10: Superior Commentary
His claim is given soccer's non-stop "action" commentators do not have the time to say anything stupid. /src on/Great commentary when one is just talking about how a pass is going from Player A to B./src off/
9: Friendlies: He claims these exhibition matches are great opportunities to watch the best clubs in the world compete against each other. What is left out is how often these clubs will not play their top players. The quality of play is often on par with NFL exhibition games.
8: Ticket Prices: He is comparing a sport with close to 40 matches a year to a sport with 12 - 16 games a season. The fact that soccer tickets are cheaper indicates the clubs need to keep prices low to attract fans.
7: The Atmosphere: He cites one German club. The average attendance for all Bundesliga is 45,000. Somtimes I watch European clubs on cable and for many matches outside the top flight clubs there are tons of empty seats.
6: More Quality Matches: He cites the fact given the different physical requirements soccer teams play more meaningful games. The problem is the European leagues are so top heavy the only meaningful games are those between those top teams.
5: Clear Champions
4: Uninterrupted Play: I don't count passing a round ball around with 99% of the time nothing gained as exciting uninterrupted play.
3: The Goals: Claims given the lack of scoring in soccer each goal is so important. Sort of contradicts point (5).
2: Player Safety
1: True International Competition. Fair enough but so what this country was founded as something different than from the rest of the world.
2:
Who cares what the rest of the world thinks..OH WAIT LIBS DO..now this makes sense.
Hogwash! Soccer flourishes because it is inexpensive to play.
Not again!
Seems like EXTREMELY BORED / LAZY sportswriters and/or opinion writers want to generate more web traffic ......
I’ll believe it when they start having “Monday Night Soccer” in America.
In the USA, soccer has been, and forever will be, considered a girl’s sport.
Oh wait, this is a slideshow with a provocative headline in order to generate hits.
Player safety?
That’s why it’s popular among parents of 7 year olds.
But we want our professional athletes to give their all. A fullback crashing into the line. A hockey player dishing out checks.
Safety? LOL
Sigh...yes. So I've been told by every left-wing globalist since at least the 1970's. Soccer is better the football! Why won't you jingoistic neanderthals realize that?!? The rest of the world loves soccer! We will never be apart of the world community until we embrace it! So even if you don't like it, at least put on a smile and pretend to for the sake of world peace!
But despite 40+ years of trying, Football is, if anything, more popular now that it was back then and Soccer's popularity (or lack thereof) is virtually unchanged. In fact if you want to put on the tinfoil hat, I wonder if a lot of the recent attempts to "neuter" Football through lawsuits and rules to reduce hits, is an attempt to destroy the sport with the though that then we won't have any choice but to watch Soccer.
The top ten reasons football is better than soccer:
10. Soccer is BORING.
9-2. Ditto.
1. SOCCER IS EXTREMELY BORING.
Soccer is a girl’s game. Period. It’s also extremely boring. I tried getting interested when Virginia Beach built a sports stadium for a local team. I went to 4 or 5 of their matches. It seemed to me that the game was nothing but passing the ball back and forth for no apparent gain, 99% of the time. Watching soccer wasn’t even a good excuse to sit outdoors and drink beer. I had more fun sitting in my backyard all by myself.
I think another European import has more action. Those runway model shows.
Huh? Doesn't Soccer permit tie games?
I have noticed that soccer is being pushed harder, and might even be more popular in the US in the past few years. I’ve also noticed that soccer seems to be extremely popular in socialist/communist countries.
Doesn’t mean there is a link, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t a link.
Send it back to the third world where it came from!
Wow, when I saw the “Real Clear” heading, I thought it would be okay, like “Real Clear Politics”.
NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE TEN POINTS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE MECHANICS OF THE GAME ITSELF. And half of the problems are unique to the NFL.
Some of the commentary was self-contradictory. For instance, we are over-saturated with football, but it’s too bad that NFL teams only get to play 16-20 meaningful games a year.
Pretty much every single one of his complaints is solved without having to resort to watching soccer.
The NHL has everything soccer does (continuous action, satisfying play even when goals aren’t scored, fewer injuries than football, rabid fans), plus international players (if that’s your desire) in two countries, 82 games instead of 38, generous playoff provisions where almost anyone with a winning record gets in, plus an extended playoff round to make sure that a bad team doesn’t make the finals based on luck.
Best of all it is all done at three times the speed of soccer and on skates. That is skill. Heck, even Bo Jackson didn’t pretend to be able to play hockey.
12. Can be played on third world dung heaps.
There is nothing like the excitement of a 1-0 game. It is fun to play and a good cardiovascular workout but it is unbelievably boring to watch.
