why americans don't take soccer seriously
 

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...lt-341x380.jpg
caption: No goal : Roma's forward Antonio Cassano reacts after missing a goal against Modena at the Olympic stadium in Rome, during their Serie A soccer match. (AFP/Patrick Hertzog)

what's up with that?

honestly....the reason I hate soccer is this:

A guy will leg tackle someone or whatever the hell you call it, and the guy will roll around on the ground pretending to be so hurt he has to have his leg amputated. He either gets the call or doesn't, and then he gets up and starts running around again. Every soccer game I watch is like that.

It just does not strike me as exciting or entertaining in the least bit. Sometimes I watch the womens Us team, because they are hotter than shit, but even that gets old.

All I can say is: go outside and whack your shin with a hammer and then try to walk around.

Don't forget the trainer has some aerosol can that he sprays on a hurt player that magically fixes the severely mangled leg.

Wait a minute Spartak. I did not say it was impossible to get hurt in soccer. what I did say is they have guys rolling around on the ground on eminute, and then up and running around the next. They are faking it a lot for a call. It is ridiculous.

I am certain some people get seriously hurt in soccer, but every game I watch has more of the faking variety.

One word.
Boring


We'd rather play if anything. (it's like golf or baseball in a way)

Yes, play-acting like that is stupid, but soccer is a continious game, I mean in the NFL you can just take yourself out for a comple of plays (usually) until you feel a bit better. In soccer you have to go to ground so the trainers can take you off the field for a couple of minutes.

Also, I'm willing to concede soccer is boring at times (when one team has all of its players behind the ball defending and the results is a 0-0 draw for example), but when your favourite team (or better yet your favourite player) scores a goal, it's almost orgasmic.

lol.
thats a funny pic.
but i seriously doubt that some crazy italians frustrated antics are the reason Americans don´t take the game seriously.

this is a good point.
i´ve always found soccer to be a great game to play, but its boring to watch.
perhaps this is just another comment on the power of voyeurism in our societies.

another point may be that soccers place in society has been quite exclusive.
by that i mean that it hasn´t been thoroughly accepted (before the World Cup that was held in the states - i think that was a bit of a changing point) in all aspects of American society.

this has been the case in Australia. for a very long time Soccer was seen as a game for European immigrants. The game was brought into the public eye in Australia by the European refugees who came to Australia after WWII.
now i know this isn´t the best advertisement for Australian tolerance, but even when i was at school the game was referred to as Wogball (i´ve noticed, thankfully, that this isn´t the case anymore)... and even former Aussie soccer players have released autobiographies with titles that include the words; wogs, poofs and sheilas... (referring to the way the game was derided).
so what i guess i´m getting at, is that in Australia, soccer was seen (and sadly ridiculed) as a game reserved for a minority group, and thus hasn´t enjoyed popularity or institutionalisation that other sports have had.
now, i don´t know if this is relevant to American soccer... but hey, its a point.

how about basketball players "flopping" in hopes of drawing a charge. or football players exaggerating the effects of a facemask or pass intereference to make sure that a ref sees the penalty. batters fling themselves out of the box on an inside pitch to exaggerate the placement of the pitch. faking occurs in all sports. it increases the likelyhood (to some degree) that a call goes in favor of the faker, so i'm pretty sure it will continue.

it does not stop the games in other sports. Maybe I am wrong, but when I watch soccer, and someone "fakes" getting hurt, they stop play (I know the clock runs) and someone gets some sort of direct/indirect kick.

In basketball there is no whistle when that happens (unless an actual foul is called). In hockey, you can actually have a penalty called against you for diving, and it happens quite often.

Soccer's popularity can't be denied, but I just don't feel like watching for those reasons. I can totally see how people say watching baseball is boring, but I love it.

with shin guards on and thick athletic socks over them? sure thing. soccer players are athletic...but the sport is gayer than a 3 dollar bill. i mean...have you seen the kids version of the sport? they dont even keep score for christ sake.

should i be lucky enough to have at least one male offspring, and he desires to play soccer...i am going to make him play in a dress and carry a purse with him on the pitch. i think he will get the point pretty quick.

The thing I hate most about MLS is the camera angles. I like world league sky camera angles. You cant follow a soccer game with sideline shots and nba camera angles. Most of the interest in the sport comes from passing and setting up goals. You get none of that from that wack MLS angles

rouge your right


i think its fun to play but so boring to watch

Soccer also has a diving foul, punishable by a Yellow card (2 yellows = early shower), and play-acting injuries has been acknowledged by FIFA as a problem that must be stamped out.

