Let's Go Blues

dmiles2186 wrote:You...really confuse me.

Why is that Hockey god?

Even when they showed the Germany/France highlights on CNN Jake Tapper said the game was "pretty boring".

I saw much of the Germany/France game and about half of Brazil/Colombia. This is such a cultural issue because in America we are simply not used to watching a sport 45 minutes straight without commercials. I went with Colombia because many analysts said they were a dark horse and coming on strong. LOL

I like Belgium today for the upset and the Dutch.

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:

dmiles2186 wrote:You...really confuse me.

Why is that Hockey god?

Even when they showed the Germany/France highlights on CNN Jake Tapper said the game was "pretty boring".

I saw much of the Germany/France game and about half of Brazil/Colombia. This is such a cultural issue because in America we are simply not used to watching a sport 45 minutes straight without commercials. I went with Colombia because many analysts said they were a dark horse and coming on strong. LOL

I like Belgium today for the upset and the Dutch.

Why? Because, you seem to be waging a war within yourself on whether you hate the sport or not.

Also, I don't know who Jake Tapper is or what he says..haha.

Do Americans like commercials? Why do we want sports with commercials? It's the reason why NFL games are 3 hours long instead of 2.

Miles, let me restate that I hate club soccer especially MLS. I actually followed MLS for a couple years when Beckham came in 2006. It was ok at the time but it got so boring I stopped watching. I tried to watch MLS recently again and it was simply unwatchable. I realize EPL is a higher level but I have no connection to alien teams like Portsmouth, Everton, or Worchestershire or whatever! When I hear Worchestershire I think of bugs bunny!

But the World Cup is the biggest event on earth PERIOD and I respect that. I also think the final 16 of the World Cup is one of the most compelling sporting events on earth so I follow it and watch much of it.

I see what you mean about commercials. It has pros and cons. It can also be uncomfortable to watch 45 minutes straight with no breaks. I have actually lost a lot of interest in the NFL and don't even follow it anymore except for the Rams. I haven't even watched the NFL playoffs OR Super Bowl lately! I made an exception when Peyton Mann got his butt kicked last year!

Jake Tapper is a CNN anchor who has his own show every weekday. His opinion on the boredom of soccer reflects the majority of Americans but like I said I find baseball even more boring!

Did I clear things up for you?

Haha...yeah, you did.

Also, glad to hear you are a fellow Rams fan.

dmiles2186 wrote:Haha...yeah, you did.

Also, glad to hear you are a fellow Rams fan.

LOL..I said I watch and follow them! I readily admit growing up the NFL was my favorite sport with hockey right behind but lately I've lost interest in the NFL. Eventhough I lost some interest in hockey in the 2000s now it's hockey ALL THE WAY!

Ice hockey is no doubt the greatest game on earth! You all agree right?

Hugely disappointing quarter-finals. French and Germans couldn't figure their stuff out, Brazil decided to give Colombia a proper roughing at the ref's blessing and lost Neymar in the process (the guy may be made of glass - first time i hear about broken vertebrae after a knee to the back). Costa Rica parked the bus while the Dutch kept knocking and Argentina suffocated the poor belgians who lacked that good final ball. Hoping for better semi-finals, but so far it's been like watching Jaguars play Browns.

I agree Comrade. Even the CNN guy commented how boring Germany vs. France was. I saw much of the quarterfinals and this offsides rule is dumbest rule I've EVER seen in ANY sport! The game of soccer is so slow and low scoring to begin with yet now they want to handicap them even MORE!!?! INSANE!

That is just one reason out of many why this sport will never catch on here outside of the World Cup!

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:I agree Comrade. Even the CNN guy commented how boring Germany vs. France was. I saw much of the quarterfinals and this offsides rule is dumbest rule I've EVER seen in ANY sport! The game of soccer is so slow and low scoring to begin with yet now they want to handicap them even MORE!!?! INSANE!

That is just one reason out of many why this sport will never catch on here outside of the World Cup!

The game isn't slow, it's just not made up of 15-second long action packets separated by 5-minute breaks for a beer, and thus requires an attention span a bit greater than a squirrel's. If you get into it, and actually decipher the game into segments (not unlike football fans do), there's a lot going on and at fast speed. It's difficult sometimes to go full speed for 45 minutes almost non-stop, but there are many games that are back and forth and the halves fly by.

Offsides makes perfect sense. WIthout it, an attacker could either cherry pick 20 feet behind the line or the defense would have to stay back all the time instead of pushing up and helping distribute the ball. With the speed of the game increasing, it's become tougher for the refs to spot these but they didn't get too many wrong this WC. And for the forwards, it makes the game a bit more difficult and forces the to be smart about the runs they make. A forward running onto a long ball out of the onside position is very much like a well run route by a WR. Thing about soccer is that you never know when this is going to happen, unlike football where you can tell with a high degree of probability how things are going to intend to play out.

That said, Costa Rica made it really hard for the Dutch to be offside. And about low scoring - the highest scoring game (NBA) is not getting great ratings lately. And 14-7 in NFL is really 2-1 game-wise.

