# AmeriDopers: Do you know the World Cup starts in 17 days? Do you care? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896 "2006-05-23T13:59:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/81 "2006-05-24T20:39:28Z")
The only world cup I care about was played during Spring Training. /yeah, that’s right, I enjoyed the WBC. Can’t wait until 2009. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/82 "2006-05-24T21:49:47Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > The reality is this: > > Europeans forget that America is a big place and that it’s got an ocean on either side of it. The continental U.S. spans four time zones. Europe spans three (barely). > … So why was I in the pub at 7am for England v Nigeria last world cup? Or half the country watching the antipodean rugby World Cup final? Time zones are irrelevant, if you’ve got the following. So your reality needs, errrm, another reality 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/83 "2006-05-24T21:57:37Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > So why was I in the pub at 7am for England v Nigeria last world cup? Because you’re always in the pub at 7am? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/84 "2006-05-24T22:45:03Z")
I’m pretty excited about it-- I’ll root for the Netherlands although their bracket looks like. . . I dunno (I would root for Belgium if they made it) and I’llcheer on the African and Carribbean teams and cheer against Germany on principle. I played in high school and have followed it and like to watch a game now and then. I _LIKE_ the low-scoring aspect. Basketball, say, is so promiscuous that any particular basket hardly matters. In association football a goal, or even a shot on goal, really gets you out of your seat. I used to play as goalie so the sense of tension is high. I scream at the TV 'Sweeper! Sweeeeeepeeeer! Get your ass BACK there, you fucker!!" ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/85 "2006-05-24T23:00:53Z")
I know I’m not the target of this thread due to my nationality, but I have to say: I hate football generally. Given the choice, I never watch it, to be honest. Many of the criticisms given in this thread about the sport itself, I totally agree with. But the World Cup is something different. Truly, it is the biggest sporting event in the entire world, bar nothing else that exists, or ever has existed, on earth. During the World Cup I actually give a shit about my team, and watch all the pertinent games, and get ridiculously involved. There’s simply no comparison with the Olympics. I’m sad that, based on many responses in this thread, it’s really the World(-North America) Cup, especially because the US team is so damn good this time round. ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/86 "2006-05-25T00:01:44Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Europeans forget that America is a big place and that it’s got an ocean on either side of it. The continental U.S. spans four time zones. Europe spans three (barely). Tell that to most of my senior class who woke up every morning at 5 to watch the last World Cup matches before school. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/87 "2006-05-25T00:21:49Z")
Your location doesn’t say where you are, **Frosted Glass** , but that’s immaterial. To some people, undoubtedly, it **is** important, but that doesn’t change the fact that for most people, it isn’t important enough to be up in the wee hours to watch a sporting event an ocean away. ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/88 "2006-05-25T00:43:11Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Your location doesn’t say where you are, **Frosted Glass** , but that’s immaterial. If you google the first location the top results return that I am in the NYC Metro Area. I am from NJ and my location as listed on the dope is a very regional joke. > [@Fish](#): > > To some people, undoubtedly, it **is** important, but that doesn’t change the fact that for most people, it isn’t important enough to be up in the wee hours to watch a sporting event an ocean away. I agree with you. I was just explaining that people who care will wake up for it. For the casual viewer, the replays should suffice. It is unfortunate that more US sports fans do not get into the World Cup as much our foreign friends. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/89 "2006-05-25T02:22:27Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > So why was I in the pub at 7am for England v Nigeria last world cup? The same reason people in America take days off of work to go to the World Series, or whatever — because it’s already important to you. European football doesn’t get the viewership in America, nor American football or baseball in Europe, mostly because of the time zone difference; and it’s an uphill climb to push those sports against the grain. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/90 "2006-05-25T02:43:04Z")
It isn’t possible for me to be less interested in soccer, in any venue, nor at any level. Sorry. By the way, do you know why 22,000 kids in Minnesota play soccer? So they don’t have to watch it. The only “foreign” sports I like are rugby and Aussie rules football. Those bastids’re _tough_. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/91 "2006-05-25T04:04:44Z")
