and a certain portion of the soccer fans that keep telling us how awesome it is wouldn't feel as good about themselves if everybody liked it. then it would just be mainstream and boring instead of worldly and cool.
Why do people bash certain sports?
- Thread starter cycloneworld
- Start date
I think it's a function of the fans that follow the "sport" (I follow some pretty offbeat sports, so I judge nobody but do have a laugh every now and again). I too am sick of hearing how soccer is "the beautiful game" and how everybody else in the world loves it. That alone is enough for people to mock it (I don't, but certainly understand those that do). Ditto for NASCAR. I understand that NASCAR now has a diverse following, but listening to the stereotypical fan drone on and on about how great it is makes me never want to watch.
As an aside, I picked this up in the supermarket checkout recently (couldn't resist the title):
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-NASCAR/dp/1592576974]Amazon.com: The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASCAR (Complete Idiot's Guide to): Brian Tarcy: Books[/ame]
As an aside, I picked this up in the supermarket checkout recently (couldn't resist the title):
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-NASCAR/dp/1592576974]Amazon.com: The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASCAR (Complete Idiot's Guide to): Brian Tarcy: Books[/ame]
For the better part of the last century baseball has been the most popular sport in the U.S. Granted it is losing favor, but it still ranks pretty high. Not sure the lack of scoring argument holds water.
I think this is one of many reasons Americans aren't fond of soccer. Some others.
The dives - Look at how much we hate basketball players like Divac and anyone that has played at Duke for taking dives
It's not defense, its stalling - Much of a game is spent going backwards, preventing a score rather than attacking. This is why we put shot clocks in basketball and play clocks in football, nobody wants to see the four corners anymore.
The offsides rule - Not only is it hard to understand for alot of people but the defense often 'sets up' the offense to be offsides. It's not cheating but Americans dont tend to like defensive tricks that prevent scoring...
So, lets make American Soccer a game where you have bigger goals, must always be moving forward, dives turn into hockey fights, shot clock, and no offsides...
I think with baseball people are more excited about the events the lead to scoring then they are with soccer. Example, in baseball the number of hits are kept as stats and people get excited when their team gets a hit. These hits don't always lead to runs, but people like to know how many hits a team got in the game or what a players batting average is.
In soccer most people in the US don't get to excited about a stellar pass at mid field. Doubt they keep stats on how many good headers a player has in a game. We like our stats in the US.
To make a short story long, most people here find the small things in baseball more fun then the small things in soccer.
I'm not sure if this was in reference to my post. I did kind of make it sound like it was pushed on us, but, not from TV. I'm talking about the people that came to our school to get us to sign up, to do demonstrations. Kids I knew how played it who were always using the classic argument of it being so popular, etc. Not to mention, when does the season end? Holy crap. To be a sport, you should have a season. Not a fall leage, winter league, spring league and a summer league. I have friends who's kids play it and they never stop playing it. I understand if you really have a legit shot to be a pro, but we are talking about 10 - 12 year old kids here.
I find myself oddly attracted to that notion ...
can we have them bounce the ball with their hands ... and allow downfield passing?
Hey Soccer Haters, if you don't go into soccer threads to bash it you probably won't have to deal with nearly as many people defending it. Seriously, I could care less about trying to "convert you" but it would be nice to have a thread that doesn't involve people telling me why it sucks.
So, you should only play sports that you have a shot at going pro in? Or you should only play year-round if you have that shot?
"I know you really like playing soccer, but since you kind of suck Jimmy, you should play something else."
This thread was about sport bashing and why people do it right? For the most part the US vs England thread is clear of bashers ... but people quit contributing to that one, I guess it just got too soccer ... I mean too boring.:wideeyed:
oh no I didn't
Umm, the 2nd comment in that thread ripped on soccer and that led to a discussion about why Americans don't like soccer.
I just think it's funny that the main reason given for bashing soccer was because it is pushed on you as if soccer fans are the ones jumping into every other thread saying "why are you wasting your time on all these other sports when soccer is the most popular sport in the world?" Those kinds of things only come up when some clueless poster tries to start trouble.
I just think it's funny that the main reason given for bashing soccer was because it is pushed on you as if soccer fans are the ones jumping into every other thread saying "why are you wasting your time on all these other sports when soccer is the most popular sport in the world?" Those kinds of things only come up when some clueless poster tries to start trouble.
I like watching top level soccer, but die-hard soccer fans are way too sensative. Try to tell one that you don't think soccer will ever be among the most popular sports in America. Or ask them why soccer has been "the next big thing" for the last fifty years, with youth soccer continually ranking as the fastest growing leagues in the country, but it still hasn't reached it's goal? You're very likely to hear an earful about why the sport is great and American's are dumb or "just don't get it".
If somebody tells me surfing is worthless I shrug and don't give it a second though. Tell me volleyball s**ks, no big deal. I love Hurling, a big sport in Ireland, but expect nobody else to enjoy it. Never do I go into detail mode unless somebody shows interest. Why do soccer fans get so upset?
Did you say it takes no physical ability to play golf? I agree about the mental and technical comment you made, I disagree with the physical ability thing. Just because John Daly and Craig Stadler are good golfers, people think you don't have to be an athlete.
They are all very frustrated about not being able to use thier hands...
I think the answer was given earlier - its what guys do. We give people **** - for one thing or another. As for soccer in particular - I played it for 6-7 years and still dont want to watch it ever. I do give soccer fans some trouble, when I come accross them, which is rare. I have more fun jabbing a work mate about his redneck infatuation with racing and four wheelers. :biggrin:
I would expect hurling to be big in Ireland with all their Guiness and Irish Car Bomb drinking.
Did you know that soccer is known as futbol (football) in in much of the rest of the world? The term "soccer" only came about because Americans already called a different sport football. - The more you know!
Well, it was pushed on me. Not here, not on TV, people actually came to my school and said, "Sign up" In Des Moines, the Baseball, football, they all had to have their own fields paid for and paid taxes for, then all of a sudden where we used to practice was taken up by soccer fields and we were told we had to practice somewhere else. These weren't privately owned, they were city owned. They put up about 4 fields by my house and they sat empty, but, if we were playing baseball on them, we were kicked off. And told by the coaches, if you want to play here, sign up for soccer. How was that publicly funded?
Unfortunately your arguement is going to be hard to back up as long as stogies are smoked and beer is drank by the case and large sloth-like old men continue to dominate the local fairways.
"dominate" used in this case to mean sheer number, not actual quality of play.
At a professional level I'll give it a strong maybe they're athletes. At the local course? ... hmmm....
