I H-8 World Cup

[jon lynn]

My wife and daughter devloped a like for soccer this World Cup. They are German, but never showed an interest, at least not my wife for the last 16 years.

OHMYGOD.................I gotta watch 90 minutes of gawd awful dull! I don't care one bit how popular it is outside the US, nor do I care about soccer moms inc (USA), this is dullsville.

"Oh what a game we have here sports fans, Wolfgang Von Kartoffel just kicked the ball to Helmut Biertrinker, the crowd goes wild!" WHO CARES? I mean the crowd goes ape over nothing.

The Acadamey of Motion Pictures (aka Oscars) could learn a bit of drama from these wimps, when they trip and way-over-do the 'ouch' show.

I know they run a lot and are in good shape.........and blah-blah I have heard it all before, I hate this. I mean it is one up from watching some guy cut his lawn, and about as exciting too. "Gee dad do you think he will empty the grass catcher this time?"

The so called "fastest growing sport in America" started growing in 1977 supposedly, because in Jr High PE we were introduced to this sleeper. If it can't top the NFL in 30 years being the fastes growing sport, I don't think Mr Rooney should bag the Steelers just yet.

A German actually told me we, (Americans), are too stupid to understand the complications of this very technical game. And football (US style) is too easy, because the players get to rest after each and every play. And American football players don't have to think at all, the coaches do it for them (think)after each and every play.

But I tell you, I would rather cut off body parts than even pretend I am interested in this yawnfest. But this year my wife is carrying on, and talking to me about it like I care.

I hope the interest is NOT here in four years. It may be a cause for divorce...................I think I am justified.

[Swift]

I'm watchin it as I type this.....:D

[BILLY D.]

i'll bet jon just screwed himself into the ceiling. :D :D :D

[gd357]

Soccer, or football as it is called in the other areas of the planet is about the poorest excuse for a game I've ever seen. Trying to sit through a whole soccer match can push thoughts of suicide into your mind. I'd honestly rather watch 10 baseball games in succession than one period/quarter/whartever of soccer (I think I'd even sit through TV coverage of golf before watching soccer, but I'm not anxious to test that theory). As for the lower primates who enjoy this crap: simple minds are easily amused (very easily). I think the reason that this "sport" hasn't faded into oblivion is tradition, because it sure as heck can't be entertainment.

gd

[M.T. Pockets]

Do you know why so many kids in the US are playing soccer now?

So they don't have to watch it.

[Jack]

Lemme see if I understand this 'football' (soccer)....
Buncha guys in shorts run up and down the field for an hour or two- and nothing happens. Then they go into overtime. Run up and down the field some more, and nothing happens.
Then, they have some kinda kicking contest to see who can kick a ball into a net, and the one who does, wins.
Oh, yeah, I wanna watch that...... right after I watch films of root canals being done.;)

[L. Cooper]

During my 30 career as a high school teacher I often got the "this sucks" from adolescents who didn't enjoy something that was happening. I would simply remind them that they were perfectly entitled to say "I don't enjoy this at all", but they had no business suggesting that because they didn't enjoy it that the activity was the problem.

Personal preference is everybody's right. Putting down someone else's preference is just juvenile.

[gd357]

L.C.

Maybe I went a bit overboard with it, but I get pretty peeved when I go into the local sports bar for a burger and all 20 TVs have soccer when there are several perfectly good baseball games on. Add to that a few goofballs yelling about nothing while I'm trying to eat (at least with baseball, the place is somewhat peaceful, and easier to enjoy decent food). No wonder the place was dead (kinda surprised they haven't figured it out), and no wonder soccer is slipping farther down my list with each passing day.:rolleyes:

gd

[DogYeller]

The thing I like about Soccer is that I can watch the game and read the Sunday paper and not miss a thing.

[L. Cooper]

Or how about baseball.

It's the only sport I know of that at about the 3/4 point of the game has to let the spectators get up and stretch so they will be awake when it's finally over. ;)

[Swift]

Two more great games to be televised! Today and Sun!!

[jon lynn]

Hey Swift:


AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Both games are on just when I walk in the door from work.....so it's straight to shower, then early bed, I guess I could use the rest anyway

:(

[Swift]

Yipeeee!!!!!!! Germany beat Portugal!!

Sleep tight Jon.... ;)

[fabsroman]

Yeah, to each their own. To those of you that do not understand soccer, I will put it just like I put it to those that do not understand hunting, "If you do not understand why I like it, there is no way I can explain to you why I like it."

Suffice it to say that I like watching soccer. Used to love playing it. Likewise, I like to watch cycling, used to love training and going to bike races too. Even raced against one of the Tour de France yellow jersey holders (i.e., George Hincapie) as a junior in New Jersey and New York. Americans are too transfixed on what is going on in their country to think much about anything else. Soccer is one of the biggest sports in the world, yet Americans just cannot understand it. Then again, I have some friends that have been trying to learn the game and they are actually impressing me. I am awed that American television is televising the games uninterrupted (i.e., no commercials while the games are being played because there are no TV time outs).

The overall World Cup has been one of the lowest scoring World Cup's, but today's game between Germany and Portugal was 3 to 1, which in American football terms is 21 to 7.

