Posted on 08/08/2005 11:22:35 AM PDT by onja
mods-If this isn't in the right place please move or cut it.
Why do most Americans hate soccer? It's not just that they don't like it. They are actively against it.
Soccer takes more skill and endurance than the other sports. In middle and high school you take a beating.(Elbowed, tripped, kicked, tackled- All done fairly or behind the ref's back and without body armor) There are many tactics decided by the players(unlike football and baseball). It's a sport many different people can do. Not just people who are huge or work out daily at the gym. Fast people, skilled people, strong people(fullbacks), tall people(goaly), small people, smart people. Footballers don't need much skill. Mainly strength. baseball doesn't need too much skill. Mainly the basics(throwing and catching) and strength. And, seriously, why does everyone think soccer players are gay, weak, etc? They aren't. In middle school half the team played another school sport. All of the highschoolers could easily have played school football or basketball. Out of the hundreds of players I've played I've never seen one who was even acted at all gay.
I'm not going to diss either one. During the season, I spend my Saturdays watching the English Premier League and my Sundays watching my beloved Vikings.
There's something to like in most every sport, if you look hard enough. Great execution in the face of physical danger is appealing when I watch the NFL. In soccer, a good buildup executed by great athletes is quite graceful to watch. In hockey, overtime of a Stanley Cup playoff game is as good as it gets in sports.
But for my money, the most graceful thing in sports is a 4-6-3 double play, smartly turned.
Soccer is boring. It's needs more scoring. Do away with the offside call and maybe the scores will rise.
Australian Rules Football...the way soccer should be.
Amen to that. Poetry in motion.
I played basketball, baseball, and soccer in high school and enjoyed all 3 sports. I've coached (multiple) youth soccer teams for 6 years now.
The amount of ignorance on this thread is amazing. Its very hard for people who have never played soccer to develop an appreciation for the game. I don't even try to describe it to others.
The same is true, however, for other sports like baseball. How many of the baseball fans out there played baseball as a kid? Nearly all I would bet (including myself). Go out to the parks on a saturday and see how many kids play baseball vs soccer? In our town, more kids play soccer than all other sports (10 sports in all) combined.
Now Baseball is a lot of things, but action packed it is not. In 30 years, how popular do you think baseball is going to be among fans who never played it?
LOL
"No such thing as an accident:"
Tradition plays a large part in what sports are popular. This has already been mentioned. In this area, like many others, high school football rules the roost and serves as the community's rallying point.
The school may have good tennis and baseball and soccer teams. But Friday nights under the lights is what makes the community come together.
Soccer is the metric system of sports. The more we are told it is the future and the more it is foisted upon us, the more we will recoil from it as an alien import. There may be nothing wrong with soccer, per se. But it is alien to American culture. Hockey succeeds marginally in America. The rhythm and teamwork aspects of it and soccer are similar. I imagine if hockey did not have the violence of football, it would be about as popular as soccer.
SD
ping. :)
In 30 years lets discuss how popular the great American past time is.
the more it is foisted upon us, the more we will recoil from it as an alien import.
True. Thats why its not the current generations but the ones that come after that will appreciate soccer. It may never be as popular as American football but it will steadily gain in popularity. Just like baseball will steadily decline.
I'd say the first response nailed it: it's boring.
Baseball is in decline, for sure. But I don't see any evidence that soccer is filling the void.
SD
Many of us have played it. I have played a lot of soccer. It's boring. All that it requires is stamina. Not a whole lot of skill. Not very high scoring either.
Yeah, but we modified those games to make them appeal to Americans. I think most Americans would rather watch a Pop Warner Mighty-Mites football game than a professional rugby match.
Ok...how about Communist Kickball!???
Soccer: Why is it hated?
Because my sister plays soccer. Isn't that enough?
Negatory, ever played Lacrosse? It's like soccer except you try to carry a much smaller and harder ball in a tiny butterfly net, all the while constantly running and getting beaten with said nets on aluminum sticks.
...baseball doesn't need too much skill...
Wrong again. Ever try to hit a 90mph round ball with a round stick? Or a ball that's spinning so fast you can't tell if it's going to move toward or away from you? Sink or rise?
Soccer requires incredible stamina, but probably the LEAST amount of skill of the major worldwide sports. Running and kicking. Often at the same time, but that's about it.
Speak for yourself.
My whole sporting year resolves around avoiding baseball at all cost. What a bore these days.
Cricket isn't bad unless you're completely clueless as to what is going on.
And rugby! Wow!! Great sport! This is another sport that would be enjoyed if people knew more about it.
Of course, some Americans view soccer much in the same way I view GOLF--->SNORE!
Only places with nothing else to live for actually pay for sports. Here in LA, we will never, ever pay a dime for a team of any kind. We are still waiting for the NFL to tell us how much they will pay us to accept an expansion team (no retreads or sloppy seconds, thank you).
LA fans are the most devastating in all of sportsdom. If you are winning, great,we are along for the ride. If you lose, we don't care.
Remember the opposite of Love isn't Hate -- it is Indifference.
There are a lot of games that work on the same principle as soccer -- ice hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, basketball, team handball, polo, water polo. Not to get too "new agey" about it, but the most successful of these concentrate the energy in a small area. Concentrate that energy and you get a fast moving game with plenty of goals and action. Spectators also take in more of the game at any given time in a glance.
Soccer disperses the action over a much larger field and that means more downtime when nothing much is happening. You could make the field smaller, or the goal larger and harder to defend, or alternatively, give the players a faster means of transportation (which may defeats the point of sport as exercise).
My top sports to participate in:
1. Football
2. Skiing
3. Basketball
4. Cycling
5. Baseball
6. Soccer
To Watch:
1. Football
2. Basketball
3. Tennis
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