Posted on 06/27/2014 8:16:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
I think the points have been made:
— Soccer is largely a tedious game featuring long stretches of uneventful play punctuated by the all-too-rare moment of scoring;
— The clock concept is infuriating. We love the 45-minute halves with no commercials, but then the arbitrary one or three or six minutes of “extra time” violate every concept of precision that a clocked sport should have;
— Soccer has its fan base, and it is not small; but the pressure on America to embrace it to some far larger degree is absurd. We simply never will as long as we have other sports featuring far deeper intrigue.
I have spent a lot of time during World Cup 2014 making these very points against those passionate souls who have insisted that this is the year, this is the time, now is the juncture at which America welcomes soccer in a fashion approaching football, baseball, basketball— hockey, maybe ? Golf? NASCAR?
Nope. Not going to happen. They say never say never. I’m saying never. Soccer will never— ever— reach consistent viewer levels approaching even our fifth or sixth most popular sports, in terms of TV ratings and attendance.
The attempt by elites to cram soccer down our throats are comical, as we are made to feel like rubes for not embracing the sport most of the world loves— because most of the world doesn’t have anything else.
That said, I have heard the diatribes and read the columns crafted by people pushing back against soccer fever— and enjoyed them all, and agreed with most.
But with the USA team’s improbable path into the World Cup’s final 16, I want to offer advice to all the soccer critics— everybody gets it. Points made. Now shut up and root for the Americans.
There has been a window for slapping soccer around. It was wide open for the opening games, when soccer dorks scolded anyone not embracing the sport as God’s greatest gift. We gave as good as we got, and we won. Even the late-arriving bandwagon types knew they were crowded into various venues for two reasons— first, the USA was playing, and second, we understood what a big worldwide deal it is.
As soon as America is ousted— and that could well be after the Belgium game Tuesday afternoon— this entire phenomenon evaporates. We will not gather by the thousands to watch Argentina battle Colombia. But if we can get by Belgium and make the Final Eight— the nation will be going crazy, and everyone keeping the soccer hate alive will come off looking like a bunch of jerks.
I say this with all love to people I share a lot of space with. Conservatives in particular have had a great time savaging soccer— from Ann Coulter, who properly taps the brakes on any sport where girls compete alongside boys, to Marc Thiessen, who crafts a sublime argument that soccer is socialist.
But the fact of the matter is that the world plays it, the world cares about it, and the United States of America might just crash the party even further.
If we do, there is only one proper reaction: celebration. By dinnertime Sunday, July 13, the World Cup final will be over. The USA team will probably not be involved. The next day, America will return to its default soccer setting of ambivalence leaning toward disinterest.
All the critics will have been proven right. There will be no burst of marketplace appetite for soccer in our daily, even yearly lives.
But between now and whenever the USA is done, if the whole World Cup thing is too boring for you or too foreign or too whatever— keep it to yourself. Thousands of your countrymen will be busting their behinds to excel at a game the world cares about a lot more than we do— which should be cause for enthusiasm. We all know American football, baseball and basketball are far better than anything other nations can offer up. As such, American successes in those sports on a world stage are not so surprising.
But for a team of Americans to fight its way out of a group containing three teams from nations that live and die for soccer? To face next week another country that does not have Jack Squat except for soccer? For us to excel in that context makes me enormously proud, even with my pocketful of criticisms for what the world calls “football.”
I know what football is. It is the punishing, compelling, high-scoring affair culminating every year in a Super Bowl that excites me more than any soccer game ever will.
But right now, a team of Americans is trying to win a tournament followed by more human beings than will watch any Super Bowl. I, for one, will cheer for them to win it. And to all of you who have sought to show us how cool you are, or how conservative you are, by bad-mouthing soccer? Stow it for a while. Not because you are wrong, but because large throngs of your fellow Americans will be rooting for our nation to do well on this world stage. And a handful of your countrymen wearing our colors are fighting hard to make us proud.
So let’s be proud. We have the rest of our lives to push back against those who overstate soccer’s appeal. Until our fellow Americans are shown the door, let’s appreciate them by not denigrating their field of battle.
Ok, Kaslin - What are you doing posting this drivel
The author of this jackass article is very obliviously in deep denial about Footbal.
The Americal Game of “Football” requires a bunch of people who cannot play the game in the allotted amount of time not can they play BOTH Offense and Defense. Pray tell are these American Football player pussies? No, the game has morphed over the years and SOME payers must be “protected” while others are allowed to hit and get hit.
The author’s asinine comments -
“The attempt by elites to cram soccer down our throats are comical, “
simply leave me scratching my head - Who are these ELITES - YOU MORON
Soccer is fun for anyone at any age. The very skilled at the top levels of the game CAN be fun to watch No matter the score.
“I used to be anti metric system. Then I got my electronics engineering degree!”
Goes to show how much you know about the field!
