american sports

For a nation of supreme athletes their sports are utterly shit.

I put a bet on the nfl and watched about 40 mins of play take nearly 3 hours. zzzzzz.

Thankfully i won in the last few mins but if i didnt have a bet on that was so f*cking boring.

More stoppages than rugby.

Im surprised footballs never really taken off there as theres far more
technical skill involved than any of their sports.

For a nation of supreme athletes their sports are utterly shit.

I put a bet on the nfl and watched about 40 mins of play take nearly 3 hours. zzzzzz.

Thankfully i won in the last few mins but if i didnt have a bet on that was so f*cking boring.

More stoppages than rugby.

Im surprised footballs never really taken off there as theres far more
technical skill involved than any of their sports.

So then Einstein, how long would a soccer game take if the "in play" time was 90 minutes. I'm googling as we speak

All I have to say is...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI!

Seriously though, and please excuse the gross amount of Americanisms I'm about to use, soccer is growing here in the States. I'm 32 now and people my age were really the first in America to be able to play soccer on a widespread basis. It's likely that before I started playing, my father had never seen a soccer game live or on tv in his entire life! Even in the late 1980s it was tough to find a place for children to play soccer in many parts of America while almost all children played organized baseball, football, and basketball.

Today I live in a town of 12,000 people and we have a youth soccer organization with over 2,400 children aged 4-18 playing every weekend of the year. I would say that most children in America now play organized soccer at some point in their childhood and just about any town or city with more than 2,000 people will have an organized program.

Soccer is growing the States and there are several reasons for this growth in my opinion:

1. Access to coaching. When I was playing as a child nobody had a f*cking clue what they were doing, so it was pretty much impossible to get good coaching. I was fortunate enough to have a coach from Germany who taught us a bit, but that was a real rarity. Today there are professional coaches helping out most of the local organizations and there are a bunch of parents (like me) who have played the game for years and are now coaching their children. The biggest youth organization in North Carolina (CASL) is now associated with Chelsea and they send over coaches to support/train the local coaching staff http://www.caslnc.com/home/default.asp?menu_category=Home&menuid=1179&parid=1179. Our local organization (MYSA http://mebanesoccer.us/ is one of the 5 largest in the state and the professional coaching staff here are tied to West Ham as an "academy partner club" (whatever that means). As an unfortunate consequence, all of the travel teams in my town are named "Hammers". Somebody pass this along to TG and VT and help us change this to "Bloooooobirds".

2. Access to viewing the game in it's proper form. On any weekend we can now watch the Premier League, the Championship, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and other top leagues on tv. Our domestic league (MLS) has also improved a bit, although probably comparable to League One in the English pyramid. Simply being able to see how the game is meant to be played has made the game more attractive to us.

3. Soccer is no longer socially unacceptable. My generation of soccer players had to put up with a lot of shit from dipshits and douchebags just for playing the game. If you are American and over 35 years old, chances are that you think soccer is a game for pussies who don't want to get hurt playing a "real man's game". Soccer players in the past were always getting teased for playing the sport despite some of the gruesome things I've witnessed on the field (punctured lungs/livers, broken legs, fractured skulls etc.). It wasn't until the late 90s that they started classifying soccer a "contact sport" like basketball or baseball as opposed to a "non-contact sport" like track or tennis. Football and hockey are to my knowledge our only "collision sports". The stigma is fading...but old people must die for the perception to truly change.

Unfortunately, the prevailing thought in America is that soccer is a game for children but this mindset is slowly being challenged and changed. I believe what we need here is a grassroots effort to start more amateur adult leagues connected to the local organizations currently only serving those 4-18 years old. Along with this grassroots effort for amateur leagues would to be an attempt to turn going to a game into a social event much as the case is in the rest of the soccer playing world. Game day experiences are getting better here (see this Seattle Sounders clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRq5T4bOKOI) but the atmosphere at matches can still improve greatly.

We still have a long way to go to be considered relevant in the world of soccer, but we've come a long way in the past 15 years. I feel like the game will really take off when I'm a grandfather and the 3rd generation of American soccer players will be hitting the field as youngsters. For the U.S. to ever be a major force in world soccer there will have to be a major shift from inner city kids switching from basketball to soccer, and I'm not sure that will ever happen.

The biggest problem for soccer amongst it's detractors in America, relative to other sports, has always been that people here have such a problem with a 0-0 draw and low scoring matches. More and more fans are able to enjoy the ebb and flow of a soccer match and we're slowly accepting that maybe 0-0 ties aren't so bad (the fact that our national team strikers couldn't score in a brothel is fueling this acceptance as well).

Additionally, Americans want a winner every time, which is why every sport has overtime here. When our national soccer league (MLS) was first introduced, if a match was tied after 90 minutes there was a shootout. But not like a normal penalty shootout, we had to go ahead and f**k this up even further. In our version each team had 5 penalty takers, each of whom had a 1 on 1 with the opposing keeper from 35 yards out and 5 seconds to score. This absolute f*cking bastardization of the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_JpXVZwxYA has luckily since been scrapped but it is a good illustration of just how much Americans hate ties.

