A Yank View Of Football

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I don't believe soccer will ever have mainstream acceptance in the U.S. Over here it is a kids game. I spent the last semester as the assistant coach for Little Snook's team. All of the kids had a lot of fun and we had a great season. However, we already know which kids we are going to lose to what we call "real sports". The kids we are losing are the top athletes. There is only so many hours that can be dedicated to sports. As the requirements for practice and games get more intense soccer loses the kids to football, baseball, and somewhat to basketball (although basketball is typically a winter sport so it doesn't cause as much turnover).

The exception is with the girls. Last semester we fielded six boys teams and twelve girls teams. Of course the girls typically don't have the opportunites to play the rougher sports. I'm sure this is also why the U.S. has had success in international women's soccer.

The Superbowl MVP was Deion Branch. He is a huge soccer fan and has always said if he wasn't a football player he would have played soccer. Since the Patriots and the N.E. Revolution are owned by the same person and play on the same field, Deion has been known to "screw" around with the Revolution players. It wouldn't surprise many people if he could make the team, and he hasn't played soccer since high school (probably 8 years ago).

Besides, think of how it would de-stablize the world if the U.S. actually did get good at men's soccer. Heck, people think the world is upset with us for Iraq, imagine if we started winning World Cups.

I used to be a soccer hater, but I have a better understanding of the game now and can appreciate it better. However, football will always be number one with me.

 

I wish I had more time to follow more sports. When I lived in USA I really got into watching their sports like Ice Hockey (San Jose Sharks), American Football (Kansas City Chiefs), Basketball (Orlando Magic), and Baseball (didn't really get around to finding a team to support). When I lived in England, I got much more into Soccer (Aston Villa). But now I am back in New Zealand, I seem to only end up having time for Rugby Union (The All Blacks and North Harbour) and Cricket (The Black Caps and the Central Stags).

It's just too much work to keep up with them all, not to mention all the individual sports like tennis, golf, motor racing, athletics etc. Reading the sports pages for results is about the extent of what I can manage for most sports these days.

 

@HB

The A in FIFA stands for Associations and it means the various national football associations, which are members of FIFA. Afterall there are other associations like FIBA (the international basketball association), where A has the same meaning it has in FIFA. According to your logic Basketball must be called soccer as well.

Anyway, you are right, this debate it's silly, but that's what you get since Brits never managed to teach their colonies properly.

 

I always disliked Woody Allen - sound likes the typical crap you hear him spouting in his "movies"

Harbourboy - a man of taste, what made you support Villa? Did you ever watch a match in the Holte?

 

I'm not so sure about that Snook, football is becoming more and more popular in the US. Maybe it will never have the status as it has in Europe, but it's upcoming nonetheless. It shows in the amount of young talented players that come from the US nowadays. Of course they are all looking for contracts with big European clubs, but that's only natural, the best basketballers from across the globe are all looking for a contract with one of the teams from the NBA for exactly the same reason, everyone wants to perform on the highest level. In basketball that is the US, while in football it's Europe.

There's a Worldcup going on in the Netherlands right now, for players up to the age of 20, and i've seen some amazingly talented players running around. The future looks very bright for countries such as the US, Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, Spain, and Colombia. Even the Chinese have some excellent youngsters in their midst at the moment. The US has one of the greatest talents in the world right now, and apparently he's only 15 or 16 years old.

 

@BOC- I'm afraid HB has the goods on this issue. FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association (in English the International Federation of Association Football). "Association" in either case is a modifier of Football, and Fédération is the noun refering to the group itself. Otherwise it would be a little repetitive: The International Federation of Football Association, or the Association de Fédération Internationale de Football, or some such thing.

From the mouths of FIFA themselves:

Thus, "Association Football" refers to one specific set of rules adopted by the English Football Association. At the time, there were many forms of "football" being played, usually associated with a given area or institution. What we today call Rugby was then just another kind of football, with as much claim to the title of football as Association Football. If we go back to the early 19th century:

Hmm, "Freemason's Tavern" eh? I *knew* soccer was an international conspiracy!

Note also how "Association Football" defined itself through banning such manly acts as shin-kicking, tripping, tackling, ball-carrying, and other random acts of violence. I wonder if they had already developed the ballet-like technique of flying through the air and then rolling all over the ground clutching their ankles and crying anytime they thought the ref was looking at them and someone from the other team brushed by!

