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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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 Posted - 01/12/2007 : 13:12:13
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Luckily for America, David Beckham is on the way to save the day. He is being paid �128 million (�500,000 as week) to go and play for the ridiculously named 'Los Angeles Galaxy' and is going to "transform football in the USA".   |
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Airbolt 
"teil mann, teil maschine"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 13:50:02
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It's a very noble thing he's doing! Three Cheers for Beckham , the man who will succeed where Beckenbauer, Pele, Best and all the others failed.
( Captain Truth intervenes... )of course it could be that he can't get a place in a European team and the wife's been laying down the law
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Edited by - Airbolt on 01/12/2007 13:59:12 |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 13:52:46
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| He can do what he likes, but he'll never make "soccer" a popular sport in the USA for any player over the age of 12, and their mothers who go to oogle the coach. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 14:00:59
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quote:
Originally posted by AIRBOLT
It's a very noble thing he's doing! Three Cheers for Beckham , the man who will succeed where Beckenbauer, Pele, Best and all the others failed.
( Captain Truth intervenes... )of course it could be that he can't get a place in a European team and the wife's been laying down the law!
You're right; it's really a shame that Real Madrid ever signed him, rather than he went to another team which actually played him and where he could have still played for a few more years.
That said, I would say that (despite a review on this site from a while ago) that he is higher profile there now than any of them. He's chums with Puff Daddy and TomKat, doncha know. No doubt that'll see him through...  
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 14:05:59
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The main thing about all this is, while I am barely interested in football at all myself, the sports that are most popular are obviously objectively the best ones. Sports that have never extended beyond one country are obviously not.
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Airbolt
"teil mann, teil maschine"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 14:06:18
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| I've just checked the LA Galaxy website . Judging from the picture the man passing himself off as President Alexei Lalas is in fact Jason Flemyng from Transporter 2 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 14:12:49
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quote:
Originally posted by AIRBOLT
I've just checked the LA Galaxy website . Judging from the picture the man passing himself off as President Alexei Lalas is in fact Jason Flemyng from Transporter 2
LOL
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Downtown 
"Welcome back, Billy Buck"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 15:10:46
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Soccer is not a very popular spectator sport in America because soccer really isn't a very exciting sport. I'm not saying that out of ethnocentricity or arrogance, I'm speaking strictly as a sports fan.
It's not that it's "slow." Baseball is slow, but the way it's played is very unique. When you take a step back and look at it, the rules of the sport are actually very complex. Try explaining to someone who's never seen or heard of the game before how it's played without using visual aids. It's hard.
But soccer is the simplest of all sports. "Put the ball in the other team's net and prevent them from putting it in yours." That's it. That's the whole game. Lots of other sports put a twist on that premise, like hockey or lacrosse (a purely American sport) which require you to use long sticks to move the ball/puck. But soccer is stripped down to the absolute basics. And the nature of the game doesn't allow for much elaboration around the concept. The continuous play makes it difficult to incorporate complex strategies. You can't "run a play" in soccer. Most of the game consists of waiting to catch an opposing defender out of position and striking quickly before he can readjust. Even substitutions are highly restricted, so you don't even have the element of managing personnel (line shifts are the hardest and most overlooked element of hockey, for example).
The game itself is a little boring. Now before anyone reacts to that, I'm not saying going to a soccer match is boring. They can be quite exciting. But is it because of the game, or the fan experience? When I see World Cup or English Premier League soccer on TV, there seems to be more action in the stands than on the field, which is in stark contrast to American sporting events. American sports fans are passionate, particularly college sports fans in the South. But the level of passion just isn't as high and even if it were, we already have so many sports to spread that passion around, as opposed to most of the soccer-playing-world where that's really the only major league sport. We just don't have that culture around soccer and without it, there's no way the sport can ever be as exciting to us.
By the way, this also explains why it's such a popular team sport for kids. It's easy to learn and easy to play. "Go kick the ball in the other team's net, just don't touch it with your hands," is all you need to teach a kid to get them started. Everything else they can pick up along the way. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 15:30:17
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You're going to have to do better than that. If it were boring, people wouldn't watch it. People watch it at home alone and are just as excited as in a crowd. It's just that the complexities are subtler than in sports where one complicated procedure follows another. The offside rule is also famously enormously complex, so it's not that the rules themselves are simple.
So Benj is right in a sense. American football is designed for people with very short attention spans who are used to having advert breaks every five minutes.  Put it this way - why is no one else interested in playing it if it's any good?
