Question For American's

[Guest ant_7000]

Im not stupid I respect the Soccer players and all I've watch the games and have to say its zzzzzzzzzzz boring and Like someone said Golf and NASCAR is more popular than soccer here and Both of them are not a sport in my opinion. Im Basketball guy, but I did hate it when they forced us to play soccer in gym thats why im probably so turn off by it

[Guest Vern Gagne]

The Italian league is way worse than the German league.

 

 

The Americans think that everything has to revolve around them. I mean they probably think Basketball is the best sport in the world, yet half the world couldn't care less about American Basketball. World Cup is the biggest sporting event next to the Summer Olympics, when you have nearly a fifth of the World's population watching it.

 

I also think that Americans can not think of a game that rely's on "A Good Offence is a good defence" concept. I mean when you have 10 shots on at game on the goalie, look how many chances they get.

 

Plus its all strategy. You can't just run your ass off for 90 minutes kicking the ball on a field, that'll just make you an idiot, you gotta play your position, and no one is going to cover you if you don't play your position properly, you try to play a game that is bigger than a football field for 90 minutes straight, no breaks, think that is easy?

 

Also I think that Americans have a short attention span at soccer, if there is no action for the first 5 minutes, they don't care. They want to see goals and many of them.

 

But I just find that the typical American is nothing but a patriotic bandwagoner that has no clue what they are cheering for.

Who the hell cares about the Italian or German league?

 

People who don't like soccer don't care about that. Just like people who don't like Baseball don't care about whether the American or National League is better.

 

You tend to think that since the U.S. isn't in love with soccer it's full of brain dead morons. I could say the same thing about the rest of the world when talking about Baseball. The rest of the world is a bunch of brain dead morons for not appreciating Baseball. But I won't because it's just a game and I don't care if most of the world hates baseball or football.

 

I can't stand the rest the world for various other reasons. Whether or not they hate baseball or football is not one of them. Just like for whatever reason someone has a problem with the U.S.(the most powerful, and geneorus nation in the world) whether or not soccer is big should play no role.

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

The Italian league is way worse than the German league.

 

 

The Americans think that everything has to revolve around them. I mean they probably think Basketball is the best sport in the world, yet half the world couldn't care less about American Basketball. World Cup is the biggest sporting event next to the Summer Olympics, when you have nearly a fifth of the World's population watching it.

 

I also think that Americans can not think of a game that rely's on "A Good Offence is a good defence" concept. I mean when you have 10 shots on at game on the goalie, look how many chances they get.

 

Plus its all strategy. You can't just run your ass off for 90 minutes kicking the ball on a field, that'll just make you an idiot, you gotta play your position, and no one is going to cover you if you don't play your position properly, you try to play a game that is bigger than a football field for 90 minutes straight, no breaks, think that is easy?

 

Also I think that Americans have a short attention span at soccer, if there is no action for the first 5 minutes, they don't care. They want to see goals and many of them.

 

But I just find that the typical American is nothing but a patriotic bandwagoner that has no clue what they are cheering for.

Who the hell cares about the Italian or German league?

 

People who don't like soccer don't care about that. Just like people who don't like Baseball don't care about whether the American or National League is better.

 

You tend to think that since the U.S. isn't in love with soccer it's full of brain dead morons. I could say the same thing about the rest of the world when talking about Baseball. The rest of the world is a bunch of brain dead morons for not appreciating Baseball. But I won't because it's just a game and I don't care if most of the world hates baseball or football.

 

I can't stand the rest the world for various other reasons. Whether or not they hate baseball or football is not one of them. Just like for whatever reason someone has a problem with the U.S.(the most powerful, and geneorus nation in the world) whether or not soccer is big should play no role.

usa is also equally generous with its missiles as with its dollars however, so really creates more problems than it solves.

 

i appreciate american sports, but im not american. i follow baseball, and my brother follows ice hockey fairly slowly. im open minded to other nation's sports. but what pisses me off is the american attitude that the only real sports are the ones that they play. its that sort of sentiment that all things american are inherently superior is what is pissing off the middle east right now. (and for the record i am totally against all that crap going on there right now by both sides).

