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I played soccer for a couple years as a kid but haven't ever since. I never watched it and would joke about it like most in this country do. Now I'm 19 and a Sophmore in college. A good friend of mine at school plays soccer and I've been to a few of her games this year. Let's just say I've changed my perspective on the game. Even when there aren't goals being scored there is still excitement and the constant action is wonderful compared to watching baseball and football games. Not sure if it will become my top sport as I'm somewhat set in my ways now. But I do greatly enjoy it now, I found myself watching an entire soccer match on tv the other night, something I never did before
For me the beauty in the game is in watching it flow back and forth on a nice large patch of greensward. Futbol does not lend itself to much statistical analysis. We don't need to know that Joe ran for 7.8 km during the match, or that his passes were 78% accurate. Statistics do not tell the story as well as seeing the match yourself, knowing that Joe often got into good positions, and made the killer pass when it was most needed.
As with any sport, soccer can have it's dullness as well. There are a lot of matches where clubs have difficulty getting into any kind of flow, whether it be due to the players or referees. For me, the beauty of the game starts with the set pieces.
As with any sport, soccer can have it's dullness as well. There are a lot of matches where clubs have difficulty getting into any kind of flow, whether it be due to the players or referees. For me, the beauty of the game starts with the set pieces.
Certainly there are dull games, but I have also seen some very exciting matches that ended in 0-0 draws. It depends upon the pace and desire of the teams to go forward and attempt to score.
The English Premier League tends to have more exciting matches than some of the other European leagues because there is this attitude of constantly pushing forward. Anyone saying that futbol is dull has never seen Arsenal in full frontal assault. I think that the many American naysayers have just never seen quality futbol being played which is why they so easily diss the sport.
Teak, the reason that many americans are not taken by football is ...in my humble view, because it is not their national sport. In fact it has to compete with many other entrenched sports from ice hockey to baseball to basketball etc.
That said, I believe that it is only a matter of time before it gets more attention that it presently does....
That said, I believe that it is only a matter of time before it gets more attention that it presently does....
It already is as we're seeing EPL matches on ESPN2. That said, it'll take generations before soccer approaches the popularity of the NFL, NBA and MLB in the U.S., and it may never happen.
The funny thing about soccer is that it is so unpredictable. Yesterday Spain's Real Madrid, the super team with all its millionaire players from around the world, lost 4:0 against a Spanish minor league team whose name I don't even remember
The funny thing about soccer is that it is so unpredictable. Yesterday Spain's Real Madrid, the super team with all its millionaire players from around the world, lost 4:0 against a Spanish minor league team whose name I don't even remember
I'm assuming it was a domestic league cup match, which if it's like the EPL, means Real put its scrubs out there.
I'm assuming it was a domestic league cup match, which if it's like the EPL, means Real put its scrubs out there.
It was against Alcorcon and Real Madrid were not playing their scrubs. They played the following:
Arbeloa (starter)
Metzelder (starter)
Albiol (starter)
Drenthe (oft-used sub)
Guti (former starter)
Mahamodou Diarra (starter)
Granero (sub)
Raul (starter)
Karim Benzema (starter, big-money signing this past summer)
Jerzy Dudek (sub goalkeeper)
Rafael van der Vaart (former starter who they tried to off-load)
The total wage bill of Real Madrid is something like 400 times that of Alcorcon. Truly embarassing and Pelligrini probably has only one match to get things turned around.
Borja Gomez scored two goals for Alcorcon and I fully expect Real Madrid to spend a billion dollars to buy him from Alcorcon either this winter or next summer. That is the Real Madrid ethos: buy the flavor-of-the-month.
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