Are y’all watching the World Cup? If not, why not?
I’m watching the World Cup. Many of you, I know, are not. I’m watching because international soccer is the one sport I follow for pleasure. (As opposed to following something so I can, you know, write about it.)
I’m not trying to convert anybody to anything here. You’re free to hate/ignore/lampoon the sport. But I am kind of curious: If you hate soccer, what is it you hate? The lack of scoring? The absence of timeouts? The lack of shoulder pads? The vuvuzelas?
(A word about the latter: Vuvuzelas are plastic horns that are blown during soccer games in South Africa, which is the site of this World Cup. They make quite the racket. Indeed, vuvuzelas have become the dominant story of the event to date: TV viewers are reaching for the mute button; the BBC is pondering a vuvuzela filter and FIFA president Sepp Blatter has come out foursquare behind the vuvuzelas.
(I’m agnostic on the issue, but I can tell you this: If you think the noise is oppressive on TV, try listening on radio. I did yesterday — all the games are on ESPN Radio and Sirius XM – and I could barely make out a word JP Dellacamera and Tommy Smyth were saying.)
But enough about vuvuzelas. I’m interested in your feelings on soccer itself. Are you so opposed to the sport you wouldn’t watch it if it were being staged in your den? (I know I feel that way about, say, Arena football.) Have you tried watching and were simply left cold?
Again, I’m not looking to mount a rebuttal. I’m just curious as to your feelings. And I thank you in advance.
But I would offer this programming note: Portugal and the Ivory Coast are playing at the moment, and one of the world’s most stylish players — Cristiano Ronaldo of the former — is at work. (The great Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast suffered a broken arm earlier this month and is, alas, on the bench.) And later today comes Brazil. And even if you hate soccer, you’ve got to like Brazil. Don’t you?
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220 comments Add your comment
DawginJax
June 15th, 2010
1:37 pm
Yes, I find ironic the hypocrisy that most of the people who are hating on soccer because it is boring also are most likely nascar fans. I’m sure even you can appreciate that someone who does not know much about cars or about racing would find driving around in circles all day boring. The same thing applies to soccer. Learn the rules of the game (not hard, there are only 17, and only about half of those concern actual gameplay) and then about the individual players, and you will find it much more interesting, even exciting if you can get behind a side.
Bubba
June 15th, 2010
1:41 pm
I know a great way to increase scoring in soccer – count every goal as 7 points!
Brock
June 15th, 2010
2:01 pm
gcs
June 15th, 2010
12:53 pm
4. Scoring theatrics – I know it is rare that a person actually gets the ball in the goal in soccer but they act like the biggest idiots after scoring. I don’t appreciate that kind of grandstanding.
Um- have you EVER seen an NFL game? Yeah- they don’t do anything after scoring a TD.
dawgfan
June 15th, 2010
2:08 pm
I watched the US v. England game and found it surprisingly entertaining. Will I watch Poland vs. Umpa Lumpa Land or some random game like that? No, probably not.
The US need to WIN and go deep in this thing and people will start paying attention. Its just like any other sport. Win and people will come. Its that simple.
Stop the buzz: Broadcasters filtering vuvuzelas
June 15th, 2010
2:23 pm
[...] Are y'all watching the World Cup? If not, why not? Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) – Jun 15th – 10:35 [...]
Deirdre
June 15th, 2010
2:29 pm
Bubba…LOL!
I love soccer and do NOT get why people think it’s boring. Even a 0-0 game is exciting. People who are bored because of lack of scoring are probably the same people who watch NASCAR for the crashes and hockey for the fights.
and gcs…on your “anybody can play” statement. I challenge you to 90 minutes on the field running non-stop with a 50 yard sprint every minute. Then we’ll talk about “anybody”!
fishtales
June 15th, 2010
2:45 pm
Yes the vuvelas are annoying…but I’m sure many of you have been to Starkville for a football game.
St. Clarkston
June 15th, 2010
2:46 pm
I’m watching until the US is out.
