Premier.
Apropos of nothing, I was listening to US sports talk radio on the way to lunch for chuckles. Callers are complaining that soccer is hard to follow because “it’s too complicated”. I presume this means they don’t understand it because it doesn’t work like US sports (unlimited substitutions, stoppages every eight seconds, a ridiculously rigid and exact game clock.)
American football fans (which I am) complaining that soccer is too complex is almost Onionesque.
Herp derp. Of course, my apologies. And … I know that. Being an Arsenal supporter, I’ve followed the Premier League for quite a while, but somehow still make that mistake sometimes.
Ok, let’s revive the seemingly endless conversation about the quality of MLS teams and what English league is of equivalent quality.
Let’s not.
I love the attitude American fans have with soccer. Sometimes its like having to educate a child(believe me this is not a criticism). In a world where everyone knows everthing about the game its refreshing to have US newbies.
I also hate the occassional snobbish attitudes traditional fans have to these new fans. Im not having a go at you here. Everyone has to start somewhere with the game. Neither do they have to be anything other than casual followers of the game. Americans will either embrace the sport or they wont. They are not required to. Neither will it be the end of the footballing world if they dont.
Ha. Complicated. NFL is the league that has a different defensive package for each down and within that dozens of different looks dependent on the offensive posture. Ever seen how ridiculously complicated some of these offenses are and the minutia people will get into when discussing the game?
Your average fan of American football doesn’t have the faintest clue of what is happening on the field in terms of the complexity of formation and strategy. All they know is: did the runner get through? Was the ball caught? Did the quarterback get sacked? Is the line of scrimmage moving forward or backward? Is it 4th down yet? Cheers!
As an American who LOVES our football I fully agree with this.
Unless Cris Collinsworth tells them, most American viewers don’t understand that a ball was caught because the slot receiver left the left-outside-linebackers zone and into the left-inside-linebackers area, but that he was held up because of a rub between the center and a tackle…which is EXACTLY what was supposed to happen.
I can never tell when a play in soccer happens unless Ian Darke (my damn hero) tells me that the midfielder took it to the post to center it blah blah soccer lingo
Even at it’s most basic level though soccer is still a much less complicated game to watch as a newbie. The clock never stops, you can teach anyone in about one minute the reasons why the other team gets the ball and the offside rule is not nearly as complicated as some would like to believe.
I’ve never heard anyone say that soccer is too complicated. Maybe they’re talking not about the game itself but about the 4-team WC groups, and the fact that we lost but still made it through? I suppose a discussion about all the different tie-breaking possibilities etc. could be a bit dizzying.
Someone had mentioned hearing a call in talk show with some callers complaining cause the game was too complicated.
I’ve seen people throw up their hands and say “I don’t understand this.” I’ve also seen a lot of people curious and asking questions about the rules.
I totally agree with this. You can watch and enjoy a game without knowing anything beyond “these guys are trying to get the ball in the net and nobody can use his hands except the goalie.”
Anybody that claims that soccer is too complicated to learn to understand is just being deliberately obtuse. I mean, compare it to baseball. Yikes! “The batter didn’t do anything. Why did he just go to first base?” Well, you see, the ball was outside of the strike zone, which is blah blah blah …" <2 hours later> “Never mind, I’m gonna go watch some soccer.” “No wait, come back! I want to tell you about the infield fly rule!”
Reminds me of grad school at the University of Florida, a school that is rabid about its American football. There were always some foreign students who wanted to go the games, then the questions would start. It was hilarious, both for how little they knew about the sport, and for how much time it would actually take to answer all of their questions.
Of course, a few of us went to watch some of the women’s soccer matches. One guy was getting wrapped up in the action, and kept saying “kick the ball, kick the ball.” Um, that’s pretty much the point of the game.
I wonder how many of the people claiming it’s too complicated watch hockey. Yes, there’s more going on in a soccer game because there’s more players and a larger surface but a lot is the same. Watching soccer is like watching hockey in that you can’t just be focused on where the ball is but how the other players are set up and where the ball may go next.
That’s easier to do in the ground than watching on most TV feeds to be honest. Having said that, at this WC the roving overhead cams are getting some great perspectives on things. I’m not sure there’s a feed just consisting of them though.
Right, I was responding to that, and speculating that this second-hand description of this caller was actually referring to a complaint about the WC pool system, not the sport itself. A charitable interpretation, to be sure.
If nothing else, I’ve read a BUNCH of different threads in which Americans criticize soccer for any number of reasons, some ludicrous and some quite valid, and “it’s too complicated” has basically never been one of them.
I think I figured out the basics of soccer on my own just by watching a few games. Doesn’t take long to figure out corner and goal kicks.
On the other hand I have watched Australian Rules Football and never could figure out what the hell was going on.
Some might like this article reporting on how ‘going through despite losing’ is being seen by some in the US.
Oooft, there’s some right daft quotes in that article. I suppose they’ve been cherry-picked though. The main thing is that the huge US travelling support looked like they were having an absolutely great (if stressful) time.
There’s nothing quite like needing another result to go a certain way in group play. In the last group game in Group A of Euro 96 Scotland needed to beat Switzerland, while simultaneously we needed England to beat Holland by a decent margin. Scotland went 1-0 up, so we needed England to win by four clear goals. England got it to 4-0 (and never have they been cheered on so enthusiastically by the whole of Scotland) and the next few minutes were extremely tense and exciting, almost unbearably so. Sadly the Dutch managed a late goal through the England keeper’s legs, and we were out. Again.
Yesterday I had a long drive, and so I listened to sports talk radio. Normally I’m only a little interested, however the World Cup has had them talking about soccer a lot over the last few days. The discussion is clearly splitting between people who are trying to defend soccer, and people who are going out of their way to emphasize it’s un-Americanness. The latter camp is clearly coming down on arguments like “oh look, losing to get in,” but I think in reality it could be just about anything.
The bottom line is there will always be Americans who see soccer as something being foisted upon us from the outside, and they’ll never embrace it. If the BBC article above doesn’t make it clear how arcane American sports championships can be, nothing will. If Americans are complaining about flopping while embracing the NBA, clearly we’re just being hypocritical about it. And bitching and moaning about low-scoring games while singing the praises of MLB pitching duels? Whatever.
Anyway, ignore the background noise. I can clearly see more Americans engaged in soccer than 20 years ago, and I’ll take slow progress over none.
I would love that. I keep wishing the camera would pull out another 20 yards or so.