Why Don't I Love Soccer?

[nebbiolo]

Americans don't like futbol because we haven't grown up playing it. I am the exception, having played the game from age 3 to 17, so I love to watch. But for most of us, "soccer" is for the nerdy kids that can't play "football." Our fathers and grandfathers played "football" while the girls cheered them on. I don't know anybody of my parents generation who has ever kicked a futbol around, but throwing a baseball or a pigskin around is an American past time.

I think futbol will eventually catch on. As with most things in the US, we'll also need some celebs to tell us to play it - IE Lance with cycling.

 

[tifosa]

I disagree. Although many in America know who Lance Armstrong is, cycling still is very much a niche sport. Even though many ride bikes as children, the same numbers of kids don't ride as adults. And most kids don't grow up thinking of cycling as a "sport", let alone a "team sport".

As for futbol, while it's popularity among American kids is strong, it will always run distant to America's more beloved past times: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.

Hell, it probably also runs distant to golf.

 

[pedaling squares]

3 general rules about football that confuse me:

1. any time two players come into contact all players must immediately cease moving and throw their arms into the air. Players on the team not awarded a free kick must walk about the pitch with hands on hips for 60 seconds to protest the call.

2. slight contact against a defender's padded shin causes indescribable pain that cannot be treated by known medical interventions. Awarding a free kick to the defender's team however, instantly assuages this pain and restores the defender to form.

3. although football is known by many names around the globe, North Americans are idiots for referring to it as soccer. Italians are true sportsmen for calling it calcio, but soccer is a word inventing by heretics. A sport where the ball is handled by feet, knees, chests, heads, and hands should of course only be called football.

 

[ak-zaaf]

3 general rules about football that confuse me:

1. any time two players come into contact all players must immediately cease moving and throw their arms into the air. Players on the team not awarded a free kick must walk about the pitch with hands on hips for 60 seconds to protest the call.

2. slight contact against a defender's padded shin causes indescribable pain that cannot be treated by known medical interventions. Awarding a free kick to the defender's team however, instantly assuages this pain and restores the defender to form.

3. although football is known by many names around the globe, North Americans are idiots for referring to it as soccer. Italians are true sportsmen for calling it calcio, but soccer is a word inventing by heretics. A sport where the ball is handled by feet, knees, chests, heads, and hands should of course only be called football.

1 & 2: These are things that slowly grew into football when it became more important. For us, it's just an annoying little thing that has become part of the beautiful game. If you're new to the sport there sure are things that hold up the game and might be hard to look around, same thing goes for non Americans trying to get in to your sports.

3. The word soccer comes from England but even they don't use it anymore. It was somehow short for association football. So still, the game is called Football. American Football is called American Football.
/edit: here's a summary of the last 20 ball contacts in Spain - Portugal: foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot, foot.

 

[pedaling squares]

1 & 2: These are things that slowly grew into football when it became more important. For us, it's just an annoying little thing that has become part of the beautiful game.

It may only be an annoyance to lifelong fans, but it is really stifling the appeal of the sport to newcomers and it need not be a part of the game. From an outsider's perspective, I would like to see better enforcement of existing rules to have the players show each other and especially the referee more respect. It blows me away how players can run up to the referee and wag a finger in his face because they didn't like his decision. Once you eliminate all this unsportsmanlike conduct you should see a faster and more flowing game.

here's a summary of the last 20 ball contacts in Spain - Portugal: foot, foot, foot, foot...

Very true and I'm sure you realize that I was only being cheeky.

While I'm ranting (which I'm doing because this truly is an amazing and beautiful game that is doing its best to limit itself) I cannot stand the attitude of some goalkeepers who scream at their teammates because they had to move three feet to one side to stop a 25 yard shot. That is their job no?

BTW, I'm really enjoying the ball movement of Spain v Portugal. After watching English midfielders do their best to ignore their forwards it is nice to see Spanish players using each other to create opportunities. And I only had to watch 500 minutes of football to see some offensive flair...

 

[stephens]

3. although football is known by many names around the globe, North Americans are idiots for referring to it as soccer. Italians are true sportsmen for calling it calcio, but soccer is a word inventing by heretics. A sport where the ball is handled by feet, knees, chests, heads, and hands should of course only be called football.