Ever heard of Pulse Width? PRT, or PRF? All of which are measured with the metric system. Frequency, measured with the metric system. Wave Guide sizes are metric. Need I go on?
That’s pretty good.
I’m sorry you didn’t get my humor.
Whatever you say...BUT....I’ll say this Taylor Twellman is the MOST ANNOYING & STUPID ESPN analyst to ever put on a headset.
His play-by-play pal had to cover for him numerous times yesterday. And I have no idea why Ruud Van Nistelrooy hasn’t knocked him out yet with his ridiculous jabbing of the Dutch. I’d rather watch the game in Spanish on Univision than ESPN when he’s on.
“His play-by-play pal had to cover for him numerous times yesterday.”
Oh, you are SOOO wrong - Ian DarkE is a monumental ASS who talks like your typical Democrat and or Woman
No problem, hasn’t been a great morning. Sorry about my snarky remark.
Maybe, but that doesn’t excuse Twellman’s idiocy. It’s soccer, not a lame comedy show. He clearly missed out on a Seinfeld spot before his soccer career began.
It’s cool. I use metric measures as a tool, like anything else. Sometimes English measures do the job better. Sometimes metric ones do. Sometimes it’s just what you are accustomed to.
I saw a photo in my morning newspaper of US soccer players captioned, `US team cheers after 0-1 loss to Germany.’
The soccer clock runs forward instead of backward, you can’t hit anyone or you get handed a card of some sort, every player thinks he’s Marlon Brando ... Soccer’s like the River Dancers were let loose on a field the size of Oklahoma city, roaming back & forth, hands at their sides, kicking away, zzzzzzzzzzzz.
“Soccer critics are right, ... “ stop right there.
This example doesn’t apply. You are converting units of two different quantities. The kilopascal is a pressure unit. The unit kg/cm^2 is NOT a pressure unit. To the best of my ability to come up with a quantity measured in kg/cm^2, I would have to postulate that it would be a density multiplied by a distance. Pressures are force divided by area. Kg is not a unit of force.
The reason you can propose to “convert” the units you do is that you are implicitly assuming that your conversion occurs on earth at mean sea level. Under that condition, you can speak of the gravitational force exerted upon a 1 kg mass. You then convert that 1 kg mass to the equivalent gravitational force. There is no reason whatsoever to think that this gravitational force must be a power of 10 when measured in newtons, and in fact it is not. Therefore, when you “convert” kg/cm^2 to kilopascals, introduction of this gravitational force results in the “conversion factor” not being a power of 10.
AFAIK, when converting from one metric unit to another metric unit that measures the same physical quantity, the conversion factor will always be a power of 10.
I think the biggest objection most people have to the metric system is that they just are not used to it. We know, for instance, how big a foot is, or how much a pound weighs. We really don’t have an intuitive grasp of how much a kilogram weighs or how big a centimeter is. Personally, even though I am accustomed to metric measurement, I still have to mentally convert the metric units to US ones to get an intuitive grasp of how big a quantity I’m dealing with. I find it analogous to learning a new language. You can learn to understand and communicate in your second language, but you never actually learn to THINK in that langauge. You always have to translate everything back into your native one.
On the other hand, as a scientist, the biggest objection I have to the US system has nothing to do with ease of use or precision or anything like that. The main objection I have is that the US system has ambiguous units. An ounce, for instance, could mean the avoirdupois ounce used for measuring most items or the troy ounce used for precious metals. A gallon could mean the US gallon or the imperial one. Miles come in standard or nautical variety. While it’s usually clear which one is meant, it is a source of potential confusion, one which does not exist when using metric units.
This is where science and engineering diverge. Trust me, people measure “pressure” with kg/cm^2 all the time. So, in the real world, like I said, people have to deal with messy complicated numbers.
That’s life.
That is your privilege. BTW I haven’t watched any of the games
I agree with what you said. If I grew up with centimeters, then I would think in those terms. I didn’t and I don’t.
But no system of measurement is perfect. Celsius degrees are too big. Why base the size of the degree on the boiling point of water? (I know, for ease of reproducibility and calibration, just go with me here.)
F degrees more better capture the range of human existence. When it’s 0 F it’s really cold. At 100 F it’s really hot.
You are right that there is potential ambiguity. SI units if nothing else allow one to compare other units to remove doubt.
Yeah, I’m pretty comfortable using both systems. I don’t have a problem moving from one to the other.
Hey, don’t burn yourself out TOO early – what are you gonna do when the U.S. gets to the later rounds ;?
El Rushbo is using the occasion to tweak the STTI crowd; he knows that it’s soccer instead of the usual golf, etc. will get more than the usual rise .....
It is a Euroweenie/liberal sport when a guy can bite another player and keep his teeth.
“Metric it a lot easier then the American system because it goes by ten, hundred and thousand, which is much easier to remember.
“
Only being able to remember the number 10 is for feeble minded people. What made this country great were things like not being feeble minded. Europe sucks and they use the metric system.
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