 

also, the german and italian leagues are *very* different competitions. your 2 baseball leagues are broadly MLB anyway, and play off in the "world series." the champions of the various soccer leagues do play off in the champions league, but it is a different thing. to them, the first priority is the national league, then europe, however in baseball, nobody cares if they win the national or american leagues, they only care about the world series. that is like comparing apples and oranges.

 

and as a general rule, many americans do seem to be brain dead morons (sorry, it just seems that way to outsiders). hell, your current president is a bumbling idiot, and that hardly sets a great example for te rest of the world when viewing your nation.

[Guest muzanisa]

I used to hate American Football until I watched a Jets game in a bar in New York with someone explaining the entire game to me and why what I thought were pointless breaks were actually important. Now every Sunday evening during the season I watch a game.

If Soccer was explained and covered properly it would probably be the same in the States. The USA won't be the best at it while it's such a minority sport. But to say they couldn't be is just stupid. The best athletes in the States go on to play Basketball and Football, if Soccer could make them the money that playing in the NBA or NFL does then they'd play that. If Michael Jordan had loved soccer and decided to play it he would have been brilliant, because he was a great athlete. I'd love the USA to get to a level where they could win the World Cup (looking at the present squad maybe they aren't that far away) just because it would be a real shake up for the top five to ten Soccer nations.

It's really pointless to attack sports because any criticism of one can just as easily be levelled at another.

The reason I think that Soccer isn't popular in the States is that historically there was a rejection of it, and more importantly there aren't enough ad breaks for the TV companies.

[Guest redbaron51]

If Michael Jordan had loved soccer and decided to play it he would have been brilliant, because he was a great athlete.

 

That saying alone, the Americans had Pele playing for New York, and soccer was not as popular. Even when the World Cup was hosted in USA, it wasn't becoming as popular after that year.

 

I just think that the average American/Canadian just can not look at the "The Best offence is a Good Defence" Area, where there is little chances to score on net.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

Well, I think its Boring zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, it can get exciting at times but most of the time its zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz boring. I think its not enough scoring when and its like 20 people on the field.

I don't get why people find sports with a lot of scoring entertaining. Basketball is a good example, I just can't get interested until the last quarter the rest of the match is just "Ooh luck another basket" all the way through. Thats the whole point of soccer goals are difficult to get therefore they mean a lot more when you know that just one goal could win a game

[Guest ant_7000]

Well, I think its Boring zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, it can get exciting at times but most of the time its zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz boring. I think its not enough scoring when and its like 20 people on the field.

I don't get why people find sports with a lot of scoring entertaining. Basketball is a good example, I just can't get interested until the last quarter the rest of the match is just "Ooh luck another basket" all the way through. Thats the whole point of soccer goals are difficult to get therefore they mean a lot more when you know that just one goal could win a game

Basketball is exciting when its a close game in the 4th thats when the best players step up on defense and offense equally challenging (i.e. Kings vs. Lakers series), in soccer it gets exciting ever now and then for me like the US Womens World Cup was pretty entertaining, but like someone has mention this before the U.S. Men's soccer don't fair well in the World Cup so noone cares, but they if won the Cup it would be a big deal for like a few months just like the Women when they won then people lose intrest again.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

But if you don't show intrest then MLS will stay a crap league which means the players don't come into a competitive environment hence won't be able to compete on the world stage (Without Bruce Arena you'd have been terrible again this time)

[Guest ant_7000]

Well, im not backing any soccer league, I got my soccer fix for the next couple of years.

[Guest Spicy McHaggis]

Personally I don't see why America couldn't be the best at Soccer if we tried. Every sport that we try to be the best at we are.

 

Don't worry, we will. We'll win the Cup in 2006. And then these asshole foreigners will come up with some bullshit excuse that we don't deserve it or that we're "corrupting" their beloved sport.

[Guest redbaron51]

4 years is a lot, and in 4 years USA might not make it and Canada will.

