Posted on 05/31/2002 9:28:33 AM PDT by xsysmgr
That ought to be an interesting series. The Hartford Whalers..I mean Hurricanes owned by Michigander Peter Karamos, vs rival Mike Illitch and the Red Wings.
Karamos and Illitch aren't exactly the best of friends from what I've heard.
The US plays 18 months of WC qualifiers against North and Central American teams and the WC itself has been in both the good ol' USA and Mexico.
So so much for that theory.
Its still gay.
Yeah right, as if golf and bass fishing provide flurries of activity.
Doesn't it make you wonder why a 6o minute football game takes over two hours to play. Could it be that more time is spent in "down time" than actual playing? The same for baseball and basketball, whereas in soccer, the action is primarily non-stop. Boring my a**.
Probably. What's your point? He was saying most games ended up in a score of 0-0, which is false. To me, soccer is like hockey in the fact that when a team scores a goal, it is that much sweeter, as opposed to basketball, where it's a run of good points that is sweeter than just scoring a basket.
Not to mention if in football, we counted touchdowns as a point and counted field goals as a half point (and omitted the extra points and safeties), we'd get scores like 3.5 to 2 in many, many, many games, and even games like 1.5 to 0.
Americans dominate golf. We didnt invent it and more people play it than any other sport when you include recreational players. And yes, more people play it than soccer.
Basketball, Football, and Baseball are very popular around the globe.
Had the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia not been broken up, their teams would be just barely, if at all, behind the US.
If they had a league in their countries with the number of teams that we have, how would their teams stack up against ours? Pretty poorly I would think.
I have to just shake my head at a lot of the comments I'm reading here. Especially the ones about only liberals liking football. Hello! There are conservatives in other countries as well and they like it.
I grew up in the South and I liked playing the game as a kid although I never mastered any particular aspect of it. The US Army also plays a lot of "soccer" for PT and loves it. I like all sport and love to compete against other people, I don't care what it is- American football, foot racing, throwing rocks for accuracy or distance or just chess. It's silly to say football is a game for Eurofags- I mean that's just plain silly. It's a game like any other, it takes time and dedication to master and keeps you fit if you play.
I don't follow the clubs here in the UK or greater Europe. What I love though is the World Cup. This is an event. Every nation has their all star line-up and the whole hopes and dreams of entire countries are riding on those 11 men who run out on the pitch to represent them. Watching those rare moments like the penalty shootout between Brazil and Italy in the 1994 Finals- man, that's tension and that's the stuff that makes a great sporting event. And it is a time to be PATRIOTIC, which I would figure my fellow Americans of the conservative stripe could get into.
But bottom line, football (or soccer if you like) is not a straights vs fags, conservative vs liberal, girly men vs burly men thing- it's a universal sport. And it's a difficult one as well. I found it was a lot easier to hit a baseball through the gap than to kick that damned ball into the goal. The game has its finer points, its dull points and its exciting points just like any other sport and I wish Americans were more competitive in it.
How would it get into your mind that I should "trust you" about something I follow and watch myself?
How many people complain about and dont understand why people watch golf on tv? A lot.
But baseball fans and golf fans dont behave the way soccer fans do when it comes to trying to sell their sport. If soccer fans werent obnoxious about and have a condescending attitude toward non fans, us non fans wouldnt say the things we do about the sport.
People don't argue in the same way about baseball vs football or hockey vs basketball. The fact of the matter is this type of soccer bashing comes about because there are so many soccer evangelists like the author of this article. I'm all for having a broad spectrum of sports but why do the schools etc have to push soccer over all other sports? At my son's school soccer is the only sport allowed at lunch or recess.
BTW, my wife and I started to notice a while ago that kids on TV, especially on commercials, play soccer almost exclusively. See if you notice the samething.
Yep (for me, I won't speak for other fans). I like ultimate fighting, too. All the rest of that crap might as well be ballet dancing as far as I'm concerned. If there's no risk of grave bodily harm or death, it's just stick and ball games, suitable for children and embarrassing for adults.
Oh, and I like hockey. Well, playoff hockey, anyway.
Yep (for me, I won't speak for other fans). I like ultimate fighting, too. All the rest of that crap might as well be ballet dancing as far as I'm concerned. If there's no risk of grave bodily harm or death, it's just stick and ball games, suitable for children and embarrassing for adults.
Oh, and I like hockey. Well, playoff hockey, anyway.
They assuredly do not "copy us." Very few other countries care at all about baseball or football. Basketball--invented by a Canadian--has traveled well, and the rest of the world has caught up with the US.
Better luck next time.
I would have to disagree with you on that one PL. I actually think that the answers to all those questions are "yes". Soccer is constantly attacked by sports people whose fixation is only football and baseball. Thats fine, but it only encourages a response.
I do love going to baseball games, where the fights remain on the field and not in the stands, Something relaxing about a baseball game (without sending me into a coma).
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