Posted by andysith at gateway1.colt-telecom.com on June 05, 2002 at 10:32:57:
In Reply to: First things first - there are 11 people in a... posted by Pimped-Out-Jedi-Knight on June 05, 2002 at 10:30:26:
seems like championship vinyl knows more than you!
...'soccer' team, and two teams play, so really it's 22 people, you big silly. Soccer's just a damn fine sport, that's accessible for everyone - I mean, to play American Football properly, you have to have all the equipment and everything, and it's so 'stop-start' - what is it with all the time-outs? Same goes for hockey, basketball and baseball really - you need a lot of stuff to really play it properly. With soccer, all you need is a ball and some bags/jumpers for goalposts. Maybe if you don't play it you can't appreciate watching it, but if you do, you can appreciate just how skilful some of the professionals are. That's what the appeal of it is to me, how the players can do such crazy cool things with a ball, and how they just never seem to stop moving. It's all fast-paced and exciting - they try to keep the pauses to a minimum.
: Oh yeah, and the hooligans are fun too.
: And American Football is pretty much regarded as poncey rugby over here - I mean, as if you use those stupid helmets. Big poofs ;-)
: :
: : And I apologize if I'm insulting you, but I simply must refer to it as "soccer." In my ethno-centric American mind, the name "football" is already taken.
: : But my question is this -- what is it about soccer that appeals to you? Does American football count for anything at all over there? Seriously, I'm not trying to be an asshole here. I'm simply trying to understand my neighbors on the other side of the pond.
: : Because to me - and this is only my opinion, mind you - soccer is just a group of ten people running back and forth across my television. I just don’t "get it." I’ve never played, but I certainly realize that it takes tons of skill to finesse other players aside and to keep that stinkin’ ball under control. I realize that it takes almost inhuman endurance to be able to do all that running and cutting for 45 minutes at a clip. I realize that it is indeed a tough game to excel in.
: : At the same time, I see superior strategy and skill in American football. There are no two positions as demanding in all of professional sports as those of goalie in ice hockey and quarterback in American football.
: : So, it’s not that the athleticism of soccer doesn’t appeal to us. It’s just that we Americans shun sports which we do not quite understand. A group of friends and I were at a bar yesterday evening, where they were showing soccer of some sort on their big screen. It took us an entire half just to figure out how offside worked.