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Grrr! Imagine if World Cup Soccer Meant Something
FOXNews.com ^ | June 5, 2006 | Mike Straka

Posted on 06/06/2006 6:17:29 AM PDT by RayChuang88

Are we too spoiled as a society to recognize the importance of soccer?

I was watching a television promotion for the FIFA World Cup Tournament the other day, and the theme of the spot was that this simple thing — a little round leather ball — can bring so much national pride, so much joy and so much energy to entire nations around the world.

Except ours, that is. Why is that?

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: soccer; society; sports; worldcup
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To: discostu
Sports need winners and losers, without winners and losers it was all just an exercise in sweaty exuberance.

Right. Just like they say a tie is like "kissing your sister." ;-)

SD

61 posted on 06/06/2006 8:45:16 AM PDT by SoothingDave
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To: SoothingDave

Yes, teams have a limit on the number of players.

Ok, if you want to allow rolling subs then you shift the emphasis on who needs to attack. As it is, the better team has the incentive to attack lest they risk going out in a penalty shootout. This gives the weaker team the opportunity to counter attack.

Allow rolling subs I extra time and the stronger team in theory has more incentive to defend and flood the pitch with different good players in extra time.

Personally I think the former scenario is preferable.


62 posted on 06/06/2006 8:48:56 AM PDT by FostersExport
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To: discostu

“There's something innately unsatisfying in spending 3 hours watching a game and in the end nobody won, we have no declaration of superiority”

That’s a short-term view. No victor was declared on the day perhaps, but over the season a victor emerges.

I don’t doubt you believe what you say. My point was essentially the entire rest of the world doesn’t concur!


63 posted on 06/06/2006 8:52:24 AM PDT by FostersExport
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To: al_c

The NFL teams that win have that quality. Actually most of the players in the NFL already have that quality whether their team wins or loses, the majority of players on the field at any given time are there to give and take physical punishment to allow others to succeed, no flashy receiver to could ever receive a TD pass if the o-line wasn't bashing people to protect the QB. Just had another shining example of it last weekend when the Steelers got their rings, Dan Rooney felt the ring should only have one Lombardi trophy represented on the ring to allow the current team's accomplishment to stand alone, the players he consulted wanted the other four Lombardis represented because they're a part of Steeler history and the players wanted to join that history and not merely stand alone.


64 posted on 06/06/2006 8:59:13 AM PDT by discostu (get on your feet and do the funky Alphonzo)
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To: SoothingDave

In small leagues like the one I described, there are really no regulations like that. The professional leagues of course have limits.


65 posted on 06/06/2006 9:02:57 AM PDT by al_c
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To: discostu
The NFL teams that win have that quality.

A very good point, but that quality is fading quickly over the years. When Dallas was at it's best, the team was a team. Now the Cowboys are nothing more than a few team members surrounded by individuals (especially since aquiring T.O.) that the Tuna brought on board in a feeble attempt to get to another Superbowl so he can retire again. Without instituting a team mentality, he'll never get there.

66 posted on 06/06/2006 9:07:09 AM PDT by al_c
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To: RayChuang88
Let in reality....commercials are the life blood of American
TV. Now get a sport without timeouts where play runs for 2x 45min periods straight interrupted only by a 15 min bathroom break.At one point for American TV sheer fiscal suicide.

Initially European TV with its revenues coming from license fees could afford to broadcast soccer matches.

However what goes around etc. and now with national sponsors, rotating sideline billboards,computer generated on screen ads, and players uniforms looking like NASCAR drivers overalls etc. expect more on US TV.
67 posted on 06/06/2006 9:07:50 AM PDT by managusta ("Where would we be without rules? That's right France!")
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To: FostersExport

Nothing wrong with a short-term view. Sports is a short-term concept, sports is about the moment (ask any football fan about "the drive", "the catch" or "wide right"), that's part of why sports need to declare winners after every game. Eventually getting a winner over the course of the season isn't good enough, people to a game to see somebody (preferably their favorite team) win.

Actually most of the rest of America does concur, that's why we abhore draws. What's the first question somebody asks when they find out you watched a sporting event recently that they didn't? "Who won", and the worst answer possible is "nobody, it was a draw". Maybe the non-American world doesn't concur but we spend more time and money on sports than they do so we might have a point. You asked why America abhores draws, I told you, maybe the real question should be why does the rest of the world tolerate draws.


