Think football is important?

You won't ever know what a football (soccer) game is really like until you see one outside America.

Germany, Brazil, Italy, England, France, Holland, Argentina wherever ... if you are visiting friends go with them and see a game
or next time you are in London sit in a pub with some mates and watch Chelsea play Liverpool with a pint in yer hand – just duck if you see flying glass!

People live it, breathe it, fight for it. Its a culture thing.
 
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I think I might be in a unique position to try and explain. Because the first two thirds of my life was outside the States. I understand it – I understand the passion. I also see why Americans just don't get it. It must be mystifying to wonder why everyone outside America gets so worked up over this game. Why riots and violence can follow matches. Why someone in England can get knifed for saying the wrong thing or wearing an opposition Jersey at a pub in another teams turf.

I think part of it is due to the system. When I moved to America I couldn't believe how free I felt, free to get what job I want. Europe and many other countries where football is strong are divided by class - rich and poor. Football is the game for the masses. In the UK its very obvious, the richer class follow Rugby, the working class and the unemployed follow football. In poor areas football can be the only bright thing in your life. I've lived in London housing estates (like projects here in the US) and life can be pretty bleak and grim. Football unifies an area (or neighborhood).

Another thing about this game that I've noticed, and I only really noticed this since I moved away from Europe, is a really subtle psychological thing. Its best explained like this. You know when you are waiting for something that you want, and you wait and wait and there's hope, then it fades, then there's hope, then it fades then finally you get it and the reward is so much sweeter because you really had to wait for it? Like surfing when you are out on the ocean waiting for a wave. Or when you are smelling great food coming from the restaurant kitchen and your meal hasn't arrived yet. The wait itself makes the rewards stronger. Well thats football. It's a low scoring game. You may only see 1 or 2 goals in 90 minutes. You wait and wait and then GOOOAAAAL! To me, I think that's the beauty and addiction of it.

There. I've tried my best to explain what I see as two key contributing factors to the fanaticism of football outside the states. As seen from my eyes having lived on both sides of the Atlantic.
 
J Davis said:
Why riots and violence can follow matches. Why someone in England can get knifed for saying the wrong thing or wearing an opposition Jersey at a pub in another teams turf.
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I've heard it explained differently... that all humans have an innate need for a certain amount of violence in their lives. So Americans go to football games and watch profound violence wreaked upon the field, and are satisfied.

Whereas everyone outside of America watches soccer, and by the end of the match they're so bored they have no choice but to riot and burn down the stadium.

However, the more I think about it, that theory can't be correct or there'd be massive riots after every baseball game... hmmm...
 
I think to Americans, it's just one game among many where you try to get something round from one end to the other and throw it into some kind of netting. And it's the slowest, least exciting one of them.

And, any game which ends in a 0-0 tie might as well never have been played.
 
LOL
I think I am the only non american participating in this thread and I've done my best to explain.
(and I don't mock anyone's sport).

Not all football games are violent. That's just an indication of the fanaticism associated to it.
 
I think, for all those who don't understand the finer points of the game, go try and tell this fella the game isn't important...

kid-middle-finger.jpg
 
J Davis said:
I think I am the only non american participating in this thread and I've done my best to explain.
(and I don't mock anyone's sport).
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Hey, we're mocking everyone's sport, including our own. Have you SEEN a baseball game? Each baseball game lasts at least thirty-six hours, and nothing ever, ever happens. It's like Quidditch, except ... well, okay, it's not really anything like quidditch.

At least in soccer, everyone runs the same way occasionally. In baseball, NOBODY runs. Everybody just stands there. Thirty-six hours of watching nine guys stand still. Then, every six to 12 minutes, someone will throw a ball near a guy holding a stick. Rarely he will successfully hit the stick-holding guy, but almost always he misses. And the guy holding the stick will occasionally (but usually not) swing the stick, but even if he does swing the stick, he will far more often than not, miss. And then the big drama -- every so often, someone will get a "walk." I mean, this is a game where the ultimate goal is for the opposing team to do *nothing* for the entire 36 hours (the proverbial "no hitter.")

