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For any Football (Soccer) fans on here...

Those guys are rockstars.
 
Those are exciting goals, but nothing really beats the excitement for a 90 minutes 0-0 match. It's the low scoring thing that is the reason most American citizens do not care for soccer much.

I enjoyed playing soccer as a kid, but watching soccer was painfully boring (that's my opinion for most sports I guess). For watching sports, I like college basketball...live It's fast paced and during time-outs there are a number of fun traditions the audience does. Soccer doesn't seem to have that. You either watch the game or you don't.
 
Scalenex said:
Those are exciting goals, but nothing really beats the excitement for a 90 minutes 0-0 match. It's the low scoring thing that is the reason most American citizens do not care for soccer much.

I enjoyed playing soccer as a kid, but watching soccer was painfully boring (that's my opinion for most sports I guess). For watching sports, I like college basketball...live It's fast paced and during time-outs there are a number of fun traditions the audience does. Soccer doesn't seem to have that. You either watch the game or you don't.
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Every sport has poor matches and football (soccer) is no exception. It is typically lower scoring than most sports, but you have to understand the nuances and skill to really appreciate it. I think Basketball suffers from the exact opposite. There are so many points scored, that they are no longer special. Who really cares about the 7th basket, or the 16th, or the 28th? Might as well just tune into the last 3 minutes of the game, where most games are decided.

Of course that's just my opinion... although there has to be a reason why football/soccer is the most popular sport in the world!
 
NIGHTBRINGER said:
there has to be a reason why football/soccer is the most popular sport in the world!
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Because soccer cheap and simple. You can play it with two people or 40 people in a field of any size with almost any ball. The rules boil down very simply (don't use your hands and get the ball to the scoring area). I'm hard pressed to come up with a sport or game simpler except maybe tag.

Basketball requires a hoop, a paved surface, and a ball that bounces.
American football requires a "ball" that can't used for any other game.
Baseball requires a bat and ball and heavily suggests but does not require a need for gloves.

Soccer has fewer barriers to enter the hobby of any game I know, and there is a general bias towards wanting to watch professionals play games we grew up with.
 
I coach under 9's football and they all wear Barcelona tops apart from my son who is like me Man city mad, the 3 are in the top 5 of world football the orher 2 in my view are Ronaldo and Aguero.

Having played football to a decent standard you appreciate just how talented these guys are.

In training every week we play crossbar challenge (were you hit the crossbar) and not one of the kids has hit it yet, were as the players above will hit it every time.
 
Scalenex said:
Because soccer cheap and simple. You can play it with two people or 40 people in a field of any size with almost any ball. The rules boil down very simply (don't use your hands and get the ball to the scoring area). I'm hard pressed to come up with a sport or game simpler except maybe tag.
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That is one of it's advantages; it is versatile and can easily be enjoyed by many. Requiring an abundance of gear and convoluted rules is a clear disadvantage. The skill and complexity of soccer come in the form of tactics, positional awareness, superior fitness requirements and a level coordination that tops nearly every other sport.

Soccer reminds me of chess in the sense that the basic setup is simple, but they both scale to levels of skill/complexity that is without peer.

Scalenex said:
Basketball requires a hoop, a paved surface, and a ball that bounces.
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... and being tall. Yes you can succeed even if you are short, but you're at a severe disadvantage. Then you can have a guy like Shaq who has worse free throw than I do... but was able to absolutely dominate the game because of his size.

Scalenex said:
American football requires a "ball" that can't used for any other game.
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...with an average playing time of something like 11 minutes for a 3+ hour game.

Scalenex said:
Baseball requires a bat and ball and heavily suggests but does not require a need for gloves.
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...that's not even a sport! ;)

Scalenex said:
Soccer has fewer barriers to enter the hobby of any game I know
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Agreed, which is brilliant.
 
