Why did you choose soccer over baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey?

In my opinion, one is a very unusual fan of a sport if he/she claims to be a fan of that sport, but not interested in watching the highest level of plays for the sport.

By the way, unusual doesn't = bad or lesser.

 

Sempuukyaku, I'm temped to reply to you, but since this conversation isn't going anywhere even remotely intelligent, I'm not going to pollute this thread. DCU1996 and bigredfutbol said already what needs to be said. pm me if you want a point-by-point reply, otherwise enjoy the Sounders and chill out.

 

I will. If you only watched eight matches of the World Cup, the seven involving your teams and the final, you're probably not the soccer fan you think you are.

In fact, you're an awful lot closer to casual fans like my girlfriend who only watched the England games and whatever other games she could be bothered to watch because I wasn't letting her get near the remote than the hardcore that watched every game or close to it. And she still watched way more WC games than this guy (if he's even telling the truth - I actually doubt it a little).

I don't have a great deal of time for people who aren't intellectually curious and if you can't be interested in the World Cup as a soccer fan or the biggest games on at least a perfunctory level then you aren't a soccer fan, you're a fan of laundry.

 

I kind of agree with both of you. I don't think one has to follow all soccer around, but I too have no time for people who aren't intellectually curious.

 

I don't think eating is really a good example since that's something we all have to do in some form. I don't expect people to be curious about everything of course, but someone who calls himself a soccer fan and is not at all curious about how other people play the sport just seems odd to me. apart from everything else, there's usually something to learn from other people..

 

There's a five word rebuttal to this: It's the World Cup. People who don't even like soccer watch the World Cup. I'm not saying you have to rattle off Inter's back four to get your soccer fan membership card, but if your eyes glaze over at the biggest sporting event in the world which just happens to involve your self-proclaimed favorite sport then maybe you're not the soccer fan you think you are.

It's no different than some of my friends who say they love baseball then check out the moment their team is out of the pennant race/playoffs. They don't like baseball, they like laundry.

 

soccer is a sport but also a culture, sports are a culture as well.

In my case, I watched a few games in the world cup, mostly because I was too busy, I recorded the ones I was interested in watching, and i watched live the ones i rated higher. the usa games were a most watch, then spain, then you are always curious what the big guys have to offer like argentina, germany and brazil.

I try to keep up with MLS, mostly the Galaxy. Real Madrid and Aguila are in my blood, any time I talk to any of my family we will always talk about Aguila Madrid or Barcelona, a little bit of copa libertadores every now and then, copa libertadores is behind la liga and seria a for most latinos.

Sports is the same, even thought we enjoy most sports, we dont watch it as often but we do keep up with the scores because of our culture, most of our friends or relatives are athletes as well. In my famiily there are basketball, tennis, surfers, skaters, volleyball, martial arts and a few baseball players.

Soccer will always be our number one sport but we do keep up with the lakers, college football, the dodgers or angels, nadal, the rugby world cup and we read skating and surfing magazines.

I to claim myself into the soccer and sports culture or just anything competitive, even business, politics and fashion come to mind.

The only thing I cant watch is insanely commerciall-overratated england or epl... as much as they hate the "latin" diving i feel the same way about watching ping pong mega-overrated epl. Even if i got payed i would never watch an epl game, and the only times i watched the england national team was againts the usa, not even my favorite coach capello could turn england into a descent team haha

that being said, im a hardcore pro-american soccer fan. i keep up with high school, college scores, and everything about american soccer, that is just me and my futbol culture.

 

tl;dr: soccer is a team sport and I formed unbreakable bonds with my rec team as a kid

I, like everyone in my area (Washington state, USA) grew up playing soccer.

From elementary school to high school the first most important unit in society was your family. The second most important was your recreational soccer team. Yeah I played baseball, basketball, street hockey and track & field, too but only with my soccer team did I form such strong bonds.

I think it's because in soccer you depend so much on your teammates. You all play as one and your victories can be attributed to every player on the team (except that one fat unathletic kid who sucks but everybody's too nice to tell him)

Also, we went through some pretty savage climate conditions. 34-degree November nights pouring down rain on an almost-as-hard-as concrete all-weather field, puddles 20 feet wide forming in the penalty box, lightning striking somewhere and blowing out the power and killing the field's lights. We were like ********ing Vietnam vets after that shit. Band of brothers.

You don't get that in baseball. In baseball I was competing against my own teammates as much as the other team. Basically t-ball was just me waiting on a bench for my chance to bat. Also there's no thunderstorm armageddon-tournament game in baseball. They're all played on sunny afternoons and you go home if it sprinkles (which is every god damned day in Washington)

So that's why I chose soccer.

(although I prefer to watch American football on tv because all of the action happens right on the line of scrimmage so the camera doesn't have to zoom out into outer space to show you the whole play. And those frequent commercial breaks? That's snacks, beer, and pee pee time.)

 

The two main reasons I'm drawn to soccer (apart from the sport itself) is the fans and lack of commercial breaks. The organized chants, flags, and banners are unlike anything we have in American pro sports. I enjoy the 4 American sports (esp. baseball) but there's nothing quite like soccer.

 

Its the best.haha

 

I liked to play it because I hockey gear was hot when you weren't on the ice, and I didn't like standing still while dressed up in a colorful jersey.

I like to watch it because it's about 90 minutes, with a bathroom break in the middle, then I can get on with my life.

 

I didn't choose soccer. I was born this way.

 

There are no timeouts - team called or otherwise. Goals actually mean something. The first half actually means something, oftentimes deciding the game. That it's okay to have ties. Players actually look like you and me.

As a fan, it's just so awesome to sit down for a game, focus entirely on that game for the next 45-50 minutes, take a break to get something to eat, go to the bathroom, etc., then focus for another 45-50 minutes and I'm done. So, so much better than focusing on a sport only to have it stop and start multiple times over the next several hours.

Over the years, the more I have gotten into soccer, the less I have cared about the other main sports. It's to the point that MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL (and college football and basketball) could drop off the face of the earth and I wouldn't care. As long as professional soccer remains, I'd be happy.

 

I actually watch more Football (NFL) than Soccer these days so coming from across the pond it is different situation for me, in recent years I have became disorientated with the game in Europe as its spiralling out of control money wise and in the last ten years soccer has almost became a non contact sport if it wasn't for my religion that is Celtic Football Club my interest will be considerably lower than it is now.

 

Theo de Jong (and quite a few other people) apparently didn't get the memo about this.

 

Simply, it was what I played when I was young. My parents didn't want me playing football. I didn't have the eyesight for baseball, and there weren't many rec basketball leagues that operated year-round, like soccer leagues did.

 

Because i fell in love with Peñarol

 

Because it is literally the sport that makes a lump form in my throat every time the ball gets near the goal. Because you get a feeling that you just conquered the world when your club scores. You also get the feeling that the world just exploded when the other squad buries one in your goal. Because you can go anywhere in the world and pick up a match. Because it's the sport that unifies and divides.

I used to follow baseball,American football, basketball. And at the risk of sounding like a complete a total noob, the exact moment I knew soccer was my sport was when Landon Donovan scored "The Goal". My eyes literally opened to an entire new world. So yes I haven't been a footy fan for long but I know I will be until the day I die.