Just the simple fact that it was being played in the US. I think it was an LA Salsa match. I thought outdoor was only for Europe.
i loved soccer since i was young, howver the first time my girlfriend watched a games shes live "WOW LOOK AT THAT GUY RUNNING WITH THAT FLAG, HES REALLY FAST, what is he doing? is that one of the crazy fans?"
The strangest thing when watching football in English was that the commentators called it "soccer" while Gridiron was referred to as "Football". Debates root from that confusion, I know. But I was 5 or 6 back then and was watching the MLS for the first time.
My first encounter with "soccer": * It had to be 1978 and the World Cup was on at the time. I was seven at that time but was entirely ignorant of the sport because by then I had undergone the American acculteration process prior to traveling to my parents' country. My mother took me to a home of the wife of my uncle on my father's side (they later divorced). I found the TV and then saw Spain playing. One of the things that came to my mind was how good Spain looked (I had no idea who were the teams in the final, for example, or how good Spain was then). The players "galloped" on the field, I thought. That was my interpretation of the style the Spanish players employed (must have been because the heavier balls they used at the time). I also remembered the referee whistling something (a foul, most likely) and running to where some of the players were. That impressed me because I thought of that as someone "laying down the law," so I turned to my mother and said "Look at that referee go!" My mother used that to tease me about how I wanted to be a referee. I didn't want to work at the time (still don't ). * Before that I was aware of the Cosmos and some guy named Pele because my father talked about him from time to time. But I didn't bother looking further into it. All I knew was that I saw a commercial about the a Cosmos game on Channel 9 or something. I'm not sure if that's true. * My funny moment came years later when I returned to said country. I met up with one of my cousins in front of his house. Eventually, the subject was changed to playing a game. He asked me to play a game of "football" with him. Of course, in my Americanized mind, thoughts immediately came to touch football or flag football, as we were going to play on a hard concrete surface used as a road. I wasn't even good at sports, as all I knew were basketball, baseball and dodgeball, and I wasn't good in either. The very next thing that happened was he took out a soccer ball from inside the house and proceded to kick it around on the road with some of the other kids in the neighborhood. I stood there baffled not knowing what to do, let alone how to handle a ball with my feet. My first lesson in association football. LOL
The first time I saw it was when my school bus was pulling out for home at the end of the first school day of my freshman year. Our high school team was out on the field practicing and I didn't know what I was looking at. I remember asking a kid... what is that? Kick ball? What are those things on their shins and look at those socks?! The kid said, that's Soccer. This was 1973... Never heard of it before then. For you younger ones wondering just how obscure the sport was back then, this might give you a clue. Then, the following Spring, we had a field day to B.C. Stadium to see Pele, with the Cosmos, play the N.E. Tea Men, or was it the Minutemen? I remember being excited to go, but disappointed watching the game, because I found it boring. Of course I didn't know how to watch the game then and it seemed boring to me.
not to bring back a 2 year old debate, but i guess my reasons for disliking a tie is that 1) im using to seeing a winner in a game, there is occassionally ties in the NFL but its so few and far between that it doesn't bother me as much. I think the high volume of ties in soccer (football) just kind of throws me off guard 2) teams that are clearly worse will adjust their tactics to get the tie from a team. I think it's part of the reasons some teams bunker, because they know in the conventional way they don't have a shot of winning (or think they don't anyways), but if they can scrap a point then that's better than nothing. I just dislike that kind of attitude towards a situation. And i know american sports will have its parallels, but i do think in american sports those teams eventually have to be held accountable and do something in the aggressive end and not just in the playoffs or knockout stages in tournaments. Like honestly i'd like to see spain be able to play without teams trying to bunker 9 or 10 against them every game.
First saw the game played at 11 yrs old it was an adult team. The game was different then any other game ball played without using the hands except the keeper. No American born it was all Italian born on the other side on the team I saw. I liked it right away. I kept going to my local park to watch them practice. I never said a word to them. One day the coach came up to me and asked me if I would like to train with them. I did after he gave me a ball and said practice and I will see you Wednesday. I trained with them for 4 years before I ever played in a league game with them. That coach became a father figure to me.
I grew up playing soccer for rec., travel & some high school and loved it but rarely watched it or any other sport tbh except for basketball (Jordan). When I did start following, what I found weird and frustrating was the frequency and dramatic diving which a lot of Americans were justified in calling it soft if thats was all they saw when they watched it. I did it myself when I played but never that often or dramatic. Its ridiculous.
