTIRE video you posted. They pump back and forth with the natural motion of his running. Doesn't use them for a single other thing. So you mean to tell me that what he does involves a greater degree of athetlic coordination than the example I posted, which involves dribbling as well as high speed start and stop moves with your feet (not to mention the body control required in the air as the player skies for the dunk)? THAT is why I'd rather watch a clip of the basketball example I cited. I am not belittling the athleticism required in soccer. I would hope I have said that enough times now to get the point across. But part of my criticism of the sport is demonstrated in your video. I like seeing a sport that involves the hands as well as the feet. I see the beauty in what you posted, but it doesn't impress me as much as basketball and I really don't enjoy watching it for extended periods of time. I don't know if that makes me an "ignorant soccer hater" in your eyes or not. Frankly I really don't care.
I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. He compared soccer to basketball, I extended the comparison. Obviously there are many millions of people in this world that see something in soccer that I (and we non-fans) don't. So what? Heh.. okay....whatever. Who cares.
I don't consider myself a "soccer nut" (don't know if you were referring to me) and I wasn't trying to convince you to like it, just looking for some honest reasons why you don't. There's the poster that says the fact that you don't use your hands is what turns him off. He like sports where you use your hands and feet and in football you don't so he's not into it. That I could appreciate. What I don't get is people who find it boring. I understand it isn't a high scoring game but does a sport have to be high scoring to be exciting? I don't think so. Or does a person have to score to have excitement? Again, I don't think so. Take basketball for example, if a team is on a comeback run and someone jacks up a three, the fans rise in anticipation. Now if it goes down the crowd will go crazy but when the shot is in the air the fans are on the edge of their seat. You can't deny that that sort of anticipation adds alot to the game. The same thing in football, yeah a goal is the greatest ever but runs to the goal and great shots on goal adds heaps of excitement. If you say you don't like it because their isn't enough stats or you prefer sports where you use your whole body then I could understand. But when people say there isn't any strategy or it's boring, I think it's because they didn't go into it with an open mind.
I don't enjoy watching succer because I find it incredibly boring (and no I have not been exposed to MLS crap, I had to watch tons of Euro stuff while I was living in London, so it isn't the lack of talent). To me the biggest problem with the sport is all of the turnovers. Imagine watching an NBA game where more often than not the teams didn't even get a shot attempt. I have an active dislike of succer because of all of the fans that tell me the reason I don't like it is because I don't understand it. I understand it fine, and it is still boring.
I did research. How? I asked here. What a novel concept! Using the bbs to answer a question you might have! I was asking out loud about soccer strategies in comparison to the other big 3 sports. Trini Rocket answered in a forthright manner which I appreciated. Of course I half expected some dick answers...
