The world doesn't hate soccer at all. It has a hard time catching on in the U.S. mainly due to advertisers. Since soccer doesn't have commercial breaks, advertisers aren't in favor of it.
One hopes that 'the World' doesn't have to watch ESPN. If you live outside of the United States, but need to watch an American TV network for soccer coverage, I feel sorry for you....
Well I forgive you, since you're not a paid soccer journalist (unless you are). If it was your job, the least you could do is research the 32 teams and find out any interesting updates on their squad...such as whether any of their star players were recently shot in the head.
Watching ESPN for soccer coverage is like watching Icelandic TV for beach volleyball or Congolese TV for Alpine skiing......
It's not about "validation." It's about recognizing that the growth and credibility of soccer ultimately helps our national team improve. You wrote: "Unlike a lot of soccer fans in the U.S. I have no interest in winning over the uninterested." My point is simply that if you were a U.S. supporter, you wouldn't feel this way, because you would intuitively understand (and care about) the link between "winning people over" and "winning the World Cup someday." I wasn't disparaging you. You're a Jamaica supporter, and that's cool. I was just pointing out why you're different from "a lot of soccer fans in the U.S.," which you admitted yourself.
I get what you are saying but the sport is growing in this country. My point is, it shouldn't be about getting the Jim Romes to convert or the 12 year old baseball fans looking for attention going to any soccer forum they can find posting "soccer sucks." Maybe I am naive but improving the development of the kids who are interest in the sport and thus improving the talent pool, the MLS and the national team will engage more people. Unique global nature of the sport provides many avenues for American fans to get their fix so goal should be to get the people who are already fans living in the state more engaged in the local product. You have people who will watch a european game on a spotty stream over the internet who won't bother watching a MLS match. Those are the people I am interested in converting. And yes I am Jamaican but I have also lived here 24 years and I support the U.S. team, travel to see them in qualifiers and friendlies. I took a vacation day to watch the U.S.-Algeria game at a bar here with hundreds of fans and it ranks as one of my best soccer watching experiences and I wasn't there watch the match live.
Then convert the quality, or I'll continue to not pay to watch MLS. Why should I? every 4 years during the WC I am reminded how bad quality of a product MLS is. And I am supposed to shell out hundreds to watch it, when the better quality is free on tv? Really? You expect that? Also, add Mexican league to the other soccer products people in the US would rather watch than MLS.
Exactly my point, the product has to improve. It shouldn't be about chasing baseball, football an basketball fans rather the folks who already have no problem watchig 90 minutes of soccer.
I guess you miss understood my point about Jim Rome. I dont care 2 sh$ts about him or converting him. Actually I hope he never does. But why support a channel that shows soccer then puts him on TV. This is a slap in ever soccer fans face. I choose not to accept it. If you do then thats your call. But dont get mad if they never decide to listen to the soccer fans.
I would guess that more than 95% of the German population never heard of ESPN and thus doesn't hate them or even gives a rat's ass about them. Of course we also don't hate "soccer" because the whole debate is meaningless for anybody who doesn't speak English as his/her mother tongue.
I dont remember what your main sports station is but imagine watching skysports (or equivalent) Germany vs Agentina. Once the game was over the next show started out with how soccer sucks and he was not the only one. What would you do?
Exactly. Anyway: it’s called football. That’s the name of the sport. If Germans, or English or Frenchs decided to call basketball “oelelalulae”, the name of the sport would still be basketball.
ESPN has invested a ton of money in soccer, be it the World Cup, La Liga, EPL...yada yada yada. They've done everything the can to shove it down peoples throats, which I feel is a GOOD thing for the sport in the US. Yes, you're still going to have idiots like Rome. Most people, quite frankly, believe him to be an idiot, but he is kinda funny. Soccer isn't going to be everyones thing, and it shows, but the guys on ATH and PTI are doing their best to cover the sport to the best of their knowledge and they have actually tried to give a crap. As for the people who hate the word "soccer", seriously, get over it. "Football" in the US is something different, so we call this sport soccer. If it makes you angry, get a life.
