I Don't Care About the World Cup. How About You?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I love that too, but people say it’s one of the reasons why soccer isn’t as popular here–major networks hate broadcasting the games cause theres basically no possibility for commercials=no revenue.</p>

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<p>I agree, baseball is one of the most boring sports to watch. football is too, only like 2 out of ever 10 minutes you’re watching consists of anyone playing a sport. it’s all these plays and so many rules.</p>

<p>I like basketball too, but only college basketball. professional just gets boring. I also like lacrosse, tennis, and hockey the few times I’ve seen it has been fun to watch too. </p>

<p>Soccer definitely is about how the players move with the ball and the split second decisions they make. </p>

<p>People complain it’s low scoring but I don’t really get how that makes it boring—hockey is usually low scoring too I believe? unless you have a situation in which a team is obviously going to demolish their competitor, the whole game becomes a sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat thing.
If you counted each goal for more points and gave a point for every time there was a good shot at goal, or it hit the crossbar or went over the crossbar, you’d have a much higher scoring game. </p>

<p>The player’s acting hurt thing is somewhat annoying if they overdo it, but sometimes I feel like people forget that the players are wearing no padding or helmets and playing a game in which they can easily be kicked with spiked cleats…</p>

<p>I don’t think most people who like soccer here care if Americans get with the picture. From college and high school a good amount of my friends love the game, and their numbers outweigh the few who dislike it/think its stupid (now that I think about these people are usually the ones who have more conservative views in general…hmmmm…) and the people who like it could give a **** if their parents and the greater midwest cared about soccer, they just like the game. </p>

<p>plus if America started liking soccer foreigners would just have one less thing to hate about us, and we’d never want to do that to them, obvs</p>

<p>also I just remembered, on Friday I was at work (I intern at a company located in Time Square), and my building is next door to ESPN Sportscenter. I left to run an errand in the midmorning and walked by, saw 10 people standing outside the ESPN windows, checked it out and saw that the game was on the TVs inside, took note of the score and moved on. I came back an hour later, walked by and saw a mass of something like 50 people huddled in front of the windows, haha. There were probably a lot of tourists there, but definitely a few natives as well.</p>

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<p>People do the same thing in basketball – except that most of the time it actually does result in the team scoring. And unlike soccer, nobody’s ever punished for flopping in basketball.</p>

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<p>have you taken a shoe with cleats to an unprotected part of your body recently? or been tripped while running full speed?</p>

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<p>The offside rule serves to take the fun out of soccer. Imagine if they didn’t allow fast breaks in basketball. You know you are in trouble when you see teams on offense constantly passing the ball back up the field - <em>away from</em> the goal.</p>

<p>I watch the World Cup games in which the US plays, but in general soccer is excruciating to watch. It’s 99% failure. Failure on one pass after another, on one play after another, and on one shot after another. They gotta figure out a way to inject a lot more offense into the game. Right now the defense is strangling it. Successfully scoring a goal shouldn’t feel like such a huge, almost miraculous, breakthrough the way it so often does now.</p>

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<p>“The offside rule serves to take the fun out of soccer.”</p>

<p>No. It takes out the posers. The “kick and runners”. The teams that rely on speed and athleticism over technique and strategy.</p>

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<p>^^If the posers and “kick and runners” (whatever they are) can bring a little offense to the game, I’m all for them.</p>

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<p>[The</a> Onion Sports Introduction To World Cup Soccer | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source](<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/interactive/the-onion-sports-introduction-to-world-cup-soccer,17558/]The”>http://www.theonion.com/interactive/the-onion-sports-introduction-to-world-cup-soccer,17558/)</p>

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<p>There is a whole lot of acting going on. Pretty much an indisputable fact. Many of these “injuries” are miraculously healed once the foul whistle is blown. Particularly the shin injuries I mentioned, which is the one part of the body which is protected.</p>

<p>I have seen a few cards given for the theatrics, more than I remember seeing during the last world cup. But I’ve watched more of the games so far this year as well.</p>

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<p>The World Cup is the only sporting event that gets watched in our house. Since the only local channel that carries it is Univision, I get to hear shouting in Spanish from the screen AND from Happydad on the couch. At least the announcers don’t leap off my couch and shake the whole room when a goal is scored!</p>

<p>Happykid has a weakness for Aussie Rules football, but since we aren’t totally clear on the rules we never hang in for an entire game even when we do catch it on TV.</p>

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<p>America’s finest news source is now reporting that soccer has finally come out:</p>

<p>[Soccer</a> Officially Announces It Is Gay | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source | Onion News Network](<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/video/soccer-officially-announces-it-is-gay,17603/]Soccer”>http://www.theonion.com/video/soccer-officially-announces-it-is-gay,17603/)</p>

