Why is soccer even shown in America?

Why does anyone play or care about soccer at all?

To **** you off.

Next question. :D


What I find utterly hilarious about the complaints some have about soccer is how some claim soccer is just a lot of standing around or that anybody can do it.

Yeah, I don't think most people realize how little actually happens in a (US) football or baseball game. Hint: not much.

Or the conditioning you need to have to play soccer. Hint: it's better than most other sports, particularly football, where if 300 lb. linemen actually had to run for more than 3 seconds at a time, they'd all have dropped dead.

Most of it all though I think it comes down to this: many Americans simply dislike soccer because it's not an American sport. Which is about as ******** an excuse as one can come up with.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately the general population in America are cows and pick up the viewpoints of big media. The east coast media in this country has a general bias against soccer (ESPN, SI, etc) and people hop on the wagon all the time. The media machine can't hold soccer down forever in the US. Thanks to the internet and fiber optic systems people are finding out the truth about soccer, and that is it is f-ing sweet.

Go US!
 
Unfortunately the general population in America are cows and pick up the viewpoints of big media. The east coast media in this country has a general bias against soccer (ESPN, SI, etc) and people hop on the wagon all the time. The media machine can't hold soccer down forever in the US. Thanks to the internet and fiber optic systems people are finding out the truth about soccer, and that is it is f-ing sweet.

Go US!
Listen i havent heard big media rip soccer if anything they try to shove it down are throats and make us like it. Face it americans dont like soccer that much, i mean look at the big splash beckam made for the ur pro league. I Mean come on the new york redbulls, the seattle sounders, houston dynamo, who named ur teams a bunch of 5yr olds. If i had to watch either the WNBA or PRO soccer i choose WNBA. GO LA SPARKS.
 
Unfortunately the general population in America are cows and pick up the viewpoints of big media. The east coast media in this country has a general bias against soccer (ESPN, SI, etc) and people hop on the wagon all the time. The media machine can't hold soccer down forever in the US. Thanks to the internet and fiber optic systems people are finding out the truth about soccer, and that is it is f-ing sweet.

Go US!

This statement is wrong in just about every way possible.
 
I used to hate soccer and wouldn't watch it if my life depended on it. Roomed with a guy from England and started to give it a chance. I don't fully understand the sport but I understand it enough to know that its exciting and everyone should give it a shot.
 
I never mentioned other sports; I mentioned soccer. Stop trying to justify soccer's boring aspects by bringing up other sports that could be considered boring. "Well, baseball and football are boring" is not an argument that makes soccer exciting.

Look, CWB, nobody here is trying to force you to like soccer. Ultimately, whether you like a particular sport or not is an emotional thing. Millions of people love hockey and NASCAR. I could care less about either. I'm from Omaha, yet I'm a rabid Hawkeye fan and generally disinterested in following the Huskers. Why? I could make some vain attempt to construct a rational argument for being a Hawkeye fan even though the flagship athletic team from my home state won three national titles in the 90s. But basically, I love the Hawkeyes because my dad loved the Hawkeyes. Like most fans, it's just an emotional thing.

But you seem to want people on this board to applaud you for making some great deductive argument that objectively proves that soccer is boring. However, every argument you've made has counterexamples, and some of your arguments don't even pass the laugh test. (Soccer players just stand around. It's not hard to kick a ball.) Nightman, Tweeter, Ghost and others have explained the illogic of your arguments, and I don't need to repeat them.

You have protested about people making comparisons to other sports, but when you post something about soccer on a football message board, you are only inviting such comparisons. Especially when you support your thesis with claim that soccer players spend much of the game standing around, which can be shown to be even MORE TRUE for football.

Now we can all agree that soccer is a very low-scoring game compared to many other popular team sports. If high-scoring contests are more exciting to you, then that's okay. A lot of people feel the same way. But if you're going to take the next step and use that as a justification for claiming that soccer is boring, then you have to be ready for counterexamples from people who feel differently about it. Many Texas Tech football fans would argue that Iowa football is boring for the same basic reason. As for me, I love good defensive football. I loved it when we beat Penn State 6-4 a few years back, and in 2009 I was generally more excited when the Hawkeye defense was on the field. (And mostly nervous when the offense was playing.) ;)
 
I had to turn off sportscenter this morning due to the continued coverage of the idiot soccer fans that stampeded for free tickets to an exhibition match. Nothing against you guys that like it, but I will never be interested or entertained by soccer. I understand though, cuz I love hockey and a lot of people don't like that sport either. Personal preference.
 