The first soccer game I ever saw I played in. As a freshman in high school some of my friends decided to join the varsity soccer team. None of us had ever played before. I had never even seen a soccer game, but we thought what the heck, lets get us a uniform and sit on the bench. Turned out that the teams starting GK had graduated the year before and there was not another GK on the roster. The coach took a look at me, tall and lanky and somewhat athletic and started kicking the ball at me. I had pretty good hands because I played infield on the baseball team. I guess he liked what he saw because soon I was getting a crash course in goalkeeping. After a few weeks of practice we had our first preseason match (Funny, this was 1972. I refereed a game on that same field a few weeks ago. ) and I was the starting GK. I don't recall thinking anything in particular was odd, because it was all odd to me. I guess what surprised me the most was how physical the game was. Soccer was considered a "sissy sport" by most people back then and I was almost embarrassed to tell people I was playing soccer. I learned quickly that it was far from a sissy sport.
grew up with it. My mom played it. She was a right back. I spent a lot of time in Scotland growing up and played it as well. my earliest memory of MLS was right after the 94 World Cup we all started to hear that we were getting a domestic league. My whole family was excited about it and so were a lot of the people in our community. Then, when the league came to be with all its Americanized rules, everyone was just pissed off. I mean ..just really angry. I remember you weren't aloud to even put an MLS match on the TV. I remember my dad saying "turn that mickey mouse shite off" It was just seen as sacrilegious.
I remember reading about MLS in the early 90s in Nickelodeon magazine. Yeah, that's right, Nickelodeon magazine.
"I agree about Stoppage time I hate stoppage time, I wish ot was more like how the sports are here in the US or at least you know exactly how much time is left on the clock and not some estimate..." The excitement generated not knowing how much time the ref is 'adding on' at the end of a game when you are (as an underdog) leading by 1 goal over a (usually superior) team is fantastic, the tension is un-believable (I could tell you of a few experiences Ive had where I thought my heart was going to explode!), it wouldnt be there if you had a clock counting down!
I know it sounds like bullshit to some people, but ending on at an exact, fully-known time is not very compatible with the sport. You just have to watch college soccer here to see the difference. Everything about timekeeping is pretty arbitrary and up to the referee throughout the match, even in college soccer. The end should not break from that pattern just because it's the "end" and "Americans like knowing the time exactly".
Watching basketball and football can be tedious for a lot of soccer fans for that reason (not to mention fouling on purpose for free throws, or taking a knee with 20+ seconds left of a game).
Another thing I thought about as far as being strange, was team names and pro/rel. We have family friends from near Modena and we visited them once. Their son, a year younger than me and year older than my brother, was showing us trading cards of his favorite players. I asked what his favorite team was, and he talked about a few, mentioning names like AC Milan and Roma, and talked about how some other team was trying to get promoted to the league... I was like "but what are the team names..." thinking it'd be something like the Milan Cowboys or the Roma Eagles... And that by "promotion" he meant "expansion."
Yeah, but it's not expansion, because someone gets relegated and the total number of teams stays the same. It's a pretty alien concept to those of us raised on American sports. I find it fascinating and useful, but for some reason it repels a lot of people (or more likely, they use it as an excuse to explain their more general dislike for the game).
pro/rel seems to repel some people but I really think they are the minority.People that have a very American-centric view of the global game seem to be confused by pro/rel. it's just going to take more education and more exposure to top leagues around the world.
The offside rule, when I was a kid it took me forever to understand it. Stupid I know, but I just couldn't figure it out for the longest time.
to be honest i don't actually mind the stoppage time rule. I know some people who aren't a huge fan, but it's such a minor issue (and usually the time added on is told to everyone a few minutes in advance) and refs typically do a good job stopping at the appropriate time. I think if there was a pattern of refs abusing the rule in a way that made it seem very sketch i would probably take issue, but i haven't really seen that yet.
I think for me it was the sponsors on jerseys and the stoppage time, and the unusual sounding names. It isn't the London Devils against the Manchester Orioles, it's Manchester United FC vs. Leeds United FC, or whatever. I grew up, actually, with indoor soccer, but at that time, there was none of that stuff. Now you do often see sponsors on the chest.