So I found this a few days ago. I have a blog, but I never write or update anything there. But I wrote this thing in 2010 after Landon's goal against Algeria. A lot of people at the time were talking about how soccer was going to take over, and I said it wouldn't happen right away. I plan to write a follow up that it's starting to change. Read it here if you'd like.


http://lifegoggles.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... e-machine/

Miles and Comrade, after the USMNT got to the final 8 in 2002 there was TONS of talk on how soccer was now going to take over America!

Back then I found a quote from the 1950s, yes the 1950s, that said soccer was finally here and will now be a major sport in America!

Remember when Pele came in the 1970s to the New York Cosmos people said soccer would now become HUGE! LOL, the Cosmos folded! In 2006 when Beckham came he got a ton of national attention league soccer never gets here and a pro soccer nut actually said now with Beckham MLS will be bigger than the NFL!!

The delusions about the soccer explosion in America have been going on for decades and decades but it will NEVER happen. Comrade sorry but soccer IS slow...WAY too slow! For anyone who grew up in America we actually like our athletes to MOVE! So many times in soccer they just kick the ball back and forth and nothing happens!

I see what you say about offsides BUT there is no need to have it so close to the goal! There should be a line like in hockey where as long as you are onside past that line then you're ok! The goal of offsides is to prevent an offensive player from hanging out near the goal just waiting for the ball or puck. A line takes care of that while giving the players more freedom and creativity closer to the net!

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:Miles and Comrade, after the USMNT got to the final 8 in 2002 there was TONS of talk on how soccer was now going to take over America!

Back then I found a quote from the 1950s, yes the 1950s, that said soccer was finally here and will now be a major sport in America!

Remember when Pele came in the 1970s to the New York Cosmos people said soccer would now become HUGE! LOL, the Cosmos folded! In 2006 when Beckham came he got a ton of national attention league soccer never gets here and a pro soccer nut actually said now with Beckham MLS will be bigger than the NFL!!

The delusions about the soccer explosion in America have been going on for decades and decades but it will NEVER happen. Comrade sorry but soccer IS slow...WAY too slow! For anyone who grew up in America we actually like our athletes to MOVE! So many times in soccer they just kick the ball back and forth and nothing happens!

I think you are glossing over the fact that since the 1950s, soccer has come a LONG way in this country. If you listen to Men in Blazers, they have a tagline that soccer has been America's sport of the future since 1972. It's funny, because that's what people have been saying all along. But it's finally starting to turn here, I really feel that.

Yeah, in '02, US Soccer paraded Landon around as the face of the sport that was about to blow up. Then '06 came along, huge disappointment. Then 2010, now 2014. But in the last 12 years, the EPL has caught on here. MLS attendance is growing. People are coming for the World Cups and then staying for other leagues. It's a process. For you to say that soccer will never be huge here is just as crazy as someone saying in 1950 that it will be.

Baseball is regressing from the national sports spotlight a bit. Football has the head injury stuff which will only manifest itself in the years and decades to come (when the current generation of children grow up playing something else). People will look in other areas, and soccer most definitely could be that area.

It's funny you mention that quote because on ESPN ' S WorldCup2Night they were discussing soccer's future in America and one analyst said "they soccer is the sport of the future in America and always will be!".

MLS attendance means nothing! You realize there was a recent poll where most American didn't even KNOW we had a soccer league? WWE has gotten around 100,000 in attendance for its Wrestlemania events and WWE raw is routinely the most watched weekly cable show in the nation! You think WWE is about to break out?

MLS cable ratings are so low they don't even make the top 50 chart and that won't change! There have been some pretty shocking articles on the decline in attendance in some cities in the NBA and MLB. When even established sports like those falter a newcomer like MLS has no chance. Even with EPL getting 690K viewers on the weekend that means 99.8% of Americans don't watch! Like I said most Americans don't identify with Everton or Portsmouth.

They even said on KMOX radio that for millions of Americans soccer is watched only every 4 years or 2 years. I watch every 2 years because I also see the Women's World Cup which many fans find even better because it is more competitive for the U.S. and in the past it has been more high scoring than the men.

The best game of the World Cup is today! Germany vs. Brazil and I like Germany all the way especially with no Neymar for Brazil. Do Brazilians wish Kaka was still there? Or even Ronaldhino?

Das can of das whoopass has been opened. Ya ya!! And it's not even 30 mins in yet.

And they say there's no scoring in soccer...

dmiles2186 wrote:And they say there's no scoring in soccer...

They must be Brazilian...

Crazy stat: during Colombia vs. Brazil, the ball was in play for 41 minutes out of 90.

Also, this seems to be the year of unexpected blow outs. Seattle bounced Denver in the Superbowl. Spurs disposed of Heat in 5. Kings killed off Rangers in 4. Now Germany scored 6 unanswered against Brazil. What next?

ComradeT wrote:Crazy stat: during Colombia vs. Brazil, the ball was in play for 41 minutes out of 90.

Then where was the ball the other 49 minutes if not in play??

As far as today's game goes I told you Germany would win. I just didn't know they'd win by a touchdown!

Winning by a TD is only natural since it is football after all.

I picked Germany to win the whole she-bang before the tournament. It's getting closer. Come on boy-o's!