Soccer is popular around the world because that is the sport people in many populated poor countries grew up watching. It is also a sport that all you need is a ball and an open area. The rest of the world primarily still plays that one sport in many countries, especially third world countries, so it is no wonder it is the "most popular sport in the world." In England and Europe, soccer is popular, they enjoy the game. Does it make soccer a better game than any other game that Americans might enjoy?

The US grew up on multiple sports because of the resources and school system that the US has had over the past 125 years. Americans just had and have many more choices as they grew up. Therein lies the difference. If the US ONLY played soccer as kids grew up, the US would dominate the world soccer scene and the rest of the world would hate the US even more. Just think of all the pro athletes now playing other sports, had they ALL concentrated on soccer growing up. There would be no competetion in the world against the US.

So if you think about it, the US is way ahead of the rest of the world. The US gets to play multiple sports, not just one.

To compare soccer to any other sport is crazy. Each has their own identity. To say one is boring is to not grow up with the sport. For those of us who grew up with and playing baseball, we like the finer points of baseball, whereas those who did not want action. If you want continuous action, baseball and soccer are probably not your cup of tea, especially if you want scoring. Hockey is similar although many people enjoy hockey for the fights. Football can get boring. About any game can get boring to some segment--look at Iowa bb last year.

The most physically demanding game is probably tennis. The least--golf.

To me, I enjoy Australian rules football--that has both. That sport makes most sports, soccer included, looked like a girls game because it includes parts of soccer, rugby, and football with lots of scoring. Those Australians know how to invent a sport.
 
I never mentioned other sports; I mentioned soccer. Stop trying to justify soccer's boring aspects by bringing up other sports that could be considered boring. "Well, baseball and football are boring" is not an argument that makes soccer exciting.

Wow, what an inane response. I mean seriously, this is bad.

I know you never mentioned other sports. What you mentioned is that you don't like soccer because it is nothing but standing around.

I extrapolated (look it up) what you said and applied it to other sports to disprove your awful point. It's called an argument. I am allowed to challenge your assertions, particularly when they are really, really stupid and easy to refute.


And like I said before, I honestly don't care if you like soccer or not. Just stop making **** up.
 
Listen i havent heard big media rip soccer if anything they try to shove it down are throats and make us like it.

Can we please get over the "shoving it down our throats" rhetoric, people? Just because something happens that you disagree with doesn't mean it was shoved down your throat. The poster you're replying to didn't say that "big media rip soccer," just said that they have a bias towards other sports. There's a bit more coverage of soccer these days because (1) there's more airtime to fill with all the sports channels, and (2) the US national soccer team is catching up to the world, drawing more interest from Americans. But the bias is real. The US sports media mostly ignores soccer. Given a choice, ESPN et al. would rather show football, baseball, basketball or hockey than soccer -- largely because these other sports all stop the game periodically so that corporate advertisers can tell us about their wonderful shaving products and light beer.

Face it americans dont like soccer that much, i mean look at the big splash beckam made for the ur pro league.

Face it, Americans are warming up to soccer. Youth soccer has exploded from coast to coast. More kids playing means more good American players at the professional and international levels. The US went 40 years without even sniffing the World Cup. We've now been in every WC since 1990. The US has won 3 of the last 5 Gold Cups (a North American tournament that had previously been dominated by Mexico.) As for Beckham, that's a pretty bad example because (a) he was past his prime, (b) he was still splitting time with his Italian team, and (c) he missed most of his games with the Galaxy due to injury. The Beckham bust doesn't prove that soccer isn't popular here.

I Mean come on the new york redbulls, the seattle sounders, houston dynamo, who named ur teams a bunch of 5yr olds.

Yeah, those are some pretty stupid names. New York Red Bulls? What's next, the Colorado Mountain Dew? I also find the Utah Jazz a strange name. And the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orange County Right off the 5 Freeway about Three Hours from Palm Springs (with Traffic).

If i had to watch either the WNBA or PRO soccer i choose WNBA. GO LA SPARKS.

IIRC correctly, you've done a lot of women's sports bashing on this board. (Apologies if I'm confusing you with someone else.) So this sounds like basically a lame "ha, ha, even the girls are better than you" taunt. But comparing the WNBA to Pro Soccer in the US is apples and oranges. The WNBA is THE premiere WBB league with the best players in the world -- like WNBA pioneer and Hawkeye legend Michelle Edwards who helped Coach Stringer put Iowa on the WBB map in the 1980s. (And unlike some of the NBA's top players, they actually know how to shoot free throws in the WNBA.) Whereas pro soccer in the US has consistently suffered from having to compete with the long-established European leagues. But that doesn't mean that soccer as a whole is bad. It just means that you have to follow Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munchen, AC Milan, etc., to see the world's best players compete.
 