It's not called football because you kick a ball with your feet: It's called football because the players move around by foot, as opposed to moving by horseback.

 

[pedaling squares]

It's not called football because you kick a ball with your feet: It's called football because the players move around by foot, as opposed to moving by horseback.

I did not know that, but it certainly is a compelling reason to call it soccer. Or at least "dismounted kickball".

 

[The Hitch]

3 general rules about football that confuse me:

1. any time two players come into contact all players must immediately cease moving and throw their arms into the air. Players on the team not awarded a free kick must walk about the pitch with hands on hips for 60 seconds to protest the call.

2. slight contact against a defender's padded shin causes indescribable pain that cannot be treated by known medical interventions. Awarding a free kick to the defender's team however, instantly assuages this pain and restores the defender to form.

3. although football is known by many names around the globe, North Americans are idiots for referring to it as soccer. Italians are true sportsmen for calling it calcio, but soccer is a word inventing by heretics. A sport where the ball is handled by feet, knees, chests, heads, and hands should of course only be called football.

all good points, though 1 and 2 are the fault of overpayed and overpraised players who are brought up to believe that winning is everything. Most people with any honour wouldnt behave in that way.
In fact there was a comment today from a striker (tevez) who said that he knew his goal had been illegal the second he scored it but that all that was important was for him to experience glory, however ill gained it might be.
When a replay came on the screen showing that the goal had been scored illegally and the referee considered reversing the decision, the players actually surrounded him arguing that even though it was clearly wrong, since he had given it to them, he cant take it back (this is before play has even restarted). In many other sports athletes have more honour than this. In tennis you quite often see players aknowledging that a ball was in even if it doesnt benefit them.




But the main point which you leave out, and dont realise is the hero worship and obsession. about half of the daily newspapers in this country (known as tabloids) are devoted entirely to football. These are the number 2, 3 and 4 top selling newspapers in europe. Football is on the front page every day (and a topless lass on page 3). When there is no story they make it up. I AM SERIOUS. every day they will make up a transfer which their "sources" tell them will happen which obviously never does. But people buy it.

But people like me ignore the tabloids. Unfortunately the real newspapers are moving that way too. Today, the times of London, one of the oldest, most distinguished and most intellectual friendly newspapers in the world, devoted their entire letters page to the US Russia spy thing. Nah just joking. They devoted it to the world cup obviously. The ENTIRE page. About a year ago they stopped advertising the news section of the paper and started to direct most of their advertisement to a little 6 page football pullout that comes out every week.

It was mentioned jokingly on the world cup post, by guys from the netherlands and portugal, that they felt players from these countries were living gods, as they are hero worshiped all the time.


Oh and i mentioned this on the world cup post but some inside the game want sepp blatter (the very corrupt and evil president of fifa- governing body) to recieve the nobel peace prize
they know nothing about the world and suffering that goes on and the brave people who fight it at their own risk. Arent they the ones who deserve the nobel peace prize and some recognition. Not according to these guys. Blatter should get it.
These are the same people who say that you shouldnt mix football with politics, and in the same sentence claim that football unites the world and is a tool for peace. They claim this because teams like North korea and Iran play at the world cup, ignorant of the fact that the problem with North Korea is that the government there is engaging in genocide against their own people and that this wont suddenly stop because North Korea plays Brazil in a football match.



If this hero worship and obsession wasnt the case i would love football a lot more. But as a result i hope that there remain countries like the US, free from soccer, so that maybe, one day, if i need it, i will be able to find peace there.

 

[krebs303]

why we call it soccer
It’s football to you, soccer to me

 

[pedaling squares]

The diving instruction manual

 

[Potomac]

North American guys give up playing soccer as soon as boys and girls discover each other.

No American guy gets laid because he's the star of the soccer team.

I was watching a match at a sports bar the other day, and one of the babes tending bar looks up and sees some guy get a tiny a little tap and he goes down like he's been shot. "They are all a bunch of pussies!" she exclaims.

Soccer won't make it big in NA they stop diving.

 

[bobs nob]

North American guys give up playing soccer as soon as boys and girls discover each other.

No American guy gets laid because he's the star of the soccer team.