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<p>Re: Diving</p>

<p>Announcers in the Portugal vs. Ivory Coast game discussing all the falling and writhing going on. The British commentator stated that these games have more players “trying to con the refs” than he has ever seen.</p>

<p>Case in point: Christiano Renaldo goes flying, landing hard and grasping his leg. Ivory Coast guy gets a yellow card. On replay, NO CONTACT is observed, only award winning acting skills by Ronaldo. Later, Renaldo is truly taken out by Ivory Coast player, lands hard, writhes, and gets a yellow card in spite of clear contact by the Ivory Coast player. Oh well. At the end of the first half, Ivory Coast is called for foul on Renaldo who, of course, tumbles to the ground. On replay, you guessed it, no contact.</p>

<p>My daughter’s coach always would become incensed if the girls had a game where they were always falling down, trying to draw fouls. He pointed out that while their butts were on the ground, they had zero chance of making a play. And that’s what I see happening here quite a bit. Few sustained drives, just a constant series of fouls, both real and imagined, and the subsequent set plays.</p>

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<p>^^^This is a long standing argument in soccer and I have come to the conclusion that there is a real cultural difference in the way soccer is played. Germans, the Brits, and Americans for the most part see “trying to con the ref” as a bad thing. Others, most notably the Italians see it as a part of the game, and a fun part at that. </p>

<p>My kids spent a couple years in Italian public schools and consequently a good part of their social life consisted of pick-up soccer games. Taking a dive was practiced and critiqued as much as any ball handling skills. A good actor was appreciated as much as good goalie.</p>

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<p>^^^^Interesting point.</p>

<p>I thought the Germans looked absolutely awesome the other day. Perhaps Australia was just that bad, but that was a very fun game to watch.</p>

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<p>I have learned, after growing up watching very little sports, that it’s always more interesting to learn about a new sport and sometimes get sucked into turning into a huge fan, than to go into kneejerk complaino mode because it’s not my thing. </p>

<p>There was a time in my life when I knew nothing about baseball, but then I learned what was going on, and got into the whole ethos of it (where, let’s face it, all that extra time is necessary because baseball fans love to talk about every bit of minutiae and lore in between pitches–that’s why so many writers are baseball fans.) Now I am the world’s biggest baseball fan–watch it on TV, listen on the radio, read about it all the time. I don’t expect others will share my interest, though of course many do.</p>

<p>I picked up football when I attended a Big Ten school. Hockey took longer, but when I went to a game, it became much, much clearer and I could start to see plays develop and how defense worked. It’s not my favorite, but I appreciate it. Same could be said of basketball for me.</p>

<p>My S is both the biggest sports fanatic in the world, and highly articulate. So when I said I didn’t “get” soccer, he did a pretty good job makint it make more sense for me, and got me sucked in. He’s been a LIverpool fan for years, and has been excited about the World Cup for ever. I don’t watch whole matches, but I’ll sit with him for a while, and I get interested in the stories.</p>

<p>I guess what I’m trying to say is that you may never know what makes something interesting to others unless you make an effort to get to know it. Of course, you don’t have to–there are sports that will probably never interest me enough to learn more about (golf, bowling) but I totally get that someone else might really love them.</p>

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<p>Great post Garland! I have warmed to a number of sports over the years. Tennis (my son played at a high level and I learned all the rules). We go to the US Open every year now as a family…a blast. Football. Son attended a Big Ten and I went to a game. I’m sold. What fun. My college had a lousy football program. </p>

<p>Now soccer. Son is a huge fan and loves to try to explain the sport to me. I haven’t warmed to it completely yet but I may. I’m certainly giving it a try (although I honestly don’t have the time to sit for hours for ANY of these sports). I like to watch the the last half…or quarter…or set…you know what I mean.</p>

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<p>After watching my both my D’s play soccer, I really came to respect the skill and speed it takes to play it well. I love watching it, especially at this level.</p>

<p>I will say that the Brazil/N Korea game was a fun game to watch, particularly in the 2nd half, and seemed much cleaner in terms of fouls, both real and “imagined.” Many instances of good sportsmanship on both sides, I thought. And great that N. Korea, ranked #105 in the world (FIFA rankings) held #1 Brazil to a 2-1 win. Made it quite interesting. All three goals were beautiful, no ugly “lucky” ones.</p>

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<p>FOR a chuckle<br>
search on youtube…Monty Python -Philosophers World Cup</p>

<p>"Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside. "
Socrates…goooooooooal</p>

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<p>Lol!!!</p>

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<p>Second funniest comment on this thread. Good one. :)</p>

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<p>^
Personally, I have long referred to radio broadcasts of baseball games as a “sleep aid”.</p>