Wow, what an inane response. I mean seriously, this is bad.

I know you never mentioned other sports. What you mentioned is that you don't like soccer because it is nothing but standing around.

I extrapolated (look it up) what you said and applied it to other sports to disprove your awful point. It's called an argument. I am allowed to challenge your assertions, particularly when they are really, really stupid and easy to refute.


And like I said before, I honestly don't care if you like soccer or not. Just stop making **** up.

It's like saying that since I like apples I should like oranges. Can you try to have some courtesy in your responses though, please?
 
They call it "the beautiful game" for a reason. Even though general American sentiment is pretty low on soccer, it is an awesome sport.

spoken like a world cup fanboy or a soccer dad.

we get the SAME argument every 4 years. all these bandwagon soccer fans come out of the woodwork. Remember 4 years ago, the US was sent packing in round one and then 95% of the "fans" ceased to care and went back to ripping on soccer in their usual, normal fashion.
 
I don't mind watching soccer once every 4 years. The World Cup is pretty cool. Outside of that I do not have any interest in soccer whatsoever. It's not entertaining enough to watch matches of teams that I don't know or care about. Since team USA is the only team I care about, I only care about soccer once every 4 years. Soccer will never be as popular in the US as football, basketball, or baseball. But I admittedly do enjoy watching the World Cup and I'm genuinely looking forward to watching in about a week.
 
spoken like a world cup fanboy or a soccer dad.

we get the SAME argument every 4 years. all these bandwagon soccer fans come out of the woodwork. Remember 4 years ago, the US was sent packing in round one and then 95% of the "fans" ceased to care and went back to ripping on soccer in their usual, normal fashion.

Spoken like an *******.

You know assuming makes an *** out of you and me, but mostly you. Just because I don't come on here and talk soccer all day long you assume I am a bandwagon fan or a world cup "fanboy" as you call it? You assume incorrectly.
 
It's like saying that since I like apples I should like oranges. Can you try to have some courtesy in your responses though, please?

I will not extend you courtesy since your posts are incredibly inane. You again seem to think that I want you to like soccer, or care that you don't like soccer. I honestly don't.

My issue is that you are making an idiotic argument to slander it, which has absolutely no standing in facts. Stop saying stupid things, and I will stop calling you out for it.

If you hate soccer, just say soccer sucks, and I will leave you alone.
 
I think this sums it up quite nicely.

"Why Soccer Sucks


Soccer participants are walking advertisements.

France is successful at participating at soccer. That should say something, especially to the British.

The "World" Cup is not the a World's Cup, but a competition among 32 countries, disproportionately allotted to European countries.

Soccer hooligans.

Soccer is boring. Soccer is absurdly slow. I've had soccer apologists say with false pride how the average soccer participant "runs" 4 miles in a game. Newsflash: that means they are jogging less than 3 miles per hour. Translation: they are mostly standing around. BORING.

Soccer participants act like they've been shot. Meanwhile, real athletes like Donovan McNabb or Bobby Baun play on broken legs.

Soccer is too simple an activity.

Penalty kicks. You are determining a winner by a random event that has no relevance to the rest of the game. It would be as stupid as replacing extra innings with batting practice.

Fruity penalty cards. How stupid is it to flash up some card to indicate the severity of a penalty? Richard Simmons was inspired to use them in his diet system. Are all penalties the same? Again, the inability to use the upper torso hampers soccer participants. Use hand signals, you troglodytes.

Psychotic fans. The South Korean loser who set himself on fire is one example. The mental stability of the murderer who killed that one player because he sucked (free clue: all soccer participants suck) is another.

Ties: 55% of games are ties. Ties suck.

Why not use your hands? Or your brain?

Soccer participants do not bathe.

Soccer hairdos.

Pompous pseudo-intellectual Europeans who become soccer fans in order to convince the populace of their link to the common man.

Soccer participants with one name. I can understand why your parents would disown any soccer participant, but they should take at least any last name.

Soccer hilites concentrate on what almost happens. When ESPN has the poor sense to show soccer hilites, they show missed shots, missed passes, etc. Any real sport shows things that actually contribute to the result. Soccer participants do not care about the result.