I was watching a match at a sports bar the other day, and one of the babes tending bar looks up and sees some guy get a tiny a little tap and he goes down like he's been shot. "They are all a bunch of pussies!" she exclaims.

Soccer won't make it big in NA they stop diving.

There's a buttload of 'flopping' in both the NBA and college hoops.

And in College I am sure soccer players hook up b/c of their status. Maybe high school, too.

But I wish there was more scoring. 3-0 is a blowout. 0-0 draws are not uncommon. Anything over 4 goals COMBINED is a little out of the ordinary.
Can they like, make the goal bigger or the offsides box a little bigger. But even if they did it, I wouldn't be surprised if it never catches on here.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Simply no... a 0-0 match or a 1-0 match can be beautifull

But you cannot explain that to an American. You'll never understand and it well never be a big sport in America.
You're simply not grown up with it. Your fathers play baseball, basketball, icehockey, american football... you don't come home and say "I play soccer" (horrible name btw, should be just football).
It simply isn't part of your culture. When you grow up with it you look at it entirely differently.. You'll understand why not scoring much doesn't mean less excitement. etcetera.

Personally I can't understand the excitment in American Football and Baseball. I really can't.
I've watched American Football and it's such a weird sport to me...they stop every few seconds, then they stand in some weird formation and try to run forward with the ball in their hands. But the sport is called FOOTBALL?? It's just beyond weird.
And for baseball, I can't see the excitement either, played it myself at high school a lot, but to watch it is beyond boring. It's even duller than a flat Tour stage...

 

[stephens]

Ok, let's go over this again: american football developed from similar sports like rugby and soccer and all these sports were considered "football" because they players moved around on foot, as opposed to on horseback. It has nothing to do with using one's foot on the ball.

On the scoring topic, I agree that a low scoring game can be really exciting. After all, if more games are ending with only one goal differentials, that means that all the way to the final whistle there is still a chance for either team to win the game. In high scoring American sports, more often than not we can tell who is going to win way before the time has expired. That's boring to me.

 

[palmerq]

Personally I can't understand the excitment in American Football and Baseball. I really can't.
I've watched American Football and it's such a weird sport to me...they stop every few seconds, then they stand in some weird formation and try to run forward with the ball in their hands. But the sport is called FOOTBALL?? It's just beyond weird.

American football I think is a very good game.... But the delays between the plays are too much for me.... although i did go and see one cfl game in vancouver it's a good show and quite entertaining in the stadium.... I dont mind the stop and start way it plays out infact I quite like that but sometimes it has big delays when nothing is happening :S......so I think the game part of american football is very good. it's a good game..

but i think you're right it is all about culture and how you are brought up... I dont really want huge scoring games in football.. it would devalue the goals for me :S like ice hockey a goal isnt that special sort of.... but in football a goal is usually a big deal... I wouldn't like to see hockey scores in football...

both games are good but of course football is better......


baseball is shocking though........

 

[bobs nob]

Simply no... a 0-0 match or a 1-0 match can be beautifull

But you cannot explain that to an American. You'll never understand and it well never be a big sport in America.
You're simply not grown up with it. Your fathers play baseball, basketball, icehockey, american football... you don't come home and say "I play soccer" (horrible name btw, should be just football).
It simply isn't part of your culture. When you grow up with it you look at it entirely differently.. You'll understand why not scoring much doesn't mean less excitement. etcetera.

Personally I can't understand the excitment in American Football and Baseball. I really can't.
I've watched American Football and it's such a weird sport to me...they stop every few seconds, then they stand in some weird formation and try to run forward with the ball in their hands. But the sport is called FOOTBALL?? It's just beyond weird.
And for baseball, I can't see the excitement either, played it myself at high school a lot, but to watch it is beyond boring. It's even duller than a flat Tour stage...

Please don't misunderstand. I get the fact that you grew up with it and you see the beauty in 1-0 match. The biggest problem, as has already been addressed in the world cup thread, is there is just very little media space available in the claendar. I have no doubt that if I grew up in a 'soccer country', I'd be as nuts about 'soccer' as I am about American football.

I sense a bit of defensiveness. It's all good. Not at all bothered if people elsewhere don't care for our sports. Tomato, to-mah-to.