[Guest Some Guy]

Another thing about Soccer is the incredible amount of cying and whining that goes on when teams lose in the World Cup. I heard that the Spanish team's coach or something quit because he thought the refferees sucked. No balls, no class. Just admit defeat lika a man. The Italions also fired a South Korean player who plays in Italy when not in the World Cup for scoring the game winning goal against the Italions. Jesus Christ, have some fucking class. It's only a Soccer game, your country wasn't conquered or anything. I just lost some respect for the Italions. I'd expect that type of shit from the French, but i thought Italy had a at least a little bit of integrity.

[Guest Shaved Bear]

low scoring, slow paced, nothing ever really happens, its like a goaslie makes 3 saves and its a big deal, if i wanna see an outdoor sport ill watch american football, or rugby, and if i wanna watch a game with goals ill watch hockey

[Guest Vern Gagne]

How is President Bush setting a bad example? What he doesn't kiss the rest of the world's ass like Clinton did.

 

God forbid he care more about the U.S. than what the socialist EU thinks about him.

[Guest redbaron51]

Clinton has done better things than Bush. The credibilty Bush has is how calm he was during Sept 11, not firing nukes off like a madman. If 9/11 hadn't occured, the outlook of Bush is probably very bleak.

 

Oh and to the guy who said Soccer is only a game, during USA/Canada its only a game, but to the rest of the world its their religion, and being a favourite and losing kills the country credibility. Hell if you miss a goal, in some countries you'd be dead.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

Well, that's not our problem. If a sport is taken as seriously as a religion, then those people are seriously fucked in the head.

 

Whoops, I bashed the rest of the world. I'm such an American!

[Guest Anorak]

There's no way a country as large and culturally diverse as America could be truly brought together by a sporting event in the same way other nations generally are with football, your national sports are nobody elses passion but your own and as such you simply aren't in a position to appreciate the way national pride and collective national expectation often get the better of people's rational emotions where football is concerned. Whole countries literally come to a complete standstill for a big game such as a world cup match, American's can't begin to appreciate exactly how important football is to countless nations unless they are at least reasonably well read and knowledgeable about the role the game plays culturally. No American sport can act as an adequate comparison in this regard.

 

Football goes way beyond just being another sport in the hearts and minds of people the world over, sometimes the insane pressures associated with football from an overwhelming variety of sources can turn things ugly. Sometimes individuals literally crack under the pressure because the stakes are so much higher in football than any other sport, if there's anything that compares financially they sure as hell don't compete with the unique pressure of the football media or especially potentially volatile fans. For better or worse a lot of people do literally see football as a matter of life or death. The special unmatched passion and emotion that football inspires does lead to certain undesirables attatching themselves to the game sometimes (violent fans with a political agenda for example) but the good things the game inspires still make it the most popular game on earth. Football suffers from these afflictions because of the magnitude of its status, its almost a victim of its own success sometimes as certain dodgy people attatch themselves to it to leach undesirable results from its vast potential rewards. The Italian reaction was typically irrational and hot headed (stereotyping I know, but certainly true in this instant) but if you knew anything about football you wouldn't be surprised as the sport just exaggerates the extremes of any personality or character, even a national character.

 

I don't need a lecture in showing some class from any American where sport is concerned. The way the American Ryder Cup team and their supporters acted a few years back was a disgrace and an embarrasment to your own nation that you probably didn't give two thoughts to. The European team would never have acted in the same way and there was a great deal of shocked bewilderment and even anger over here at the lack of class the Americans showed on that occasion. The vast majority of English sportsmen and women can win or lose with a great deal of dignity and class.

 

No American Footballer or Baseball player could even be compared to a great football player, physically and technically the games don't begin to compare. Clotheslines or gores don't count as 'physical' either, they belong in wrestling. Watch some Rugby if you wan't to see some proper tackling, from what i've seen most American Football players would be able to stop more touchdowns if they knew how to do it properly.

[Guest muzanisa]

Ahhhhhhhhhh the ghost of Pablo Escobar.

because soccer/football is the best agme in the world somedaaaaaaay the USA is going to grt into it.