Trust me man, when someone goes studs-up on you, you feel it all the way through the thin as hell shin pads. I mean these are not blocks of armour, they are little bits of plastic that as far as I know are just to prevent lacerations of the shin.

You should also be supportive of your son.. it's his choice after all.

Do you wanna be a Mazda exec right about now?

Hooray!! The good old s*ccer sucks thread returns.

It's really quite simple people. Football, that's s*ccer to you, is great because I say so.

I'm now leaving this thread for good. So, no matter what you say, I will be eternally correct.

Merry Crimbo.

I have no doubt that when I have kids they will most likley be playing soccer. That is just the fact. I live in hick vill USA and soccer is catching on here too.

I have to say that I personally dislike it because of the Europen fans. America gets so much crap for being a "Violent socity" but how many football or basketball riots do you hear about. Sure there are some, but damn. It seems like every time I see ESPN I see some balcony or fence colapsing and the anouncer talking about how many people died.

I was like most of you until I went to Europe this summer and actually learned something about the game. It's amazing to see how much the people talk about their team, know everyone on the other teams, much like American Football is here, only over there there are so many teams from different countries and so many different tournaments that it just makes the whole thing exciting to keep track of. Living in the States I'm lucky to catch the occasional game, but luckily I've found Fox Sports World. I think you really can't understand or appreciate the game until you've been over to Europe to see the excitement it actually causes in every person.

me, I think the sure way for the sport to catch on here is to arm the fans and show the riots- that would get some good ratings in the good ole U.S.A. .....

Soccer is a glorified marathon, inside an arena, in which sometimes a ball also goes into a net. Yawn.

Soccer is basically a pussified version of hockey on a bigger field of play. I mean I guess you could say the lack of scoring keeps it more interesting, but seriously what a bunch of pansies nothing physical about the sport, all it is is a bunch of dudes kicking a ball around up and down a huge field for 90 minutes.

Nothing physical about the sport? Unlike some sports (not hockey!) soccer is in fact a contact sport. Try taking a slide cleats up. Or getting clipped from behind sprinting full speed. Or standing in a wall when someone rips a shot at 60-75mph.

Hockey is a damn tough sport, please don't misinterpret my post. However you cannot compare the two. Soccer isn't a sport that thrives on fighting, cross-checking, and missing teeth. Soccer is very artistic, a controlled chaos if you will. It requires skill, PATIENCE, stamina, and poise.

And for the record I'm a big hockey fan, or at least when the playoffs roll around!

Let me take a stab at this: You have never played soccer, have you?

I don't watch soccer because I have the National Football League! That and 90 minute 1-0 games don't excite me that much...

I thought Americans didn't like soccer because it was boring. Look on the bright side, it's more exciting than golf.

I personally think soccer is for foot fairies.

Soccer is football, by the way.(a game played with the hands cannot be called football)

Football is a wonderful sport. Loads more exciting and competitive. And it's not stop-and-go play (like baseball or american football; downs or innings) so you get your moneys worth.

Im not saying american football and baseball are bad, I like both games, but I'd rather watch a Premeirship match rather than the World Series or Suprbowl.

To play game is to understand the game. If you think soccer is boring, have you watched baseball, golf, bowling, pool, even football is slow. One play that lasts 7 seconds and then basically a time out between plays. Try running for 2, 45 minute halves.

Some here think soccer is boring? Egads man! try and watch a NFL game or a baseball game and you will know what boring really is.

It's like any game, even board games or marbles or spin the bottle. When you first watch someone play, it appears totally abstract, with random moves and funny rules. If you spend some time with it, you start to get it. Only once you get it, can you then discover if you like it.

Soccer suffers in the US from too much competition for people's time. It's connection to kids today, however, bodes well for it's future.

Thanks for listening.

I agree with wwcd101 completely. If you haven't played a game, and you don't understand it and the intricacies of the sport then it can appear boring.

Soccer can be an extremely boring game. But it can also be an intense, exciting event. The game is continuous, which also can be tedious for those with low attention spans. Part of the excitement of soccer (and hockey for that matter) is the anticipation of a goal. The team is moving towards the goal, setting up...and..oh..good save, bad shot, simple turnover.

Take a look at the "favorite" american sports: American Football, Baseball, and basketball.

Each of these sports are pretty much one play then a break, one play then a break. Basketball can be quite continuous at times but for the most part it is score a basket...set up at the other end. Score a basket...set up a the other end. Baseball is a sudden play (if a person hits) followed by waiting for the next person. Football is play by play.

