My 2 cents on the World Cup

[NoBonus]

I have been listening to a lot of radio and TV banter about the World Cup and soccer being "the world's game" and "the greatest game ever" and that we stupid Americans are flat lame for hating it. I thought about it for a bit and here is what I think is the real deal:

In most other countries, soccer is the number one sport. Every kid plays it and dreams of playing pro soccer. All of their nations top athletes play soccer for their whole life. The nation's heroes are primarily soccer players. They are the nation's best of the best.

In the USA, the top game is split between Basketball, Football, Baseball, and Hockey. The majority of kids play one or more of these sports growing up. The majority of the best athletes specializes in these sports. Soccer in America is WAY down the list, plus, even if soccer were your favorite, you would probably make more money playing one season of pro hoops or football than in an entire career playing soccer. So why do it? The U.S. Soccer system essentially represents the best of the people who are 1)soccer fans at heart and 2) athletes not good enough to play other sports. The best of the worst.

Thus, the world LOVES soccer because it is about the only venue for them to beat the U.S. at anything. In every other sport, Americans flat dominate or are in the top five teams worldwide. The fact that the U.S. soccer team ever beats any other international competition is plain sad; their best of the best cannot beat our best of the worst.

That is my 2-cents... as soon as we start dominating soccer, rugby will be the world's game.

 

[bozzwell]

I have been listening to a lot of radio and TV banter about the World Cup and soccer being "the world's game" and "the greatest game ever" and that we stupid Americans are flat lame for hating it. I thought about it for a bit and here is what I think is the real deal:

In most other countries, soccer is the number one sport. Every kid plays it and dreams of playing pro soccer. All of their nations top athletes play soccer for their whole life. The nation's heroes are primarily soccer players. They are the nation's best of the best.

In the USA, the top game is split between Basketball, Football, Baseball, and Hockey. The majority of kids play one or more of these sports growing up. The majority of the best athletes specializes in these sports. Soccer in America is WAY down the list, plus, even if soccer were your favorite, you would probably make more money playing one season of pro hoops or football than in an entire career playing soccer. So why do it? The U.S. Soccer system essentially represents the best of the people who are 1)soccer fans at heart and 2) athletes not good enough to play other sports. The best of the worst.

Thus, the world LOVES soccer because it is about the only venue for them to beat the U.S. at anything. In every other sport, Americans flat dominate or are in the top five teams worldwide. The fact that the U.S. soccer team ever beats any other international competition is plain sad; their best of the best cannot beat our best of the worst.

That is my 2-cents... as soon as we start dominating soccer, rugby will be the world's game.

Before you get flamed, let me point some facts:

1. Assocition Football (soccer) is not number one sport in many countries in terms of tradition or participation (in fact, in terms of participation it is number 1 in USA, thanks to all the boys and girls). In fact, far from being the only sport in ANY countries:
- Scandinavia and Czech/Slovak republics it shares spotlight with Ice Hockey
- With Baseball in Carribian
- With Aussie rules, Rugby and Cricket in Oceania
- With basketball in SE Europe/Balkans
- With number of sport in developed/rich Western Europe, etc. etc.

2. Often, soccer stars are seen exactly the same as NBA stars in US - as overpaid primadonnas. They are revered only when they WIN. To say that they are their nation's "best of the best" is either missinformed or a blatant insult.

3. To say that we love soccer so we can beat USA is laughable. US only entered soccer stage in a meaningfull way 12 years ago.

4. American Football is the only truly US based sport. Even the teams in NFL Europe are made of American players who are "loaned" from their NFL teams (that is why NFL Europe has to be played in Summer). Baseball is huge in central America and Japan, but still very localised. Ice Hockey - Europeans dominate. Basketball - growing everywhere.

The thing about soccer is that it is the only true Global sport phenomenon. Every nation has an association and is eligable to compete in qualifiers for World Cup. World Cup is crowning glory of 2 years of World-wide competitions.

Don't knock it if you don't understand it.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

It seems rather silly to say Americans are the best at everything and the only reason the world loves football (soccer) is because they can beat us at it. Did you not see the World Baseball Classic (or whatever they called it) or the most recent Olympic basketball tournament? There are great athletes all over the world and the thing that has separated the US and at times China or Russia from the other countries is our huge commitment to training facilities to prove our superiority in sporting venues. Give some of these third world athletes the same opportunities the top level American athletes get and it would be a whole new world.

Do you not understand the way the top footballers around the world are treated puts a lot of our top athletes to shame? In some countries its the only legitimate form of celebrity whereas in others the top players are treated second only to the royal family.

