PlasmaTwa2
The Second-Hottest Man in my Mother's Basement
Neither is passion for sports. Why do we need to understand the passion that soccer fans feel? Why don't Euros try to understand the passion that we feel for our own sports?
Why isn't Soccer popular in America?
- Thread starter Straight Shooter
- Start date
- Status
Neither is passion for sports. Why do we need to understand the passion that soccer fans feel? Why don't Euros try to understand the passion that we feel for our own sports?
Vlad The Impaler
Power Slave
Ice your American right? Why would you want to open a thread to give everyone else license to bash on us. You didn't even have the option to say it's boring and we just don't like it I can't believe you didn't know how this was going to turn out especially with the option Americans are too self absorbed and stupid to understand it.
GregCentauro
Banned
Who said we haven't tried?
When Spain won the WC and Germany won the EC in basketball, interest in the sport rose to unexpected levels... it has fizzled when we found out how boring it was...
American Football? :1orglaugh There is widespread coverage of the REAL THING - the Rugby World Cup
I only rue the lack of baseball coverage in Europe...
PlasmaTwa2
The Second-Hottest Man in my Mother's Basement
Who said we haven't tried?
When Spain won the WC and Germany won the EC in basketball, interest in the sport rose to unexpected levels... it has fizzled when we found out how boring it was...
American Football? :1orglaugh There is widespread coverage of the REAL THING - the Rugby World Cup
I only rue the lack of baseball coverage in Europe...
And what about American interest in soccer after the '94 World Cup? That lasted a long time.
GregCentauro
Banned
Nobody with a lick of sense doubts the American interest in football. Alas, it is widely restricted to either ethnic minorities (Latin Americans, Italians, Irish) or Soccer Moms who believe that the sport is a pastime for girls only.
I think I have you figured. If Sweden can field a decent team at one-third the size the country of Canada, there is no reason you guys couldn'd field a decent team.
PlasmaTwa2
The Second-Hottest Man in my Mother's Basement
We do field a decent team, but when there are only three slots in the World Cup for CONCACAF teams and America and Mexico always occupy two of them, it is hard to compete with Latin American countries that breathe soccer night and day, not to mention that they can play it all year round while we have a small April-October window.
How many WC's has Canada been in?
PlasmaTwa2
The Second-Hottest Man in my Mother's Basement
Just Mexico '86.
-The players.
-The fans.
-Ties... draws, whatever.
-Calling a tie a "draw."
-The possibility/actuality of neither team scoring.
-"Friendlies."
-A clock that counts upwards.
-The players.
-The fans.
-A subjective amount of time added to each half.
-Swapping jerseys after the end of a game... match, whatever.
-Calling a game a "match."
-Trying to find your teammate for a "header."
-Holding hands with little kids while walking on to the field... pitch, whatever.
-Calling a field a "pitch."
-The players.
-The fans.
-The fans.
-Ties... draws, whatever.
-Calling a tie a "draw."
-The possibility/actuality of neither team scoring.
-"Friendlies."
-A clock that counts upwards.
-The players.
-The fans.
-A subjective amount of time added to each half.
-Swapping jerseys after the end of a game... match, whatever.
-Calling a game a "match."
-Trying to find your teammate for a "header."
-Holding hands with little kids while walking on to the field... pitch, whatever.
-Calling a field a "pitch."
-The players.
-The fans.
I am American and I love soccer. But I'm not here to try and convert people to liking soccer and I don't think I have given that impression. If you aren't into soccer thats fine, to each their own. In talking about the poll, if you don't like the first four choices you have the option to choose other. When I started this thread I did have an idea on how it would turn out. I knew that you would have some people who just bash soccer and some who would defend it. But it's interesting to hear what people have to say regardless if its good or bad.
Vlad The Impaler
Power Slave
I realize that. I'm just saying that this thread could have turned into an America bash-fest, which it hasn't....too much. And there should have been the boring option for the American posters. It was like you were only asking the world and not really giving us a option, other than other. And the question itself is about us, so we should have a say.
I don't mean to sound like a preacher. Hopefully what I mean came out alright. I like this thread and to be honest its got me watching more soccer than I probably would have.
Yeah, I suppose you could go on but with every sport you mentioned they start getting more complicated. Basketball: yeah, pretty simple. Football? 22 players covering about 12 different aspects of the game on very play out of a playbook that's a foot thick. Hockey, yeah just replace the ball with the puck...and play on a sheet of ice...wearing skates...using a specialized stick....with an entire enclosure of wood, composite materials, and plexi glass surrounding you....wearing a mullet.
Really though, this is why
Lungzyn
Die For Me
I was oversimplifying of course, but the same goes with soccer. Its more than kicking a ball in a net, which is what I was trying to get at.
I agree
coz the clock counts upwards...and what 'tie' & 'game' are called??seriously???......
sports isnt always about winning...its about competing.....said that guy who (re)started that olympic thingy that happens once every few years.......
i do have a funny feeling that it has something to do with how they are not among the best teams <top few i.e>........that makes it a catch 22 doesnt it??
roronoa3000
Banned
^ Sports are ALWAYS about winning at pro level. They are paid and expected to win. Football, Basketball, Baseball and Hockey players are paid millions more than soccer players for an obvious reason. Lack of interest and revenue.
America isn't the best because we don't really care about soccer, not the other way around. How many countries are going to beat us in sports we care about?
America isn't the best because we don't really care about soccer, not the other way around. How many countries are going to beat us in sports we care about?
Yes.
I don't buy that the U.S. is not one of the top teams...currently 14th in the world, according to FIFA. A good result in the Algeria game, and they can only move up. Here are the 4 teams ahead of them: 10th-Croatia, 11th-Russia, 12th-Egypt, 13th-Greece (all teams not in the World Cup, w/ Greece practically out). So the Top 10 is within reach.
Soccer/football is the most popular sport in most of the 200 or so countries ranked lower than the U.S...which is probably the point of this whole thread.
Soccer/football is the most popular sport in most of the 200 or so countries ranked lower than the U.S...which is probably the point of this whole thread.
...and so is the girl in your avatar, Monica Mattos (if that's her)! :rubbel:That's why I'm going for Brazil
- Status