[Guest MaxPower27]

Americans hate soccer due to the lack of scoring. For the most part, a majority of people want things spelled out, monosyllabically, player A does this, and then Player B does that. I hate it. I'm American, and I'm ostricized everyday for having an open mind. I stayed up until 2AM to watch 2 soccer powerhouses in Brasil and England, and the next day, I'm ripped for watching a "pussy" sport at work. I think that Americans as a whole are ignorant fucks who don't like a sport unless it has "ball" in the name. We sit here, as so called credible people, praising Barry Bonds for hitting 70+ homeruns, while acting like a complete fuckass to the rest of his team, who by the way, didn't make the playoffs.

 

Team sports have done too much of focusing on the individuals who play on said teams. Instead of the old rivalries, like the Red Sox/Yankees, there are people who live in MA, are diehard Sox fans, yet like Derek Jeter, because he's a nice guy. Fuck that. Rivalries are gone, due to the fact that hard hits, throwing inside, and making comments about other teams now comes with a fine.

 

I applaud soccer for being an actual team sport. I still love baseball and hockey, as they are in my blood, but basketball and football are dead in my eyes, along with the credibility of American sports.

[Guest bob_barron]

Football is such an intense sport to watch. Sadly despite a great performance we will forget about it in two weeks

[Guest Kingpk]

I really wish people would stop saying "Americans hate soccer/football." I don't HATE the game, I just don't care about it. I watched a few matches during the Cup when it was on in the afternoons and was entertained, but I'm not getting up at 3 AM to watch a friggin' game. There is a pretty big soccer fanbase in this country, but it just gets eclipsed by the major professional sports.

 

What I don't get is the absolute "sore loser" attitude displayed by the Italian and Spanish fans when they were ousted. FIFA got something like 70,000 angry, threatening e-mails form Italian fans and some Spanish papers called this year's Cup the worst ever. Hey, the US should have gotten a penalty kick because of the hand ball, but we aren't pissing and moaning, chanting "death to the referee" and attacking German fans.

 

The US doesn't take soccer too seriously, that's true, but the rest of the world takes it TOO seriously.

 

EDIT: Oh, and this anti-American sentiment displayed by some posters here goes FAR beyond sports, let's make that clear right now. We don't like your favorite sport BOO FUCKING HOO, I don't give a shit if you don't like the NFL or baseball.

[Guest Some Guy]

QUOTE (Some Guy @ Jun 24 2002, 06:15 AM)

My sister recently went to Australia and *GASP* there was no mantion of American sports in their newspapers. The rest of the world is holding us down. Yeah that's it.

 

(Vanilla Midget)

as a person who actually lives in australia, that is a damn lie. there is a page at the rear of the sports section where they have "shorts," and all of the major american and european sports are there. what did you expect, american sports on the back page of the paper???

 

First of all try reading the whole fucking post. I was drawing an anology between America's coverage of Soccer and the rest of the world's coverage of American sports. It was addressing the people who complain that America doesn't cover Soccer up to their lofty expectations. And then states that that's why Americans don't like Soccer. When the reason we don't like it is because it's fucking boring. I'm sorry that we AMericans are not capable of loving such a "great sport" and I can't for the life of me figure out why you can't handle it. My sisyer recently visited Australia and told me that they didn't cover Baseball, she was apparently incorrect. However America does cover Soccer (at least World Cup Soccer) with more than a short blurb in the back of the paper.

 

jeez, talk about american arrogance, the simple fact is that your american sports which you crown "world champions" in, have absolutely no relevance outside america. we care about our domestic sports, like you do, but we do not declare our winners world champions, that is nauseatingly arrogant, and stereotypically american. and australia is in a very similar position to the us in regards to soccer, but instead of just ignoring the tournament because we failed at the last hurdle (again ), world cup has been on in primetime, and interest has never been higher. each to their own i guess, but the fact remains that americans will never care about something they are not the best at.

 

Well some of the teams in MLB, NHL, and NBA do play in Canada which contrary to popular opinion is a separate country from America. And what other country plays Football on anywhere close to the level that Americans do? Since there is none we withhold the right to declare the winner of the Superbowl a "world champion". For that matter name a country that plays Basketball or Baseball better than Americans.

 

We didn't ignore the tournement because we failed at teh last hurdle, we were doing a perfectly good job of ignoring it from the start and for the last 100 years or however long the thing has been going on for.