UGA Alum
June 15th, 2010
2:51 pm
American Football. Basketball. what a buch of sissies. “Football” is the only game where you play continuously for 45 min plus added time for two halves. No wimpy timeouts to call when you get tired or to stop the clock. played the game for 20 years. I also played baseball, american football, and basketball
DollarDawg43
June 15th, 2010
3:08 pm
Not watching but not hating on it either. It is just not a sport I am interested in.
I had to play on the very first soccer team my High School ever fielded because I owed the head coach (who was an assistant football coach) a favor. He bailed me out of a mess caused by my smart mouth and called in the favor by “encouraging” me to try out for the soccer team.
Damn that was a lot of running!
GOOOOOOOOOOL!
June 15th, 2010
3:10 pm
I guess these same people who cry about 1-0 games LOVE a 1-0 baseball game. You know why? They will talk about the “stragety” and “brilliant pitching”. The same can be said about soccer, but you have to understand the game to know that.
Yes, I am watching it …….. It’s ratings on TV are kicking butt!
ATLBadger
June 15th, 2010
3:12 pm
Some of the folks calling soccer boring are the same people who find NASCAR stimulating. I don’t get that, but different strokes for different folks.
Plus, sports without commercial breaks every few minutes is a great thing.
Heyward
June 15th, 2010
3:15 pm
I understand how people that do not enjoy soccer feel as I once took the same position for reasons similar to those already stated. I had to learn to appreciate the game since its acceptance is not embedded in our heads as kids like the predominately American sports. After spending time in Europe, actually attending a few matches it finally clicked. I don’t know exactly what is was but somewhere I found an appreciation for the game that I currently don’t have for any other American sport except maybe College Football. Some matches are more exciting than others but it just doesn’t get any better than World Cup soccer. If you think you hate it give it another try, there’s a reason it’s the world’s most popular sport, even if you have yet to understand why.
timthebrave
June 15th, 2010
3:16 pm
I watch it every 4 years for the world cup but not able to get into it as much because of all the early starts since it is in South Africa. I was listening on the radio and you can only hear annoying horns. They should just do the announcing on radio from a noice proof room. USA USA USA
G8R GRAD
June 15th, 2010
3:17 pm
fishtales:
Hear, hear!
The cowbells are painfully annoying.
The only way to suffer the cacophony is to drink heavily!
Wait.
Never mind!
Nickie
June 15th, 2010
3:26 pm
Nothing happens for 90 minutes. Even in a low scoring American football game or a NASCAR race there is always the potential for great action at any second. Soccer seems like a nice game for kids to play and their parents to watch but for the average sports fan it is DULL. No, I won’t we watching any of it.
Michael
June 15th, 2010
3:44 pm
I like it a lot. As you wrote, I don’t expect everyone else to. It just seems kind of annoying how a lot of the haters boil it down to the simplest form. I sorta like baseball, but it’s boring because there is a lot of wasted time. Speed up the game between pitches and it will get much more exciting. Golf is the same way when someone spends 30 seconds trying to figure out how to smack the ball into the hole. If everybody just hits it on a timed scale, it’s fair and doesn’t bore you.
Same goes for our football. It can be boresville, but the NFL and NCAA have done a great job of reducing the dilly-dallying between plays and series. NFL games seem to take three hours on the nose, which is much better than the four hours some college games used to take.
For those of you who like to watch things like NASCAR racing, how is it not boring yet soccer is? It takes 3 to 4 hours for any “scoring” since the only thing that matters is the finish. Could it be the sport is interesting because of everything else that happens, not just the scores?
Plus, if scoring is such a huge part of things being exciting, why does everybody love to see a pitcher throw a perfect game?
Shawny
June 15th, 2010
3:46 pm
Soccer. Boring. Would rather watch paint dry.
Unless it is world cup, which is kind of like the olympics where even a distance race becomes interesting.
But I gotta tell ya, my watching time has been drastically reduced due to those stupid horns. It is either watch on mute (or very low volume), or watch something else. Trying to listen to the announcer and ignore what sounds like a very large swarm of hornets is way too annoying.
