Why do Americans not care about Soccer?

[JD50]

It's not obvious at all and it makes no sense whatsoever; it's random only to a degree and the way this game works, the precision of having it counted to the hundredth of a second, is not as important.

I have no problem with stoppages in American Football since that is how the game works, it is about running specific plays and executing laid-out game plans. Soccer is a completely different game and if you actually watched it, you would see barely ever does stop. Even when fouls are being called, the other team is usually grabbing the ball and getting their free kicks off. Once you stop the clock for all of these things, more time will be spent arguing the calls and more time will be spent resetting the ball and setting up the kicks, therefore adding more time overall.

KT

Ok great, if stuff is going on then don't stop the clock and don't add extra time to the end of the game. If all play is stopped for some reason (and no one is doing anything like getting their free kicks off and grabbing the ball) then that's probably when they add time to the end of the game, so that's where they could also stop the clock.

But again, I'm told that soccer is non-stop action and play never stops, so the time that the clock is stopped would be at most 5-10 minutes. 5-10 minutes out of 90 minutes of play really isn't that big of a deal.

Is there any other major sport that keeps the clock going when all play is stopped, and then they just add an arbitrary amount of time onto the end of the game like they do in soccer? That just seems weird.

 

[thraashman]

The score at the half of the Brazil-North Korea game is 0-0. Brazil is the number 1 ranked team in the world, and the DPRK are 107th. The number one ranked team can't put up anything in a half against a tomato can like North Korea. Imagine the Saints not being able to score against the Rams, or the Blackhawks not being able to score on Edmonton.

And people wonder why Americans think soccer is boring.

Actually, seeing as there are only 32 teams in the NFL, I don't think this is a goood enough comparison. I think a better comparison would be to say it's like if Alabama couldn't score on FIU. Seeing as Alabama finished #1 last year and FIU was a 3-9 team and likely finished lower than 100 ranking.

 

[vi edit]

LOL!

Portugal and Ivory Coast played to a hard-fought 0-0 tie Tuesday in their World Cup opener, with Cristiano Ronaldo and—later—Didier Drogba each unable to break through.

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/wo...-tie-0-0--fbintl_ap-wcup-icoast-portugal.html

 

[Daedalus685]

LOL!

Portugal and Ivory Coast played to a hard-fought 0-0 tie Tuesday in their World Cup opener, with Cristiano Ronaldo and—later—Didier Drogba each unable to break through.

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/wo...-tie-0-0--fbintl_ap-wcup-icoast-portugal.html

The finals score should not be an indication of how exciting a game is... Doc's perfect game was a 1-0 final and infinitely more exciting than a 10-8 game.

 

[SR1729]

Ugh, I do not see how anyone can argue Baseball is more exciting than, well, anything.

I think he just did, and quite well. He even quantified it for us 🙂

 

[gimmewhitecastles]

Then we start getting 3 hour games like we do with Football and even 4+ hour games like we do with Baseball! Good god, no thanks! D: The clock is an argument many make in favour of this game, me included. Micro-managing the clock will not improve the game. Again, it work for American Football because it is a game of an entirely different style and pace.

People complain about the game being slow, yet you want to slow it down even more? :hmm:

KT

Baseball has no clock. In fact it needs a clock to make the game go faster.

 

[SunnyD]

I am all of a sudden far more interested in soccer.

 

[Zebo]

Can someone explain offside to me?

1. Why is it there?
2. Why don't teams just keep their defense back so opposing player is always offside when going towards goal?
3. Isn't it a lame rule? I mean if you're in good position or can outrun defense you should have shot at goal.
4. Is it so white guys can play too?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

While I agree that baseball is a relatively slow and dull sport, it's still about 100 times more active and exciting than soccer. Soccer is a bunch of guys running around doing nothing for 90 minutes. For maybe 3-4 actual minutes per game in soccer there's people near a goal with a genuine chance to score that adds excitement. The rest of the game no one is anywhere near scoring position and little happens.

