Posted on 06/09/2006 8:56:48 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
So you Think Soccer Sucks?
Fine. I am honestly surprised that you could find the energy to type it, or its equivalent. I am not surprised that you are probably the same person complaining that soccer is being “rammed down your throat,” or other such nonsense.
Do you realize how silly you sound? In what sort of universe can a professional sport, any professional sport, be forced upon anyone? Just turn off the sports media. That enough should be understandable to every member of this website, even the re-treads, trolls, disruptors, and shills.
But we need to get a few things straight. Above all else, your team is playing in the largest tournament on the face of our planet. That’s right, your team. Your other teams, be they named Penske, Padres, or Packers, do not perform on such a stage. A Packer fan may tell a Bear fan that his team sucks. The Bear fan will reply in kind. Such is the nature of rivalry. But try and explain to me that soccer is a wussy sport when I see the following:
Mexican fan: Your team sucks.Oh yeah, that’s real testosterone on display. Chicks dig a competitor.
U.S.A. fan: Soccer is ghey.
If you cannot bring yourself to cheer for or even defend your own country, then how about shutting the heck up. If you cannot bring yourself to shut the heck up, then walk into a stadium full of English, German, or Dutch fans, stand up, and shout the same out loud. But please try those fans first. Other countries’ fans may mistakenly deliver you to a painless death. Drink a beer or two if it makes you brave. Remember that there will always be someone braver than you.
I don’t want to hear about how soccer is a “socialist” sport. It’s insulting. To your intelligence. I don’t care to talk about restrictor-plates, revenue-sharing, anti-trust exemptions, or the Fair Catch Rule, whose very name suggests wine spritzers and flower arrangements. Please understand this is not about the superiority of one sport over another. This is about rising to the pinnacle of a sport that gives every country in the world the opportunity to qualify. It’s a sport. It has a ball. It's about being the best. What more do you need?
Americans love to fight - traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player; the fastest runner; the big league ball players; the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win - all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed.1I don’t want to hear that the rules are lame. You don’t know the rules. You all but admitted you don’t watch, so how can you? Injury time, the calculation of which was always the source of debate, is now announced at the sideline as the half is ending. It’s been that way for years. Please try and keep up.
Players take dives. Live with it. It happens in every contact sport. Sometimes a player takes a dive in order to give himself or his teammates a rest. You would also if you just spent the last forty minutes and incalculable miles alternating between a run and a sprint.
Your team needs you. Your country needs you. The next couple weeks will not be easy and will only become harder, and the stakes higher, as time goes on. Sure, I think Landon Donavan is a priss, DaMarcus Beasley is over-rated, and Claudio Reyna is too old. It matters not. I do not expect you to start drinking at 5AM. I do not expect you to march down Main Street with the Stars & Stripes. I do not expect four Chicago cops in riot-gear come to the apartment (my personal best). But I expect you to get behind your team or get out of my way.
Thanks for letting me “share.” Thanks for letting me “emote.” Chuckle if you wish. Just remember that somewhere (not necessarily in Germany) someone in American gear is drinking and dancing with a hot Brazilian, or Swedish, or Australian chick and you are not.
_____
1George S. Patton, Speech to the Third Army, 1944.
Alan Alda?
Come on, tying a sport to a political ideology is just lazy.
I like soccer because it is a strategic game, like basketball, and it has plenty of action.
As for Baseball, its dying, Barry Bonds and Pete Rose and Jose Canseco killed it. Plus, its $7.50 for a beer at a Diamondback game, and you have to be half crocked to enjoy baseball.
ROFL!
I am hardly left wing.
I am amazed that there are so many soccer bashers on these threads. I could care less about basketball...in fact I really dislike it but I wouldnt even think of posting on a basketball thread just to spout off about what a suck a$$ "sport" it is and how the players are a bunch of over paid criminals who are nothing more then freaks of nature...
It is ironic in a sense because soccer is one of the manifestions of globalizations. It is not just American icons like McDonald's, Starbucks, or Microsoft doing this trick - the British have their own fronts for globalizations too.
"If you get a chance, shoot up to Vietnam, another wonderful place."
Maybe when the govt is more freedom friendly. :)
"Thais will never excel in soccer, they are too small."
Aww. :(
Of course, this kind of globalization is ok becauser the Euros are more "sophisticated" and "enlightened" than us tobaccy chewin' yokels.
I saw more freedom and free markets in Vietnam than I ever did in Thailand, or Mexico for that matter.
Stay away from Laos though, its a rathole.
Hmm, seems a lot of things have changed...
But I still have a grudge against the Viet Coms. :)
The country is pretty amazing, they have cut the poverty rate in half each year for the last couple of years and there are mom and pop markets every where. Plus, they run a trade surplus and have really rebuilt their infrastructure. They are in much better shape than Mexico.
Laos is a basket case, a really shabby little hole. Cambodia shows great promise though. All the countries do have some of the best people on earth though, I would gladly live over there.
BTW, I ran into dozens of vets that were going back to Nam to see it, every single one remarked about how well they were treated, and none of them regretted their trip.
Textbook strawman. Well done. If you ever see an article that tells you the same, please post it.
I've never understood the necessity of admitting on a thread that one is ignorant of the subject, and that there is some sort of an insidious conspiracy to force the subject upon oneself, and that besides, the subject is for girls. I suppose I am repeating myself. I should leave it for my little essay at the top, and kick myself for forgetting that some wouldn't read it before responding. :)
One thing for sure: Burma is the worst out of all these countries.
In 50 years the majority of Americans will be soccer fans.
Unfortunately, they will be supporting Mexico :-P
There's not a strawman in there. For one thing I'm not trying to prove anything one way or the other. I'm not anti or pro-soccer, I watch some but it's not on my favorites list, my level of interest has increased since the American team started having a chance in the World Cup but still remains vauge at best, and given that the vast majority of the games this year are taking place at times that aren't convenient (the late games are starting at noon local time, might catch a couple during the weekends but that'll be it) for me that doesn't look to be changing. We've all seen the idiot stories by whiny doofuses like Mitch Albom that classify America's lack of fondness for soccer as some deep character flaw, and since frankly the list of writers that that write that crap has a nearly 1:1 relationship with the list of sports writers I think are a waste of ink, bits, and time I'm not going to go look them up. Of course since I'm criticizing THEM and not the game or the fans there's really no reason anybody on FR should care, unless you have some sick facination with Albom or Whitlock or the other really bad sports writers out there.
Oddly enough, I do wish to see Burma, heard some good traveller reports about it.
And great diving.
And no perscriptions on any OTC drugs!
Yes I do. Don't take it personally, I think most sports blow for watching purposes. For playing soccer is better then baseball where you spend most of the game sitting on your butt but as a watching sport it blows.
Hockey, horse racing, gymnastics, those are watching sports. Watching people do things that we could not come close to doing in a million years. But kicking a ball around? I can do that. I may not be able to do it very well but I can do it.
The fact of the matter is, one sees just as many fluff articles about practically any other sport. Remember when the Cowboys were "America's Team?" How patronizing.
Nonetheless, I stick to my original point: if there are writers out there trying to "force" anything on anyone, I haven't seen them yet. A few more threads such as this one, and I probably will. And I won't accept some sort of half-assed "I told you so" (not speaking to you specifically).
After watching Poland today, YES!
Dude. Their set-pieces were simply horrible. Poles can't jump (I know there's a joke in there somewhere).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.