FO.
I'll decide what and when I'll cheer.
And it sure as hell won't be soccer!
Nobody ever seems to complain about low scoring in Hockey.
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.
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.
It is a Euroweenie/liberal sport when a guy can bite another player and keep his teeth.
What is the additional time for?
If there had not been this extra time wouldn’t USA have won against Portugal?
My apologies to soccer, golf and NASCAR fans, but all three sports are as exciting as watching grass grow. You can walk away from your TV for any one of these sports, eat a four course dinner and return to your TV and not have missed anything.
The ratings are higher than the NBA Finals or World Series.
For those of us who grew up playing soccer and almost only soccer, it probably is a game you have to play to love.
The first very long book I ever read was Pele’s “My LIfe and the Beautiful Game.”
If you understand that title, then you played soccer.
Golf? Baseball? People criticize soccer for having no action or statistics in the same breath they complain that today’s youth have no patience, span of attention, and so must play video games all day. But that is what other American sports are to soccer players.
It was very funny in 1986 or so, when major stations first carried the world cup. Americans addicted to statistics, and announcers who didn’t know the sport ... “And that’s the SIXTH goal kick for the Americans!” ... “This would be the FOURTH corner kick for Brazil. Jim, explain to fans what a ‘corner kick’ is.”
It’s really just like lobster for me. When I first had it at age 6, I hated the pink spider. Then I forced myself to eat it four times over a year in Maine. All of a sudden - I couldn’t wait to get to Kennebunkport next summer - at age 34.
My step mother never played a sport in her life. Then she started watching baseball at age 65. Couldn’t take her eyes off it.
So you have to care about the teams, having suffered with them over years of bad management, drunken brawls, bad games. It’s no different from the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics ... if you’re from Boston. Same everywhere.
So ... soccer is like lobster. You need a history with it. Either from playing or watching or both. Then, the field looks like a chess board, and you know what the players are doing when they make a boring run to the left or right.
In “My Life and the Beautiful Game” (I know - Pele’s fame turned him into a bit of a loser) ... Pele is 6 or so, and he says something bad about the other team. An opposing fan threatens him. His uncle brings a brick down on the other’s head.
So if you have no attention span, nor the will to run continuously for 90 minutes, nor the ability to sit through early spring while the flowers slowly unfold, or the grass changes with each week ... like most Americans, then you probably wouldn’t like soccer.
But from the types of insults I hear, most of them are compliments to me. So keep them coming, soon I will have a very big ego.
For the record, I’m privileged cracker, and I love America, and run my own business, and all that stuff. I’m not some 3 year old Guatemalan looking for a pair of free gently used underwear.
Just seems to me that most of the criticisms I read about soccer (which sound a lot like a kid whining that his Grand Theft Auto game has gotten boring - not enough flashes or speed, too much investment and thought, tedious at times, don’t know exactly when the clock runs out, wah wah wah have to run for 90 minutes) ... most of those criticisms would be compliments if they applied to the way a man should live his life.
Amateur analysis by the author, but an interesting piece.
The ball is in play in an American football game for only about ten minutes out of sixty. The rest is spent standing around. Basketball is a caricature at the professional level.
I like games where scoring means something. Soccer is supposed to be hard, supposed to be difficult, and being good at it is supposed to be a thing of beauty. What could be more American than succeeding at a game where the odds of success are so highly against you?
And why the heck don’t people get into the idea of Americans beating the world at its own game? Millions of our kids are getting the idea, which is why articles like this will thankfully become less and less frequent over time.
But yes, root for Sam’s Army.
Go Kings.
For one thing, stop using the head to deflect the ball! That looks so dorky. I understand you don't want soccer players catching and throwing the ball. I get that. But what's wrong with just using your hands like in volleyball? Not to catch and throw (which is against volleyball rules too) but to deflect the ball or set up for a kick.
Have the clock run backwards like a normal sport. Stop adding minutes to it to make up lost time. Instead, just stop the clock and resume once play begins.
Those tube socks! What is it, 1977 all over again? Over the calf socks look stupid in 2014. Makes me want to break out a Peter Frampton or Supertramp album. Even NBA players are wearing them just over the shoe. Ditch the stupid socks.
Those are just three of the necessary changes.
That said, good luck to USA against whatever team they are playing in knockout round. Still, a win, tie and a loss is not exactly an inspiring way to make it to the next round. There's just something not right about that.
The Kia commercial that ends with the line: “For one month let’s all be futbol fans.”
NO!
I’ll suffer through when the US plays, but once they are out I’ll stop watching.