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.
Yep, liberals don't like the merit based world of clearly defined winners and losers, people's feelings get hurt you know ;)
BTW, Dubya is pretty interested in soccer too. :)
Well, I'm conservative and I love it, its a great game.
Better than Steroid baseball, where nothing, absolutely nothing of any kind happens during the majority of the game.
Spend a few weeks in Argentina or Africa or E.Europe, you will get a better appreciation for soccer.
Correct.
LMAO. Bravo.
I'm not a big soccer fan, but I really enjoyed the British movie "Football Factory" and the Czeck film "Ups and downs". Hooliganism at it's best. Sparta Prague, Sparta Prague, oye oye oye.
redundant...
Happens. Its human nature to over generalized and shove things into categories even if the category is "circular hole" and the object is "square peg".
Bingo.
"I'd like to see an NFL player run nonstop for 45 minutes."
Jim Fixx was an awesome football player....
Ditto. I'm not athletic or sporty in general but I do like to play sports if given the opportunity or inclination. Soccer is huge in Thailand. And although I'm never much of a soccer fan, Man U is still the most kicka$$ team around. :)
You would have about 8 dead Defensive Ends per NFL game if you made those pigs run.
Same goes for rugby, great game, much more athletic than NFL.
I know Thailand quite well, been there a lot, including a full month last year.
One of my favorite places in the world. If you get a chance, shoot up to Vietnam, another wonderful place.
Thais will never excel in soccer, they are too small.
Seriously, the NFL is worried that what happened to baseball -- youth turning to play soccer in the spring instead of baseball, growing into adults that don't watch professional baseball nor buy tickets -- will happen to football next, if fall soccer encrouches.
NFL, NFL Players Association put up $2.5M four years ago to start USA Football, a non-profit to promote/support amatuer football in America. Check out their web site, usafootball.com
My worry is that as high schools get bigger in terms of student body population, and as America continues to urbanize, fewer boys will every learn to knock the crap out of each other and keep going. Football unfortunately is becoming a sport of behemoths, discouraging young men from playing a phyically adverse game that involves hard contact. Maybe lacrosse will become our next teen national physical contact sport and save our national manhood -- soccer sure as hell won't.
I'll grant you soccer is a sport, and is physically demanding, but it does not involve near-fighting conditions, complete with hitting, intentional physical and physcological intimidation -- and bell-ringing and bloodletting.
We need men that can fight, not dance around a ball.
Poland shots on Goal 1st half: 0
Yeah, but no one gets hurt in baseball unless there is a fight, and NFL guys are weenies compared to Rugby players.
Nothing happens in baseball, hell, the players either sit on their asses half the game, or stand still in a field for the other half. Occasionally, they hit then run,but then they just stand there, waiting. No thanks........
Soccer's grace is that anyone can play it, nearly anywhere you have enough room and a ball. I am constantly amazed at how many freepers feel threatened by a sport, its so childish.
This is a good idea as it will keep all the fat American baseball fans, who feel it necessary to tell us how much they hate soccer, off the World Cup threads.
I've coaches kids' teams and am formerly a FIFA level 8 qualified referee (my payback for having had kids play in youth leagues).
I'll even watch the World Cup.
But soccer is and never will be a game that captures the American psyche, unless we become a nation of Alan Alda's (God forbid).
Rugby maybe -- that's a pretty good blood-and-guts game, although simple in it's execution. Seemingly little strategic development to it.
Ta-da, and enjoy the Cup!
Or the ultimate fake "sport" NASCAR.
Bunch of goobs watching a car go around in circles for 4 hours, wow, what athleticism.
They feel threatened by a few Mexicans "invading" their borders so it is hardly surprising.
"And I officiate youth and high school football. "There are rules in life son. There are rules in football too. And if I catch you, there are penalites for breaking those rules. And yes, the guy across the line from you will bust you in the nose if you let him. You might want to hit him first. Now shut up and play ball!"
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