Andy
June 15th, 2010
3:58 pm
I don’t hate soccer. I have no feelings about it at all. I just don’t care. It is not last on my list of sports to watch though, NASCAR is the absolute rock bottom. I would gladly watch soccer instead of NASCAR.
Arthur
June 15th, 2010
4:05 pm
The only cup I care about:
1. My first cup of coffee every morning
You Got a Lot of Nerve
June 15th, 2010
4:19 pm
The nerve, the audacity of people getting upset over the horns. That is their culture and that’s what they have always done at their games. FIFA did there research when picking a site to host the games. They knew this. What happened to the freaking saying “when in Rome do as the Romans do?” America is full of hypocrites and most of them WHITE. Yeah, I said it!!!!
GBO
June 15th, 2010
4:21 pm
I enjoy it and watch some of the World Cup every four years. What I do get really sick of is listening to radio sports guys crusading for all of their reasons for not paying attention to it. I dont care, just shut up already. As far as I am concerned, the real boring sport is baseball. If it weren’t for watching the pretty women at Turner field, I’d be snoring every time I heard “Take Me Out to the ballgame”…and if I really want to take a nap on a Saturday, then give me baseball, a ceiling fan, and a cold beer. I won’t make it out of the inning.
Kristen
June 15th, 2010
4:23 pm
I watch the World Cup for the same reason every 4 years- shirtless hot men. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but soccer has the highest concentration of hotties out of any sport…period. I will endure listening to those da#@ horns all day long just to check those men out…wow…just wow.
Kdan
June 15th, 2010
4:41 pm
You’re asking why people don’t watch soccer in a city full of overweight, slovenly, barbecue eating troglodytes. To them baseball is a sport. 3 seconds of furious activity followed by 20 minutes of standing there watching one guy throw a ball. Yeah, that’s a sport. Sounds more like my neighbor’s Saturday night.
BugKiller
June 15th, 2010
4:46 pm
Why do I hate soccer?
Because of soccer fans.
Soccer fans are the most insufferable lot on the planet.
Soccer fans make Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann look bearable by comparison.
Soccer fans are always quick to label you as “uninformed” or “uncultured” or “a dumb American” because you choose not to watch their incredibly snooze-worthy sport.
I hate soccer moms and everything they stand for.
Soccer moms (and their cuckolded husbands) are systematically destroying everything that used to make this country great.
I’m sick of kids being taught that “everyone’s a winner” by their moronic youth soccer leagues that don’t keep score and award everyone a trophy.
This sacrilege has now spread to baseball and other sports where they teach their kids to be losers in life.
Guess what soccer fans and soccer moms, in LIFE, there are winners AND losers. Teaching your kid HOW to lose is even MORE important than teaching them how to win.
We’ve had two whole generation of kids who believe the world will be handed to them because they’ve faced NO competition, controversy, or had anyone tell them they weren’t special and talented and gifted and wonderful.
When the world knocks them the hell down (and it will) and their parents aren’t there to wipe their noses and hand them a meaningless trophy (they won’t be), they won’t know how to get back up, and they’ll fold quicker than cheap patio furniture.
THIS is the world that soccer has brought us. THIS is what soccer has done to America.
And that is why I hate soccer.
Boneyard Randy
June 15th, 2010
4:57 pm
Lovin the World Cup…stopped watching baseball at night and watching tivo’d WC games instead. The vuvuzuelas don’t bother me as much as they did the first few games. Taking time off from work to watch the next 2 U.S. games live and hopefully at Brewhouse Cafe or Fado.
Bacchus
June 15th, 2010
4:58 pm
I know many Americans who watch it are dismissed as Euro-philes or French un-American or whatever. Vuvuzela cacophony aside, in the absence of ice hockey, basketball, college football, and NFL, there is no sport more exciting to watch every 4 years in June/July. Baseball is utterly boring and sleep-inducing in comparison. Plus there are no timeouts, play reviews, annoying commercials, etc. And the game is over in 90 minutes.
