Anyone have the viewership #'s on the NCAA soccer championship? Exactly. Yeah, excellent point. I watched a bit of those, just because it's so hard to find televised soccer in this country, and it was awful. No wonder people like you dislike soccer. Comparing the NCAAs to the World Cup is like comparing a NCAA regional trackmeet to the Olympics, if the Olympics were actually fun to watch. I am an American; I grew up with American sports. I still have my favorite teams in each, but having developed an appreciation for soccer I can't believe how dull and ordinary basketball, football and baseball seem to me now. A good soccer match- of which there will be many at the WC- is like the last five minutes of a close basketball game, but sustained over 90 minutes and without the constant interruption of timeouts and commercials. Yes, they don't score nearly as much, but that's a charm of the game. In the recent Champions' League, Arsenal and Real Madrid played a two-legged match, one game in Madrid and one in London. In those two games only one goal was scored. It may seem boring, but those two games were incredible. The goal scored, by Thierry Henry, was magnificent, and the game played in London- a 0-0 draw- was never dull, was played with such urgency and imagination that only the most jaded would complain about the lack of scoring. If you don't like soccer, fine, but I'd keep quiet about it because you're only proclaiming your deficiency.
posted by chazschwabb at 03:05 PM on June 07, 2006
Get ready to dislike America
Anyone have the viewership #'s on the NCAA soccer championship? Exactly. Yeah, excellent point. I watched a bit of those, just because it's so hard to find televised soccer in this country, and it was awful. No wonder people like you dislike soccer. Comparing the NCAAs to the World Cup is like comparing a NCAA regional trackmeet to the Olympics, if the Olympics were actually fun to watch. I am an American; I grew up with American sports. I still have my favorite teams in each, but having developed an appreciation for soccer I can't believe how dull and ordinary basketball, football and baseball seem to me now. A good soccer match- of which there will be many at the WC- is like the last five minutes of a close basketball game, but sustained over 90 minutes and without the constant interruption of timeouts and commercials. Yes, they don't score nearly as much, but that's a charm of the game. In the recent Champions' League, Arsenal and Real Madrid played a two-legged match, one game in Madrid and one in London. In those two games only one goal was scored. It may seem boring, but those two games were incredible. The goal scored, by Thierry Henry, was magnificent, and the game played in London- a 0-0 draw- was never dull, was played with such urgency and imagination that only the most jaded would complain about the lack of scoring. If you don't like soccer, fine, but I'd keep quiet about it because you're only proclaiming your deficiency.