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.
Asked this on another thread: why the explosion in interest in the NFL? Blame illegals, too?
“Which is a shame, because I grew up as a hockey fan.”
I am new fan to hockey. Don’t know much about it’s North American popularity rank TV-wise, but aren’t pro teams drawing well? I sure know the prices are off the charts.
Hockey has suffered from some labor turmoil over the past few years. And tickets are expensive. So the fans are antsy. Great sport to watch, though.
“NHL just posted record revenue”
I hope that’s true. Of course PC Nazis hate hockey because it’s too white. And in typical fashion in the criminal media, anyone who is critical of a black NHL player is “racist”.
I am a Jets fan and god forbid you criticize Evander Kane (who is an underachiever but skilled). If you do, the criticism is “racially tinged”. Sound familiar.
Given relative field size it would be hard for MLS to have lower capacity. Most hockey stadiums run in the 17,000 to 20,000 range, MLS seems to be running mostly in the low to mid 20,000s with a couple pushing 50,000. Not as big as I would expect for MLS, but definitely bigger. Of course then you have to fill, MLB has nice big stadiums that are empty most of the time.
NHL isn’t nearly as white as it used to be. It might actually have more black players than MLB at this point.
I know like typical profit motive entities here in the US, they will sell their soul (and yours) to make a buck. NFL outreach will go anywhere - illegals, LGBT, whomever has a buck in their pocket.
Which is why after being a football fan for 30 plus years I could care less if it dies tomorrow.
it has been amazing watching blacks leave baseball. The 70s were packed with awesome black players. Jam packed.
It’s been strange, they lost that demo in the fan base, which makes it make sense they don’t get the athletes anymore. But nobody’s got a really good explanation for why the black fans bailed.
>> The demographics coveted by advertisers are soccer fans. Young people with disposable income watch soccer while old Luddites watch baseball & hockey.
You mean immigrants and illegal aliens, both are mostly “latin” social imperialists who do not want to assimilate. The same who are being imported here to displace and dilute American culture.
Hog wash. Seen any photos or video of a USA soccer crowd?
maybe organized leagues in the rough parts of cities are too hard to do anymore?
I used to hang out at basketball courts all over Chicago playing pickup games during the mid 80s - through the late 90s. Black kids (and men) of all ages were playing basketball or hanging around the court.
Didn’t see many baseball fields used. A buddy and I used to go to a pretty well kept nice field next door to Cabrini Green between Division and North Ave. Longest home run distance I have ever played on. We’d go there quite a bit in the summer and hit balls, do fungo whatever. Never once was a kid on the field but the courts just a minute away drew well.
you mean a soccer crowd in Southern CA that boos the American team when they play Mexico?
You mean immigrants and illegal aliens, both are mostly “latin” social imperialists who do not want to assimilate. The same who are being imported here to displace and dilute American culture.
You couldn’t be more wrong. I went to the last US soccer match before the World Cup in Jacksonville. Hardly a Jose in the crowd. It was white bread Americana. 50,000 strong. Soccer has gone mainstream in the US. Deal with it.
Partly for that reason, NBA B-ball is totally unwatchable… There’s no such concept as defense in the Pro game – outcomes decided by a few points with over 200 in total scored in less than an hour are ridiculous (if they were elections, you’d demand a recount ;). Basketball was a great team & C/V sport to play, but I’d definitely rather watch a soccer match than glorified Ping-pong.
BTW, any bold predictions on the World Cup outcome a la Lord Stanley ;?
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.
Try living in south Florida
I am picking: Colombia vs The Netherlands in the Final
But it’s about as wide open as any World Cup in recent memory.
France, Brazil, Germany, Belgium or Argentina I could easily see making the Finals.
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