Posted on 06/13/2010 12:05:17 PM PDT by Texas Peartree
The fevered pitch of excitement is hard to describe! Americans are jubilant at the 1-1 tie their team picked up against the British (we still are furious about their colonialism and cuisine)! On my block alone there have been two, make that three soccer riots.
I myself have pushed a brick wall over onto a crowd a singing Argentina soccer fans . . . twice. Well, same crowd but different brick walls. Wait, why were they singing the lyrics from Evita?
No, the fact is that nobody in America gives a tinker's damn about soccer, or at least no American in America does. Nor should they. When I was growing up it was all about the big three: football, baseball and basketball. Actually, here is Texas it was pretty much about the big one: football. Baseball and basketball were simply a way to stay in shape during the football off-season.
I notice that in whatever ethnic restaurants I go to (Chinese, Middle Eastern, Latin American) there is a flat-screen TV showing a thrilling 0-0 game. All of the waitstaff have their eyes glued to the "beautiful game". What am I missing? the game is deadly boring with virtually no scoring. It is like National League baseball in the 1980s.
There is, it must be said, something deeply un-American about a game that we Americans cannot regularly dominate. This must stop. If we do not win the World Cup this year, we must all agree to drop soccer as a sport. Agreed?...
(Excerpt) Read more at corybirenbaum.blogspot.com ...
Those horns were annoying enough on tv... could you imagine actually sitting in the stands hearing that for several hours?
Any sport whose once in 4 years world championship can be decided by a penalty kick shootout has got serious problems.
That is like the Super Bowl being decided by a Punt, Pass, and Kick competition, the World Series decided by a home run derby contest, or the NBA title given to the winner of the HORSE competition.
Equally frustrating is that if a team has a one goal lead (inevitably 1-0) with 15 minutes to play, the game is essentially over. Scoring is an aberration, and the chance of overcoming an insurmountable one goal lead in that time is remote at best.
However, so I am not viewed as the ugly American (both of which I am), I offer the following subtle rule modifications in an effort to get this actually decent sport out of its embarrassingly bad rulebook dilemma:
1) Make the goal slightly larger. Not a lot - perhaps a meter wider, and/or half a meter taller. (See, I know my metrics system equivalents - I know how to go the extra 1.609 kilometers).
2) Relax the offsides rule. Maybe allow one player to violate it, or even one player by 3 meters or so. Breakaways are exciting - encourage their occurrence.
3) Limit the area in which the goalie is allowed to use his hands.
4) On free kicks, limit the number of players allowed as part of the “wall”. Or make them at least take their cups off. 8^)
I would rather have bamboo shoved under my nails than be forced to watch soccer. Unlike some native Texans, I have embraced the glorious sport of hockey. Fast, hard-hitting action all in wonderful air-conditioned comfort.
Leave the stands in place but plow the field and plant corn. Sell tickets to watch it grow. It may not exceed the “excitement” of soccer but it’s a start.
I watched the last 15 minutes of the game yesterday. why the hell do I want to watch a game that ends in a tie. It is a waste of time.
At least I did not see any of those horrible soccer injuries where the player writhes on the ground for eternity.
Perhaps people watch it, to actually see the players play?
I think its amusing how the MSM trys their best to browbeat us into caring about Soccer every time the World Cup rolls around. They say we’re just being stubborn and anti-global by not caring about something that means so much to the rest of the world. They try to convince us that, “Soccer really is fun! It really is exciting! Heck, soccer players are the best athletes in the world! They tell us to just give it a try... Americans have never cared about soccer, and will never care about soccer. It will always rank below Football, Basketball, Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Hockey and Nascar in the American Psyche.
In the World, yes, but in America, if soccer and Libertarians were completely removed, who would give a damn? Not I.
I’m a Steelers fan, but that’s it. The other sports are dull as hell. Last year, I was almost forced to watch Pittsburgh pursue the Stanley Cup. I was in this rehab facility with only one tv, and the other patients insisted on watching the game. When I went to my room to plug in the CD player and listen to some music, I was labeled as anti-social. Big wup!
I’m even souring on the Steelers. Major sports have tons of overpaid, underworked participants, many of whom must have too much time on their hands because they are constantly getting in and out of trouble. Ben Roethlisberger, for example. The guy sneezes and every local station has to cover it. And people call these guys heroes. Something is wrong.
“World Cup Fever”
Didn’t the Chicago Ballhawks win? I thought that was all over.
They are all wearing ear plugs and they are all drunk.
5) Shrink the field down to 10 yards wide. That would make things interesting.
I haven’t been following womens sports.
I count myself as a hockey fan and even though the object is the same the method, speed and skill involved is very different. Soccer without a doubt of all the sports takes the least amount of skill, athletic prowess and physical toughness. Its made for the limp wrists the world over. Hockey you could have 25 shots on goal a period, lots of hard hits, and an exposition of real athleticism. Soccer it’s a glorified hack sack game with a round leather ball. I can always tell the kids which will be liberals or homosexuals, their parents let them play soccer after age 7. I am glad America has roundly rejected soccer as a national sport of record, even with the import of David Beckham and his Spice Girl wife in her stilettos.
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