 

Do you think that maybe because Australia is a hell of a lot closer to South Korea than to America that just might be a reason why you can get the games on primetime. Because South Korea is on the total opposite side of the world we don't get the games until 2:30-7:00 am, sorry for being so far away for where they are playing, my bad. I seem to recall a similar problem when the had the Olypics in Australia.

 

The fact does not remain that Americans will not like somehting that we can't be the best at because we've proven in almost all cases that if we reallyt want to we can be the best at any damn thing we want to be. That's not arrogance it's fact. How did the rest of the world's major leaguers do against our minor leaguers at Baseball in Sydney? How did they do in Basketball?

 

and to the person who said america is best at everything they try at, how about ice hockey, you certainly got nailed by canada in the olympics. *that* is also so stereotypically american it makes me sick!!! get a dose of reality, america is not the fucking centre of the universe!

 

It's odd that you quoted me at the begining of your post but didn't remeber that I was the one who said that. Ok we lost to Canada in the *FINALS* at the Olympics, sorry that we beat the rest of the world and came up short. Did we cry about poor reffereeing? I don't think so. Did we lose and admit that we were beaten fair and square? I think so. Were we somewhat humbled by the loss? Possibly.

 

America is not the "centre" of the universe but we are indeed the "center" of it.

 

usa is also equally generous with its missiles as with its dollars however, so really creates more problems than it solves.

 

That is total bullshit. We far more money to rest of the world than any other country, it's not even close. And genrally we're only genreous with our bombs when provoked or trying to help allies.

 

i appreciate american sports, but im not american. i follow baseball, and my brother follows ice hockey fairly slowly. im open minded to other nation's sports. but what pisses me off is the american attitude that the only real sports are the ones that they play. its that sort of sentiment that all things american are inherently superior is what is pissing off the middle east right now. (and for the record i am totally against all that crap going on there right now by both sides).

 

Why would it piss you off? Because God forbid we don't like something that you aparently love? I don't think that our attitude is what's pissing people off in the Middele East, in fact bin Laden and all the other terrorists have never listed that as one of the reasons they wish us dead. Why would you be against the US retaliating after an unprovoked attack?

 

and as a general rule, many americans do seem to be brain dead morons (sorry, it just seems that way to outsiders). hell, your current president is a bumbling idiot, and that hardly sets a great example for te rest of the world when viewing your nation.

 

And we're arrogant? If I said, "as a general rule the rest of the world do seem to be brain dead morons" and then insulted all the world leader with an untrue statement would you not have called me a "typical arrogant American"?

 

Are we brain dead morons because we don't like Soccer? Are we brian dead morons because we are the richest and most powerful country in the world? Funny it would seem to me that being th erichest and most powerful country in the world and not liking Soccer would make us more intelligent than the rest of the world. But maybe that's just me.

 

Hey, dude get your head out of your ass, will you please?

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

QUOTE (Some Guy @ Jun 24 2002, 06:15 AM)

My sister recently went to Australia and *GASP* there was no mantion of American sports in their newspapers. The rest of the world is holding us down. Yeah that's it.

 

(Vanilla Midget)

as a person who actually lives in australia, that is a damn lie. there is a page at the rear of the sports section where they have "shorts," and all of the major american and european sports are there. what did you expect, american sports on the back page of the paper???

 

First of all try reading the whole fucking post. I was drawing an anology between America's coverage of Soccer and the rest of the world's coverage of American sports. It was addressing the people who complain that America doesn't cover Soccer up to their lofty expectations. And then states that that's why Americans don't like Soccer. When the reason we don't like it is because it's fucking boring. I'm sorry that we AMericans are not capable of loving such a "great sport" and I can't for the life of me figure out why you can't handle it. My sisyer recently visited Australia and told me that they didn't cover Baseball, she was apparently incorrect. However America does cover Soccer (at least World Cup Soccer) with more than a short blurb in the back of the paper.