68 posted on 06/06/2006 9:08:57 AM PDT by discostu (get on your feet and do the funky Alphonzo)
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To: al_c

Which shows that the quality isn't fading at all. There've always been teams that were collections of individuals, and those teams are rarely the winners, they might win a few games, might even make it to the playoffs, but eventually they will be over come by a team that is a team. Dallas is a team obsessed with individual success from the coach down, and they haven't gotten near a Superbowl and probably won't. Meanwhile the Pats are a team that's obsessed with being a team (first team to refuse individual introductions in the SB) and they won 3 SBs out of 4.


69 posted on 06/06/2006 9:12:17 AM PDT by discostu (get on your feet and do the funky Alphonzo)
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To: discostu

We agree that it takes a team mentality to win in the NFL, but it is still a fading quality IMO. The NFL is thriving with mediocrity because of it.


70 posted on 06/06/2006 9:17:30 AM PDT by al_c
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To: FostersExport
In a league format (which the World Cup initially is), what exactly is the problem with a draw? Sport should be an abstraction of life. There isn’t always a clear cut winner in life’s encounters.

Back in the day when college football allowed draws, I was listening to a University of Michigan radio broadcast (at work). When the game ended in a tie, one announcer said to the other, "A tie is like kissing your sister." Without missing a beat the other responded, "But at least she's pretty." That comment sticks with me to this day. Thanks everybody for letting me share.

71 posted on 06/06/2006 9:22:21 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: FostersExport
Germany is hardly a third world poverty hole either, and they’re second only to Brazil in the number of World Cup wins.

Mind you, soccer in Germany has a very long and distinguished history--it was one of the first countries outside the UK to take up soccer big time besides Italy. Indeed, many teams in Germany have distinguished histories that date back to the beginning of the 20th Century, just like some Italian soccer clubs! In my humble opinion, the German Bundesliga is second only to the English Barclays Premiership as the best professional soccer league in the world.

72 posted on 06/06/2006 9:27:36 AM PDT by RayChuang88
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To: al_c

I don't think it is, there have always been the glory boys, there will always be the glory boys, they're just a part of sports. Whatever mediocrity is in the NFL right now is because they've achieved the parity Rozelle dreamed of, they have the any given Sunday league, and unfortunately you can't create an any given Sunday league by turning all 32 teams into re-incarnations of the early 90s Niners and Cowboys, there just aren't that many great players in the world. You achieve it by turning as many teams as have the brains into the early 90s Bills and Broncos, pretty darn good but not awesome.


73 posted on 06/06/2006 9:35:34 AM PDT by discostu (get on your feet and do the funky Alphonzo)
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To: atomicpossum

And yet we call it "foot" ball.


74 posted on 06/06/2006 9:50:34 AM PDT by mucho muchacho
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To: FostersExport
The reason that most Americans don’t find soccer important is just a quirk of history.

Yep.

A century or more ago when American colleges were deciding which sports to play in the fall, there were three choices: There was "Association Football" called soccer. There was rugby which was developed from soccer, and There was the Harvard Game (or American football) which was developed from rugby.

It was in fact just a quirk of history, that what we call football was chosen.

75 posted on 06/06/2006 10:24:50 AM PDT by NathanR (Après moi, le deluge.)
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To: FostersExport
That’s a short-term view. No victor was declared on the day perhaps, but over the season a victor emerges.

So what!

I am not exactly a baseball fan, but I like my Angels. If I pay the money to actually see a game, I want to see them win (or lose). If I pay money I want to at least have a resolution of that game. Since The Angels are seldom in the hunt, I don't necessarily follow the standings.

76 posted on 06/06/2006 10:33:06 AM PDT by NathanR (Après moi, le deluge.)
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To: FostersExport

Substitutions are the reason I dislike team sports in general. If someone is getting tired they can pull him out and let him rest. In individual sports they have to stay out there and get through it. Seeing people break mentally in individual sports is one of the best things about those sports.


77 posted on 06/06/2006 10:47:55 AM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: Mr. Blonde
Seeing people break mentally...

Yeah, Mr. Blonde wanting to torture people, imagine that.

78 posted on 06/07/2006 10:28:17 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: Dick Vomer

Its okay because Wayne Rooney looks like Matt Hughes.


79 posted on 06/08/2006 8:22:15 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: SoothingDave

Football games are decided by the kick of a 5 foot 10, 125 pound guy all the time. At least all soccer players are athletes


80 posted on 06/08/2006 12:41:17 PM PDT by I Like Lincoln
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