Posted on 10/16/2009 8:58:45 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
The Los Angeles Galaxy star came in the top ten of what one U.S. magazine called the biggest 'busts, choke artists'.
U.S. based Maxim magazine said Beckham's move to the Los Angeles team was nothing short of a 'catastrophe'.
After all the publicity about his £125m move, it said the former Manchester United star has failed miserably to make football - or soccer as it is called in the US - more attractive to fans.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
americans will never warm to it. i love the world cup and cannot wait to get up reaaaaaaallllly early to watch it.
Laying SOCCER’s American failure at Beckham’s feet is a little disingenuous. Soccer has long floundered in the US, and using one man to jump-start it is an error in planning as much as execution.
Isn’t soccer kind of like a bad version of keep-a -way?
No wonder all the socialists love it. That about sums up their entire world view right there.
The magazine points outs that attendances at LA Galaxy games are down by nearly 25 per cent - and the team wins more frequently when Beckham is not in the starting line up.
I don’t know, maybe he hasn’t been such a bust...after all, fake injuries and sales of orange slices are up...plus the crowds at Chuck E Cheese are getting larger.
they are confusing correlation with causation. he ain’t what he once was, but beckham is still a great player. especially in any league in the US.
That said, the game would be improved literally if we were to incorporate the old Aztec rules. Losing team gets sacrificed.
The rest of the world will never understand how displays of pansy ass behavior faking injuries on every bump could somehow turn Americans off. Not surprising considering the rest of the world is a bunch of pansy asses.
sorry - “literally” = “considerably” - need more coffee.
The only thing that will save soccer in the USA is the enormous influx of Third Worlder’s.
Shouldn’t blame Beck. He was poorly used. At this point in his career, Beckham is a specialist. But the popularity of Soccer in America is growing by leaps and bounds. The LA Galaxy is currently in first place in the MLS Western Division, so who cares about whether people think Beck was a bust.
Over in Britain, it's a Class thingy. Blue Collar plays Soccer, White Collar plays Rugger (Rugby Union, not Rugby League!)
Flame away Brits!
Heck, someone here on FR once told me that all that falling on the ground crying was actually brilliant strategy that helped a team stop a shift in momentum and rest it's players.
...Plus most of the world doesn’t have 4 MAJOR competing sports in the country. Football, baseball, basketball and hockey? Where would soccer fit? Other countries don’t have to deal with all that competition. In Europe you have soccer...soccer...and some basketball...then some more soccer.
I guess they’ve never heard of Ryan Leaf across the pond?
And Oguchi Onyewu’s injury was just a pansy fake, huh?
I remember my soccer team watching movies in the mid-70's about Pele and how he was going to bring the glorious international sport of soccer to us ignorant, provincial Americans.
All true. But it was also preposterous of Beckham and Posh to think their star power alone would make soccer relevant to Americans.
They did seem to conduct themselves as though they fully expected that Beckham’s soccer experience would not even miss a beat in being transferred from England to America.
The problem with that explanation is that it’s not true. If a player is on the ground injured the rules state that the game cannot stop until there is a natural stoppage in the game, such as a ball played out of bounds, goal kick, etc.
“...has failed miserably to make football - or soccer as it is called in the US - more attractive to fans....”
With the likes of the Cowboys, Steelers, Packers, or Niners, who needs the other kind of football?
In the USA, Soccer is the sport of the future......and always will be.
Its hilarious how clueless your statement is. Hilarious as in, Im laughing AT you, not with you.
I’ve seen plenty of soccer games, and I clearly recall the refs stopping play several times to check on an apparently injured player.
Hmmmk. It’s still a varmebruder sport.
Well, considering the bread and circus mentality of what we’re seeing with this administration and this congress, that’s not outside of the realm of possibility in our life time, I’d say.
After watching an EPL or La Liga match, watching the MLS is like watching Instruction League baseball.
• play is allowed to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in the opinion of the referee, only slightly injured
• play is stopped if, in the opinion of the referee, a player is seriously injured
-FIFA Laws of the Game
So a player cannot merely feign an injury to rest or to stop the momentum (advantage) of the opposing team.
I understand it. I just don’t like it.
Hockey can be low scoring too but that is a sport I can enjoy watching in person even if I don’t go out of the way to watch on tv.
LOL, OK.
Wayne Gretzky jumped started hockey fandom, almost by his lonesome.
When a Manchester United, Real Madrid or FC Barcelona come here to play an exhibition game, the games always sell out here. So I believe that soccer can find an niche, but the problem is that it won’t happen until our teams can compete with the great European teams. So you have a “Chicken or the Egg” situation. The best way to do it, is to form alliances with the big Euro clubs, essentially making the MLS a minor league for the Europeans, some MLS teams are already doing this, ala “Real Salt Lake” with Real Madrid.
So when Manchester United wants to develop their young players and give them playing time before they crack the lineup, have them play here. Since the hardcore soccer fan in this country already is following the European teams, you get that tie-in.
When I see the fake and insincere injuries that seem to heal themselves miraculously it repulses me as an American. It is the antithesis of our core values. We don’t reward fakers, cheats and liars. Oh wait, we do. Never mind.
American football, basketball, hockey...
I don’t agree.
I’d need facts/figures to show that he dramatically improved hockey game attendance or tv viewership. Hockey was already a well-established North American sport at the time. Not at the level of the NFL, NBA or baseball, but established nonetheless. Gretzky just put a youthful face on a game that was seen as a “Gordie Howe” kind of thing.
And you’re still clueless. Funny how that works out...
Given the threatened boycott of the NFL on these threads, maybe Rush will boost soccer in the USA ;)
Ok, then. Ya seem a little more emotionally invested in the topic than I. Have a nice day.
Anybody that thinks soccer isn’t growing in the USA isn’t paying attention (because they aren’t interested anyway).
Since I moved to this country (from UK) in 1987 I’ve seen things go from no soccer on TV at all, to occasional midnight EPL games, a regular EPL schedule, MLS growing, Fox Soccer Channel...etc. - now I’m seeing Fox Sports Detroit have games, ESPN, ESPN2 - with multiple live games on each of them.
No, I don’t see soccer becoming the top sport as is everywhere else...as mentioned we have 4 other sports.
fyi...the new Seattle team is getting huge crowds...it IS getting momentum. I’d like to see a team here in the Detroit area...we could certainly use any new business we can get.
They should just took that money and Paid people to sit through that torture instead of bringing that Poodle to play here.
a player can be one of the best in the world and hardly ever score a goal.
No wonder all the socialists love it. That about sums up their entire world view right there.
Yup. I'm friends with a Norwegian who just can't understand my utter distain for soccer. It is deeper than just not liking a sport, it goes against the grain of something elemental in all good Americans.
And yet YOU were the person that had the 5th comment on this thread...please stick to posting on threads on which know something about the topic, although I realice that may mean we never hear from you again.
I think you mean...
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...cracks me up when they say it for a whole minute, I don’t get how they do it in one breath!
I believe they’re measuring Beckham by the wrong metrics. He wasn’t supposed to come here and score a hundred goals. He’s a ball deliverer and spot shooter...and still a very good one. I see plenty of kids wearing “Beckham” shirts...and there’s still larger attendance wherever he plays. Job done, goal accomplished.
I can see ya being all worked up since no one over the age of 10 actually plays your sport but have hope, the Commies are in charge now, I am sure futball is about to surge.
I love soccer, you see, it’s always been my dream to play for an Italian club, like Barcelona. :^)
I don't know about that - a lot of us played it, and I think that it isn't too hard for hockey fans to enjoy as well.
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