Go to a bar and pick a team to support and you’ll have fun.
Renee
June 15th, 2010
4:59 pm
I’ve been watching this year. I missed most of the U.S. vs England game but was impressed with the US showing. I’ve watched some of the other matches and I’m learning more about the game. My son played when he was young but didn’t like the running part.
Queen
June 15th, 2010
5:00 pm
Takes too long to score and the noise from the horns are awful.
LOL
June 15th, 2010
5:27 pm
Soccer is boring, but you have no problem watching golf or baseball on TV? Is that a joke?
Uncle Joe
June 15th, 2010
5:37 pm
What’s a World Cup?
LOL
June 15th, 2010
5:38 pm
Bugkiller, you are an idiot.
What you speak of is what stupid Americans have done to the game of soccer. Go to Italy, England, Spain, Brazil, etc and see if they play youth soccer without keeping score. I agree with you about what youth sports have become, but that sure as hell did not start with soccer. I have played soccer all of my life and have never played in a game where score was not kept. I can, however, remember my friends playing tee-ball when we were little and score was not kept so maybe you need to direct your little rant at the biggest sissy game of all, baseball.
PS-Thanks for being that stupid redneck who makes all UGA fans look bad.
Paul's Johnson
June 15th, 2010
5:40 pm
Lovin’ it. Just wish those damned horns would go away, though.
best1andonly
June 15th, 2010
6:05 pm
Watching World Cup Soccer – YES. Watching NBA Finals – No.
1gill
June 15th, 2010
6:07 pm
ABsolutely watching it! Die hard fan..Americans and the rest of the world will agree to disagree about REAL sport or not, just respect the game as with most sports the discipline is different it may not make sense to some about Soccer/American football/Baseball/Basket Ball ETC just respect it or SHUT UP!
Steve
June 15th, 2010
6:09 pm
Americans are so pathetically stupid (i’m one of them). Americans like football where a bunch of stupid oafs pile on top of each other and cannot speak a legible sentence. How many football teams outside the lousy U.S. are there???? Oh, i forgot, Americans like nascar. LOL!!!! What a bunch of intellectuals that group of people are. LOL America….the land of the dumbasses.
Jen
June 15th, 2010
6:25 pm
Of course, became very interested in the sport while in Europe. Go Germany!
Carioca
June 15th, 2010
6:32 pm
Way to go Mark, didn’t know you were a soccer fan. It’s my No. 1 sport followed by American football. My family moved to Brazil when I was 5 and I came back at 18 to go to college. Lived in Rio most of the time and cheered for Flamengo. Had played all my life until age of 49 when I lost my right leg due to a physiological problem, or would still be playing here at 62.
My take on why we Americans, in general, have a difficult time watching soccer is that our sports are so structured, for example we look for a counter play for every situation or play. Soccer on the other hand is not so structured so that plays come from individual skills, creativity and from the heart (i.e. the “jogo bonito” of the Brazilians). Low scoring is also an irritation for Americans. By the way, I don’t like the horns either.
Paul in RDU
June 15th, 2010
6:35 pm
Bugkiller’s comments about the soccer bringing down the entire country because people don’t keep score cracks me up. One of the biggest complaints in England is that kids don’t develop their skills because they are playing competitive soccer at too young an age. I was playing in full field 11 aside games (albeit with 6 ft x 18 ft goals) at 8 and winning was the only thing that counted.
Ken K
June 15th, 2010
6:50 pm
The World Cup is fantastic. These players are world class and the quality of the play is superb. I only wish I could watch the World Cup year round. I grew up on American football but love to watch soccer played at this level..
KZGuy
June 15th, 2010
6:58 pm
World Cup! Great now I can catch up on my sleep. Who needs sleeping pills. I dozed off for an hour and thought I might have missed some ‘action’. (insert snicker here) Nope the score was still the same. Sorry but I have to replace the air in my tires or watch the grass grow before I can watch more than five minutes of this.
mui88
June 15th, 2010
7:20 pm
I like watching the World Cup, but I will not be watching a single game unless they ban those stupid horns.
