When I was watching, I thought the field was too big, and there are two many players on the field. It seemed like where ever the ball was kicked, there’d be 5 players there.
As for people who make fun of “it’s just running and kicking with no scoring”, you could also reduce American football that way:
“3 hours of out-of-state ringers representing State U trying to get a brown misshapen ball past a white line… with only 11 minutes of actual action”
There is that. I have learned to like soccer well enough because everyone in my family plays. I’ve watched a LOT of soccer. Those damned horns make me retreat to another room.
This post is typical of either the ignorance of soccer, or the cognative dissonance involved in comparing the two sports. You lay out all these strategies and plans, and the importance between this and that in American Football, but soccer is deconstructed to running and kicking.
I could just as easily provide you with a 10 page treatise on soccer strategies and follow it up with a description of American Football as: crashing into each other and then stopping for 45 seconds to figure out what to do next - it’s like Demolition Derby with cleats.
Like all versions of football I just ignore it.
There are no ties in the NHL.
George Will once said that football combines two of the worst features of contemporary American society: violence and committee meetings.
I’ve been to 4 Major League Soccer games and 2 of them ended in ties. That’s pretty much the epitome of bullshit right there - I don’t really want to spend money on another game now. There needs to be some sort of overtime in regular season games that end with a definitive victor. Maybe take a player out on both sides after every 5 minutes. Or widen the goalposts 2 feet every 5 minutes. Or something.
Penalty Kick shootouts are not ideal, since they’re not actually playing soccer at that point. But they’d still be better than bloody ties!
Why?
Is it better for your team to have lost than to have drawn?
Frankly, this American fetishism with determining a winner is bordering on absurd. And I’m American.
Because a tie is like an unfinished story. No closure, no conclusion. It’s like having the Empire and the Rebels end in a draw in Star Wars.
The Simpsons explained it pretty well.
My WAG would be a combination of having soccer thrown in our faces as an infinitely better/more civilized sport and the fact that to many Americans it just doesn’t appeal since, as others have pointed out it’s low scoring and a bit boring (unlike, say, hockey which is low scoring but where there is tons of action…plus, it’s a two-fer since you get boxing as a bonus ;)). There might be a touch (or more) on some Americans part of being opposed to furriners and their foppish ways as well, but I think really it’s just not that appealing a sport for Americans (while, inexplicably, race car driving is, which to me is MUCH more boring than anything save watching paint dry).
Personally, I find just about all sports boring to watch, though I enjoyed playing many. I have no exceptional hate for soccer, and have gone to many matches, though more for the beer and stadium fare than any desire to watch the game. Same can be said for baseball, football and just about any other sport excepting only race car driving, where even the beer and food won’t get me there.
I love watching soccer and football!
I certainly understand the hatred of people who try to shove soccer down soccer-haters throats, but 1) I think it’s lessened in the past few years as Euro leagues and US matches have made it to mainstream platforms, meaning it’s not a tiny clique that watches it anymore, and 2) the increased visibility of these high level matches has allowed those who don’t care for it at least see a better game when they are forced to watch it.
I don’t really get the active hate of something you don’t like, though. I couldn’t care less about something like arena football, but I’m not going to go out of my way to make that point to those that do love it. To me, the opposite of love isn’t hate, but indifference, and I’d rather have that approach to something like soccer (if I were an American who hates it) than spend time saying why it sucks whenever it gets brought up.
Fucking Hank Hill. I need to put this quote on a tee shirt or a bumper sticker or something. I’m actually indifferent toward soccer (and all sports, really), but this is terrific.
Fair point, well made.
Are we running back to the other end of the field now? 
Or that the small group is constantly obsessing about why soccer isn’t more popular in the U.S., that this reflects some gross defect in the American character or at least contempt for furriners who go nutso over “football”.
I don’t hate soccer either; I enjoyed playing it up through collegiate level. It’s just a major snore to watch a bunch of guys in shorts trotting around a huge field while one or two of them go back and forth with a ball, often resulting in thrilling :dubious: nil-nil ties where the most interesting thing that happened is a fight in the stands or occasionally we are treated to a major incident by racist/sociopathic fans. Add to that “stoppage time”, braindead fan chanting, idiotic play-by-play commentary from people apparently selected for their British accents, vuvuzelas, endless interruptions during the season for sub-tournaments (apparently no one really cares about the main league competition), and oh yes, it’s 99.9% boring as snot.
I have no desire to ever go see my local MLS team play.
I think I’d rather watch professional bowling on TV.
I love soccer, but it’s only been within the last few years that I developed enough understanding of tactics/strategy to actually enjoy it. It stopped looking like aimless running and kicking and started to follow actual patterns and plans in my eyes. That being said, I don’t watch MLS, only European leagues and international tournaments.
There’s nothing wrong with not liking soccer. I hate the NBA and barely understand hockey, and I’d rather count carpet fibers than watch or play golf. And I’m utterly baffled by rugby and cricket and don’t care to learn anything more about them. It’s just a matter of different tastes.
I, personally, don’t hate Soccer. I hate Soccer fans.
I don’t think you even realize thelevel of irony in this post.
The 2nd most watched sport in America is baseball btw.
You mean furriners.
…you would absolutely hate my favourite sport then, Test Match Cricket.