The reason the sport is so huge is because it is the easiest sport to pick up and play, all you need is a ball and something to mark a goal. You don't have to be a freak of nature to dominate either, which is something that can be said for very few sports these days. Its a ticket out of the ghettos and slums for many in third world nations, if we had a league in the states that paid comparable to the overseas salaries and the athletes enjoyed the same degree of popularity I believe it would be the number one sport here as well given that almost every child's introduction to competetive athletics is no longer Little League but soccer.

 

[Bricklayer]

Soccer is boring to watch.

Sorry. But true. Played it for 10+ years when I was young. Still think its a blast to play. But to watch? Yawn. A number of better options. Heck, I'd watch hockey first -- basically just soccer, but with some action and no rolling around on the groung faking death from being tripped.

It is definitely the world's sport however, and its got nothing to do with "beating America". At the time it was being spread globally by the colonial powers we were still a relative afterthought internationally. The amazing thing overseas is what seems to be a lack of viable universal alternatives. No offense, but cricket?? (another Brit spread sport). Until basketball started spreading, really it seemed in a lot of places the only real option was soccer.

So in this case I say thank god for the United States when it comes to sport, if nothing else. We may suck at soccer, but at least we've come up with some cool ones ourselves. Doubt soccer will ever be king here given the established alternatives that don't actually cure insomnia. And certainly it will never be virtually the ONLY sport played. Its been just about the most popular youth sport for a long time (hence the "soccer" mom). But then we grow up and learn to watch something more interesting.

 

[hoopsfan]

Don't knock it if you don't understand it.

I understand it...it's boring!!!

 

[bozzwell]

Soccer is boring to watch.

Sorry. But true. Played it for 10+ years when I was young. Still think its a blast to play. But to watch? Yawn. A number of better options. Heck, I'd watch hockey first -- basically just soccer, but with some action and no rolling around on the groung faking death from being tripped.

It is definitely the world's sport however, and its got nothing to do with "beating America". At the time it was being spread globally by the colonial powers we were still a relative afterthought internationally. The amazing thing overseas is what seems to be a lack of viable alternatives. No offense, but cricket?? (another Brit spread sport). Until basketball started spreading, really it seemed in a lot of places the only real option was soccer.

So in this case I say thank god for the United States when it comes to sport, if nothing else. We may suck at soccer, but at least we've come up with some cool ones ourselves. Doubt soccer will ever be king here given the established alternatives that don't actually cure insomnia. And certainly it will never be virtually the ONLY sport played. Its been just about the most popular youth sport for a long time (hence the "soccer" mom). But then we grow up and learn to watch something more interesting.

Well, again there is really no lack of alternatives. In fact, just about any sport is growing worldwide thanks to television. In fact, amazing growth of ex-Yugoslavian basketball is often attributed to TV. When soccer became to o expensive to televise, national TV in former Yugoslavia bought cheap rights to televize basketball every Wednesday and Saturday on Channel 2. Ball is big enough and court is small enough for it to be effectively covered by just two cameras and hey presto - from 70's on Yugoslavia became European basketball superpower.

Also, I don't care whether it is soccer, cricket ot baseball when I choose sports to follow. I cannot watch MLS soccer (or today's Serbian premier league soccer for that matter) because it is of a very poor quality (for the same reason, all the good players from US and Serbia play in western Europe). I have to watch sport played at the highest level of excellence, with meaningfull rivalries and I need to see athletes do something that an average person cannot do. So, when I lived in Serbia it was basketball, soccer, waterpolo and handball that I watched. In England it was soccer and rugby, cricket only if International tests were on (watching Brian Lara of West Indies used to be like watching MJ - noone else could do that).

In USA it is Football, BAseball and basketball. Watching Bear-Packers gets me in the same state (and it is a whole another state, believe me) as Partizan - Zvezda (two biggest rivals in all Serbian sports) soccer or basketball games used to.

If I had to make my pick of just one sport to watch for the rest of my life, it would be NFL. But if I lived in Australia, maybe I would go all crazy about Aussie rules football all with ball punching and oval shaped field that looks just silly now that I am in USA.

 

[VF21]

Soccer is over 3,000 years old:

This is Soccer!

There is documentary evidence that a game or skill building exercise, involving kicking a ball into a small net, was used by the Chinese military during the Han Dynasty - around the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Earlier evidence - of a field marked out to play a ball-kicking game - has been found at Kyoto, in Japan.

Both the Greeks and ancient Romans played a soccer-type game which resembled modern soccer although in this early version, teams could consist of up to 27 players!

It is impossible to say accurately where and when soccer started, but it is reasonable to assume that some type of ball game - from which the organised sport we know today developed - has been played somewhere on the planet for over 3000 years.

Britain is the undisputed birthplace of modern soccer/association football, with Scotland and England being co-founders of the organised game.