In contrast in baseball, EVERY single pitch besides intentional walks is a possibility of seeing one of the greatest things in sports, a homerun. So if the average number of pitches per game is 275 then that's potentially 275 times per game you can anticipate a homerun. There's what, less than a dozen legitimate shots on goal in a soccer game? So, I'm sorry. By my numbers baseball is only around 23 times as exciting as soccer.

Have you seen a baseball game? The spectators are like watching it on TV with a bunch of friends. That's all. Half of the game people are chit chatting. They shout a few words like "strike him out!" and that's it. There's no constant chant going on like in NBA where you shout De-Fense every few minutes. There's the occasional "Let's go _____" or "CHARGE!" or "Beat LA" or whatever but come on. It's dull and boring.

I actually respect baseball a lot and I go to games for the atmosphere. It's not the same atmosphere as college football where I leave completely tired/drained and without a voice or NBA where I usually lose my voice also... The excitement level is just very different. I feel like when I get food at any other sports venue I'm gobbling it down during the breaks, but at baseball it's almost like I'm at home. Sitting back, eating a fry or two every minute... Sipping on a drink. Occasional cheers break out during a hit/run.

The problem with soccer is that there's no short term goal like in football. Both sports are relatively hard to score in. In football this is made harder only because there are short term goals you must meet like the first down. That generates excitement. Plus, every play in football is like impending excitement. You're waiting for the hail mary, or a RB to break loose, or a sack, or whatever... In NBA, a team can shoot anywhere from 40-60% on average in games and when possessions are only 24 secs long with the occasional offensive rebound, you can create excitement in every scoring attempt.

Soccer is much like Hockey, and the reason NHL is even barely alive is because fights are allowed and it's quite physical which helps escalate the excitement. Without that, it would be close to MLS popularity. Bottom line is when you only score once a game or something like that, the excitement level dwindles. That's why you can compare NHL, MLS, and MLB. NHL has the other factor going for it.... On the other hand football is terribly boring for those who don't try to understand it a bit. When you look at it from a stupid top down newbie level with a bunch of guys dogpiling, yeah that can seem dumb to others who don't care about the game.

 

[zinfamous]

Well, we need someone better than Pele. We need someone who is just like MJ was to the NBA. Beckham is good but more as a passer. MLS gets a couple of MJ's, toughens up the rules (allow some fighting like hockey) and I'd actually watch it. But w/out true bonafide superstars who will watch? Look at what Crosby and Ovechkin did for the NHL, ratings for Pens/Caps is always through the roof and sold out. MLS needs to reinvent itself and its pretty boy image.

better than Pele, in the US? rofl.

Those caliber of athletes only come to play in the USA well into their decline--Pele even more so than Beckham. He was essentially a non-entity on the field when he was playing.

Imagine trying to get someone like that when they are actually good. No way it will happen, b/c there is no contract that a US franchise can offer to match something they will get in one of those FIFA leagues, whatever they're called.

 

[AMDZen]

Good, who the fuck wants soccer to be popular here any way. Nobody

 

[zinfamous]

Baseball has no clock. In fact it needs a clock to make the game go faster.

Baseball has a built-in time management system with the structure of innings. With rotating offense/defense, it's the only way the game can be organized.

No reason to add a clock.


...I really don't understand why people bitch about the clock in soccer. such a worthless thing to complain about.

 

[zinfamous]

you know what, people here have way too much time to debate this shit.

providing links, blathering on... come on man i don't care enough for that, don't waste your time on me in the future, it's really always just opinion vs. opinion / arguing on the internet bullshit 99% of the time.

i didn't even think we used chemicals up here in Canuckistan anymore, i thought it was banned. but i'm PROBABLY wrong because i'm posting it here.

dude. the golf debate was so last page. keep up with it, man.

😛

 

[vi edit]

The finals score should not be an indication of how exciting a game is... Doc's perfect game was a 1-0 final and infinitely more exciting than a 10-8 game.

