Myth: Soccer is low scoring thus boring

Here's a good overview on the history of soccer in the US. There's a section that talks about the NASL days and what went wrong.

http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/overview.html

I don't think soccer will ever be as well supported as the NFL, NBA, or MLB in this country, but I do think it will continue to grow. In 10-20 years MLS will be able to keep most of the American players here instead of all the best ones going to Europe as soon as they can get on a team there. And the better the league is the better the player pool will become, right now all the kids that play in youth leagues stop playing about the time they go to high school. If there's a professional league for them to follow they may be more inclined to keep on playing.

And about the commercials, in MLS games ESPN has started going to a split screen during the game to show commercials. It really sucks since you can't really see what's happening in the smaller window. I guess it's better than them just cutting to commercial though.

 

unless of course ... the US mens) has a period of sustained success.

very unlikely, but possible.

 

and Americans aren't going to drastically change their sporting tastes just to like Soccer like the rest of the world.

this thread started with a myth, well here's the truth.

Truth: Soccer is boring because i think it's boring.

that's all there is to it. soccer is boring to americans because we think it is. soccer is loved by the rest of the world b/c they love it. liver tastes like crap to a lot of people because they hate the way it tastes. it tastes good to other people because they like it. there is no wrong or right (except that soccer is boring).

it's like SA Rocket said, it's like everyone is trying to force feed America soccer so that we'll like it just like everyone else. why? and why do people seem so perturbed by those that hate soccer and call it boring as if there's some technically correct way to view it that says it's not? i don't care if people don't like basketball or football or baseball.

if you grow up in American watching football, baseball, or basketball, those will probably be what you like when you grow up and you'll wonder how people can love 1-0 games. if you grow up in one of many soccer-obsessed countries, that's what you'll like and wonder why people can't love 1-0 games.

as for myself, a great deal of why i don't like it is what SA Rocket said, too much back and forth where nothing really happens. pass the ball backwards, do some stuff, kick it down the field, intercepted, go other way, repeat. occasionally the ball gets down the field and usually gets broken up way before anyone can take a shot and then a large percentage of the shots never come close. i never really feel that excited that i'm about to see something. obviously, one "something" is huge and a big deal, but that's part of the problem. and like Desert Scar said, solid defense can mess up great offense.

also, it has too much of the luck factor like hockey does. so many goals are basically getting repeated scoring chances and then just hoping things happen to fall a certain way so as to allow a score. a guy just kicks it in the general direction of the goal and hopes he didn't kick it 20 feet long or short and that no one gets in the way and that the guy hitting it with his head happens to hit it cleanly instead of popping it up or whiffing and then you hope the goalie isn't where you headed it, since you're not really aiming. that's the basics of a hockey goal as well. centering pass, swing hard, hope it goes in. that's why so many upsets can occur. one goal can mean the game and the factors involved in scoring are basically probabilities that, over time, will favor the superior team, but in one game far too often let a lesser team win.

and it's not to say i hate soccer. i will watch it during the world cup. that's because i like seeing the US take on other countries, and there's something on the line. it's like the NCAA tournament. i'm probably not gonna watch kentucky and siena face off on some random january afternoon, but if it's during the tournament, i'll watch the hell out of it. of course i can watch any tournament game, but only world cup games with the US (and possibly brazil for the higher pace and to see ronaldo) involved.

 

Good idea. Also, they could make the goal round instead of square. Shrinking it down to about 12 inches in diameter should do the trick. Then, they should raise the goal off the ground about ten feet or so. In order to make the ball easier to go in, put some kind of board in back of the goal...hey, they could call it a backboard!

Of course, using your feet for this new design wouldn't be very effecient, so soccer should reverse the rules and allow a player to only use his hands to touch the ball and make touching the ball with his feet illegal.

The field is also WAY too big...and that grass would be real cumbersome in the modified vesion of soccer. So, reduce the playing field size and replace the grass with a hard surface like wood.

As for ways to increase scoring, all you have to do is make each goal count as two points instead of one. Yeah, I'm starting to think this "new soccer" will really take off...

 

This post right here is what we refer to the ignorance about the game. You think that all scoring is random chances. That's a bunch of crap. You are simply making generalizations because you know absolutely nothing about the game or how it's played. A large majority of the scoring is no random but a collection of events that may have started 5 minutes before the goal is actually scored. It's not your fault you don't know this if you only played youth soccer or not at all. I can't fault you for that.

