Goldberg and his ilk must feel threatened by soccer (football as most of the world calls it) or he can't figure out why so many people are in love with the sport. He is the outsider looking thru the window at the huge party going on inside and although he is invited to come in, he refuses to do so.
What I find disappointing is that some conservatives are now conflating soccer with politics. Soccer is neither a liberal or a conservative sport. It is a global sport that transcends borders and ideology. Just because I enjoy soccer and the World Cup, some are trying to label me as a liberal. It is ridiculous.
Every country in the world enters a team in the quest for the World Cup. After nearly four years of elimination tournaments, 32 teams make it to the finals. And now we have one more game to decide a true world champion. Sit back and enjoy the game with the hundreds of millions of others who will be watching.
“some conservatives are now conflating soccer with politics” Read the article. Goldberg quotes at length a liberal, sub-human who is politicizing the game.
Love of the game IS politicized. Who is behind it? You can blame the left or the right. You choose. Read the sub-human’s words.
AGAIN, you can like or not like soccer, but it is important to recognize that the left loves it, and it’s good to know WHY they love it.
The left has always and will always seek to rule the culture. It is VITAL to them to destroy the culture. Dumb-ass Americans who did not recognize or care about their cultural take over of movies, tv, education, literature, etc., helped America into her grave.
” Close to 800 million will watch the final on Sunday (compared to the 110 million who watch the Superbowl).”
actually if you count my husband, my daughter/son-in-law, and I the number watching Sunday’s match will be 800,000,004. If someone doesn’t like soccer (REAL football), then fine. Don’t watch, but don’t be so idiotic as to put down a great sport that many Americans who are not liberal truly enjoy. Personally American football is so boring I would rather watch bark grow on a tree, but I certainly won’t put down those who love it.
I don’t ‘hate’ soccer...but I do understand how it is being championed by the left.
Before I begin, my soccer credentials: I played it the whole time I was growing up, basically from the time I could walk. Never on an organized team, but quite often in pick up games with other kids. As a teenager, I would play indoor at least 5 times a week...again unorganized. My brother actually attended college on a soccer scholarship...my neighbor was known as the ‘father’ of soccer in Alabama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Woodard_(soccer_coach)
And his son (who I played with often) went on to play professionally in an indoor league.
Anyway, I know a lot about soccer, and actually got pretty good at it...regularly playing with people who went on to compete at college and pro levels. Honestly, I really don’t care to watch it...I think indoor would be a lot better as a spectator sport, but watching it on a normal field doesn’t trip my trigger. But that’s just my personal opinion.
On to how the left is attracted to soccer:
First of all, whenever somebody ‘corrects’ me and says its really called football, or its the ‘real’ football...they are really implying that the US is ‘incorrect’ and should fall in line with the rest of the world. It irks me to no end. And when somebody so readily accepts that we are ‘wrong’ with our name, it shows how easily people can ignore or forget American exceptionalism. And frankly, the term Soccer is not even of American origin. We didn’t invent the term...the Brits just quit using it, out of contempt and jealousy for Americans.
And there is a whole group of people who desperately ‘want’ to like soccer. Why? Its hard for a conservative to wrap his head around this...but a lot of people in this nation are absolutely convinced that Europe is superior to the US in every way. And this group is attracted to soccer instinctively...and frankly they do put out an air of superiority....(no offense) often spouting out stats about how many people will watch the world cup, and how much bigger and better it is than football (or as they call it ‘American Football’). Why do they feel the need to prove how inferior football is? Once again, no belief in American exceptionalism...and soccer demonstrates that to them. Now you may like soccer for different reasons, but make no mistake, a large group of its fans like it because they don’t love their country (they might like their country but don’t love it). I’ve long thought the perfect question to ask Obama is “Do you believe, without question or qualification, that the US is the best, most moral, most enlightened nation that has ever graced the surface of our planet.” I don’t think he would simply say yes...and I don’t think the majority of American soccer fans could just say yes either.
Then there is the lack of individuality. I understand that there are standout individual players....but the vast majority of Americans playing soccer are young kids, with very few actual soccer skills, probably being coached by a parent with very little knowledge or skills either. So in this country, for most people, soccer is what you do between soda breaks and trophy ceremonies on a Saturday afternoon...you run around and kick a ball, but few people really stand out (the kids who do stand out in athletics usually gravitate to the money sports as they get older and leave soccer). Its just a gaggle of kids...and even the kid with zero athletic ability can disguise that fact fairly well. There’s something about that reality that doesn’t jibe with American individuality in my mind.
And I do think the current attacks on the NFL are coming from the left. I don’t think its sinister...but leftists tend to want to create a world with very little risk (which always results in less opportunity as well). They see football as an affront to this worldview - and will tell anyone who asks that they ‘never watch American football’, to make sure we know how enlightened they are. And, they view soccer as the ‘cure’ for football, plain and simple.
Anyway, its fine if you enjoy soccer. But your liking it as a conservative and the left’s cooping the sport are not mutually exclusive. Lefties absolutely love soccer...and they will try to ‘use’ it the best they can to advance their word view.