Football - as soccer is called in Britain - was a popular sport of the masses from the 8th century onwards. But the game at that time was a war game!

There is a story which places the first football game in the east of England, where the locals played 'football' with the severed head of a Danish Prince they had defeated in battle.

In medieval times, towns and villages played against rival towns and villages and kicking, punching, biting and gouging were allowed. The object of the game was to move the ball to an agreed spot which had been marked out before play commenced. Hundreds of people took part and games could last all day.

So violent did these matches become that many attempts were made by the authorities to ban soccer. In England, King Edward III passed laws in 1331 to try and suppress football. In Scotland, King James 1, in 1424, proclaimed in Parliament, "That na man play at the Fute-ball" (No man shall play football/soccer).

Good Queen Bess, Queen Elizabeth 1 of England, had a law passed which provided for soccer players to be " jailed for a week, and obliged to do penance in church." But no law could stop the game in Britain. It was too popular.

In 1815, the famous English School, Eton College, established a set of rules which other schools, colleges and Universities began to use. Later, these were standardised and a version, known as the Cambridge Rules, was adopted by most of England's Universities and Colleges in 1848.

But now, football was divided into two separate camps. Some colleges and schools preferred to follow rules drawn up by Rugby School - rules which permitted tripping, shin-kicking and carrying the ball - all forbidden by the Cambridge rules.

On 26 October 1863, eleven London clubs and schools sent their representatives to a meeting in the Freemason's Tavern to establish a single set of fundamental rules to govern the matches played amongst them. This meeting created The Football Association. The supporters of the Rugby School rules walked out. On 8 December 1863, Association Football and Rugby Football finally split.

In 1869 The Football Association included in their rules a provision which forbade any handling of the ball, so establishing the foundation on which the modern game stands.

Football or Soccer? - In the 1880's, Oxford University students used slang which involved adding an "er" to the end of words they had deliberately shortened. "Rugger," was slang for Rugby Football. A student, named Charles Wreford Brown, was asked if he liked to play rugger.

'No soccer!' Was his witty reply. He had shortened asSOCiation (football) and added "er." The term was coined! Wreford Brown went on to play international football, (oops!) soccer, for England.

In 1888, William McGregor, a Scot and director of Aston Villa club, persuaded 12 clubs to agree to a regular home and away fixture list, so creating the English Football League.

The 12 founding clubs were:

Accrington (Old Reds)
Aston Villa
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Derby County
Everton
Notts County
Preston North End
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers

The first league match kicked off on 8th September 1888. Jack Gordon, playing for Preston North End scored the first ever league goal.

From these beginnings world soccer developed. Today Soccer is played on all five continents. It is the world's largest spectator sport. The world cup 2002 was watched by a a cumulative in-home audience of 28.8 billion viewers.
46 million viewers watched the 2002 WC England v Brazil quarter final match. The English Premier League - widely regarded as the world's best league is telecast weekly to 163 countries attracting an audience of 550 million.

http://worldsoccer.about.com/cs/historyandstats/a/sochistart_2.htm

Soccer has been around much, much longer than any sport in the United States OR the United States itself. The world has been playing it for a very long time. The US is just a little late to the party.

 

[piksi]

Thus, the world LOVES soccer because it is about the only venue for them to beat the U.S. at anything. In every other sport, Americans flat dominate or are in the top five teams worldwide. The fact that the U.S. soccer team ever beats any other international competition is plain sad; their best of the best cannot beat our best of the worst.

hillarious

Currently, US isn't holdning a world title in pretty mauch any sport there is. Not even in baseball - which btw isn't sport.

US has most money and 300 million people and isn't even world champion in Basketball.

Soccer is popoular because You don't have to be big or strong or RICH to play. You can even make the ball Yourself. Calling it boring is pretty patetic especially when You don't understand the game.

 

[Sackings8390]

wow you mention that soccer on a pro level isnt as big as nfl,nhl,nba
well no s**t

as for saying it takes less athletic ability to play soccer is just ignorant

you run for 90 minutes without timeouts and tell me how it goes

 

[Sackings8390]

I understand it...it's boring!!!

please use intelligence in your arguments

 

[Sackings8390]

Soccer is boring to watch.

Sorry. But true. Played it for 10+ years when I was young. Still think its a blast to play. But to watch? Yawn. A number of better options. Heck, I'd watch hockey first -- basically just soccer, but with some action and no rolling around on the groung faking death from being tripped.

It is definitely the world's sport however, and its got nothing to do with "beating America". At the time it was being spread globally by the colonial powers we were still a relative afterthought internationally. The amazing thing overseas is what seems to be a lack of viable universal alternatives. No offense, but cricket?? (another Brit spread sport). Until basketball started spreading, really it seemed in a lot of places the only real option was soccer.

