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
Hugsy
June 16th, 2010
4:48 am
Two things 1) lack of goals. Lack of goals means the best teams can (and often are) beaten by inferior teams – this adds to passion, frustration and excitement. Upsets are statisically more likely to happen in football(sorry Soccer) than any other sport. Also how much more will you celebrate a score if there is only going to be 2 or three in a match.2) playing – in the UK I still play weekly socially and competively with guys in their 40’s – most people who watch in the UK play or played for years therefore you can appreciate the game greater – even a 0-0 (thiugh not always) ! One other point American Owners are destroying two of the worlds greatest clubs i.e Liverpool FX (Hicks) and Manchester Utd (Glazier).. Could some one have a word?!
Jen
June 16th, 2010
10:03 am
Watching teams that are evenly matched keeps me interested for the entire game. However if the team I support can’t get on the board then it becomes a struggle.
That said my actual preference is to be at the local club games supporting my brother. I have fond memories of my brother and the games he played for his local club. Watching on from the sideline for all of those years, I became accustomed to being amongst the action. For me I get real enjoyment from being there amongst the crowd, the atmosphere. It is for that reason I created an iPhone app uScore Football, which helps me to keep score and to show the ref what I think if a player looks to be getting a red or yellow card! haha
Check it out: http://www.uscoreapps.com/football/
bruce
June 16th, 2010
6:11 pm
what are the rules of soccer?
Bobe Hope
June 17th, 2010
1:11 pm
The way the game is designed makes it impossible for an individual athlete to display his talents in scoring a goal. Almost all goals seem to be the result of a ball being lobbed into about 20 guys in front of the goal, and it might bounce off somebody’s head into the goal, or it might not.
I’ve never watched a soccer match and said “wow! Did you see the play that guy just made!”
JaxDawg
June 17th, 2010
1:52 pm
Bruce – there are only 17 of them – about 50 pages worth. Google “Laws of the Game” during your next lunch break. Bobe Hope – you are an idiot. I’ve seen hundreds of goals that blew my mind. Get on youtube or somthing. Jeeze. Where have you been? You’ve never seen a bicycle kick or a a guy fully laying out for a diving header off a corner kick or a one-timer blast from forty feet to the top corner of the net? Some of the keepers’ saves are just as athletic, too.
Scott
June 18th, 2010
6:33 am
Soccer is awesome. Start attending the youth games locally and see our redneck parents going crazy for their kids. Things will change through our kids as the parents were just poorly training during the US sporting Isolationist period. My 11 year old and her friends talk about the World Cup all the time on facebook.
Our homegrown sports are getting old to me now. It seems childish that all we care about are sports that we invented. It makes me laugh to see the commercials for American sports. There is no attachment to anything human – the pro-football robot captures it pretty well. In soccer, the players walk onto on the field with a child and inspire all children. American sports hero’s walk on the field acting like they are something special – they are jokes. No wonder the rest of the world hates us. We are close minded dunderheads.
Hopefully after the World Cup Atlanta can garner huge for support the Atlanta Beat WPS team and secure a MLS team. If we can’t get and support an MLS team then we begin to become a backwards second rate city.
And while we are at it, let’s get the Tour of Georgia back. World Sports rule!
sharon
June 20th, 2010
9:26 pm
it’s funny how many people can sit through 9 endings of scoreless MLB games, yet resist 90 minutes of soccer. i rather like soccer, partly for the game itself and partly for the beautiful men who play it!
Bill
June 20th, 2010
11:21 pm
Boring. And with the added bonus of the vuvuzelas buzzing in my ears, it is now annoying.
Dawgs88
June 20th, 2010
11:25 pm
Soccer players are great athletes and everything, but I’m sorry this has got to be the most boring to watch ever invented. I’ll take American football any day over soccer.
Dawgs88
June 20th, 2010
11:27 pm
Soccer players are great athletes and everything, but I’m sorry this has got to be the most boring sport to watch ever invented. I’ll take the World Series or the Superbowl and day over soccer.
Mike
June 21st, 2010
12:19 am
Boring?? Let’s talk about boring…cars going really fast in a circle is boring and that’s on every Sunday! Baseball is becoming really boring and that goes on for months. The World Cup happens every four years and is what some players only dream of ever taking part in. It is truly a “world game” yet we Americans stay sadly isolated from it because of what….Nascar being better?? You can still drink beer at soccer games and you can sing too!!
I can only dream of one day running into the street when the US wins the World Cup and partying like a madman. I was fortunate enough to be working in Brazil when they won their last World Cup and as a Pittsburgher who lived through all the Steeler super bowls and a few Penguin championships there is nothing I have experienced in celebrating those victories that remotely comes close to what happens when a nation goes crazy in celebration after winning the world cup. I hope one day we get to see that in the US because the winners get to brag to the world for the next four years that they are the truly world champions. Let’s hope the US goes deep in this Cup and can surprise a few teams and get more respect. Plus there is something great about the announcer yelling at the top of his lungs…GGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLL for a full minute as the crowd and country go wild.
GO USA!!
Steve
June 21st, 2010
12:31 am
No … Too busy.
Steve
June 21st, 2010
12:31 am
and boring
Claire
June 21st, 2010
12:34 am
I’d rather watch paint peel, grass grow, and Obama read from a TelePrompter (in that order) before a soccer game.
Timeless
June 21st, 2010
12:56 am
Robert @ 1:13 pm: You are right that people in the South are narrow- minded and ignorant of things other than college football, NASCAR and Braves baseball. I would add beer, hamburgers and fries to that list. Atlanta is the nly town I know of where people would drive half-way across town to try a new hamburger joint. Guys: hamburger is a hamburger is a hamburger!
Tom
June 21st, 2010
3:39 am
Americans just can’t bear to think that soccer is the most watched sport in the world and that the World Cup is larger than any Superbowl. Soccer totally eclipses American football, a sport which very few people care about in the rest of the world.
CraZyTRaDeMaN
June 23rd, 2010
9:56 am
Tom, Very few American’s care about the rest of the world!!! Fact is Soccer is a very cheap sport to play all you need as a kid is a ball and a wall or two trees. I’m not narrow minded I have tried to watch the WC but, as a sports fan there is way to many options that I find way more interesting than soccer. For example women’s softball or bowling or the game show channel.
Shawn
June 23rd, 2010
10:26 pm
I tried watching the first game vs. England, but I fell asleep during the second half. I gave the sport a try, but I just don’t like it. It bores me. Before the soccer nerds get up in arms, I know that boredom is a subjective question- but soccer subjectively bores the hell out of me.
Patrick
June 25th, 2010
8:13 am
Check this out Bradley, you’re either not American or don’t have a pulse. This is why people watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn3rOPmR9w&feature=player_embedded
johnny
June 26th, 2010
12:37 pm
boring