'Can't explain that to an American.' Gosh, sounds like you are baiting for some sort of nationalistic pride debate..... Life's too short.

 

[marinoni]

thank you!

why we call it soccer
It’s football to you, soccer to me

A good gotcha moment reading that article. I hope the people who have made the pompous, condescending "it's called FOOTBALL" remarks read that. A couple other things about some points made in this thread. I've read a couple that have said N Americans don't grow up with the game. That's simply not true. Soccer has been the biggest youth sport for at least a couple decades now. This is one of the reasons our relative lack of interest in soccer perplexes me. The notion that only the wimps not big or tough enough to play football or hockey play soccer is badly outdated. Besides, a good hard-fought soccer match may not be as physically battering as football but it sure aint ballet either. Secondly, I get the impression some people have implied that the N American sports fan is a little too obtuse and obsessed with manufactured action to enjoy the nuances of a 0-0 or 1-0 match. If I'm wrong about that I apologise. I don't have a problem with low scores, I have a problem with defensive, stifling play with little in the way of any action at all. I've heard several experts on TV and in print, most from the UK, bemoaning defensive, one man forward strategies that are taking over the game. This isnt a bunch of action obsessed newbies saying this, it's experienced journos, former coaches and players.
Lastly, why is it that no matter where a player gets hit or in many cases not hit, does every one of them writhe in agony clutching the exact same spot on the lower shin?

 

[marinoni]

South American Soccer

A couple questions for the experts out there. I'm going to be in South America during the southern hem winter and would love to see a match in person. Is this when the club leagues play? Also, any tips about where I should go? Is there a particular city or club where the atmosphere is extra intense and thrilling? Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks

 

[luckyboy]

I don't think that it's really worth arguing about. Everybody should like what they like.

Nevertheless, I have to say that American football has to be the worst sport I have ever seen (apart from maybe horse jumping or lawn bowls). Saw some of the Superbowl in a hotel earlier on this year and it just seemed that everyone runs into each other while one team passes the ball back to throw forward. A guy catches it, gets tackled and is instantly tackled. Read on the WSJ (after reading about FL) that during a game, there are 11 minutes when they're actually playing it.

Basketball just seems to be each team throwing in each others' net continuously, except sometimes they miss/get stolen. The team with the best stealers of the ball win.

1. any time two players come into contact all players must immediately cease moving and throw their arms into the air. Players on the team not awarded a free kick must walk about the pitch with hands on hips for 60 seconds to protest the call.

2. slight contact against a defender's padded shin causes indescribable pain that cannot be treated by known medical interventions. Awarding a free kick to the defender's team however, instantly assuages this pain and restores the defender to form.

Laughed out loud at these two.

why we call it soccer
It’s football to you, soccer to me

I seriously have never heard anyone British call it soccer.

 

[JuandeBapos]

why i do love football (aka soccer in some developing countries):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DNfgibZO5o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8DmEXS50yE

 

[Polyarmour]

Soccer is a good name for it, don't care what the rest of the world says.
Other games kick the ball with their foot too, soccer doesn't have a mandate on the word.
Not enough goals scored that's the problem.
I watched the World Cup, it took a fluke to score a goal.
No match ahould be decided by penalty shootout.
They need bigger goalposts and they need to get rid of the offside rule.
Oh and anyone who fakes an injury for a penalty should be banned for life.

 

[R.0.t.O]

Soccer is a good name for it, don't care what the rest of the world says.
Other games kick the ball with their foot too, soccer doesn't have a mandate on the word.
Not enough goals scored that's the problem.
I watched the World Cup, it took a fluke to score a goal.
No match ahould be decided by penalty shootout.
They need bigger goalposts and they need to get rid of the offside rule.
Oh and anyone who fakes an injury for a penalty should be banned for life.

Soccer = Football; same difference, especially older people in the UK say soccer. 'Soccer'-bashing is largely from the lovies who only got interested when it got glamorous in the early-to-mid 90's. I remember my school sports teacher calling it soccer before that, mainly to distinguish from rugby football which occasionally was just football as well. Sky Sports has programmes called Soccer AM and Soccer Saturday, I think ITV had Soccer Sunday until a few years ago.

