Posted on 08/03/2004 3:12:33 PM PDT by swilhelm73
I agree with you about the soccer bashing...I just dont get why some people have such a hatred for it..its JUST a SPORT.
The author of this article has obviously never watched a English Premiere League game in NYC...every pub showing a live game will be PACKED and they are NOT in "obscure" or "out of the way places". What a dufus.
"And why does the winner of the superbowl or world series become a "world" champion? That is just absurd to me. They don't play anyone outside of America."
My English boyfriend agrees with you..lol.
I understand what youre saying but game time is game time. There are hours of pre-game and post-game and mid-week shows where Jaworski or Jimmy Johnson or any of the old players show formations that bombed and plays that worked. They run through it like its film day Saturday morning in high school. That is when you get to see the strategy of the teams.
No, most fans don't understand that stuff, and they don't care. And the reason football is so successful is that it's a perfectly enjoyable game without understanding that stuff.
Most of the fans of popular sports don't grow up playing the sport. This can be seen just by how the female demographic numbers have been climbing lately, this is especially true in football which is having it's audience grow across the board.
As a fans knowledge of the game grows they start appreciating the little things, but notice the coverage is still geared largely to people that have no knowledge of the game, and the coverage doesn't do much of anything to help you learn the game.
You can tell what the average fan of a sport is interested in by watching one regular season game and paying attention to what the color commentator talks about (playoffs get an audience of people that watch very little of the sport so coverage gets dumbed down, so it's not a good judging tool). That color commentator is geared towards the average fan, he's supposed to talk about stuff the average fan probably didn't notice but actually cares about. We know from how the game is filmed that the average fan didn't notice how the receiver ran his route, he wasn't on camera during the play until the ball got to him so they couldn't possibly have noticed, and yet they don't talk about it. That tells you everything you need to know, the average football fan doesn't care what the receiver did to get some room from the corner so he could make the catch. Now in soccer and hockey that same kind of movement and trickery is the heart of the coverage, it's always talked about, anytime there's a good scoring chance. In all three sports it's a very subtle thing, involving head bobs, shoulder fakes, and occasional taps on the defender to try to make him think you're going in a direction you're not. One group of fans is interested in that, one isn't. Neither is better than the other, they simply are what they are.
That really is the best way to watch soccer, find somewhere that Brits are watching the game, find a group, buy them a round, and learn. Chance are this place has better beer than the average American mass market filth too, so you'll also get to learn about good beer while you're there.
Yeah and the pre-game shows get less than half the ratings of the games, and they still revolve mostly around interview pieces to get to know the players as people and injury reports. The post game shows are hilight packages with very little education. It's only the mid-week shows where they really dig into the X's and O's, and they only get about 1/20 of the ratings of the games. The numbers tell you what the audience is interested in, most folks don't care about how a well run crossing pattern allows you to setup a pick without getting a pass interference call (because you make the defenders pick each other, perfectly legal). And the reason football is so popular is that you never have to learn that to enjoy the game.
The only reason I know this is because my bf is English...I know more about the the EPL then I ever wanted to know...thankfully I dont retain much of it ;) Watching a live game at a pub with friends IS fun though.
darn! how 'bout letting them use sticks too?
Motion? I'm referring to the subtle chess match that goes on behind the scenes at every baseball game. It is far more sophisticated, cerebral and subtle than anything that happens in a soccer match.
This is true in real football as well. When the trainer comes onto the field to aid an injured player, the player must leave until the next legal opportunity for substitution.
I was referring to real football.
In soccer they fake injuries and stay in.
Yeah but motion is how the subtle chess match happens. In baseball the chess match is between the batter and the pitcher. In soccer and hockey the chess match is between every player on one team and every player on the other team, in hockey you've got the addtional coaching chess match of line matchups.
Sorry but the baseball chess match isn't as sophisticated, cerebral or subtle as the chess match going on in soccer between the players and the ref, forget the chess match going on between the teams, baseball can't come close to competing with that. Baseball is a fine game, but let's not go crazy by overstating what happens when a guy with 3 good pitches goes up against a guy with one good bat, it's really not that complicated, much less subtle.
Then it's field hockey. A fine sport because the chicks where mini-skirts. And if you give the sticks nets it's la cross, also a fine sport and one played by many hockey players in their youth (you can always tell by the grip on the stick, watch the thumb).
Great point on the time of game. EPL matches are over in two hours from TV sign-on to sign-off. They play 90 minutes, break for halftime and get in all their commercials.
As you probably know, you can be yellow-carded for diving but few referees call it. Sort of like interference in hockey - some 6'5" defenseman who blots out the sun can hang all over your team's best forward and throw him offside - but it's never called.
I like sports in general but prefer games where scoring really means something - this means soccer, hockey, baseball and American football are at the top of the list. What the heck is wrong with making the objective of the game difficult to obtain?
That's probably because we see it as a rich man's sport, like polo.
How's the new broad brush working out for you? I have no argument with either the NFL or real football played with the feet.
Players get hurt in both sports.
I wouldn't say "about to" but its popularity will steadily grow. Most towns and/or schools already have a soccer league, bringing up the next generation of soccer players and fans.
However, as another poster mentioned, the schedule of a soccer game doesn't fit well with American advertising practices, and networks are always loathe to change.
Judging from all the "Go Lance!" I saw around here, the news coverage and Bush's personal phone call, I'd say he's made cycling a lot more popular. Six straight? It's hard to think of a sporting feat that matches it.
It's a cheap exercise program for schools. Most kids out grow the notion that soccer is "exciting". Because other countries embrace soccer, is just meaningless. Other countries embrace socialism, does that mean the USA should also? Soccer is painfully dull to watch and will NEVER be a "major" sport in the US.
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