Don't get me started about boring. How is American baseball any fun to watch until the playoffs? Maybe it gets slightly exciting after the All Star break, but come on, 180+ games. In the World Cup a team plays 3 games in group play and 2 of the 4 teams in that group move on. After that, it is elimination for every game, now that is exciting. The World Series is even the best out of 7 games, so is basketball. How about a single game and the winner takes all. Ah, but the owners wouldn't be able to get the Americans to come to enough games so that Lebron James could make $16 Million a year before endorsements. I won't even start with the baseball players.

As far as the "diving" is concerned, I hate it, but you have to have watched soccer long enough to know why it happens. It used to be that if a player broke free to the goal, the defender would foul him to stop him. FIFA has tried to prevent that this World Cup by issuing yellow cards in those cases. Get two yellow cards in a single game, and you are out of the game and your team plays with 10 men instead of 11. Get two successive yellow cards in successive games and you have to sit out. Step on somebody's groin like Rooney of England did and you get an immediate red card. Take a dive and you get a yellow card, and I saw quite a few yellow cards given out for diving.

My main complaint with the game is that they should have two referees to make sure that games aren't won or lost on bad calls, which there were quite a few of, especially in the USA games. However, bad calls are one of my biggest issues with sports in general, other than the drug use. We have the steroid scandal in baseball, blood doping scandal in professional cycling which knocked the two best cyclists out of the Tour de France and included 55 professional cyclists in all (side note: if I get started on Lance Armstrong and his swearing that he did not use performance enchancing drugs or do blood doping, this thread would be extremely long), and then there is the game fixing scandal in Italian soccer.

In the end, I will watch the World Cup tomorrow and while I am Italian, I do not care who wins because the French players have been a class act during this World Cup. They did not take dives and they did not commit cheap fouls.

If you do not like soccer, do not watch it. Plenty of people find hunting, fishing, and shooting shows boring as hell, but I hope they don't stop showing them because of those people. Likewise, I hope they do not stop showing soccer because of people that find it boring.

By the way, baseball used to bore me to tears, but my wife is a die hard Yankees fan and she has been teaching me the game. She even bought me a rule book, which I read, and now I understand the game. I like watching the baseball playoffs and can almost stomach a game every now and then. Granted, if there were less games and more urgency behind each game, I might find it a little more thrilling, but it is America's greatest PASSTIME (i.e., a great way to waste a day).

[DogYeller]

I guess the world cup wasn't that dull.
http://media1.yourdailymedia.com/files/cNKzj156WxiS.wmv

[jon lynn]

A simple head butt, to the chest almost AFTER the game woo-hoo. I am sorry it was still dull. I dont see the appeal of watching soccer, it has no excitment value to me.

I am dreading the qualifiers in two years, I am afraid my wife will have a renewed interest.........yeesh!

Get as technical as you want................it's still a yawn fest no matter how you try and sell it.

NCAA football is my only true enjoyment to watch.

But FYI, I cant watch golf or baseball. But if I had to choose between soccer and baseball, it would be baseball, but not by big margins.

Anyone wanna talk the merits of CRICKET:eek: :eek: :eek:

[fabsroman]

The first half of the game was exciting, but the second half and OT was rather boring. There were a couple of good moments in the second half, like when Italy scored its second goal which was overruled because of an offsides call that was pretty questionable. Another good moment was when Zidane headed the ball into what would be a goal, but Buffon, Italy's goalie, came up with a great save. Italy also had two more very near goals, one off the right post and another off the crossbar, but I think they were in the first half.

The head butt by Zidane was horrible. The main reason I liked France was because of him. In the games I have watched him play in he has been incredible and he is not a diver. I have no idea what was said by Materrazi, but whatever it was doesn't condone violence. Then again, I do hate people with big mouths who brag a lot or try to talk crap while playing.

While I thought I really didn't care who won, I found myself routing for Italy after the cheap 7th minute dive by a French player that lead to a penalty kick for Zidane which he barely made. I found myself jumping out of my seat with my arms in the air when Italy scored.

In OT, Italy was spent and playing just to make it to penalty kicks. They had dropped everybody back into defense and were just trying to prevent a goal. I truly thought the French were going to score a goal before OT was over, but that all changed when Zidane did what he did and they went down a man. Then, Italy was able to chew up a little bit of the clock by passing the ball around and Italy got lucky during the penalty kicks.

Zidane said he is sorry for what he did and he apologized to all the children watching. However, he does not regret what happened because it was meant to be from above. I don't necessarily agree with the "it was meant to be from above" comment. Does that mean that if I stroll out into the street and shoot somebody, I shouldn't regret my actions because it was meant to be from above. That is a crock.

Okay, I could go on about this forever. Let's just say that I am disappointed with the stats on diving in this World Cup alond with Zidane's actions, but I am happy that Italy won its 4th World Cup. Now, if Baggio hadn't missed a penalty kick against Brazil in 1994, Italy might have 5 World Cups and Brazil only 4.

[Dom]

I love World Cup -- woods are much quieter when there's big games on !! Not many deer I've shot from home on the couch.

I did watch a couple games off and on, not because I like Fussball, but that's because I wasn't huntin', Waidmannsheil, Dom.