I agree with the OP wholeheartedly. My wife and I decided we’d give soccer a chance this year. I liken soccer to opera, in the sense that I understand that the fact that I haven’t seen the appeal is my shortcoming, not the game’s. Too many people love it, too many people enthusiastically describe its merits, for me to attribute my prior reaction to anything other than my lack of understanding of what the hell is going on. Probably similar to baseball. I love the game, and the strategy of a one-run pitcher’s duel could have me on the edge of my seat, while to the uninitiated, it’s probably a yawn. I’m a sports nut in general, so I would welcome introducing a new game into the rotation. So I want to see what all the noise is about.
But I’m not going to be able to take that @#$%ing buzz for long.
Well, there was a brief infatuation with thunder-sticks. But yeah, baseball (and I’m talking of watching both sports, not necessarily of playing) is pretty boring too.
I have to agree with the OP. I was listening to the last few minutes of the England-U.S. game on the radio (pitifully boring, although the Scottish guy ESPN had doing color was mildly entertaining) and that background buzzing was pretty damn annoying.
Uh, we already know it’s a fucked-up continent.
An irritating American semi-equivalent is the home crowd’s ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh at college basketball games when the opposition is bringing the ball down the floor. It’s apparently supposed to throw the other team off its game, but all it does is make the fans sound like even bigger morons than we already know they are.
It will not be long before people simply switch off. There is little to be gained for tv rights in the Euro and other major soccer markets since these are pretty much saturated, but it will kill any hope of expansion into new markets.
To be honest, if its like this when I switch on for the next match, then that’s the world cup dead for me, fuck 'em and their overpriced millionaire dickwads, along with their stupid fucking fans with the horns.
As the tournament rolls on and big names get defeated, I can readily imagine that dissappointed fans will not watch the remaining games due to the infernal noise.
Being bored when you don’t know strategy is true of every single sport there is. I don’t like baseball. You know why? Because I don’t get the strategy. To me it’s two people playing catch with occasional ass-scratching and half-assed running. You probably think soccer is that Simpsons parody. The difference is that soccer fans aren’t calling you simple-minded fuckwits for a different preference.
With pleasure. It’s one thing to not like a sport, but quite another to need to mock those who do like it. Soccer doesn’t need “your type”–hell, regular, good ole American sports don’t need your type. They’re not going about it “all wrong”; you won’t open your mind a fraction to see the game for the true sport it is.
There was nothing dull or boring about the US/England game today. How simple minded to think that large scores=game excitement. :rolleyes: You know what’s boring? Watching grown men tackle one another for mere inches on a field and stopping play for endless commercials. YMMV.
I agree that the buzzing, while it may be fun for the actual spectators, it is hell on the TV. I did manage to tune it out for the last half of the game today.
The thing that gets me is that soccer IS a sport for primitives. It was designed for it. Kick a rock, some sort of ball, or a human head towards a goal…I get that. You can play that even when you and your tribe are starving to death in the Saharan desert. It has extreme utility as a game that way which is admirable except it still sucks. I am worried I could become a fag just by changing to the wrong channel this month.
The world is mostly populated by primitives so that just goes without saying but I am appalled that Europeans who weren’t primitives as recent as 200 years ago still fall for it. Football (footie; see I just proved my point) is an abomination unto the lord. My daughter is 8 now and she is too old for it.
Does anyone in the rest of the world ever notice when real athletes are tested under extreme conditions?
Ah,* that’s* what that annoying fucking sound was. I posted a question about it in the World Cup thread. Why don’t the South Africans just do that when their team is playing and not everyone else’s?
Because this is the Pit I can say this: Shut up you fucking snob. The “rest of the world” TM doesn’t give a fuck about you or your “real athletes”. We want Messi.
That being said, I didn’t notice the instruments of hells but I have only watched the match between Argentina and Nigeria. Perhaps the locals were tired of blowing that stuff at that match.
I’m saying * if it were me*, I couldn’t imagine doing it. It would detract from my enjoyment of the game.
I don’t care all that much, I’m just a casual soccer fan. I loved playing it for 15 years growing up, and can’t stand watching it on TV. The players are just so good that hardly anyone can ever score. It gets old (to me).
But it was an annoying, droning, buzzing sound that just didn’t let up, ever, throughout the game. I’m glad I only listened to a part of it. I kept thinking “WTF is that damn noise?”
By all accounts the sound is supposedly quite amazing and does add to the atmosphere if you’re watching live in the stadium. Definitely doesn’t carry over well via TV. It is driving my dog nuts.