Crowsfoot said:
In training every week we play crossbar challenge (were you hit the crossbar) and not one of the kids has hit it yet, were as the players above will hit it every time.
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Yeah, it's mind boggling how good these guys are... and then you have a guy like Messi who can make most of these already exceptional athletes look like chumps.
 
Scalenex said:
It's the low scoring thing that is the reason most American citizens do not care for soccer much.
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Yup. For the sportsball to be watchable scoring a point once in awhile helps.
 
NIGHTBRINGER said:
There are so many points scored, that they are no longer special. Who really cares about the 7th basket, or the 16th, or the 28th?
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Americans will cheer a soccer goal. Cheering for the 28th basket is no different from cheering for a guy who kicked the ball a good distance without scoring a goal. It is weird to me to see a crowded sports bar cheering anything that is not a goal or a close save by a goalie, but people cheer all sorts of soccer plays that don't affect the outcome of the game.

NIGHTBRINGER said:
... and being tall. Yes you can succeed even if you are short, but you're at a severe disadvantage. Then you can have a guy like Shaq who has worse free throw than I do... but was able to absolutely dominate the game because of his size.
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That's unfair. You can do the same for any sport. Soccer is only for people who are fast and coordinated. Every sport has a body type.
 
Scalenex said:
Americans will cheer a soccer goal. Cheering for the 28th basket is no different from cheering for a guy who kicked the ball a good distance without scoring a goal. It is weird to me to see a crowded sports bar cheering anything that is not a goal or a close save by a goalie, but people cheer all sorts of soccer plays that don't affect the outcome of the game.
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What I'm trying to say is that goals in soccer are special and have meaning. Having a team win 103-102 dilutes the value of the scoring in basketball.
Scalenex said:
That's unfair. You can do the same for any sport. Soccer is only for people who are fast and coordinated. Every sport has a body type.
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Yes... but speed and coordination are physical fitness attributes... being tall is not.

Physical fitness can be broken down into the following...
  • strength
  • speed
  • agility
  • power
  • endurance
  • coordination
  • skill
  • etc.

These attributes are what a sport should be about, along side of mental/psychological traits (game intelligence, heart, work ethic, confidence, etc.). Soccer players have to have pretty much all of those traits in order to be effective. Basketball (as evidenced by Shaq) does not work exactly the same way. I'm not trying to downplay the physical abilities of Basketball players as a whole, most of them possess all of those traits as well. But the game is skewed towards the importance of size... Shaq did not possess anywhere near all of those traits and was absolutely dominant. You would never find a top level elite soccer player that possesses only exceptional speed and coordination for instance. You need to have the total package to truly dominate in soccer.
 
NIGHTBRINGER said:
YUP! I challenge any team in the world to put forth a better trio!
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You should have seen my old hockey team :)

For all Americans/Canadians/Russians/Fins/Swedes etc:. Hockey means FIELD hockey and not ICE hockey. You guys are just to lazy to say it right.
 
Same here. Hockey is Ice hockey in my neck of the woods. I try to go to the local games as much as I can! Dude's get in fights, get their teeth knocked out, and sometimes you get hit with a crazy slapshot that went over the glass! Just need to add in some beer and enjoy the mayhem...
 
It is really weird actually, Ice skating is our (the Netherlands) national sport, and Field hockey is pretty big here as well (especially the ladies national team is #1 in the world). However, we completely, totally, and utterly suck at ICE hockey.

Field hockey has a few things over Ice hockey though.... :)
Something with outfits i think ;)

128879-images
 
@NIGHTBRINGER......lol yeah, but i find (beach) volleyball extremely boring and somehow (call me crazy) i find those outfits too much (or too less), if you understand what i mean.
 
borkbork said:
@NIGHTBRINGER......lol yeah, but i find (beach) volleyball extremely boring and somehow (call me crazy) i find those outfits too much (or too less), if you understand what i mean.
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I don't watch it either, unless it's the Olympics (then I'll watch just about anything Olympic related). I mainly watch UFC to be honest and the big soccer events.
 
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