Soccer fans justify the activity based entirely on its popularity. Not only are the reasons why soccer is popular an argument against soccer, but it really shows how pathetic said activity is when that is the only argument soccer fans come up with.

The correct term for 0 is zero, not nil. Take a math class.

Buy a freaking cup.

Soccer is not objective. There is no play clock. The game doesn't end after the clock has run down. This adds bias, subjectivism and appeals to lower intellects, and it destroys the drama from last second victories. Contrast such clumsy timekeeping (shame on the Swiss, who should know better) and the lack of any discernable strategy with the strategic precision of the two-minute drill in football.

Soccer is not objective, part two. The lack of offensive chances leads to ties, which, as we know, suck. Soccer's "solution?" Let's randomize the result (in those cases where a tie suddenly becomes an affront, the "World" Cup) by having penalty kicks.

Soccer participants on the same team have different jerseys. The obviously higher intelligence of hockey (goaltender) or football (offensive linemen) fans and referees is evident, since we don't need a different uniform to indicate a different privilege in the rule book.

Soccer is Third World inexpensive. Ordinarily, this would not be a problem. Most people don't consider buying hockey or football equipment expensive in civilized countries, but in the context of the rest of the world, it is expensive. On the other hand, soccer is dirt cheap - and by dirt cheap, I mean slum kids in Brazil rolling up balls of dirt to kick around.

Soccer apologists say the reason it is not popular in the US is because it wasn't invented in the US. First, soccer originated from the North American game called pasuckuakohowog several hundred years before the British played something resembling it. Second, basketball was the creation of a Canadian, yet is very popular in the US. Third, football was the creation of a Canadian, yet is very popular in the US.

Soccer apologists say the reason it is not popular in the US is because the US is not any good at that activity. The US soccer team won the World Cup in 1991 and 1999. Better find another reason.

Soccer apologists say soccer is an athletic activity. Using the Olympics as a barometer, it is pretty obvious that those countries that lack athletic prowess (Britain, France) are successful at soccer. Interesting to note, despite the inclusion of activities like soccer and walking in the Olympics (and the wrongful exclusion of football and rodeo), how those countries where soccer is not popular outperform those countries where soccer is popular athletically.

Soccer apologists steal terms from real sports. Hint: a pitch is something an option QB does. A draw is a running play designed to counter a strong pass rush. Football is a real sport that involves athletes in pads and helmets, not sissies playing kickball.

Soccer has no honor. There are codes of behavior in sports like hockey, baseball, football and basketball. There is no code of behavior in the activity of soccer: the penis biting should make this fairly obvious.

Soccer markets to Nazis - even today. Umbro markets Zyklon, a type of shoe, to soccer participants. Zyklon was the name of the gas used to kill Jews in WWII.

Soccer uses witch doctors. The same simplistic mentality that avails itself to soccer avails itself to primal mysticism.

Soccer idiots overexaggerate everything. Yeah, soccer deserves a Nobel Prize. Better load up on the security for that award presentation, because soccer deserves it less than terrorists like Arafat. Yeah, a soccer game is a wondrous event in your nation's history. Granted, these nations still have to master indoor plumbing, but please - stop the hallucinogenics, now.

Soccer fans actually set themselves on fire. That's a pretty good barometer judging the mentality of soccer fans.

Soccer cheering has no point. Football fans successfully cause opposing teams' offenses to call timeouts, use up the play clock, screw up audibles or cause procedure penalties. Ask Burt Hooton whether baseball fans affect an opponent's performance. Soccer? They sing songs - which all sound the same - regardless of outcome. It doesn't celebrate performance. It doesn't serve to intimidate. It has no purpose.

Soccer counts time up. Soccer games count the time that has elapsed, rather than the time remaining. This is stupid for a number of reasons. First, soccer games don't refer to time anyway, so why even keep it? Second, why the concern on the past? The score already reflects all important information of what has already happened in the game. In soccer, this is most likely irrelevant anyway, since the score is most likely 0-0, er, nil, nil. The focus should be on the result - which depends on the future. Thus, time should count down. Can you imagine NASA counting up (from, say, when JFK made his speech about landing on the moon in a decade)? How stupid would that be?"
 
Last edited:
Yeah, CWB. Your last post sums it up, all right. Let's see if I have it all straight:

1) You hate soccer.
2) You have nothing intelligent or informed to say about soccer.
3) You enjoy insulting people who like things that you hate.

Have a nice day :)
 
Top