Nobody is scared of the US getting another World Cup

[Mobile]

Apart from the fact that it would make life a bit more difficult for those of us in Europe who want to travel to games, nobody is scared of the US getting another WC.

Nobody is scared of the US winning it either.

What people ARE scared of, entirely justifiably, is that once the Yanks win they will try and turn the game into some kind of freak show like the rest of their sports.

The terminology will be the first change. Before we know it we'll all be talking about 'aerial offensive plays', 'forward defensive zones' and 'double negative kickshots'. It makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Secondly the rules will have to be changed to satisfy the ordinary sports-watching American who seems unable to focus on a game for more than about 90 seconds without a pause for an ad break, some cheerleaders and a quick munch on a hot dog. So we'll have quarters instead of halves, and the goals will have to be bigger, "Gee you guys, we can't have games ending 0-0". Introduce tackling off the ball and bingo, you've got yourself a real sport, dude.

Thirdly the atmosphere in which games are watched will change. Swap heaving terraces with age-old chants for nice clean plastic seats in stadia where the popcorn-sellers come round every 2 minutes. And to excite the crowd (comprised mainly of fat women and children) they have that HORRIBLE electronic organ music which goes "Duh-duh-duh-duh Da-Da!".

And finally the last nail will be hammered into the coffin of football. Forever more the sport we love will be known as 'soccer'.

I feel genuinely sorry for those fans in the US who love football and want to see their team do well. At England's Euro 2000 qualifier against Poland I met an American with his son who were dead keen on English football and had come over specifically for the game. They'd also been to all the US' games in France 98. So I know there are committed fans in the US with a real knowledge and love of the game.

But I'm sorry lads, for the sake of the sanity of the rest of the world we can't ever have you lot winning the WC.

[soccerwookie]

<Dr. Evil>
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight
</Dr. Evil>


Isn't FIFA in charge of changing all that stuff? Or at least more than the US? Sooooo, if that is the case, doesn't that mean that it isn't just the Yanks that failed football, or soccer? To-may-to, to-mah-to.

[MyHouse!]

Originally posted by Mobile
Apart from the fact that it would make life a bit more difficult for those of us in Europe who want to travel to games, nobody is scared of the US getting another WC.

Nobody is scared of the US winning it either.

What people ARE scared of, entirely justifiably, is that once the Yanks win they will try and turn the game into some kind of freak show like the rest of their sports.

The terminology will be the first change. Before we know it we'll all be talking about 'aerial offensive plays', 'forward defensive zones' and 'double negative kickshots'. It makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Secondly the rules will have to be changed to satisfy the ordinary sports-watching American who seems unable to focus on a game for more than about 90 seconds without a pause for an ad break, some cheerleaders and a quick munch on a hot dog. So we'll have quarters instead of halves, and the goals will have to be bigger, "Gee you guys, we can't have games ending 0-0". Introduce tackling off the ball and bingo, you've got yourself a real sport, dude.

Thirdly the atmosphere in which games are watched will change. Swap heaving terraces with age-old chants for nice clean plastic seats in stadia where the popcorn-sellers come round every 2 minutes. And to excite the crowd (comprised mainly of fat women and children) they have that HORRIBLE electronic organ music which goes "Duh-duh-duh-duh Da-Da!".

And finally the last nail will be hammered into the coffin of football. Forever more the sport we love will be known as 'soccer'.

I feel genuinely sorry for those fans in the US who love football and want to see their team do well. At England's Euro 2000 qualifier against Poland I met an American with his son who were dead keen on English football and had come over specifically for the game. They'd also been to all the US' games in France 98. So I know there are committed fans in the US with a real knowledge and love of the game.

But I'm sorry lads, for the sake of the sanity of the rest of the world we can't ever have you lot winning the WC.

http://bz.berlin1.de/kino/arch/gifs/kier.jpg

You bore me.

[lurch]

Who's complaining about cheeerleaders? :)

[CrewDust]

We did give the world The Wave, and we are sorry about that.

[RutgerB]

I will be sick of it.
For ********ing hell the US did have the WC in 1994, its only 20 years later.

