Hate ESPN? It goes here. Submissions from haveatake.com? The same. Pissed off because your local columnist has decided to dump on soccer? It gets merged as well. As a reminder, please don't fill the forum with "(insert name here) hates soccer". We're just going to merge them all in here. --Monster and GN, your friendly neighborhood Business and Media moderators.
Well..... Tis the season for the bashers right? We soccer people can not expect to get all this attention for our beloved sport and lets face it this year we are getting more attention than ever and it has been great!! and not get the usual soccer bashing!! Oh, the usual suspects are back Rome, Dracula(Deford) and the rest but this year it seems to me that their usual stuff seems hollow and desperate. The can complain all they want but hey, we have freakin' BONO on our side!!!! Even ESPN our usual sore spot is stepping up! funny, what a future contract for 100 million can do for motivation? I am very happy with my soccer life right now. I hope that the USMNT does better than expected and keeps soccer in the news long after the Cup! I'm sure that the local idiot in my local paper who hates everything but left turn and football will write his usual anti-soccer piece. I will read it and laugh knowing that he is a goon and realizing that whether he likes it or not even this local crappy paper will for the next month be filled with soccer stories. life is good!!
Labatt beer had a new commerical talking about all the fake things in the world. They used a player gripping his shin as a "fake injury".
How would you answer this article? Local sports radio website. Not looking for "f*** you" but something more well thought out. http://www.pirateradio1250.com/articles/eg052606.htm I love my country, but I hate soccer. So with the World Cup just weeks away, I cringe knowing that the sport will invade television screens. And some 2006 version of Alexi Lalas will squat on the front pages of newspapers. And some interactive game will occupy my time on the internet. Dang it. Instead of some truly American college football preview magazines or some midseason baseball during the thin summer months, I’m force fed some cosmopolitan sport that I strongly dislike. Having to look at some Zimbabwe striker isn’t my idea of ideal sports coverage. Truthfully, I’d rather watch Phil Jackson fly fish. Why can’t we Americans do what Terry Holland did and just give up? Just eliminate the program and slide the resources towards something useful…like football. All we have to do is to convince the world to follow his lead. Fundamentally, I can’t understand what makes the sport so popular worldwide. Is it a worldwide man-crush on David Beckham? Maybe that Ronhaldino character has brainwashed Brazil with his dazzling dekes. Or maybe stupid people like a stupid sport. As an outsider, I can’t stand to watch a game with such few exciting moments. Hockey is low scoring, but at least the action is fast paced. Baseball’s action is slow, but constant strategy and home runs keep people in their seats. So what is the draw? It can’t be the scoring because fanatics will still pack a 20,000 seat stadium to watch a scoreless draw. The scoring is exciting, but doesn’t happen enough. What about the ties? In every other major athletic contest, ties are strictly forbidden. Finally, hockey got rid of allowing teams in the regular season to tie, which cheapened the competition. Frankly, knowing that neither team could win a soccer friendly is a huge setback. Give the fans what they want to see. Make the teams go straight to shootouts rather than some golden goal situations or endless overtimes. And the style of play gets me too. I enjoy watching superior athletes torch the younger guys, but the amount of acting is borderline ridiculous. Every time a slide tackle happens near an opposing goal, someone is boo-hooing talking about how their legs almost fell off. Unless you’re really hurt, try being a man. At least Julie Foudy and Heather Mitts don’t cry foul at the scent of another player. FIFA or whatever sanctioning body that oversees the World Cup needs to follow hockey’s lead and adjust the game. Shorten the field, erase the offsides rule or create a penalty box. Erase the injury time and let the scorekeeper tell the fans the real time remaining. In order for me to even begin to tolerate the impending World Cup…who I am kidding? It’s not going to happen. Here’s to hoping the U.S. will do well and possibly win, but I’ll be supporting an American and southern sport with real fights. Mike Helton, bring me NASCAR. Eric Gilmore eric@pirateradio1250.com
Re: How would you answer this article? Holy crap. I can't even think of a response suitable enough for this level of stupidity. Even if you wrote it well, the guy sounds so ignorant that he still wouldn't get it.
Re: How would you answer this article? What's to answer? He doesn't like soccer. His reasons are valid (that is, the things he doesn't like about soccer are things that happen in soccer). I (and probably everybody else on this board) disagree with him, but trying to convince someone to like a sport they don't is a waste of time. There's nothing anyone can say that will make the posters here who hate baseball like it, and nothing anyone can say will make people like him like soccer.
Re: How would you answer this article? That is completely the wrong approach. By being respectful, you can help to get him to realize a few things he might not have beforehand, and help to open his mind and be more receptive to the game. Win the country over, one guy at a time.
Re: How would you answer this article? Dude, he does freaking sportstalk in Greenville NC. That's all you need to remind him of. More people listen to my farts than listen to sportstalk in Bum********ville.
Re: How would you answer this article? I email every guy who writes a column like that. Here's what I wrote a few minutes ago:
Re: How would you answer this article? This last bit sums it all up. I for one don't think this needs a response and further more anyone that would change the rules to cater to Joe Nascar please neg rep me now because I think you're an idiot.
Re: How would you answer this article? I thought it was a really well-written piece by somebody who is paid to stir the pot and get people to respond/call-in. As mentioned above, his reasonings are fair. I do have a few comments, however. First of all, the scarcity of scoring is what makes each goal so exhilerating (I absolutely love the fact that soccer is a low-scoring sport because there is always a threat that nobody will score (meaning every goal is special) and that it is the one sport where a score in the first half of the contest is huge, unlike just about every other sport). And 0-0 draws can oftentimes be fascinating to watch, depending on the quality of the play. As for as the commonality of ties, it is completely normal in this sport, but is not in mainstream American sports. There is nothing at all wrong with ties other than most Americans just are not used to them and did not grow up with them and do not know how to emotionally deal with them. So what if two teams went out and played to a stalemate? I call that a good, (usually) well-played match. I completely agree with the comment on the acting/faking of injuries, but every sport has its flaws and that is one of soccer's biggest, but by no means will cause me to stop following the sport.
Re: How would you answer this article? Just give it the big "who cares?" Yeah, soccer has its problems, but so does every other sport. So he doesn't like soccer. Big deal. I don't like brussels sprouts. I agree with the poster who said just ignore it. He wants a negative reponse; give it to him, and he wins.
Re: How would you answer this article? Actually, his reasoning is flawed from a logical stand point, except the bold part (e.g. American football ). He argues that hockey is similar, but more exciting overall due to its fast pace? Face-offs, TV timeouts, 2 intermissions vs. 1 half-time? Soccer is as "fast paced" as hockey (I love both sports!). And baseball's "slow, but constant strategy" with the occasional "home runs keep people in the seats"- how is that any different then soccer's constant strategizing and occasional "home run" goals? (and I enjoy baseball as well) Logically, there is little difference between the attraction of soccer and any other sport, except in the personal experiences of the individual viewer. The author's arguments are merely illogical attacks against a sport he does not fully understand or appreciate. From that perspective, he is little different than any other ignorant polemecist looking to get a rise out of his audience. Actually, I think attitudes like this (i.e. Jim Rome ), are actually more likely subjective attacks against other cultures (say, anti-Euros) vicariously through sport. In other words they are meaningless and vapid and horribly boorish. But I do get such a kick out of them!
Re: How would you answer this article? didn't even get me riled. more people have probably read it here than on their original website. i fail to see a reason to get worked up about it.