So in this case I say thank god for the United States when it comes to sport, if nothing else. We may suck at soccer, but at least we've come up with some cool ones ourselves. Doubt soccer will ever be king here given the established alternatives that don't actually cure insomnia. And certainly it will never be virtually the ONLY sport played. Its been just about the most popular youth sport for a long time (hence the "soccer" mom). But then we grow up and learn to watch something more interesting.

what sports would those be

 

[Sackings8390]

I have been listening to a lot of radio and TV banter about the World Cup and soccer being "the world's game" and "the greatest game ever" and that we stupid Americans are flat lame for hating it. I thought about it for a bit and here is what I think is the real deal:

In most other countries, soccer is the number one sport. Every kid plays it and dreams of playing pro soccer. All of their nations top athletes play soccer for their whole life. The nation's heroes are primarily soccer players. They are the nation's best of the best.

In the USA, the top game is split between Basketball, Football, Baseball, and Hockey. The majority of kids play one or more of these sports growing up. The majority of the best athletes specializes in these sports. Soccer in America is WAY down the list, plus, even if soccer were your favorite, you would probably make more money playing one season of pro hoops or football than in an entire career playing soccer. So why do it? The U.S. Soccer system essentially represents the best of the people who are 1)soccer fans at heart and 2) athletes not good enough to play other sports. The best of the worst.

Thus, the world LOVES soccer because it is about the only venue for them to beat the U.S. at anything. In every other sport, Americans flat dominate or are in the top five teams worldwide. The fact that the U.S. soccer team ever beats any other international competition is plain sad; their best of the best cannot beat our best of the worst.

That is my 2-cents... as soon as we start dominating soccer, rugby will be the world's game.

it is the worlds game

550 million people watched on live tv the world cup draw(that tells which teams play which)

as opposed to the 100 million for the superbowl

 

[pdxKingsFan]

In my honest opinion what kills soccer in the US is our laziness. I know why I quit playing - I hated the practices. We ran 3 or 4 miles total in laps as warm ups and cool downs and then you gotta figure in what you run when actually playing or doing drills. As piksi said you don't have to be strong or rich to play, but you really have to want it.

I also don't understand why people find the sport boring, its certainly no more boring than baseball and a good chunk of Americans find watching golf and NASCAR on TV entertaining. There are different ways to play and some are definitely more entertaining than others - look at what Germany is doing right now, they are all offense and are a threat to score 4 or 5 goals a game if the shots make the mark of course they'll probably lose once they run into a more conservative team that counters well. If American Football scored with 1s and 2s instead of 3s and 7s a good chunk of the scores would be pretty close to club football scores. The complaints of sissy Euros diving don't hold water now that NFL receivers dive for pass interference calls and NBA players flop all over the place. But to each their own. I personally like all sports just because I enjoy the spirit of competition.

 

[hoopsfan]

please use intelligence in your arguments

It wasn't an arguement...It's a valid opinion. I've tried to watch it..it's unbearabley BORING. No two ways about it. B-O-R-I-N-G!!
If you like soccer...good for you, but don't call people who don't like it unintelligent or somehow inferior to people who do.

 

[VF21]

If you like soccer...good for you, but don't call people who don't like it unintelligent or somehow inferior to people who do.

Excellent point.

 

[bozzwell]

It wasn't an arguement...It's a valid opinion. I've tried to watch it..it's unbearabley BORING. No two ways about it. B-O-R-I-N-G!!
If you like soccer...good for you, but don't call people who don't like it unintelligent or somehow inferior to people who do.

Well, if it's "an opinion" then there are certainly more then two ways about it. Your insistence on calling "boring" a game that is enjoyed by quite literaly billions of people Worldwide is a valid opinion and yet it is missinformed, petty and arrogant jingoistic crap (you are a Lakers fan after all).

Mowing lawn is boring. Waiting in the line at the grocery store is boring. Lakers dominating NBA finals with Shaq and Kobe is boring. Watching paint dry is boring.

You try to watch any of those things and tell me that it isn't boring and I will be dissagree (my opinion - not a FACT).

What is it with this compulsion to:

a) put down USA because not every American is wetting themselves over World Cup, or
b) put down rest of the World and their game of choice because it does not comform to your expectations?

Grow the **** up and you may realise that:

a) Sports don't have to be distilled to what happens between time outs/commercials and chopped out into action bits and "the rest" for it to be exciting (this is to my American friends and brothers/sisters), or
b) Soccer may be the "World's game" but USA is also part of the World and most Americans are happy with their choice of NFL, NBA, MLB and that thing on skates and ice (this is to my "World" friends and brothers/sisters).