 

jeez, talk about american arrogance, the simple fact is that your american sports which you crown "world champions" in, have absolutely no relevance outside america. we care about our domestic sports, like you do, but we do not declare our winners world champions, that is nauseatingly arrogant, and stereotypically american. and australia is in a very similar position to the us in regards to soccer, but instead of just ignoring the tournament because we failed at the last hurdle (again ), world cup has been on in primetime, and interest has never been higher. each to their own i guess, but the fact remains that americans will never care about something they are not the best at.

 

Well some of the teams in MLB, NHL, and NBA do play in Canada which contrary to popular opinion is a separate country from America. And what other country plays Football on anywhere close to the level that Americans do? Since there is none we withhold the right to declare the winner of the Superbowl a "world champion". For that matter name a country that plays Basketball or Baseball better than Americans.

 

We didn't ignore the tournement because we failed at teh last hurdle, we were doing a perfectly good job of ignoring it from the start and for the last 100 years or however long the thing has been going on for.

 

Do you think that maybe because Australia is a hell of a lot closer to South Korea than to America that just might be a reason why you can get the games on primetime. Because South Korea is on the total opposite side of the world we don't get the games until 2:30-7:00 am, sorry for being so far away for where they are playing, my bad. I seem to recall a similar problem when the had the Olypics in Australia.

 

The fact does not remain that Americans will not like somehting that we can't be the best at because we've proven in almost all cases that if we reallyt want to we can be the best at any damn thing we want to be. That's not arrogance it's fact. How did the rest of the world's major leaguers do against our minor leaguers at Baseball in Sydney? How did they do in Basketball?

 

and to the person who said america is best at everything they try at, how about ice hockey, you certainly got nailed by canada in the olympics. *that* is also so stereotypically american it makes me sick!!! get a dose of reality, america is not the fucking centre of the universe!

 

It's odd that you quoted me at the begining of your post but didn't remeber that I was the one who said that. Ok we lost to Canada in the *FINALS* at the Olympics, sorry that we beat the rest of the world and came up short. Did we cry about poor reffereeing? I don't think so. Did we lose and admit that we were beaten fair and square? I think so. Were we somewhat humbled by the loss? Possibly.

 

America is not the "centre" of the universe but we are indeed the "center" of it.

 

usa is also equally generous with its missiles as with its dollars however, so really creates more problems than it solves.

 

That is total bullshit. We far more money to rest of the world than any other country, it's not even close. And genrally we're only genreous with our bombs when provoked or trying to help allies.

 

i appreciate american sports, but im not american. i follow baseball, and my brother follows ice hockey fairly slowly. im open minded to other nation's sports. but what pisses me off is the american attitude that the only real sports are the ones that they play. its that sort of sentiment that all things american are inherently superior is what is pissing off the middle east right now. (and for the record i am totally against all that crap going on there right now by both sides).

 

Why would it piss you off? Because God forbid we don't like something that you aparently love? I don't think that our attitude is what's pissing people off in the Middele East, in fact bin Laden and all the other terrorists have never listed that as one of the reasons they wish us dead. Why would you be against the US retaliating after an unprovoked attack?

 

and as a general rule, many americans do seem to be brain dead morons (sorry, it just seems that way to outsiders). hell, your current president is a bumbling idiot, and that hardly sets a great example for te rest of the world when viewing your nation.

 

And we're arrogant? If I said, "as a general rule the rest of the world do seem to be brain dead morons" and then insulted all the world leader with an untrue statement would you not have called me a "typical arrogant American"?

 

Are we brain dead morons because we don't like Soccer? Are we brian dead morons because we are the richest and most powerful country in the world? Funny it would seem to me that being th erichest and most powerful country in the world and not liking Soccer would make us more intelligent than the rest of the world. But maybe that's just me.

 

Hey, dude get your head out of your ass, will you please?

this discussion has gone way beyond being constructive, but oh well. calling bush "all the world's leader" is a lie. the "leader of the free world" moniker is just an american word. while it is true that america is a very powerful nation, you are not the be all and end all in regards to world politics. if europe ever settled its differences and became unified, america would be in for a bit of a shock, because i imagine they would find they are no longer the leaders of the free world.

 

and while i was a bit harsh calling americans a race of braindead morons, that was not in relation to soccer. the discussion went a long way beyond soccer well before i made that statement. and how does not liking soccer make you intelligent??? now *you* pull your head out of your ass please.

