Why does Europe like Soccer (Football)

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I didn't mean that "we" Americans alone have the sport - only that we have it. Canada invented it - and it was a great gift to the world.

Canada has some NBA teams too. I assume that Canadians say "we have basketball".

 

Because kicking the ball is infinitely superior to throwing the ball

But I can't say I like it. My last performance was 1,5 years ago and my lungs were devastated when it finally was over. You know, some evening we were playing with some Argentinians in Rome and there wasn't enough able players on our side

 

@Blackhawk
It appears I may have over-reacted just a tad. We Canucks tend to ba a bit protective about our hockey (if not our teams, since the trend seems to be to move them down south )
Anyway, its time for my meds.

P.S. Actually, we only have Toronto in the NBA, but I would hardly call the Raptors a basketball team (As you may have guessed, I'm not from Toronto

[ June 11, 2003, 16:02: Message edited by: Splunge ]

 

Well, I'm from Sacramento - our team, the Kings, unfornuately didn't do all well either.

Of course, we did much better than the L.A. Lakers

I think the NBA should create a team in Montreal too. I don't know what they would call it. Of course, team names don't always fit the city they are in. Sacramento has never had a King and L.A. has never had a lake (unless you are speaking of pools of blood).

 

Oh good lord no. I hope the NBA and MLB have learned better than to keep expanding into Canada -- you only end up with problems. If anything, contract don't expand. Now, if we were talking about Mexico I might listen but the Canada experiment hasn't gone so well. Of course, I don't like the NBA so...

That's not meant as an attack, just the facts ma'am.

As far as team names -- names like the Lakers used to make perfect sense prior to their moves. Ditto the Jazz. Ditto....

 

@Laches
Normally, as a loyal Canadian, I'd be offended (even with the "not meant as an attack" part), but frankly I have to agree with you. We're about to lose the long-time Montreal Expos (so I think an NBA team there would be disastrous), and while the Blue Jays did very well about 10 years ago (great attendance, and won the World Series in '92 + '93), its gone downhill since then. Vancouver had an NBA team but it disappeared pretty quick. Of course, the bulk of our problems stem from the difference in exchage rates between our respective currencies, which means that we have difficulty in being able to afford talented athletes, which in turn makes it difficult to field competitive teams. Same problem with the NHL.

 

dmc -

The Kings are the Pacific Division Champs - twice now.

The Lakers were hurting, but not that bad. All the players have aches and pains - as long as they perform, they do well. The Kings had quite a few injuries too.

Fox really wasn't the key to the Laker's success. I doubt not having him really changed the Lakers offense or defense.

Sorry about the "pools of blood" reference. That's a stereotype of L.A. in Northern California. The stereotype depicts L.A. as BarterTown from the Mad Max movies. Its not deserved. Of course, L.A. probably doesn't have the warmest of feelings for Sac either!

[ June 12, 2003, 12:33: Message edited by: Blackhawk ]

 

Steering the topic back to footie... As to the Americans hijacking the name football, it is one of those unsolved mysteries. Instead of calling American football 'football' why didn't they name it soccer? i mean, in American football, the ball doesn't even touch your foot unless that one guy kicks it through the touchdown-thingees. I suppose it's one of those American tendencies towards needing everything to be completely different than the rest of the world... kinda like the metric system deal.

Also, in response to some things said on the first page of posts... How footie can be call 'unmanly' I don't know. recently one hot-headed young Ukrainian immigrant broke somebody's leg in a Pro American footie match. It was the second such incident for this particular player. (We love you, Dema!!) One of the chicago fire's players made a trip to the ER with a neckbrace on because he ran into the goalpost during a little scuffle infront of the goal.

women play footie! How can you say we don't?? I'm probably the most footie-crazy person in my town and I'm female. plus, Mia Hamm is one of the most well know footie "stars" in America and guess what... she's female too.

And finally (I'm almost done, I promise) to the original question, 'why to europeans like footie?'
As others have said: culture. when you grow up with something that big all around you, driving many people, you tend to get into it. Also its a wonderful game. It's very easy to play in that you really don't need any equipment.

[ June 13, 2003, 01:16: Message edited by: Valkyrie ]

 

I watched American Football a couple of times and it sucks, big time. A bunch of souped up jocks, bashing each other? please.