Everyone has their favorite game and criticisms of a game (like i have done above) when you don't truly understand the game or the mentality of the average fan..are simply not fair. Play the game, or if you can't do that, talk with a fan. You learn to enjoy the little things in the game and it changes it forever. I spent 6 weeks in the UK a couple of summers back and for 1 week, England was playing Australia in the Ashes (Cricket). I still don't fully understand the game but I was with a bunch of people that loved it and they explained the game to me. Now, I find the game facinating and try to watch it on TV if I can.

That's all...

Ok, say what you want about soccer being a contact sport, but stop saying it in comparison to or even in context with american football. there is NO comparison, and no annecdotal "i got a mean kick in the shins" story will refute the scientific evidence recently reported by virginia tech study that placed sensors used to monitor and deploy automobile air bags in football helmets.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/6976003

the result? football players sustain impacts with force equivilent to being hit by car, sometimes 30 to 50 times in a regular game. the hardest blows recorded in the study were in excess of 130 Gs.

so sure, soccer is more of a contact sport than badmitton, but just stop comparing it to football, where contact is an integral and intended part of the game. Really now, 16 out of the 22 players on the field at any time have only one job: to hit someone. Not throw the ball, not catch the ball, not kick the ball, not even touch the ball... their job is simply to HIT someone, as hard as humanly possible. there is no comparison, guys. sissies kick people in the shins, ok? it ranks with biting, scratching and pulling hair.

oh yeah, i've played soccer and still do once in a while. all that running winds me like a son-of-a-bitch, i have a lot of respect for guys and gals who can do that well. but i get damn sick and tired of hearing about how macho it is and how american football sucks.

I could see the excitment of NFL if they actually played. They stand around alot between plays that last 5 seconds. I mean how much actual playing do they do in a game? Maybe 10 minutes? It's a good thing they have replays. :)

I see the smiley face, but I still disagree... That's like saying wrestling is a pussy sport just because a whole match is only 6 minutes long with 30 second breaks every 2 minutes. "I mean it's only 6 minutes long! How hard can it be?!"

Anyhow, the reason I'm not that into soccer is because it is too low scoring and the excitement to "time spent watching" ratio is too low. I guess I have a short attention span. Also, I don't have any emotional ties to soccer, i.e., I don't know many people who play and our city's MSL pro team isn't much to be proud of. I'm sure that if I played in school I'd be a lot more interested in soccer than I am now.

It is stupid and verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry boring watch. Why would we like it?

Woah!

Let's (for the umpteenth time) try to put a bit of perspective on this whole 'debate'.

I think alot of whether you like one sport or another, or think one sport is tougher than another is to do with simply where you are from. To explain, how big is NFL in the states? and how many soccer teams are there that merit the same press and media coverage? None!

How big is Football (soccer) in Europe? Massive. How many American football teams get even the smallest mention in the European press and media? None!

Don't start giving it the old 'It's so boring' nonsense. The bottom line is that there are so many sports played on this big planet of ours, we can't like them all.

I'm not even going to take a swipe at American Football becuase as stated earlier, those guys are trained to hit VERY hard for short periods of time, that's the game. Football (soccer) players are trained to play their game over 90 minutes or more with only 1 official break.

Now stop bickering and accept that we're all different!

Please ;)

Injuries I have sustained:
Hyperextended knee
Fractured wrist
Cracked Ribs
Concussion
Cracked Jaw
Broken fingers
Broken toes
....and countless bloody noses and other undiagnosed ailments.

Injuries I have dished out:
Punctured lung & Broken ribs (same guy... he finished the game too)
Broken leg
Numerous gashes on the noggins

Other random injuries I have witnessed:
Compound fractured arm
EXTREME dislocated ankle (my buddy... it was nasty)

Moral of the story, soccer can be played tough. Anyone who argues otherwise knows nothing of the sport.

I occasionally enjoy watching soccer. One thing that would improve it (from a US-centric view) is if we knew when the game was going to end. They have a clock, but it reaches the end, then they have a random amount of "bonus time" depending on whatever the ref thinks would be good. That's lame.

The added time is decided by the 4th official, its basically a rough estimate of how much time was taken up by stoppages (injuries, fouls etc), because in soccer the clock is always running.

Most games I watch, round about the 89th minute they announce how much time is to be added on.

For the states, there isnt enough history for people to be interested or want to get involved. Plus if you havent played the sport, you cant really appreciate whats going on. There arent superstars that people can identify with and want to watch it. Americans also like alot of scoring and points. In the highest level of soccer, there arent too many chances to score. Thus not alot of scoring. But go across the seas and watch out now. Straight up soccer fanatics......

Yeah, I understand that, but why can't they give Official #4 a start/stop button, and have the clock pause? It seems like too much room for abuse if you wait until the end of the game, and no one but him knows when he'll stop.