This cannot be said enough. On the one hand, thank you ESPN! OTOH, I can understand why they make mountains out of molehills with the Cup and game, especially when and where it concerns the USMNT. They hyped the bad calls and whatnot to get the US folks interested enough to watch the matches so they can.... here's the windup: boost ratings.... and the pitch: make more money selling advertising time. So if it means that they make every ref's mistake out to be the criiiiiiiiiiiiiiime of the century (especially if it was aginst the US), that the other teams, FIFA, asnd the ref all hate theg US and are jealous of our FREEDOM, or that the US was a favorite to win it, so be it. I understand. Think about it: how much interest would there be and how much money would they make if ESPN said the US team is average-above average, and mistakes happen all the time in soccer, that it is part of the beautiful but cruel game, so get used to it? What bothers me, though, are the new fans who eat this overhyped stuff up and repeat it without question. This is the downside to the Cup from this American's POV: I have to listen to ignorant Americans yakkity-yak about it as if they are experts every 4 years. Thankfully, as soon as the US bows out, or at the latest, as soon as the Cup is over, they go back to their other sports, like hot dog eating and beer farting. But in the end, I am thankful that I get the chance to watch every match live, and am willing to put up with it. When it gets too bad, I simply switch channels to the spanish-language broadcast. being tri-lingual, I can do that
Not really my area of expertise. English is not my first language and I’m not qualified to discuss English language issues. All I know is that there’s a ball and you kick it with your foot (unlike American Football, where players use their hands more than their feet…). I use a simple criterion: the guy who invented the sport gets to name it. Plus: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, South Africa, etc: football Germany: Fußball France: football Portugal: futebol Spain: Fútbol Holand: Voetbal United States of America: Soccer I don’t think that you can legitimately argue that everybody is wrong (including the English, who actually invented the game) and you guys are right. But as someone said, this is a meaningless discussion if you don’t speak English as your first language, so I’m backing off.
Or maybe nobody's wrong and we all have our own regional languages and dialects. For example, English people apparently hate it when we call the sport "soccer", and frankly, I think all Americans can agree that most English accents sound retarded. There I said it.
ps: do they scour the bars in England looking for an unemployed drunk for the color commentary? I mean, again, how bad does an English soccer commentator have to be to be working for ESPN? LOL
It doesn't have anything to do with being an expert in English itself. It just has to do with understanding that language is communication, and if “oelelalulae” is the sound that one group of human beings makes to signify the game with the bouncing orange ball, then for those humans, that's its name. It's not like God is up there decreeing, "And your name shalt be BASKETBALL, and BASKETBALL alone." They're just words, man.
Everyone I know from Ireland calls it soccer to distinguish it from rugby and Gaelic football. Same with Australians, for whom football is what we call "Aussie Rules" football. And of course, there's those wacky Italians with their "Calcio." And regarding your last point... "soccer" is English slang for Association Football. So if the country that invents it gets to name it, then the word "soccer," being their name, is a legitimate designation for the sport. In other words, Americans didn't come up with the name "soccer," the English did.
You're right. That's the name of the sport everywhere in the world, except for one country. In France if we wanted to annoy everyone, we would say it in french an call it : -piedballe (the exact translation) -balle-au-pied -arpion -panard -jeu-du-peton... or some other joke. Give credits to the english, it's called football and that's how we're supposed to say it. We don't need another name because we don't play (american) football, we play Rugby also called Ovalie in France. Btw, never heard of ESPN before.
I think ESPN's coverage has been great. I don't care about the talking heads or fans of other American sports who haven't come around to soccer yet. Let them enjoy whatever sports they like. There is no sporting event better than the World Cup and I'm glad ESPN has shown much more than a passing interest at it this go around. Can't wait till the end of the year when they are analyzing the US being awarded the 2022 World Cup