1. When we were in Scotland I discovered I very much like watching soccer. We went to a Rangers game and had great seats. It was very cool. We also watched a lot of soccer on TV. Even though the first two games I watched ended 0-0 ties, they were still interesting.
Soccer has its strengths and weaknesses. Its most obvious drawback is not very much scoring. These Simpsons clips speak much truth about the sport's drawbacks:
Low scoring is also sort of a virtue because scoring a goal in soccer is kind of like catching a long bomb in football or hitting a home-run in baseball. Goals are rare enough that they're always exciting.
I also like the fact that the game is a constant flow of action. There's really only one break at the half.
There seems to be a conservative divide on soccer--that is liberals like it and conservatives think American sports are better. I'm not sure why that is. Also, I find most American fans of soccer really annoying for some reason. Like I saw a bunch of galaxy fans with their scarfs on in LA and just thought it was kind of obnoxious and not very authentic.
2. I really haven't played video games that much in the last 4 years, but in Scotland I played a lot of FIFA 10, and got really into it. I thought maybe it was only fun because I had a lot of people to play with, but I've had FIFA 11 for 2-plus weeks now, and I still look forward to playing every day. There are some differences between 10 and 11. Passing is harder in FIFA 11, and so is making that chip/lob-shot over the goalie. But it's more or less the same game I've been playing straight for over a month. Not sure why the game has such depth, but it does.
3 comments:
Americans don't like soccer for two reasons: 1. We are not good at it. We don't have any elite players on the world stage, we will not be really into until we have a LBJ or Peyton Manning on the world stage.
2. ESPN doesn't have the rights to broadcast it so their talking heads don't know anything about it. Once they got the rights to the world cup, they talked about it to death, and rating went up. But this point is moot until we get the first one figured out.
Your second point is very good.
I watched some soccer highlights program in the UK--the only thing it was missing were actual highlights. Apparently, the rights to clips are so protected, to the point where a show called "Match of the Week" is about the only one that can play them. I wonder to what extend strict international intellectual property rights are preventing soccer from becoming popular here.
I'm not sure about one. maybe you're right. But Landon Donovan has played some soccer in England. I suspect that even if he became one of the best players, he would still play out his career without much attention in the U.S.
Landon Donavon is a serviceable player but he isn't on Man U or Real Madrid.. and he would never get on those clubs. I am talking about a Ronaldino type talent.
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