I'm a little confused about your point that you and SA Rocket are tired about the game being stuffed down your throat. Exactly how many commercials about the MLS or the National Team do you see on a daily basis. Does your local paper put soccer on the front page? Is there anything more than a weekly Glen Davis column? Outside of the Fox Soccer Channel, do you see soccer in prime time? When exactly are you getting bombarded by soccer? Of course we're going to try and change your mind about the game. It's called "growing the sport."

If you don't like the game, fine. I truly couldn't care less. I'd prefer that you didn't watch the World Cup. You obviously don't know enough about what's going on to make a rational, intelligent, and informed opinion about the game. I don't understand or like figure skating. Do you know what I do? I don't watch it nor do talk about it. If someone else likes it or starts a thread about it, I don't post in it or put it down because I don't know crap about it.

 

Ditto...couldn't have said it better myself.

If you dislike soccer, don't watch it! I rarely see promotions to "forcefeed" soccer to the american public, if anything, it is under promoted. I rarely even see MLS commercials on ESPN. The only time soccer is prevalent is on Fox Soccer Channel which is an all soccer channel with occasional rugby and you shouldn't be watching that channel because you find soccer boring so it is NOT forcefed on you!

And If you think it's soooo boring, how can you watch the World Cup? Do you watch gymnastics, skying, figure skating, water polo, wrestling, etc...just because you want to support the U.S.?

 

Thanks for the reply.

Four Four Two is a British football (soccer) magazine and it was kind of suprising that they glorified the NASL the way they did because they usually dog Americans for their lack of soccer knowledge (in this case they went so far as to say that this league was more popular than their own top flight league). They did say that the league fizzled out b/c of the high salaries and Pele's departure. They did point out that the MLS doesn't not want to follow that example (overpaying stars from around the world and running the league into the ground) but more and more World players are recognizing that the MLS can be competetive (The great Zidane himself was amazed at how well they were played when Real Madrid faced an MLS team). David Beckham has hinted at playing in the MLS later on in his career.

I think the MLS can greatly improve if they allow larger european club owners to invest in MLS teams and even use it as a farm system for their younger players. This will help in attracting the world's audience to the league and even improve the quality of play in the league and attract U.S. fans. (I hear Barcelona is interested in owning a team and Real Madrid as well).

 

I'm torn about having foreign teams invest in the league. On one hand they could bring more revenue/publicity and some talented players into the league, but those players would never stay. Also, I think that it would cause other contries to look down on the league even more if it was just a farm/retirement league. If the league is really going to grow to be a sucess they'll have to be able to get good young players and keep them here.

 

we're still talking about soccer??????

 

Even if a major club did invest in the league the current revenue sharing/salary cap model wouldn't allow them to sign big name players. They could bring in young players that aren't being paid too much though.

I don't think I would consider a 35 year old who can no longer make it in the bigger leagues to be premium talent. And if they want their young players to play here they can loan them out to the league. What worries me is that if they set up a farm team they would worry more about developing young players instead of putting together a winning team.

Also, they would have to get all the current owners to agree to change the way the contracts are made. Currently all the players sign with the league and are assigned to teams and the league handles resigning and selling players. For a farm team to work they would have to sign with the club or make sure MLS would sell to the parent team if they want them.

That's true, and that would mean they probably would at least tyr to put a competative team on the field.

I don't beleive they need an injection of talent, they need to let it grow organically. The NASL tried that and failed, there's no reason to repeat their mistakes. The EPL, La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundeslegia are all 100+ years old, they didn't just spring up out of nowhere and MLS shouldn't be expected to be on the same level as them after only 10 years.

The best thing for the league to do right now is give Chivas USA a few more years to see how they work out. If they are competative and there's no major conflict of interests between them and Chivas then I would feel better about letting other teams invest in local clubs.

 

so does the U.S. team suck this year? i heard they did pretty well the last world cup..

i intend on watching them if they come on tv here

 

We have a very good team, most of the players from 2002 are back and there are a couple of new guys that did really well during qualifying. It should be very interesting since we are in one of the toughest groups, and we have a chance of playing Brazil when we advance to the round of 16.

ESPN/ESPN2/ABC will be showing all of the games from the World Cup in HD.

 

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yes.

 

Soccer will have its day in America. Just as tennis in the 80's and golf in the 90's.

 

You're a true patriot!