Soccer Fan
Franknsalsa has a few points in his blog about why he hates soccer.
I decided to state the counterpoint of why I like soccer.
Fans. Some might call them soccer hooligans, but these Fans are true Fanatics. These fans get to a stadium hours before a game start to root on their team and don't stop until well after the game has ended. Most fans (even American fans) dress up in their sides' colors and get crazy for their team. You can't say that most fans of your cities major league team have this kind of loyalty. I've been to many a game where most of the fans sit on their hands and don't start cheering until sometime in the last period, inning or quarter. All around the world, cities will literally shut down when their national team is playing.
No timeouts. This has to be a gigantic plus in any sport. I am a big fan of most sports, but c'mon the last five minutes of a NBA basketball game lasts 30 minutes with all the timeouts and foul shot shooting that goes on. Soccer has two half that consist of 45 minutes and if there is an injury, too bad, the game doesn't stop for it. You can pretty much put a clock on it, if you are going to sit down to watch a soccer game it's going to done in under two hours. How many times has this happened during a baseball game? You're watching an inning of baseball and some guy gets a hit and the following happens. The guy at first takes his lead and the pitcher looks at home plate for the sign. Next thing you know the batter does this... he steps out of the batters box and adjust his uniform, helmet, gloves, elbow pad, spits, scratch his groin, swing his bat a few times, set his feet in the batters box, looks down to the third base couch for a sign, spits again, arches his back and is ready to swing only to see the pitcher decide to throw to first to get the runner back. This exchange can go on a few more times and there goes 15 minutes. How exciting...
Political Power. Don't get me wrong, but there is a big difference between how much political influence there is in each sport. On one side, the President of the United States throws a meet and great with the "World Champions" and mispronounces player's names let and right. On the other side, not only does the President of Brazil know everyone on the Brazil team by their nicknames he also comments on Ronaldo's weight. He did go on to say that, he was going to be sitting in front of his TV to cheer on Brazil in the next match. In Mexico, they are worried that the presidential election will not draw enough people to the polls and candidates are adjusting town meetings around soccer matches. In Italy, the Prime Minister owns the powerhouse A.C. Milan soccer team. Heck, when the Iranian President stated that he would attend a quarterfinals match if Iran advanced, it made world national headlines.
True Champion. The FIFA World Cup crowns a true World Champion. Everyone in the World qualifies for the event and during the early qualifying rounds, the 32 best teams advance to the world cup. You can't say that of the NBA, MLB, NHL or NFL. When was the last time a team outside of North America won one of these world championships?
One game and out. The World Cup has a one game elimination round. There are no series in the knockout round. So the best team on that given day wins the match. Maybe that is why the National Football League is so popular... or is it because it is called football?
I decided to state the counterpoint of why I like soccer.
Fans. Some might call them soccer hooligans, but these Fans are true Fanatics. These fans get to a stadium hours before a game start to root on their team and don't stop until well after the game has ended. Most fans (even American fans) dress up in their sides' colors and get crazy for their team. You can't say that most fans of your cities major league team have this kind of loyalty. I've been to many a game where most of the fans sit on their hands and don't start cheering until sometime in the last period, inning or quarter. All around the world, cities will literally shut down when their national team is playing.
No timeouts. This has to be a gigantic plus in any sport. I am a big fan of most sports, but c'mon the last five minutes of a NBA basketball game lasts 30 minutes with all the timeouts and foul shot shooting that goes on. Soccer has two half that consist of 45 minutes and if there is an injury, too bad, the game doesn't stop for it. You can pretty much put a clock on it, if you are going to sit down to watch a soccer game it's going to done in under two hours. How many times has this happened during a baseball game? You're watching an inning of baseball and some guy gets a hit and the following happens. The guy at first takes his lead and the pitcher looks at home plate for the sign. Next thing you know the batter does this... he steps out of the batters box and adjust his uniform, helmet, gloves, elbow pad, spits, scratch his groin, swing his bat a few times, set his feet in the batters box, looks down to the third base couch for a sign, spits again, arches his back and is ready to swing only to see the pitcher decide to throw to first to get the runner back. This exchange can go on a few more times and there goes 15 minutes. How exciting...
Political Power. Don't get me wrong, but there is a big difference between how much political influence there is in each sport. On one side, the President of the United States throws a meet and great with the "World Champions" and mispronounces player's names let and right. On the other side, not only does the President of Brazil know everyone on the Brazil team by their nicknames he also comments on Ronaldo's weight. He did go on to say that, he was going to be sitting in front of his TV to cheer on Brazil in the next match. In Mexico, they are worried that the presidential election will not draw enough people to the polls and candidates are adjusting town meetings around soccer matches. In Italy, the Prime Minister owns the powerhouse A.C. Milan soccer team. Heck, when the Iranian President stated that he would attend a quarterfinals match if Iran advanced, it made world national headlines.
True Champion. The FIFA World Cup crowns a true World Champion. Everyone in the World qualifies for the event and during the early qualifying rounds, the 32 best teams advance to the world cup. You can't say that of the NBA, MLB, NHL or NFL. When was the last time a team outside of North America won one of these world championships?
One game and out. The World Cup has a one game elimination round. There are no series in the knockout round. So the best team on that given day wins the match. Maybe that is why the National Football League is so popular... or is it because it is called football?
posted by Fe Man at 10:26 PM
2 Comments:
That's a great "one up" for football! As you say, the fans are true fanatics and very loyal to their team. I just wish we could get rid of the hooligan element who badly let the side down. So far, in this World Cup, i think the fans have been well behaved - I just hope if England get knocked out, the fans don't let us down.
Once again, I'm confronted with the "a whole lot of foreigners like soccer" argument for getting me to like soccer. Okay, I know!! A lot of foreigners like the stupid sport!! I get it!!
About the timeouts thing. It's a good thing a soccer game only takes two hours. There's no way I could bear watching an entire match if it went on any longer.
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