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Edited by - Demisemicenturian on 01/12/2007 15:32:29 |
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Downtown
"Welcome back, Billy Buck"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 15:34:23
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| I worked as a referee for youth soccer and found the offsides rule incredibly simple to understand, but that's just me. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 15:35:44
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| So you haven't got any answer for why no-one else wants to play American football and barely anyone else wants to play baseball then? |
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Downtown
"Welcome back, Billy Buck"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 15:47:22
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Hey I was telling you what's wrong with your sport...not what's wrong with your sports FANS. I can't explain why anyone wouldn't like baseball. But you can't logically explain irrational behavior. 
I can point out a pattern that can't be a coincidence, however: members of the Commomwealth seem to be overwhelmingly cricket/baseball countries (with a few football countries, although they play by different rules), not soccer countries. It seems the only country where English is commonly spoken (even if it's not the first language) and soccer is the most popular sport is England. |
Edited by - Downtown on 01/12/2007 15:49:21 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 15:56:46
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quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
I can point out a pattern that can't be a coincidence, however: members of the Commomwealth seem to be overwhelmingly cricket/baseball countries (with a few football countries, although they play by different rules), not soccer countries. It seems the only country where English is commonly spoken (even if it's not the first language) and soccer is the most popular sport is England.
Do any countries play baseball apart from the U.S., Cuba and Japan? I have never seen any other mention of it.
Lots of Commonwealth countries favour football - all the African ones (except South Africa, if that is back in the Commonwealth) and presumably Guyana. I would think it is stronger in the Caribbean than cricket now as well. That really only leaves a few large ones and all the very small ones. Plus Ireland, going outside the Commonwealth. (I presume that by 'England' you mean the U.K. because it is the top sport in Scotland and N.I. too, and probably even Wales.)
And all the countries in the Commonwealth that favour other sports just choose other good ones, i.e. rugby and cricket - none of them chooses American football. |
Edited by - Demisemicenturian on 01/12/2007 16:00:52 |
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lemmycaution 
"Long mired in film"
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 16:09:03
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
I can point out a pattern that can't be a coincidence, however: members of the Commomwealth seem to be overwhelmingly cricket/baseball countries (with a few football countries, although they play by different rules), not soccer countries. It seems the only country where English is commonly spoken (even if it's not the first language) and soccer is the most popular sport is England.
Do any countries play baseball apart from the U.S., Cuba and Japan? I have never seen any other mention of it.
Lots of Commonwealth countries favour football - all the African ones (except South Africa, if that is back in the Commonwealth) and presumably Guyana. I would think it is stronger in the Caribbean than cricket now as well. That really only leaves a few large ones and all the very small ones. Plus Ireland, going outside the Commonwealth. (I presume that by 'England' you mean the U.K. because it is the top sport in Scotland and N.I. too, and probably even Wales.)
And all the countries in the Commonwealth that favour other sports just choose other good ones, i.e. rugby and cricket - none of them chooses American football.
Here is a link that shows the 16 nations that played in the World Baseball Classic last year.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/index |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 01/12/2007 : 16:19:31
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How far away from movies does this thread have to go to be considered for a shove over to a more General category  
Just asking ...
Here, BTW, are some other US/Brit/etc language non-sporting anomalies which might feature in FWFRer entries:
Cars:
US=tire, UK=tyre [but not when it refers to fatigue]
US=hood, UK=bonnet [both can wear a bonnet on the head, though in the US it usually only refers to a fancy hat]
US=trunk, UK=boot [both use trunk for large packing case, and boot for outdoor footwear]
Street:
US=curb, UK=kerb [both say curb your enthusiasm, even Larry David]
US=sidewalk, UK=pavement
Building ... storey:
US=1st floor, UK=ground floor, sometimes hall floor [so in the US if your apartment is on the 2nd floor it's one flight up, but in the UK it's 2 flights up]
...
US=trash, garbage, UK=rubbish
US=ashcan, trashcan, garbage can, UK=rubbish bin
US=you're talking crap, UK slang: you're talking bollocks, none of your rubbish, you're talking rot
US=are you putting me on? UK=are you having me on?
Food
US=potato chips, UK=potato crisps
US=french [freedom ] fries, UK=potato chips or just chips
US=take out, to go, UK=take away
Private Parts, etc
US=twat, UK=fanny
US=fanny, UK=bum
US=fanny pack, UK=bum bag
US=bum a smoke, bum a cigarette, UK=cadge a fag
US=fag [a homosexual man], UK=fag [cigarette]
US=jerk, UK=twit
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 01/12/2007 16:27:00 |
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How much British/U.S. culture confounds MERPs?