I have absolutely zero interest in listening to thousands of bees buzzing in my ears while I watch a game.
The World Cup board really screwed this up, and I hope the viewer numbers drop and prove that they are handling this all wrong.
Denise
June 15th, 2010
7:29 pm
I watch it everyday and I am enjoying it. Not to mention this is my first time ever watching soccer.
Denise
June 15th, 2010
7:32 pm
In reading some of the comments, I guess it’s safe to say that kickball and horseshoe would be local favorites, eh?
Frank
June 15th, 2010
8:35 pm
Watch more of the World Cup than Baseball…
I only watch baseball in the playoffs, too many games and cheaters… too boring to watch on tv and the only thing worse is watching baseball live… unles you are a fat and nasty and eat and drink the whole time at the ballpark…
Softball is more fun to play…
spectacular spectacle
June 15th, 2010
9:00 pm
we love it at our house… I played baseball through college, but I do truly think that soccer is a better sport, with much more athleticism. CC Sabathia or John Kruck on a soccer field anytime soon?
it’s not perfect, but what sport is?
Bob O'Boewy
June 15th, 2010
9:04 pm
Love football. Watching almost all games. Oh yeah, baba booey to you all.
Dennis Murray
June 15th, 2010
9:12 pm
@Bugkiller….every youth sport is everyone gets a trophy. My 6 year old has half a dozen already.
His basketball league didn’t keep standings either.
The reason for a lot of youth soccer not emphasizing game outcomes at a young age is the consensus is building skill (dribbling primarily) is more important at a young age. Most of the kids have a good idea of what the score is when they get to 8 years old or so.
There’s a lot right and wrong with all youth sports – football (US), Soccer, Baseball, Basketball and anything else. The biggest problem isn’t keeping score or trophies – it’s that kids in the US don’t care to play 90% of the time if there isn’t a field, uniforms, gear, scoreboards, and the externalities of the sport and don’t just play it for fun and to get better.
nativefalcon
June 15th, 2010
11:29 pm
OK If you get past, this is like watching paint dry then you have a sport. I watched several games, the USA-British game was good, Germany game was good because of the scoring, but in the end its like watching paint dry. I’ll probably watch it some more, but at times, I can’t believe this game is so big as it is.
Chuck Steele
June 15th, 2010
11:35 pm
Before I begin my rant, I just want to make it clear that this is intended for the soccer haters out there. My use of the pronoun “you” is not intended to include any reader who understands the greatness of The Beautiful Game.
I find it highly ironic that people who embrace football and baseball (both of which have roughly 15 minutes of actual game time action out of about 3 hours of TV time) would choose to carry the worn out banner of “soccer is too boring”. For the record, I like football and baseball and I reluctantly accept the vast expanses of dead time that inherently come with them. Regardless, they are still great sports.
With that said, soccer is not boring. There are around 95 minutes or so of non-stop time when the ball is in play; with neither a commercial nor a timeout anywhere to be found, other than halftime. The simple fact is that you do not understand the subtleties of the game, and you’re afraid to admit your ignorance. If I’m wrong about that, then the only logical conclusion is that you soccer haters are the epitome of sports Machiavellianism. Yes, there are not a lot of points scored, but why is that a bad thing? The beauty is in the body of work, not how distracted you were by the final score and the pretty sound of jangling keys. Oh, and speaking of jangling keys, don’t even get me started with NASCAR. Talk about boring!
Honestly, the bottom line is that soccer doesn’t need you. It is the greatest sport in the world, and will continue to be so, despite your puerile, mindlessly regurgitated excuses for why it is so horrible. Deep down, you hate that fact. Deny it if you want to. I don’t advise it, though. It will only end up making you look more pathetic.
So, keep on hating, you vast expanse of athletic-ADHD‘ers. Missing out on any World Cup is truly your loss and an experience you can never get back. All your vitriol against soccer is as useful as a dying person’s begging for a few more hours of life. It is just a waste of time and a pointless resistance against the inevitable.