 

i wasnt talking about afghanistan in regards to the middle east thing. i was talking about iraq, where bush seems to wanna just get saddam to finish daddy's business. there seems to be absolutely no reason why america needs to destroy that country. even if they do have a dictator, it is not the right of america to decide who is worthy to lead another nation.

 

and *excuse me* for not spelling things your american way. christ knows that is the only correct way of spelling things.

 

you cite 3 sports, baseball, basketball and ice hockey and challenge me to find nations which are anywhere close to the level of america. of course it would be hard to fins challengers, these games are played almost exlusively in north america. that would be like me challenging you to find a worthy competitor to australia in AFL, such a challenger simply doesnt exist because we are the only nation with a real league as such.

 

in regards to coverage in newspapers, we get one full page a week on your sports, and a short blurb every day with results. when there is a championship or something we get a little more, but it is only enough to justify the level of interest.

 

so, yeah you guys can ignore soccer, and i can enjoy watching it, each to their own i guess.

[Guest Anorak]

The US doesn't take soccer too seriously, that's true, but the rest of the world takes it TOO seriously.

 

EDIT: Oh, and this anti-American sentiment displayed by some posters here goes FAR beyond sports, let's make that clear right now. We don't like your favorite sport BOO FUCKING HOO, I don't give a shit if you don't like the NFL or baseball.

I kind of admitted in my earlier post that too many people take football far too seriously, i'm passionate about the game but unlike some I can be distanced and philosophical enough to accept that there are more important things in life.

 

The aim of my last post was to simply state a few facts about Football to provide some explanation of why people are so obsessed by it around the world. I'm utterly biased towards football being a better sport because of my nationality, if I was born and raised in America I would probably love Baseball or American Football. Its tempting to respond to posts insulting something you love by responding in kind when perhaps you shouldn't but as far as i'm concerned its harmless banter and nothing more. My posts are generally more concerned with trying to put a valid argument/opinion across.

 

I would never really make assumptions or generalisations about American sports people just based on one incident like that Ryder Cup incident, like most sports persons around the world Americans generally conduct themselves with class and act as good ambassaders (Woods, Sampras etc). The point I should have made in a more subtle fashion is that American's aren't immune to perhaps being bad sports sometimes either, we all have our own national figures who we look up to or respect and those who at times we would rather not claim as our own and these include sports people. Every country is guilty of stereotyping other nationalities and we would all do well to remember that and take a step backward sometimes to avoid becoming the same ignorant people we consider ourselves to be above. Its a hard thing to do and we can all fall into the trap easily on occasion, the important thing is to avoid being sucked into negative xenophobia too deeply and to stay open minded.

 

That concludes my mini ramble on all things humble, rational and reasonable, thanks for listening!

 

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

America is not the "centre" of the universe but we are indeed the "center" of it.

 

on a side note, that totally reminds me of that simpsons episode where they come to australia. "we ensure that the toilets flush the correct, american way."

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

i would also like to apologise to any americans i may or may not have offended in this thread. i just got carried away.

[Guest Spicy McHaggis]

these games are played almost exlusively in north america.

 

Bullshit.

 

Baseball is played in Japan, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and countless other Latin American countries.

 

There are tons of world Basketball leagues in Italy, Greece, and many other European countries.

 

Olympic hockey has displayed talents from teams located all over Europe.

 

Your statement is just plain false.

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

american football was the chief example. and yeah, those games are played overseas, but they have nothing near the promonence that those sports have in the us. in those nations, soccer (ironically) is the no.1 sport which most of the kids wanna play (europe that is).

 

and yeah, baseball is a global game, hell i even played it for 10 years. but by and large, most of the north american sports have very little international scope or relevance.

[Guest Spicy McHaggis]

Hey moron... soccer is the no. 1 sport played by kids in big bad America, too.

[Guest MrRant]

Hey moron... soccer is the no. 1 sport played by kids in big bad America, too.

Till High School bitch... then they realize that there is nothing good about soccer and go on to one of the BETTER sports... american football (the only football), baseball or basketball or even hockey.