You can’t half tell this forum is American dominated beacuse the biggest sporting tournement in the world is about to kick off and not even ONE damn mention. The football (soccer) world cup starts tomorro and the whole of Europe South America is going ape shit over it. I have a therory that Americans hate soccer beacuse they are no damn good at it and only watch sporting events if they can win um, please correct me if i’m wrong. Anyway any soccer fans speak up it is the world cup you know and U.S.A are involved although not for very long as usual, ha ha.
I feel you buddy. I mentioned the world cup to someone at work and they asked if it was going to be in Jamaica this year. Woo boy. I’m going to be on vacation all of june and I’ll be up some late nights during that time i can tell you. Damn time difference.
Don’t worry, Jochen, du aschloch, the Germans will get bounced early too…
Ive always hated soccer. In high school only the really bad athletes played. i could have put a team together and beat them.
What ignorant euro trash opinion is this?
“I have a therory that Americans hate soccer beacuse they are no damn good at it and only watch sporting events if they can win um, please correct me if i’m wrong.”
Is this why europeans don’t watch baseball-because they can’t win? No, It has to do with the fact that europeans didn’t grow up playing baseball. Most adults in the states did not play soccer as youths and therefore take little interest in it now.
Also consider, few americans watch tennis; however, we’ve had some very dominating players over the years.
“Anyway any soccer fans speak up it is the world cup you know and U.S.A are involved although not for very long as usual, ha ha.”
I admit we may not be the best team but that is quite likely to change. The last ten years soccer programs have been expanding rapidly here in the states. I would venture that within 10-12 years we will dominate soccer at the international level. If merely 15-20% of our youth population plays soccer our talent pool will still be larger than that of any european country save Russia.
Even if the US does well at this and future world cups i will not watch. I think soccer is slow and boring; I would much rather watch hockey or US Football.
BTW, the US women did pretty well at the last world cup. I can’t quite remember how they placed… hhmm… seems they did much better than those european teams though.
I grew up in europe and soccer was a big part of my life (used to be a capitan of my high school soccer team). But for the last decade, living in the us, I’ve never seen a good soccer game in this country. Unfortunately this game is not popular, probably because the level of teams is very low here and also because people here like more extreme sports. For exmaple football or basketball, all about huge guys, the skills are secondary to human meaterial. A 7 feet basketball player is prefered to a 6 feet guy who has much better skills. On the other hand soccer is very democratic, big and small guy can play it the same. It doesn’t matter how big or strong you are, or how much you bench, its all about skills and finess. Diego Maradona was a pretty small guy but a great player. I have an impression that american people just enjoy watching huge men kicking the shit out of each other. Though I love ice hockey too and that game is pretty physical… 
What team are you supporting? I like Argentina and England, they are two of the best on this championship and unfortunately are in the same group. Well I can’t wait for the championship to begin, thank god this time they show it on espn.
Americans don’t like soccer because there are no statistics, unlike sports like football or baseball with are ripe with stats. Canadians don’t like soccer because hockey is way better.
I played for eight years - started on a boy’s team (there were no co-ed teams at the time) and the two teams I was on placed either 2nd or 1st in our division. I LOVE soccer. I LOVE indoor soccer.
But then I LOVE sports and appreciate the athletic skills to participate in ANY sport. The World Cup is a great reason to have satellite, IMO. Soccer, day and night. Totally cool.
It is sad that it isn't entirely appreciated here in the States. It's funny, while it ain't being watched here, it sure is being played by ALOT of people.
I love watching soccer, but I’ve also been playing since I was 4 years old and spent a couple years as a ref.
It’s simple…to enjoy soccer, you have to understand what’s going on. Not a lot of people in America do.
I find soccer to be extremely boring to watch. There is just not any excitement in a sport that has mostly 1 to 0 games. Plus a lot of the soccer fans gooning it up in the stands and whining about the refs on internet forums after every single game (even if their team wins) has made me not like this sport. I don’t know any other sport that has so many whiners for fans.
SOCCER SUCKS!!! USE YOUR HANDS, OR ACTUALLY TRAIN WITH WEIGHTS TO IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE. ANY SPORT WHERE YOU CAN’T USE YOUR HANDS TAKES AWAY FROM THE ATHLETIC ABILITY REQUIRED TO DO IT. THINK IF ALL THE GREAT, TRACK, FOOTBALL, OR BASKETBALL PLAYERS TOOK UP SOCCER OR BASEBALL. ALL THE SOCCER PLAYERS WOULD HAVE NEVER MADE IT PASSED HIGH SCHOOL.