> [@total blank](#): > > Actually, the team Landon left is Bayer, as in Bayer Leverkusen, :smack: I knew this. > [@total blank](#): > > which is a lot less successful than Bayern München. Also, the year before he left, he was relegated to playing on Bayer’s second string team, so it was a lot more like leaving the class A minor league team of the Royals to go play in Japan. > > I will also bet you there were a lot more fans watching him score against Red Bull New York than when he was playing against Holstein Kiel or Carl Zeiss Jena in the Regionalliga. The level of play was also higher. So it was really not a bad decision for him, and he shold not be blamed for “quitting”. You must have missed where Landon was called back to Leverkusen. He was starting to get playing time with the first team, then had a pretty crappy game (in a Champions League match?) and ended up sitting for a game or two. He couldn’t handle the setback and came crying home to mommy. He’s a pussy, buy he’s our pussy. And when he can be bothered to get motivated, he’s probably the best we’ve ever produced (although if you want to argue for Beasley, I won’t fight you). Soccer is still growing. More & more kids are playing. We have a respectible professional league with rosters filled with mostly American players. There’s tons of soccer being televised (including a cable channel dedicated to soccer). Our national team is a legitimate top 20 team. Soccer is light years ahead of where it was 20 years ago. It will never be as big as baseball/football/basketball, but it will continue to grow. > [@jsc1953](#): > > To echo Ralph, soccer in the US is huge as a participant youth sport, but has gone nowhere as a spectator sport. You havn’t been paying much attention. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/92 "2006-05-25T05:38:20Z")
> [@shelbo](#): > > OK, but which is your favorite? (I gotta go with Tobago – their cheerleaders are cuter. Also, Serbia over Montenegro, all day long). > > 😛 Pics? Cite? Something? ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/93 "2006-05-25T06:47:02Z")
> [@Twotwofive](#): > > Rightly or wrongly (I’m not here to judge; just to educate 😉 ), there is a perception amongst Europeans (and probably other “soccer” playing regions) that Americans don’t enjoy “soccer” primarily because their attention spans are too short. The argument goes that they can’t appreciate the skill or the grace of the game, and lose interest if goals aren’t being scored often enough. Thus, games that are popular in the US are designed exclusively to ensure that points are scored every minute or so. Lest this shouldn’t be enough to hold the American viewer, any pause in the action is punctuated by scantily-clad dancing girls with pom-poms. I’m not here to start a debate on whose sports are “better” (I don’t know enough about baseball or hockey to comment on those, although the above descrition would seem to be about right for American “football”, but grossly unfair on basketball), but **chriscya’s** post doesn’t do much to dispel the stereotype. > > Incidentally, am I right in thinking that, by and large, Americans only follow those sports at which they are either vastly superior to other nations, or where no other nations compete for the title of “world” champion? Now hold on there! I wrote I like baseball, so no one can doubt I have a good attention span. 🙂 I have to beg people to go to the games with me since the games can be so slow. I think I understand soccer. Being a child of the 70’s, I was exposed to the game at an early age. I loved Pele’ and my little brother and I would try to do that bicycle kick thing until we both had mild concussions. I followed the Dallas team because they had Kyle Rote Jr., a fellow Texan and son of a famous football player. I ate Kix cereal because it was supposed to be the cereal of soccer players. I checked out all the books about soccer from the Library. I played soccer at school and played soccer at home at least 2 to 3 times per week. Like a lot of U.S. boys, for some reason, my interest waned as I got older. I definitely appreciate the skill, the conditioning, and the tremendous heart the players have, it just does not appeal to me anymore. The point is, a lot of us U.S. guys have given soccer a chance at some point in our lives, but we decided that we are not going to follow it. That being said, I still have a cheap plastic soccer goal set up in my backyard. I keep a soccer ball in my closet at work (I work with kids and kids love to show you their soccer moves) and I still got a few good suprise moves myself. I just might watch the highlights and the last few minutes of the important matches of the WC, but that is about it. ---
**Author:** ![Twotwofive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Twotwofive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twotwofive)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/94 "2006-05-25T08:43:07Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Soccer wouldn’t be nearly as popular in Europe and the rest of the 3rd World if they had enough money to buy other sports. Because the FA, FIFA, UEFA, etc and their constituents operate on a shoestring? :rolleyes: Anyway, are you really saying that a sport should be judged on the salaries of its players or the cost of its facilities? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick here? At their core, sports should be about finely honed human beings competing to prove their physical superiority (be that through skill, endurance, coordination, brute strength, or whatever); any sport that is only enjoyable to play or watch if you throw massive amounts of money at must, by definition, have moved rather a long way from this ideal. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/95 "2006-05-25T10:28:16Z")
I was only aware that World Cup was on its way because of those commercials with Bono talking about how the World Cup ended a civil war in the Ivory Coast. Other then a mild curiosity about how fucked up a nation has to be for the World Cup to bring peace the event really isn’t on my radar. I find watching soccer to be about as dull as watching paint dry but I’m give to understand that others feel the same way about football. That’s cool. I don’t claim any moral superiority because of the sports I do enjoy any more then I look down at others who enjoy tennis and soccer. Taste vary. Oh well. Marc ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/96 "2006-05-25T10:43:35Z")
I didn’t know, nor do I care. I don’t watch any sports on TV, US or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896/97 "2006-05-25T11:35:28Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > This was undoubtedly said by someone who had never seen a baseball game. All non-baseball fans deride baseball as being boring and moving at a glacial pace. Heh, they’ve obviously never watched a cricket match. I love cricket, but fast-paced it ain’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ameridopers-do-you-know-the-world-cup-starts-in-17-days-do-you-care/357896.md?page=4)