Re: I STILL can't get into soccer

You soccer fans - I'm sorry.

I've tried for several decades, but it still bores me to death. My son played for 8 years too. That was "okay" and since he played well - I had a dog in the fight; a reason to go. The wins were fine, but I enjoyed his (American) football & baseball games a lot more.

(American) football is the greatest game ever invented. Fast-paced (except for TV timeouts & constant reviews), action-packed - exciting to the point of being teeth clinching. Offensively & defensively - fans don't have to wait too long for great OR disastrous things to happen. Even so, momentum swings keep it gripping most of the time.

Basketball - same thing - even faster.

Baseball can have its lulls, but it can break wide open - and what a chess match!

Soccer - you can watch for 2 or 3 hours & often see a 1-0 or 0-0 game (and maybe a pretty crappy overtime system to get a winner).

It's so big around the world, & I don't get it. American football, basketball & baseball are FAR better entertainment. They've been trying for years to cram soccer down our throats, & based on attendance, it hasn't worked - don't think it EVER will.

Last thing - from a PRO standpoint - how can anyone care about a sport controlled by an embarrassingly corrupt entity like FIFA? When you say FIFA, you might as well say "the Russian mafia" or "the Mexican drug cartels."

I've tried & tried but can't be a soccer fan. If you're one - more power to ya. For me, I'll take bowling, tennis, golf - about anything over soccer.

Nick16

Letterman [278]

TigerPulse: 93%

Posts: 320

Joined: 2019

Dec 22, 2019, 4:20 AM

First we have to acknowledge that not everyone likes the same things, and one man's meat is another man's poison. For example, you seem to enjoy the fast paced sport of basketball. I find it very dull. Too much scoring, in any sport there should be some difficulty placed on earning points/runs/goals. And too many stopages and timeouts, sometimes the last two minutes of a game can take about 20 minutes to complete.

However, taking your post in good faith, as a sport's nut who actively follows about a dozen sports, I will attempt to explain my love of Association Football (that hereafter I will call Soccer to avoid confusion with other forms of football).

As with most things, it helps if you have "skin in the game". If it's your local club representing your town/city, if it's where your Dad took you every Saturday afternoon when you were a kid, if you have developed that tribal loyalty, it helps in your love of any sport.

One thing Soccer has above most sports, is the rarity value of a goal. Usually you only get 2 or 3 in a game. There is a thrill and excitement to seeing something which will probably decide the outcome of the game, but happens rarely, which other sports lack (no point getting excited in a basket for your team in the NBA when there's another 40 of them coming in the next 47 minutes .

I love that this sudden excitement can often come out of nowhere. With many sports, you can see the score coming from a distance, although it is exciting to see a Running Back break the line, as he goes past the last man, he often wil have 20 or 30 yards still to go, so that shock moment of a sudden shot beating a keeper is missing.

I love the pace of it, the lack of timeouts, its lack of formula, the way possession can change quickly and often, and that a player in possession has a full range of options to dispose of the ball through 360 degrees. There's the athleticism that some sports lack, and it allows all the players to look balletic, to dive through the air, to jump, to slide, to run, to tackle with a poise and grace that many sports lack e.g. I love Ice Hockey, but there are certain times when a group of playewrs can look like glorified road sweepers.

I loove the tactical side of the game. The way some teams press, others sit back, some man mark, other splay zonal. Formations of 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1, 4-4-1-1-, 3-5-2, 4-2-2-2,5-3-1-1, 3-4-3 etc etc, the ways a Manager can set up his team, and change it within a game are endless, and can have a huge impact on the result. Yet at the same time, a superb goalkeeping performance, can overcome a vastly superior team. In most sports the better team wins, the possibility of an underdog having his day is small in College Football.

I'm sure I could go on for days, but there you have it for now. I don't expect you to become a lover of Soccer, but I hope this helps you understand why I love it.

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I STILL can't get into soccer