[YanksFC]

Originally posted by Mobile
Apart from the fact that it would make life a bit more difficult for those of us in Europe who want to travel to games, nobody is scared of the US getting another WC.

Nobody is scared of the US winning it either.

What people ARE scared of, entirely justifiably, is that once the Yanks win they will try and turn the game into some kind of freak show like the rest of their sports.

The terminology will be the first change. Before we know it we'll all be talking about 'aerial offensive plays', 'forward defensive zones' and 'double negative kickshots'. It makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Secondly the rules will have to be changed to satisfy the ordinary sports-watching American who seems unable to focus on a game for more than about 90 seconds without a pause for an ad break, some cheerleaders and a quick munch on a hot dog. So we'll have quarters instead of halves, and the goals will have to be bigger, "Gee you guys, we can't have games ending 0-0". Introduce tackling off the ball and bingo, you've got yourself a real sport, dude.

Thirdly the atmosphere in which games are watched will change. Swap heaving terraces with age-old chants for nice clean plastic seats in stadia where the popcorn-sellers come round every 2 minutes. And to excite the crowd (comprised mainly of fat women and children) they have that HORRIBLE electronic organ music which goes "Duh-duh-duh-duh Da-Da!".

And finally the last nail will be hammered into the coffin of football. Forever more the sport we love will be known as 'soccer'.

I feel genuinely sorry for those fans in the US who love football and want to see their team do well. At England's Euro 2000 qualifier against Poland I met an American with his son who were dead keen on English football and had come over specifically for the game. They'd also been to all the US' games in France 98. So I know there are committed fans in the US with a real knowledge and love of the game.

But I'm sorry lads, for the sake of the sanity of the rest of the world we can't ever have you lot winning the WC.

Boy, we've never heard any of these "arguments" before, have we? Classic Euro-snobbery, if you ask me.

Let me clue you in on a few things since it seems you have little knowledge about the state of the sport in the US. First, when MLS began in 1996, the league tried some gimmicks to "Americanize" the game. For example, the clocks ran down instead of up; there was no stoppage time; and there was the dreaded shootout to resolve draws. All of those things were abject failures. The fans -- and I'm talking about American fans here -- hated all those things, so the league got rid of them to bring the game in line with the rest of the world.

Second, I think if you'd actually speak to American fans, they'd tell you that they don't wish to change the sport at all. It's fine the way it is. Moreover, the people who run the sport over here know that any attempt to "Americanize" the sport is doomed the failure. Americans accept the sport on ITS own terms, not the other way around.

Third, the 1994 World Cup was the most successful World Cup ever as far as finances are concerned. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that FIFA will stage another World Cup here because of that.

And as for the tired whinging about us Yanks calling the sport "soccer" -- I guess you'll want to crucify the Italians for calling it "calcio," eh? The game is the same no matter what you call it.

[CUS]

Originally posted by CrewDust
We did give the world The Wave, and we are sorry about that.
And Europe sent us 'The Chicken Dance'. We'll call it even.

[Mobile]

Originally posted by YanksFC


Boy, we've never heard any of these "arguments" before, have we? Classic Euro-snobbery, if you ask me.

Let me clue you in on a few things since it seems you have little knowledge about the state of the sport in the US. First, when MLS began in 1996, the league tried some gimmicks to "Americanize" the game. For example, the clocks ran down instead of up; there was no stoppage time; and there was the dreaded shootout to resolve draws. All of those things were abject failures. The fans -- and I'm talking about American fans here -- hated all those things, so the league got rid of them to bring the game in line with the rest of the world.

Second, I think if you'd actually speak to American fans, they'd tell you that they don't wish to change the sport at all. It's fine the way it is. Moreover, the people who run the sport over here know that any attempt to "Americanize" the sport is doomed the failure. Americans accept the sport on ITS own terms, not the other way around.

Third, the 1994 World Cup was the most successful World Cup ever as far as finances are concerned. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that FIFA will stage another World Cup here because of that.

And as for the tired whinging about us Yanks calling the sport "soccer" -- I guess you'll want to crucify the Italians for calling it "calcio," eh? The game is the same no matter what you call it.