And back to the origional 'manly' comment.
Your right football isn't manly, but Rugby (my sport) is, it's like American Football, except we keep the game going for more thna two seconds between whistles and we are tough enough not to need padding.
I am sorry but if your wearing all that gear in American football, you ain't tough.

 

I'll always support your argument on that one Sir D. American Football players should try Rugby Union for a propper kicking. No stoppages between plays, no helmets, rucking the ball out. Oh yes, that is a game for men.

Speaking of Rugby football - anyone see the fantastic England performances last weekend and the week before? Truly no 1 in the world at the moment. Can we hold out in the WC though? Tough indeed.

On the topic of soccer:

Enlightenment for you all coming up: Many questions as to why it's called soccer. Well it's because we have two types of football in the UK. Rugby football and Association football (as in the football association or the FA). The term Soccer comes from a short for Association. There you go. An English term though I really hate it. Football it will always be to me, and yes it's the greatest game on earth.

 

My American friends always said that world football is not as "manly" as American football. All the do are just kick the ball around and if they get rough, they get cards.

The thing i don't understand is, since when did sport become a competition of brutal assault? Sport is a competion of skill, mind and body coordination. You are the winner because you are more skillful not because you are better at pounding others (yeah, i don't like boxing). You know there is a reason why no one play galdiators anymore. "Manly" is an immature concept, "gentleman" is the what we should look for in sports.

edit - wow, my 500th post

 

I just had to jump into this topic.

A good friend of mine has a theory. His theory is that the U.S. government actively ensures that the U.S. doesn't get good at soccer. He believes that our national policy demands that we steer all of our top athletes away from soccer and that we lure them with obscene amounts of money. His rationale is that if we actually cared about the game, made it worthwhile for our top athletes to play it, we would quickly dominate the sport and the rest of the world just wouldn't be able to handle it. The Ethiopians may not have any food, running water, or technology, but damn they can chase a ball around a field.

As to why we like Football so much, a professor of mine described football as the only sport that in essence was two armies going head to head on every play. Even here in the states the general impression is that athletes are as dumb as the ball they are playing with. The players are like soldiers, they get their orders without having to understand them completely. The intellictual part is with the coaches that design the plays and schemes, and with the general managers that build the team. In Football every team has the same amount of money to spend on their team. It gives the league a tremendous amount of parity, which means that every team can be a championship team. After he described all that he then said "Plus we really like the violence, the people not good enough to play football can always play soccer."

Go Pats

 

How can you guys say that the US are no good at football?

I think the 1/4 final place in the World Cup proves otherwise. They were bloody robbed against Germany (hand ball on the goal line anyone?) in the quarters, who they outplayed for the entire match.

I take it "no good" means not the world champions? No wonder you stick to sports you only play in the US and then call the winners "World Champs". I'm a damned sight more impressed with the US soccer team reaching the last eight in the world cup than with having the "world champions" of American Football.

 

Good point Viking. The US was a positive sensation on the last WC. I think they're still not over the loss in Portugal, and against Germany they deserved the victory. Then who knows what might have happened. They have quite a few young talented players now who will only get better.

We haven't heard the last of team USA.

 

I think the point was more that the US doesn't particularly care about soccer so the best athletes don't play it - not that the US is horrible at it.

Let's put it this way. Bo knew football. Bo knew baseball. Bo knew track and field. Hell, Bo even knew hockey and he's from a little town in Alabama. Bo didn't know soccer.

And Bo was one of the best atheletes of the century. Ditto Herschel. Ditto Thorpe. Ditto....

It is probably also telling that making the 1/4 finals won't be considered much to write home about in the US. That's just the way it is.

 

The days that European national teams dominated international football, fearing only Argentina and the gods from Brazil, are definitley over I think. It will be more and more often, that Eurpean "major" teams be knocked out by African or Asian-teams, not only Latin-American teams. So, the Dutch, English, Italians, French and Germans aren't set for the finals anymore.

 

Maybe we'll even see the land of Heidi in the finals sometime. Then again..... maybe not.

 

Lol, maybe one day. First we quadruple the population to the size of the Netherlands and then we encourage people from Surinam to immigrate here and then .....

 

Wait a second, what do you mean by "best athletes"? How do you know a person is the "best athlete"? You sure Micheal Jordan is the "best athlete"? i am going for Mohamad Ali because he cares more about social issues. Do you take political stands in consideration?