But it's not even the final score...it's that it ended in a 0-0 tie. That's just not something that computes in most major American sports.

 

[RapidSnail]

LOL!

Portugal and Ivory Coast played to a hard-fought 0-0 tie Tuesday in their World Cup opener, with Cristiano Ronaldo and—later—Didier Drogba each unable to break through.

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/wo...-tie-0-0--fbintl_ap-wcup-icoast-portugal.html

I watched the game and I thought it was very interesting. No goals, but there were quite a few opportunities, quality developments, and shots on goal. I don't think the final score is what makes or breaks the game, but the nature of the opportunities within it. It might be a bit disappointing, but a draw match can actually service some exciting play.

 

[gimmewhitecastles]

Baseball has a built-in time management system with the structure of innings. With rotating offense/defense, it's the only way the game can be organized.

No reason to add a clock.

Well i meant clock as in the time it takes a pitcher to throw his next pitch. With all the shaking of catchers signals, trips to the mound, setting up, batters calling time. It gets incredibly tedious. Not only that, they should ban batters from stepping out of the box, just to adjust their gloves. Take out all that riff raff, the game should be done in less than 3 hours. So to hell with purity of the game. Lets get a pitch clock (like a shot clock in basketball) and limit the number of times a batter can call time.

 

[vi edit]

I watched the game and I thought it was very interesting. No goals, but there were quite a few opportunities, quality developments, and shots on goal. I don't think the final score is what makes or breaks the game, but the nature of the opportunities within it. It might be a bit disappointing, but a draw match can actually service some exciting play.

Okay I'll put it in terms that it the internet can understand.

It's like watching a 90 minute version of that Kendra Wilkinson sex tape except that the audience is the one left without a happy ending at the end.

 

[Atheus]

Seriously, take your straw man and burn him. He failed you. You sound like a complete fool. Quit trying to speak for an entire nation you obviously know very little about. This country goes apeshit over the Olympics BECAUSE we're competing with the rest of the world (and we seem to hold our own quite well, wouldn't you say?). Why is it so hard for some of you blockheads to accept that soccer isn't popular here simply because we don't like the game itself? Instead of telling us Americans why we don't like soccer, how about you shut the hell up for two seconds and LISTEN to us Americans tell you why we don't like soccer. It's already been said, but let me reiterate:

• It's not a thinking-man's game. The level of strategy in soccer pales in comparison to that of football, baseball, and hockey.
• It's uneventful. Oftentimes you have teams playing to tie, and that's just not fun to watch. Baseball has been declining in popularity in the US for similar reasons.
• The game is as much about drawing penalties as scoring goals. Sorry, but the American viewership would rather see 22 men colliding on the football field rather than pretending to be tripped on the soccer field.

Quit trying to invent a bunch of nonsensical reasons that serve no other purpose than to disingenuously insult an entire country. There's no foundation for the idiotic claims being levied here. Give it up. Americans just don't like the sport. It has nothing to do with one country's superiority or inferiority, and claims/inferences to the contrary are nothing more than bigotry.

Well you're pretty much making my point for me - the opinion of the majority of people in the world is that football is highly entertaining, so if millions of people all in one place disagree with that, it is more likely to be down to that place than the nature of the game. What - do you imagine one day everyone in Europe will turn around and say; shit that WAS boring lets play baseball! 0_o

Besides it's not like we don't have the oval ball sport too - it's called Rugby but it's fairly similar. If that was so obviously superior we'd all watch that wouldn't we?

 

[Atheus]

Why don't you just say that Americans like gridiron football because it's like a series of battles and we're all a bunch of war-mongers? 🙄

Having referenced the British Empire in my post I'm hardly going to level THAT particular accuasion at you am I...

/edit: sp...

