By Brad Kane (kane.86@osu.edu) "... It is just that soccer is and will never be an American sport. Unlike the major sports, soccer requires very little strategy. Where other sports use terms like flea-flicker, hit-and-run and Hack-a-Shaq, soccer is pretty straightforward..." And this guy claims that he played soccer (therefore he thinks he knows a lot about soccer) while he was in high school.
Well, what is an "American sport"? Something like NFL, where it is only religiously followed in this country? (this is from the top of my head, so parts may be wrong) Football - Religiously followed in this country, has a presence in Europe, comparable to that of MLS here. Hockey - Played in the US, religiously followed in Canada, played in Europe as well. Basketball - Played here, followed here, played world wide as well, although I don't know how much it's followed Baseball - Played in the US, dwindling support (as seen this summer), played in Latin America and Japan, where it's the number 2 or 3 sport. So, I ask him, what IS an "American sport"? Soccer is a world sport. Played all over the world, world cup, bla bla bla.... Yeah, it is pretty straight foward. Put the ball in the goal, by not using your hands. Perhaps that's one of the reasons WHY it's world-wide, Brad Kane?? And Toon, I agree. I think he was brought up under the Ignorant One.
Football is not "American" Football is English. Rugby, Aussie Rules Football, Soccer, American Rules Football - they are all the same game. The only distinction is what agreed upon rules a particular match is played under. American Rules Football afficianados - or those who know the history of that sport can trace back in time the divergence from Soccer (Association Rules) and later from Rugby - with the allowance of the forwards passn which totally changed, and some say ruined American Football. Regardless. The old threads might have been lost in the big crash, but there used to be some good football history threads around here. Dustin
I wouldn't be surprised if the guy DID play High School soccer. It is so unbelieveably bad most places that I can't even describe it. I know of a Div I High School in Central Ohio that has a head coach who has never once in his life been on a soccer team or played in a game. His brother did, and he watched a few games. I know of many, many other coaches like this. Near here there's a team that's run by a guy who got into soccer when his kids started playing. I have actually had a High School Head Coach tell me face-to-face that soccer is "easy to coach - it's just common sense". He has never seen a professional soccer match on TV or anywhere else. When I mentioned to him that I had been at US/Mexico (two weeks later) he said "Oh, I heard something about that. Who won?" So the kid may very have played in High School and still have no clue about the game. Not many teams do. The ones that do? They kick everybodies' ass six ways to Tuesday. As for his comments, well, the world's full of idiots. Can't get too wadded up over it. (If you think that's bad, consider this: the head coach of a certain well-known big ten university in Columbus Ohio, which shall remain nameless, walked into a Sports Bar at a time when, for some reason, there was a UEFA Champions league match on the TV (probably ESPN2) between ManU and Real Madrid. He sat down, called over the waitress, and asked if they could change to channel for him because there was an NIT basketball quarterfinal on elsewhere. True story)
I honestly don't know what to make of this story. Yes, it's CL, but who would watch Manure? But, at the same time, who would watch NIT, which is to NCAA Playoff, as UEFA Cup is to CL? In other words, he didn't want to watch Manure? So should we blame him?
I guess the key to a sport's success in the country is the use of "catchy" phrases. Man, I wish I knew this sooner. Quick, get USSF and MLS working on some new stragety-sounding phrases to introduce into the soccer lingo. After that it's smooth sailing!
I read that guy's article this morning and it didn't come off as entirely anti-soccer. He seemed to go back and forth. At the end of it I still had no idea what his point was. The Lantern is a rag. In my 3 weeks at OSU I have yet to read a decent article in it. It's not impressive to put out a daily newspaper if it sucks. They ought to cut back to once a week and spend more time writing substantive articles.
This guy is ignorant and has no stance. Soccer is making it in this country. Its called Major League Soccer with 10 teams and soon to add 2 more. Averaging 15, 000 fans a game. Hes the dinosaur.
Eggy, a flea-flicker is an American football play where the quarterback hands the ball to his running back, then the running back tosses it back to the QB, who then throws the ball downfield to a receiver. Supposedly, this play is some stroke of genius that will make the defense crap themselves. personally, i would love to see every "football" player try to take a shot at rugby and Aussie rules football - soccer's other offspring. odds are pretty much even money that half the "football" players will be crying like babies by halftime. i'll much rather take a bicycle kick to a flea-flicker.
He's right. Soccer is not an American invention and neither is: Wine, Cheese, Beer, Bread, Potato, Numbers, Written Language, Sailing, Steam Engines, Sailing, Internal Combustion, Penicillin, Economics, Physics, Math, Philosophy, Astronomy, Brassieres, Bicycles, Hockey, Chess, Gin, Scotch, Blacks, Welsh, Scots, Germans, Amish, French, History, Checkers, Flags, Horses, Gunpowder, Archery, Swiming, Vodka, Scuba Diving, Dynamite, Fishing, Fire, Electricity, Arabs, Kites, Democracy, Laws, Voting, Pants, Christianity, Judasim, Islam, Buddism, Taoism, Voodo, Riflery, Fencing, Olive oil, and Sex. My guess is he doesn't understand much about any of the above, either. A perfect example of Snobbery for Idiots (Not Invented Here)....or the mirror image of Eurosnob.
I can already tell you that there is a fallout from that article and it has only been 24 hours... trust me, people noticed how stupid that article was and it is being dealt with likely internally.
I recommend a sharp crack to the face and/or neck with a long stick. Seriously, it's just such oldthink. People in their teens and twenties generally have respect for soccer players, unlike five or ten years ago. It's the La-Z-Boy crowd that still denigrates soccer, by and large. Or so I thought. Parenthetically, I heard of a HS Football coach a couple years ago who heard some of his players mouthing off about "sissy" soccer players and all that. He arranged a scrimmage for his seniors with the varsity soccer team and, as you can imagine, the football players mostly made it about 15 minutes before just dying out there, while the soccer guys ran around them like rabbits, tackling them into next week and scoring at will. Point made. As for the Lantern, with all due respect to OSU, my wife went there for a few years and she brought one home for me almost every day. A good half of it was just so immature, so mindless and so stupid that it boggled the mind. ISTM that they would print just about anything that got submitted.