I've only been posting on here a couple of days so forgive me if you've heard the arguments before.

Now it seems you have misunderstood me slightly. Obviously the US football fans who currently follow the sport are not going to be in favour of rule changes. My point was that, once the US become world champions, the rules would be changed to make the sport more accessible to the majority of sport-watching Americans.

Also, I have no objection at all to the US having a WC other than that I would prefer it to be in Europe because it would be easier for me to get to games.

And no, I don't object to the Italians calling the game by another name in their language but last time I checked you lot claimed to speak English.

Finally, chill out. It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek post anyway.

[Pirrip]

Originally posted by CUS

And Europe sent us 'The Chicken Dance'. We'll call it even.

I regret to say that the Chicken Dance originated in Canada. It was really just a joke we thought you would see, but you yanks took it up an ran with it. What is it they say? Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the american public.

[Martin Henry]

When I lived in America I never found any "fans" who wanted to change the game but I am still a bit suspicious of the TV Networks...

They might still want to change the rules to suit American TV but I hope to god that that never happens...

[boydreilly]

Originally posted by Martin Henry
When I lived in America I never found any "fans" who wanted to change the game but I am still a bit suspicious of the TV Networks...

They might still want to change the rules to suit American TV but I hope to god that that never happens...

Why'd the Brits run over to this forum?

Martin, it's been quite a while since you've been here. If anything, soccer has changed TV instead of the other way around. Basketball now has the virtual billboard, American football uses commercial scoreboad and clocks and our soccer games are never interrupted. Times have changed.

[westcoast ape]

Haven't there been articles recently about some European coaches who would like to see the game cut into quarters instead of halves, or introduce "time-outs", all so that they can have more tactical influence on the game? I think some coaches would also probably love to have more substitutions, which of course would lead to more specialized players...until you get to the same state as American football, where you have a player on the roster just for taking the penalty kicks, and another for free-kicks from the left, and so on.

[photar74]

Originally posted by Mobile

Nobody is scared of the US winning it either.

...

But I'm sorry lads, for the sake of the sanity of the rest of the world we can't ever have you lot winning the WC.

Wow. You actually sound petrified of the USA winning the WC.

Yes--a knockoff thread! I've never had one of those before.

I guess this means you like me (sniff), you really, really (sniff) like me. I'd like to thank the academy, my agent...

[MarioKempes]

Originally posted by Mobile

My point was that, once the US become world champions, the rules would be changed to make the sport more accessible to the majority of sport-watching Americans.


I don't think the US *CAN* win the World Cup until it is watched by the "majority of sport-watching Americans". So there's the rub.

Secondly, soccer/football is not popular in the US because of history, not because of some out of hand rejection of the game. Football/Basketball/Baseball came of age in the US at the same time that "soccer" was being spread around the world. Those sports got a big head start and soccer has had a tough time finding room.

Because of globalization and the power of communications, what we're seeing here in the US is an acceleration in the popularity of the sport. The world is much smaller than it was 20 years. European games are regularly broadcast on cable TV here. When the European games are broadcast on regular TV, there will be no turning back.

[Gordon]

Originally posted by photar74


Wow. You actually sound petrified of the USA winning the WC.



If he is its only in the same way that I am petrified of hallow Hal winnning the Oscar for Best Picture.

[BenReilly]

Originally posted by RutgerB
I will be sick of it.
For ********ing hell the US did have the WC in 1994, its only 20 years later.

And the EU had it in 1990, 1998, and 2006. We are due the next two.

[TopDogg]

Originally posted by Mobile
And finally the last nail will be hammered into the coffin of football. Forever more the sport we love will be known as 'soccer'.


Last time I checked, the word 'soccer' was coined by the British.

[nowhere]

I'll be kind of scared if the US gets another World Cup and England qualifies. I hear their hooligans pillage towns, rape women, and castrate men.

Signature - I'm a cheap bastard

[todda74]

Originally posted by nowhere
I'll be kind of scared if the US gets another World Cup and England qualifies. I hear their hooligans pillage towns, rape women, and castrate men.


no, that's the Canadians.