But the whole point is that goals are rare. That's the whole dramatic tension - a team can dominate a game but not score, the result can be in the balance until the last seconds, and conversely it allows a weaker team to be competitive by defending deep and hitting on the counter-attack. In high-scoring sports there tend to be fewer upsets, lesser teams get swamped by the top teams, and outcomes are generally decided much sooner. Almost any team can be competitive against another by getting the tactics right in football. And it really matters because virtually every country plays it and virtually every boy in the world has had a go at some stage.

And everyone slags off penalty shoot-outs as unfair but deep down noone wants to get rid of them because they're so exciting!

 

[EderShamir]

I'm from the Cape Verde Islands, one of the dozens of football/soccer-nuts countries.

Everyone plays it, boys and girls. Everyone loves it.

The "Beautiful Sport" governing body FIFA does everything to assure that the sport can grow everywhere, from Lesotho to Solomon Islands. They have biliondollar programs like "GOAL" that have built stadiums and youth academies across the world.

Most of others sports don't do that. They are satisfied with the money they make in one or 2 countries, or one region, and can't care less if the rest of the world would like to play too but have no means to do it.

Only Football has realized we live in a Global Village, that's why it is loved by most of the world.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Because soccer is....

1.) boring to watch. Too many games end 0-0 or 1-0. And 1/3 of games are tied. Most part of "actions" happen 20 yards both sides of the midfield. At the WC there was an Avg. of less than 10 shots on goal.
2.) mostly decided by luck or the refs (50% !! of the last WC games were decided by them), but not team strength. Since games are low scoring, one bad call by the refs decide a game (or even championships), or one lucky shot, or one penalty kick, or... I know all (including me) like sporting events which are unpredictable. But only to a certain point. If pure chance or a 3rd party (the refs) is the essence of a game, then we all could watch a couple of guys rolling a dice under the calls non-calls by a casino watchman. There is no need for soccer.
3.) the rules are 100 years old. This is leading to unbelievable bad events like time shaving, faking injuries, faking fouls, complaining by players all the time, goals given which weren´t goals and visa versa, etc. etc. The list could be endless.
4.) the governing body FIFA is led by a bunch of criminals where the president is bribed without punishment (McQuaid looks like a saint in comparison), meeting with dictators like Mugabe and declining any improvment of rules...
5.) the governing body does nothing against the widespread manipulations of games by either the refs themselves, the chinese mafia, the players, the bookmakers and/or the people within the FIFA itself. The fish stinks so bad from up to down, that i refused to watch a single minute of soccer since July 2010. And that from a person who played the game for 9 years and is still watching scandal ridden cycling. That says alot, of how bad soccer is.
6.) the governing body does nothing against the widespread missuse of medications, painkillers and doping. Yet the mainstream media turns a blind eye on this issue; instead they are using cycling as scapegoat to move the attention away from media darling soccer.
7.) the fans are disgusting. If you ever was to a game, you certainly experienced one guy next to you complaining 90 minutes of how bad player xy is, how he´d do it better etc. etc. It´s tiring. But the worst are the hooligans who light firecrackers in stadiums and bars and fight in public. It seems the average soccer fan is another form of an neandertaler...
8.) the game itself is not needing the best athlets. All you need to have is endurance and a strong right leg. Compared to real real Football were inteligence, fine motor skills, quickness, strength and speed is needed, that´s an awful little skills needed.

So all you US citizens missed nothing when you grew up without soccer. You have the greatest game of the world (real real football, called American Football), Baseball, Hockey, pool bilards, etc. etc...

One last sentence to the paid one time poster who wrote before me: I hope i spoiled your attempt to whitewash that corrupt organization called FIFA.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

your post has a massive contradiction.
you say soccer is boring then go onto state baseball as a great sport.
UHHHF. By far, the most boring sport I have ever watched. It is ridicilious boring.

Anyway soccer is awesome.

I love playing it, best game to play imo.

And soccer I never find boring, I truly find the sport entertaining, even 0-0 games can be awesome depending on the quality of a game.

I agree with a corrupt ridicilious governing body. But that sort of thing isn't exclusive to soccer.

As for fans, you generalize. I agree it can be pretty bad, but it is not as consistant as you believe.