Clearly we can take a joke. Heck, we gave the world professional wrestling. (didn't we?)

But nothing compares to Aussie Rules football. :thumbsup:
 
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It's entirely possible that this is the only World Cup soccer match I've ever seen all the way through:

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I AGREE
 
Oh I'm not offended at all. In fact I like you guys. Thats why I spent time composing my thoughts and wrote my little psychoanalytical explanatory paragraphs.
I only mention mocking because this is an international forum. Plenty of non americans who know exactly what I mean read all of your words too.

I've noticed many American team sports involve point scoring regularly over the course of the game. Basketball, NFL, Baseball.
What I call football is low scoring and unique in that regard.

Also American sports are financially run affairs dominated by media which is why 'soccer' has never taken off in this country. The rules of the game don't permit ad breaks.
There's only one break at half time. American networks can't turn a profit off this sport. Hence little to no funding.
For the American team to have qualified in this world cup is incredible because of the lack of support in their own country. Bravo to the US team.
 
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Barry_Green said:
...In baseball, NOBODY runs. Everybody just stands there. Thirty-six hours of watching nine guys stand still. Then, every six to 12 minutes, someone will throw a ball near a guy holding a stick. Rarely he will successfully hit the stick-holding guy, but almost always he misses. And the guy holding the stick will occasionally (but usually not) swing the stick, but even if he does swing the stick, he will far more often than not, miss. And then the big drama -- every so often, someone will get a "walk." I mean, this is a game where the ultimate goal is for the opposing team to do *nothing* for the entire 36 hours (the proverbial "no hitter.")...
Click to expand...

George Carlin said it best...

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I AGREE
 
J Davis said:
I've notice many American team sports involve point scoring regularly over the course of the game. Basketball, NFL, Baseball. What I call football is low scoring and unique in that regard.
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Oh, we have sports where nobody ever scores either. Hockey, for example. I guess the main difference is, even when we added profound levels of violence to it, it still wasn't enough to get anybody to watch it.

And, of course, there's baseball, wherein an entire thirty-six-hour game can be "won" by the score of 1 to 0. And where the very best team in the league will sport a record of maybe a 55% winning percentage.

And golf. Don't forget golf. A game that takes about sixty hours to play, wherein men in horrid clothing go on a nature walk for sixty consecutive hours, occasionally stopping to swing a little tiny stick at a very tiny ball in hopes of propelling it into a little tiny hole some four miles away.

Also American sports are financially run affairs dominated by media which is why 'soccer' has never taken off in this country. The rules of the game don't permit ad breaks.
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Ah, here I think the yanks will collectively disagree with you. As we see it, there's really noplace in the average soccer match where you COULDN'T put in an ad break! It's not like you're going to miss anything... :evil:

Unless, of course, you're the ITV station and you decide to air an ad instead of England's only goal in their opening round World Cup match...

But hey, never underestimate the ingenuity of the American television system to find a way to make a buck. They'd air any ads they thought they could get, if people would just watch the sport. Even importing David Beckham didn't do a thing for American acceptance of it.
 
LOL That Monty Python skit brought back some memories Barry.


Barry_Green said:
Ah, here I think the yanks will collectively disagree with you. As we see it, there's really noplace in the average soccer match where you COULDN'T put in an ad break! It's not like you're going to miss anything...
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Ha !

Barry_Green said:
But hey, never underestimate the ingenuity of the American television system to find a way to make a buck.
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I believe it!
 
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David Jimerson said:
I think to Americans, it's just one game among many where you try to get something round from one end to the other and throw it into some kind of netting. And it's the slowest, least exciting one of them.

And, any game which ends in a 0-0 tie might as well never have been played.
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oregonian_snooze3.gif
 
Maybe this will wake u up and get yer blood moving again
:)

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I AGREE
 
J Davis said:
Also American sports are financially run affairs dominated by media which is why 'soccer' has never taken off in this country. The rules of the game don't permit ad breaks.
There's only one break at half time. American networks can't turn a profit off this sport. Hence little to no funding.
Click to expand...

The big three sports developed into the big three sports long before there was ever any ad time to consider . . .
 
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