First of all, I like pretty much all conventional sports. I like basketball because it is velocity, I like american football because of the strategy and team work, I like hockey because it is hard and tough, I like baseball... well... because of the hotdogs... besides, you can swap the channels every 5 minutes withouth missing anything of the game... well, I like watching all sports. But...
I love Soccer (quoting a TV announcer... 'I'm from the land where football is played with the feet'). Why do I love soccer?
- As stated before, it is soooo cheap to play. I remember that when I was a kid, having a ball was being able to play. You can play alone with a ball and a wall, with 1 friend just to pass the ball, 3 people and 2 stones (or 2 trees, or 2 lines on a wall) as a goal to be switching goalkeeping, 4 people and you have a 2 on 2 with no goalies, and so on.
- Rules are very simple. Put the ball in the goal. Do it with your feet, except for the goalie who can use hands. (well, you can use your head, chest, legs, back if you have enouch skill to). Try to avoid the other team do the same. Each goal counts 1. If one team kick the ball out of the field, the other team put it in play. The same for faults (physical fault, touching the ball with the hand, offsides...) 90 minutes and a little more if there were a lot of pauses in the game.
- Since it's easy to play, and I like playing, I like watching the people who are pros doing it. Looking how Maradona used to handle the ball, how Pele used to receive, control, run with the ball, and then passing again or shooting at goal, Igita not saying only as a golie but trying to get a goal as well... and looking at Batistuta, Beckham, Zidane, Blanco or any other soccer star playing is just a bliss. Man, they make it look so easy. And then after the game of course I'll try to make a scissor kick and knock my self out.
- Altough there are injuries in soccer, they are not that many or that bad. And if things get tough, cards start going out to let the players know... hey... it's a game. Not worth your (or your opponent's) leg.
- And it has a lot of fans worlwide. I personally don't watch US soccer, but I love watching mexican, south american and european matches. And I always can gather a group of friends to look at a good game.
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I know that the average american is not into the game... well, too bad. But I won't stop watching soccer (or other sports) and I won't force anybody to watch/play what is my favorite game. I guess is like trying to force someone to eat strawberries, when they just don't like them. (I personally like them with cream and sugar... slurp!)
Why do I think that the average american doesn't like soccer?
- The average score of a soccer game is below 3 points per game (counting both teams). You may find a game 6-1 or maybe 11-2, but you will rather say it was a bad game. Against Basketball (around 150-200), American Football (around 50-100), hockey (5-15), or even boxing (150-200). If what you like about a game is points, soccer is not your game.
However, I think that's one of the beauties of this game. My friend compared it with making love... because is all about trying to get to that moment. And yes, in soccer, you jump into the field, start playing, adjust your formation, try by one side, try the other one, you are getting close, adjust someone in the wing, make a great play but fail, getting there... so when the final moment of scoring is there is so great... it wouldn't be if you were able to score 50 goals per game. Sometimes even a match without goals could be a really exciting one... sometimes it could be really boring, I aggree.
- As some one pointed out, there are no pauses, except for the half time. During game, if ball goes out, the ball has to be in play in less than 30 secs (I think 1 minute every goal) The same for faults. Again, American football has a pause after every play and more after every score, besides up to 6 timeouts. Basketball is constantly in motion, but it does have timeouts and besides there are 4 qtrs. Baseball... well.. it has pauses all over the game, I'd say less than 50% of the time the ball is actually in play. If you like those pauses, then soccer is not the game for you.
- Lets face it... US soccer narrators suck. Man, I can understand why they say soccer is boring... what exciting is to be hearing 'A pases to B... B passes to C... C returns to A...' when in your screen you are watching exactly that A>B>C>A movement! Hearing british narrators is totally different... In 92 World cup, I actually used to encourage my friends to see the spanish channels... even if you don't understand it, you can hear and feel the emotion during every play, not to mention screaming a goal...
Every one is different, and everybody likes different things. However, it would be nice if you could go to a US match, crowded stadium, and feel the passion and emotion that they have everywhere else for this game. I wish at least I could transmit the passion in me to my friends. But i cannot force them to love it, and they cannot force me not to.
And for those of you who talk soccer... =)
America, America!!!... ra ra ra!!!
Edited, Thu May 20 15:36:13 2004 by anaka