There really should be a minimum IQ requirement in order to post on this board you know….
Case in point…purplehosh’s post. Regardless of whether you like football or not you have to admit his post made absolutely no sense.” ANY SPORT WHERE YOU CAN’T USE YOUR HANDS TAKES AWAY FROM THE ATHLETIC ABILITY REQUIRED TO DO IT.” Hmnm…I guess track ie 100m, 400,800,1500 require no athlecism. I mean I never saw anyone run down the track on their hands…have you purplehosh?
Next you say “THINK IF ALL THE GREAT, TRACK, FOOTBALL, OR BASKETBALL PLAYERS TOOK UP SOCCER OR BASEBALL. ALL THE SOCCER PLAYERS WOULD HAVE NEVER MADE IT PASSED HIGH SCHOOL.” Does this mean that you think skills are automatically transferable from sport to sport? What are you smoking buddy?
Soccer sucks? If you say so …Football is only the most popular sport in the world…but I guess you must be right purplehosh…it sucks.
Americans don’t typically like soccer for the same reason they don’t like rugby… nationwide ADD. Soccer is low scoring and has long periods of relatively slow action (compared to Am. Football for example) The action does not stop and start every 8-10 seconds as it does in baseball and AmFootball. You have to understand the skill involved to appreciate the athletes and that actually takes effort. Soccer and Rugby have a long time until the general American public accepts them, they are not ‘household’ sports and they do not easily adapt to our extremely short attention spans.
Interesting point. When I first sawamerican football I hated the game because of the constant interuptions. 30 seconds of action and then 2 minutes of walking and talking. Seemed too boring. Now after ten years of living in the us my attention span is shorter so football is ok To Goldie: Some of the greates soccer players weren’t outstanding athletes. Its more about skills and technique not brute strength which I am sure you have in abundance.
I disagree with Michelle on the short attention span thing. I find soccer extremely boring but love to watch and play rugby.
You post was great, Michelle…at least the part I read before I spaced off watching tv.
And Lion, good job. I was trying to figure out how to bash him for his idiotic comments, but you did a great job of it. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
I partially agree with the above post, at least regarding the mass audiences. However, we have more people watching tennis and golf on TV than professional soccer, so that kinda puts a little monkey wrench in the overall assesment. I think it just comes down to what we were raised on…and it’s not soccer. Soccer hasn’t ever been that popular in North America. Through most of this century, especially after the mid-point, urban kids tend to play at basketball (except in Indiana, where EVERYONE plays basketball ) and boxing, kids who have a little more open space play baseball and football. These were popular sports before mass television, so the purly commercial/spectator value of the sport is something that evolved after the popularity of the sport. There’s also the equipment factor – all you need to start playing soccer is one ball for a few dozen people…so it is popular in latin america, africa, and asia where buying individual equipment is often not as viable for ordinary kids, which is why you get so many really good South American teams (go Brazil!). I couldn’t really speculate on why soccer never became popular to begin with in the USA, but we evolved our own sports, and stuck with them, just as people who grew up with soccer stick with it.
I might speculate that American football became popular because of its similarity to military applications, but that would be just something pulled out of my arse. Still I wonder how much, in its early history, it was practiced in military academies and universities before it gained its mass appeal.
Like, totally, Michelle.
And Nick, it's funny, I also get occasionally annoyed by the constant interuptions in football - but the annoyance soon passes when I realize I must get up and get another beer. :-)
I agree that soccer is boring to watch, but fun if you actually play it. I don’t understand why it hasn’t caught on as a spectator sport in North America because where I live in Canada, you can’t get enough soccer fields. Every kid is enrolled in summer soccer, and the real keeners continue through the winter indoors. It’s uncanny that everyone wants their kids to play, but few really watch the sport. Now, as far as boring goes–if ever there was a boring sport to watch, that has to be baseball. Soccer is action packed in comparison, and at least the athletes look as though they are in shape. Most baseball players stand around with guts, scratching their packages and spitting. Yuk!
Soccer is not a sport… It is a reason to kidnap and murder the goalie’s father if his team loses. Soccer is not a sport… It is a reason to riot. Soccer is not a sport… Especially when half the guys in the “league” are a bunch of faggots with long hair, Austin Powers chest hair, and only one name (like Sapphire).