5 Suggestions to Make Soccer More Palatable for American Audiences

Pajamas Media ^ | 06/18/2014 | Rick Moran

[Moose4]

One small thing I’d like to see them do: mic up the refs like rugby union and rugby league do. Rugby refs at the international level are wired up not just so the TV audience can hear them, but their dialogue is broadcast over the stadium PA—and unlike NFL refs, they don’t turn it off and on. It’s on all the time.

}:-)4

[eyedigress]

Have them change the rules to American football, and play on Monday.

[CountryClassSF]

The problem with “soccer” is simple— it can never be a man’s sport. It has a huge homosexual and Euro-lib cult following

[CommerceComet]

I’ve equally always maintained that anyone who claims soccer is boring has also not taken the time to learn the game.

There is probably some truth in both of our statements. No one is going to invest in learning all the nuances of a game which doesn't particularly interest him at the outset.

Basketball was invented by a Canadian and to claim its American is rather tenuous

Tenuous? While the game was invented by a Canadian who had moved to the U.S. (and who I believed never returned to Canada and later changed his citizenship), the game was first played in the U.S., it developed in the U.S., it spread from the U.S., and was (and arguably still is) dominated by U.S. players? If not the U.S., what other country would have a claim to the sport?

Again, I am not denying NASCAR isn’t great stuff, but frankly it will never have the glamour of F1: the cars, the history, the racetracks and locations. The one US race that does enthrall us is the Indy 500, that is a race par excellence.

You're probably right about the F1 glamour being unattainable to NASCAR. NASCAR doesn't have the same exotic race sites nor the same prestigious marques (particularly if Porsche returns to F1). In the U.S., NASCAR is far ahead of F1 and IndyCar in terms of popularity. Each of those racing series is very interesting in its own right.

Sports is a matter of personal taste. Some people think all sports are a silly waste of time and they are probably more correct than we are.

[MaxMax]

Say, didn't the Mayans execute the winning team?

[MaxMax]

Say, didn't the Mayans execute the winning team?

[imardmd1]

The great thing about soccer football really is that it uses the feet, eliminates hand and arm contatt with ball and others, and can be played anywhere in the world by anybody who is not disabled.

Soccer is fast-moving with simply understood rules of playing or observing. It focuses on personal ball-handling skills and team strategy. It doesn't require the surviving players to weigh twenty stone, wear complicated, expensive gear, and be bludgeoned (sometimes to death, often with permanent injuries).

In the American version the only actual playing action is maybe one fifth of the clock time, with a ball that will not roll by itself for any distance, and cannot really be called football when it is mostly only manipulated by hand action or body shielding.

Real football is a pervasive global sport; American football cannot be, and is very boring to to me as a spectator or player.

Just an opinion.,

(In '50s high school I played halfback at 150 to 165 lb, and was selected for end-of-season All-County, from a town too small to raise a football team, and too poor to pay for equipment even if it could. Girls' teams had their own league then with the same field and rules.)

[the scotsman]

What a load of rubbish.

[the scotsman]

Thanks for reply.

By tenuous, I was referring to the game’s invention, rather than the history of the sport.

[BunnySlippers]

Don’t watch it.
See #1
See #1
See #1
See #1

6. FREE NACHOS!

[gusty]

You should test your theorem outside of The Den in London. The home field for Millwall.

[CommerceComet]

Thanks for reply.

I think that we'll have to agree to disagree: I won't win you over to baseball and you won't win me over to soccer. All three of my children played a year of soccer (at different times), so I studied the game so I could assist them. It is still the only sport I have been exposed to which didn't spark a desire to learn more. Fortunately, none of my children liked the game, although one son showed tremendous potential as a goalie (lanky build, quick reflexes, good footwork, and good spatial understanding so he naturally positioned himself well).

I'm guessing that we can agree on Sir Jackie Stewart. From the world of sports, the Flying Scot is one of my all-time favorites.

[the scotsman]

Suggestions to Make Baseball More Palatable for American Audiences

1.Don’t watch it.
2.See #1
3.See #1
4.See #1
5.See #1

[the scotsman]

5 Suggestions to Make
Baseball More Palatable for Non- American Audiences

1.Don’t watch it.
2.See #1
3.See #1
4.See #1
5.See #1

[the scotsman]

5 Suggestions to Make
Gridiron More Palatable for Non-American Audiences

1.Don’t watch it.
2.Watch rugby union instead, its the REAL version after all.
3.Watch rugby league instead, its the REAL version after all.
4.See #2
5.See #3

[dfwgator]

I like Gaelic Football more.

[SeaHawkFan]

Casillas has been so bad, it might cause one to think maybe he has been paid to fix the matches.

[SeaHawkFan]

The offside rule is not complicated, but you misstated it.

I will agree that it needs some changes. My suggestion is that the offside rule not be applicable once the ball goes below the top of the penalty area, but still remain in effect in the goal box.

[dfwgator]

Basketball?...not bad, but not American either. What? You might want to brush up on sports history a bit.

James Naismith was a Canuck.

[discostu]

Just get rid of it. Field hockey used to have an identical rule, they jettisoned it in the 90s, nobody is complaining it ruined the sport.