In this ESPN article Phil Liggett appears to refer to what Americans would call football as American soccer.
Is this something he made up or do any other English folk use this? And why? They don’t seem to have much in common.
I think it must be a mistake or a typo of some sort. Generally, the accross-the-pond people call the sport where people line up and run directly into one another for three hours “American football” so as to differentiate it from actual football (AKA soccer.) I’ve never heard the term “American soccer” before.
I’ve never heard of that usage. Looks like a careless “find and replace” job to me.
That must be it. I wonder if they’ll fix it. It so distracted me I couldn’t finish the article.
Thanks dopers.
i think it’s just bad writing, not a mistake. I think the phrase could be rewritten to clarify the intended meaning with extra words as “…what Americans call soccer (and we call football)…”
On a second reading I retract my comment. I think it is a blatant error due to the unqualified use of “soccer” later to refer to the English sport.
Speaking as a native from across-the pond, he’s right!
We do have a sport where people throw a ball around (but never forwards) and tackle each other to the ground. We call it rugby football. (There are two versions: rugby union and rugby league.)
Did I mention we are the Rugby Union World Champions?
Hmmmmmmm didn’t those champions just lose big time very recently?