Couple thoughts here.....
1) I have never understood why someone gets in a thread about soccer to tell everyone it sucks?! I get you don't like soccer proselytizing in a thread about football or basketball or whatever. I even get you don't like people telling you are wrong. But what is bizarre is this desire to get in a "soccer" thread and tell everyone how you hate it. That is silly, petty and predictably "American". It reeks of someone who just doesn't "get" the sport and hates anyone who does....not saying thats true, but that's how it comes off.
2nd) Soccer has become a vicious, violent sport. There are more injuries in the USA every year via soccer than I think maybe all sport combined, including lots of concussions...I have 5 kids, 4 old enuff to play and they have all had injuries and for the most part they are quite tough. Jake has broke his collarbone and wrist. He has got kicked in the face and stomach so hard with the ball it left seams. Lexie got freight trained so badly her nose exploded.
3rd) I hate the flopping and the acting like they got killed, however see above. IT IS a violent sport and if you hate that you must also hate the flopping in B-ball, the fake injuries in football, the pi%# attitudes of baseball players and their one upmanship tactics at the plate and on the mound, etc. PS....an average soccer kick travels at 40-60 miles per hour, the elite have been known to reach 100 MPH plus.
4th) I too used to pooh-pooh soccer as boring, beneath me, only for third world countries etc...but after being forced to embrace and therefore understand its beauty and complexity. I now realize how exciting and incredible these athletes are.
I've also realized they don't play it because its cheap and for the poor?! These are the kinds of things, we Americans say, in fact I used to say it. They play it in England, Spain, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Russia, Argentina i/e: every where and they love it more than anything...
And It isn't because its "the only" thing...lol!! See above, they play pretty high level Basketball, baseball and other sports in all those places as well...
5) The Truth is whether you like it or not, its a good thing for American kids, it has increased the athleticism of the suburban kids by giving them an outlet at a much younger age to stretch, run, grow and improve their speed and agility. Some of these kids go on to to excel in other sports and they have soccer in part to thank.
And finally its okay if you don't like it, it doesn't make you bad or evil or anything really. But it also doesn't make you enlightened either, like so many try to pretend to be, because they are "above" the game......it IS the Worlds sport and there isn't any debate. I was You, and now I'm not. I have watched parts of most every game so far and in fact found myself laughing out loud at what I've become. Last night I found myself watching pretty much the entire replay of Brazil/Mexico, a scoreless tie, that I already knew the outcome of, and found myself mesmerized.
Incidentally, the flopping isnt nearly as bad, nor does it get called near as much as it used to. In fact I dare say it isnt nearly as bad as what I saw in the NBA this year and I watched very, very few games. Its not my thing anymore.