It's just like TGS said:

Which is precisely why they play soccer!

 

This reminds me - Arlyn wants to play soccer in the fall. I have to get on with finding him somewhere to play.

 

Incorrect. Most football players who play in our topleague are not even professionals while all icehockey players are professionals in our top league. The most popular sports in Finland are Ice Hockey, Formula 1(and various other motorsports), and various wintersports (such as skijumping, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, biathlon etc.). International football events such as the world cup and champions league are fairly popular but nowhere near the sports I mentioned above.

Anyway anyone mocking some sport in this thread is an ignorant fool. All sports can be fun and entertaining once you understand them properly and all (or atleast the vast majority of them) sports are good forms of exercise and help you keep yourself fit and healthy. Well anyway, please go on with your mudslinging, I have nothing further to contribute to this thread.

 

Bion, it's that last line that gave you away, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and you're either too ignorant to discuss this matter, or you're taking the piss.

 

In Argentina we call it 'futbol'. Is so popular that Fox Sports and ESPN were 'transformed' into Argentinian channels that show any kind of shows related to futbol, a typical sunday starts like: 11am- the Pre-show (5 ex futbol players acting as journalists or some such); 13hs- another debate show about what this or that team is going to do; 15hs- the game; 17hs- post game analisys; 20hs- the whole league resumen; 22hs- analisys and interviews; and for the rest of the week we had 3 or 4 shows at a day that debate about this or that play. For me, is too much, I like a little bit, but watching it 24/7 is sick.
I forgot, in Mexico and another caribean countries is called 'balonpie' balon: ball; pie: foot.

 

Ahh... come now Pac man, just because someone makes a joke about your fave sport, must they be ignorant?

All sports deserve ridicule, as do all non-essential activities that people take super-seriously (well, maybe the essential ones deserve ridicule as well, now that I think of it). I mean, its funny enough when you're a kid playing team sports, watching everyone's parents getting way, way too involved in the game, but what's up with giant stadiums full of drunken zealots, fat guys decked out in 100s of dollars/euros of merchandise (they should try playing rather than watching), and all the adolation and huge salaries and that go to top players?

And like I said earlier, given my size, soccer was the only team sport I could really play well when I was growing up (after I stopped playing little league baseball, that is). In fact, I still play some intramural games at the college I attend. And I actually find it more interesting to watch than American Football.

But if you think I made up the stuff about Association Football, etc, I assure you, all the quotes (except for the last, of course) come straight from FIFA. Check the linky.

 

Bion - you legend. You're the first person to ever acknowledge that I'm talking rubbish when I mention the term 'Assocation Football'.

You are also right on the money when you say:

As with the American bashing threads, maybe we could balance this one up by making up some funny ridicule for other sports so that soccer fans don't feel so victimised.

For example, my favourite sports:
Rugby - where grown men pile on top of each other in the mud feeling around for the ball
Cricket - five days of standing around in a paddock waiting for afternoon tea to arrive

 

You should all try Hurling - a real mans sport, fast paced, and it has the right amount of tactics and aggression, and is probably older than all the mentioned sports combined!

 

Don't be silly Morgoroth, I'll give you Ice Hockey and F1 (if you call it a sport), but the rest, alpine skiing, biathlon? Football is by far the most popular summer sport in Finland.

 

Turkish wrestling anyone?

 

Dude, turkish wrestling is hard core.

No weight classes and a *thirty minute* period. In collegiate rules or freestyle, three minutes is like an eternity.

Plus, Turkish wrestling claims the longest continuously running athletic event; one yearly tournament has been going on for around 650 years.

But then again, you're probably thinking about it from the "big men covered in olive oil wearing only leather pants wrestling eachother outdoors" angle...

 

ticker, ever wonder what your parents most likely do on all those cold winter days?

Ski-jumping and biathlon are older generation wsports, methinks...

and F1 is no longer a sport, not rreally...t he real sport is in F3 and other "lesser" races.

 

F1 is more popular.

But yeah, Finns don't watch that much sport in the summer (except F1 or special events such a the Olympics) so it's easy to be number one there. Wintersports in general are more popular in Finland than summer sports though. Nordic Skiing is no more that popular because of a certain doping case but ski jumping and alpine skiing are both more popular than football still. Biathlon was a bad example though since it ain't all that popular in here.