pede54 said:
Well, like I said to love football you gotta understand it, and those guys sure don't understand the game if thats all they see. I agree football has its fair share of pussies though. Thats because the powers that be, have tried to make the game less physical over the years, resulting in some players using the tougher new laws to win free kicks or get a player sent off. Some leagues are full of that crap but some leagues like the EPL are much tougher and you don't get very much rolling around the floor crying like a baby at all. Where you do get that stuff, its soon dealt with. In England the players and the fans still prefer the more physical side of the game.Those comments are a generalisation and are not relevant to every league that exists. Those guys obviously watch the pussy leagues.
Each to their own I guess. Its all a matter of taste. I wouldn't condemn anyone for prefering one sport over another. Personally nothing for me comes anywhere near football.
I'm not going to try and convince anyone not to love soccer, because I've enjoyed watching the games and the World Cup is great. But the only soccer I watch is the World Cup. You would consider the World Cup to be the premiere example of what the sport should be right? Well it is absolutely full of whiny players diving and acting as if they've been shot to try and win a penalty kick or free kick. I have a hard time believing if it isn't shunned in the World Cup it would be in EPL or Serie A.
As to why Soccer is so much more popular it's a variety of reasons. It's ingrained in the tradition of most countries in the world in a way American football or basketball are not. It's accessible to people of all sizes, whereas if you're short in basketball you have a hard time playing and if you're weak in American football you get hurt. It has a worldwide competetion every four years that draws the world in in a way that the NFL and Basketball do not. There are many reasons soccer is so wildly popular, but that's no reason to act as if the US is a lesser country because we're not among the best in the world at it.
Just because something is the most popular doesn't mean it's the best. The athletes in soccer aren't anywhere near as physically impressive as players in the NFL. For the most part world class soccer players would be someone you wouldn't notice if you saw them on the street if you didn't know they were soccer stars. Players in the NFL or NBA you would notice. Soccer is designed for lean, fit players with outstanding stamina, the NFL and NBA are designed for big, strong, explosive athletes. The NFL and NBA are full of physical freaks, who are in the top .01% of the world when it comes to a size/speed/explosiveness ratio. For example.
Mario Williams: 6 feet 7 inches, 295 lbs, ran the forty yard dash in 4.66 seconds, bench pressed 225lbs 35 times, standing vertical jump of 40.5 inches.
Matt Jones: 6 feet 6 and 1/2 inches, 242 lbs, forty yard dash in 4.39 seconds, 39 inch vertical, standing broad jump of 10'9.
Vernon Davis: 6'3, 248 4.38 forty yard dash, broad jump of 10'8, vertical of 42 inches, bench presses 460 lbs.
Those examples are just from the last two drafts, and those are their college measurables, and all three will add size and strength in the NFL.
It's not as if the USA doesn't have the athletes to succeed at an international level, it's just that they play other sports instead of soccer. If you have anymore doubts go to youtube and watch anything with Reggie Bush in it. If he's not capable of being a world class midfielder or striker I don't know who is. That's what the US is missing. We have some good players, but we don't have any of the elite players like all of the superior teams do. All our Jan Koller's and Ronaldinho's and Michael Essiens are playing in the NFL or NBA. I know when I went to high school(graduated five years ago) the soccer players weren't the guys who were what we would consider the best athletes. They all played football or basketball.
Most people in America just prefer American football to soccer. That doesn't mean either is bad, it just means that they are different. We should be able to enjoy our mediocre national team and hope they get better without being attacked for being so poor at it. The soccer tradition and developmental system here is not even comparable to the national powers, so until that structure is funded and in place and some of our better athletes start playing we won't become a force. What we need to do is throw a bunch of money at Guus Hiddink or some other elite coach, then we can see how far along we really are.
Titanic
exactly......