 

[AMDZen]

Well you're pretty much making my point for me - the opinion of the majority of people in the world is that football is highly entertaining, so if millions of people all in one place disagree with that, it is more likely to be down to that place than the nature of the game. What - do you imagine one day everyone in Europe will turn around and say; shit that WAS boring lets play baseball! 0_o

Besides it's not like we don't have the oval ball sport too - it's called Rugby but it's fairly similar. If that was so obviously superior we'd all watch that wouldn't we?

The most watched sport after soccer in the entire world is cricket. After that is basketball. This is because people in overpopulated and poor countires like shitty sports. Plain and simple.

Basketball is at least exciting and makes it at #3, regardless of my feelings toward the NBA - its clearly the strongest sport in the tops there.

EDIT: BTW that is based off this link
http://www.sportingo.com/all-sports/a11587_worlds-top-most-popular-team-sports

 

[zinfamous]

Well i meant clock as in the time it takes a pitcher to throw his next pitch. With all the shaking of catchers signals, trips to the mound, setting up, batters calling time. It gets incredibly tedious. Not only that, they should ban batters from stepping out of the box, just to adjust their gloves. Take out all that riff raff, the game should be done in less than 3 hours. So to hell with purity of the game. Lets get a pitch clock (like a shot clock in basketball) and limit the number of times a batter can call time.

yeah, I can get behind that. does drag things out quite a bit.

....but at the same time I also really like that stuff. It's pretty much what baseball is all about. All of that is just to get into the opponent's head. I don't mind the batters stepping out so much as I do catchers visiting the mound.

They do have limits on some of these things, but I could see them limiting the catcher visits more than what we have now.

 

[SP33Demon]

better than Pele, in the US? rofl.

Those caliber of athletes only come to play in the USA well into their decline--Pele even more so than Beckham. He was essentially a non-entity on the field when he was playing.

Imagine trying to get someone like that when they are actually good. No way it will happen, b/c there is no contract that a US franchise can offer to match something they will get in one of those FIFA leagues, whatever they're called.

Well, it will happen someday. In our lifetimes? Dunno. I'd love to see a Jordan-esque scorer in the US because DC United games are pretty dam cheap. One of these owners will open the pocketbook eventually.

 

[Daedalus685]

Can someone explain offside to me?

1. Why is it there?
2. Why don't teams just keep their defense back so opposing player is always offside when going towards goal?
3. Isn't it a lame rule? I mean if you're in good position or can outrun defense you should have shot at goal.
4. Is it so white guys can play too?

Just like in hockey it is there to prevent cherry picking and allow defense man to move up more than they would normally.

However, in soccer the offside line is declared when the pass in played, not when the player gets the ball/puck, so as long as you are at the level of the last defense when the ball is kicked forward you are onside.. regardless of how many miles closer to the goal you are than the defense when you get the pass. You cant defend by standing on the goal line because that would simply give up wide open shots.

It is actually there to give an advantage to speed, players must start on equal footing at the beginning of the play (when the pass is made up) but the faster folks will break away. Without it the slow power kickers would just chill in the penalty box.

 

[Pacfanweb]

The most watched sport after soccer in the entire world is cricket. After that is basketball. This is because people in overpopulated and poor countires like shitty sports. Plain and simple.

That is just exactly right. Soccer is popular worldwide because it is CHEAP and EASY to play.

You need a ball and two sticks to mark your goal. Even people in the poorest countries can come up with that.
Let those folks try and come up with helmets, pads, cleats, or bats, helmets and multiple balls.....and they have a harder time with it....much less finding enough people big/strong/fast enough to play American sports.

I don't begrudge other countries their favorite sports. But just because more people watch a sport doesn't mean it's better than our favorites.

Hell, more people bought Britney Spears albums than lots of FAR more talented artists, too.

 

[Atheus]

That is just exactly right. Soccer is popular worldwide because it is CHEAP and EASY to play.

You need a ball and two sticks to mark your goal. Even people in the poorest countries can come up with that.

So why is it popular in Europe then? We could all do expensive sports like tennis or yacht racing if we wanted but most of us still play football.