Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There's more then 12 mins of action man. The stoppage time factors in most of the time loss and it's usually not any longer than five mins. So its proly more like 80-85 mins of continuous play which dwarfs the total amount of action in the NFL and MLB.
80-85 minutes? Cmon..sure the ball is being moved from foot to foot in midfield most of the game, but the number of minutes of actual attacking soccer? Listen I am giving the sport a thumbs up, but lets not be nutty here...most of the time, we are watching paint dry. Its those moments of attack that make it worthwhile and those are not exactly happening on a regular basis. All in what you see... you see a ball being moved around midfield and call it action. some call it boring. Is what it is.
80-85 minutes? Cmon..sure the ball is being moved from foot to foot in midfield most of the game, but the number of minutes of actual attacking soccer? Listen I am giving the sport a thumbs up, but lets not be nutty here...most of the time, we are watching paint dry. Its those moments of attack that make it worthwhile and those are not exactly happening on a regular basis. All in what you see... you see a ball being moved around midfield and call it action. some call it boring. Is what it is.
That's not boring to most soccer fans. If it was the sport would not be as popular around the world.
^
Hey I guess you don't like the 'beauty inherent in destruction' , i.e. defending, as much as attacking. But really I don't think that occurs either in MLS or say the English League. They seem to be built on 'attacking' soccer which arguably does show a lot of creativity.
Thing is in the World Cup 'parking the bus' as they say looks as if it goes on quite a bit. Understandable since if you have a goal some think it's better to lay back and simply play defense. Goals are hard to get. May be 'paint drying' for us but for them it's being in ir out!...;-)...
80-85 minutes? Cmon..sure the ball is being moved from foot to foot in midfield most of the game, but the number of minutes of actual attacking soccer? Listen I am giving the sport a thumbs up, but lets not be nutty here...most of the time, we are watching paint dry. Its those moments of attack that make it worthwhile and those are not exactly happening on a regular basis. All in what you see... you see a ball being moved around midfield and call it action. some call it boring. Is what it is.
I disagree. I think football would be extremely boring if it were just attack after attack and the scores were something like 15-10. I love to see a strategic defense that forces the opposing team to properly build up to a goal. That's what the ball being moved around midfield is to me: a build-up to a goal. Of course, it usually leads to nowhere but that's part of the excitement. On those rare moments when a player does break out, you're on the edge of your seat. And any time a goal is scored, you go out of your mind because you know it may be the last one of the game. Some of the best games end in 0-0 (like Mexico - Brazil).
For the record, a strategic defense is not the same as playing bunkerball. Having 10 men behind the ball for the full 90 minutes of the game is not exciting to anyone.
Some of those off-side calls were clearly not off-side at all. It was very strange. But RVP was caught off-side way too many times for a player of his stature.
What are you talking about? Robben is a self-admitted cheat. If he is willing to flop around to draw fake penalties why do you think that he *wouldn't* try his luck catching a linesman napping by playing offsides?
Many of these players of 'stature' are just the ones who get away with playing dirty. Anyone who has played competitive soccer will tell you that it is rife with cheating.
It is as plain as day, right there on the TV for everyone to see. How many challenges don't involve tugging jerseys? 50% perhaps?
Very nice semifinals; well deserved for Brazil since this WC has been the best in a very long time, probably since 1982. At this point, any of them can be champions. That said:
While Brazil has the home advantage, I see an edge for Germany because they are more balanced and Brazil is going through a storm of emotions hard to manage right now. The interval between the dramatic loss of Neymar on Friday and tomorrow's game is too short to manage it comfortably. Thiago Silva is one of the best defenders in the world; his absence can become a big deal tomorrow. Still, it's Brazil, yes they can still win, you bet.
I see a little bit of an edge to Argentina over Holland because even though their game so far has been far from stellar, they still got the crowd advantage (there will be many more Argentinian fans than Dutch in Sao Paulo on Wednesday) and Messi has a lot more chances to make the difference compared to Robben. Di Maria absence is not much of a big deal; he scored the winning goal against the Swiss but he has not been playing well otherwise. One factor that could raise a question about Argentina's ability to win this game is that they have not yet been tested against a very big traditional team, but a lot of "small" teams have played very well in this WC, so hard to evaluate the importance of that.
What are you talking about? Robben is a self-admitted cheat. If he is willing to flop around to draw fake penalties why do you think that he *wouldn't* try his luck catching a linesman napping by playing offsides?
It wasn't Robben that was caught offside so many times, it was Van Persie. Did you even watch the game? Robben admitted to diving once in that game against Mexico. Funny how everyone keeps bashing him for it when other players do it all the time. CR dove for penalties twice when we played them but not a single word was said about it. The bias people have against Robben is pathetic. If his name was Robbinho, we wouldn't even be talking about this.
And in the replay it was obvious that several of those offside calls were wrong.
Quote:
Many of these players of 'stature' are just the ones who get away with playing dirty. Anyone who has played competitive soccer will tell you that it is rife with cheating.
It is as plain as day, right there on the TV for everyone to see. How many challenges don't involve tugging jerseys? 50% perhaps?
Dude its not the same. Soccer clubs have horrible business models compared to American sports teams. A lot of clubs go broke attracting top talent. Celtics FC has been on the verge of bankruptcy. They owe money to everyone. Other leagues need to be owned by rich oligarchs from Russia or rich oil sheiks from the Middle East who can afford to throw money at the team.
NFL, NBA and MLB on the other hand are money generating machines. There's no contest.
These are money generating machines too. Do you think those revenue figures I linked earlier are not real money? Sports are a gamble everywhere and plenty of American sport teams go broke too. Like any other business, sometimes owners throw good money to avoid bankruptcy when things go south.
What a waste of time this thread has become. What was once a place for soccer fans to discuss this wonderful World Cup has become a trash can for pseudo soccer fans or haters to whine about how much they think everything about soccer sucks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Robben admitted to diving once in that game against Mexico. Funny how everyone keeps bashing him for it when other players do it all the time. CR dove for penalties twice when we played them but not a single word was said about it. The bias people have against Robben is pathetic. If his name was Robbinho, we wouldn't even be talking about this. 