As for our other sports. In my opinion, American football does get a bit boring due to all the stoppages, but when the ball is in play it is a sight to be seen (especially live). Scientists have equated being hit in football to being in a car crash at a force of 100gs. The game is a collision sport with freakish athletes who are some of the fastest and strongest in the world. Baseball and basketball are two other games that require great skill and involve supreme athletic ability.

Anyhow, rant over. Time for bed. I'll do my best to convert more Bluebird fans stateside.

All I have to say is...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI!

Seriously though, and please excuse the gross amount of Americanisms I'm about to use, soccer is growing here in the States. I'm 32 now and people my age were really the first in America to be able to play soccer on a widespread basis. It's likely that before I started playing, my father had never seen a soccer game live or on tv in his entire life! Even in the late 1980s it was tough to find a place for children to play soccer in many parts of America while almost all children played organized baseball, football, and basketball.

Today I live in a town of 12,000 people and we have a youth soccer organization with over 2,400 children aged 4-18 playing every weekend of the year. I would say that most children in America now play organized soccer at some point in their childhood and just about any town or city with more than 2,000 people will have an organized program.

Soccer is growing the States and there are several reasons for this growth in my opinion:

1. Access to coaching. When I was playing as a child nobody had a f*cking clue what they were doing, so it was pretty much impossible to get good coaching. I was fortunate enough to have a coach from Germany who taught us a bit, but that was a real rarity. Today there are professional coaches helping out most of the local organizations and there are a bunch of parents (like me) who have played the game for years and are now coaching their children. The biggest youth organization in North Carolina (CASL) is now associated with Chelsea and they send over coaches to support/train the local coaching staff http://www.caslnc.com/home/default.asp?menu_category=Home&menuid=1179&parid=1179. Our local organization (MYSA http://mebanesoccer.us/ is one of the 5 largest in the state and the professional coaching staff here are tied to West Ham as an "academy partner club" (whatever that means). As an unfortunate consequence, all of the travel teams in my town are named "Hammers". Somebody pass this along to TG and VT and help us change this to "Bloooooobirds".

2. Access to viewing the game in it's proper form. On any weekend we can now watch the Premier League, the Championship, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and other top leagues on tv. Our domestic league (MLS) has also improved a bit, although probably comparable to League One in the English pyramid. Simply being able to see how the game is meant to be played has made the game more attractive to us.

3. Soccer is no longer socially unacceptable. My generation of soccer players had to put up with a lot of shit from dipshits and douchebags just for playing the game. If you are American and over 35 years old, chances are that you think soccer is a game for pussies who don't want to get hurt playing a "real man's game". Soccer players in the past were always getting teased for playing the sport despite some of the gruesome things I've witnessed on the field (punctured lungs/livers, broken legs, fractured skulls etc.). It wasn't until the late 90s that they started classifying soccer a "contact sport" like basketball or baseball as opposed to a "non-contact sport" like track or tennis. Football and hockey are to my knowledge our only "collision sports". The stigma is fading...but old people must die for the perception to truly change.

Unfortunately, the prevailing thought in America is that soccer is a game for children but this mindset is slowly being challenged and changed. I believe what we need here is a grassroots effort to start more amateur adult leagues connected to the local organizations currently only serving those 4-18 years old. Along with this grassroots effort for amateur leagues would to be an attempt to turn going to a game into a social event much as the case is in the rest of the soccer playing world. Game day experiences are getting better here (see this Seattle Sounders clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRq5T4bOKOI) but the atmosphere at matches can still improve greatly.

We still have a long way to go to be considered relevant in the world of soccer, but we've come a long way in the past 15 years. I feel like the game will really take off when I'm a grandfather and the 3rd generation of American soccer players will be hitting the field as youngsters. For the U.S. to ever be a major force in world soccer there will have to be a major shift from inner city kids switching from basketball to soccer, and I'm not sure that will ever happen.

The biggest problem for soccer amongst it's detractors in America, relative to other sports, has always been that people here have such a problem with a 0-0 draw and low scoring matches. More and more fans are able to enjoy the ebb and flow of a soccer match and we're slowly accepting that maybe 0-0 ties aren't so bad (the fact that our national team strikers couldn't score in a brothel is fueling this acceptance as well).

Additionally, Americans want a winner every time, which is why every sport has overtime here. When our national soccer league (MLS) was first introduced, if a match was tied after 90 minutes there was a shootout. But not like a normal penalty shootout, we had to go ahead and f**k this up even further. In our version each team had 5 penalty takers, each of whom had a 1 on 1 with the opposing keeper from 35 yards out and 5 seconds to score. This absolute f*cking bastardization of the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_JpXVZwxYA has luckily since been scrapped but it is a good illustration of just how much Americans hate ties.

As for our other sports. In my opinion, American football does get a bit boring due to all the stoppages, but when the ball is in play it is a sight to be seen (especially live). Scientists have equated being hit in football to being in a car crash at a force of 100gs. The game is a collision sport with freakish athletes who are some of the fastest and strongest in the world. Baseball and basketball are two other games that require great skill and involve supreme athletic ability.

Anyhow, rant over. Time for bed. I'll do my best to convert more Bluebird fans stateside.

Sounds a bit like Aus. A few years ago anyone who played Soccer was either a 'Sheila, Wog or a Poofter'. Real men played AFL and Rugby League. http://shop.abc.net.au/products/sheilas ... d-poofters

The make up of the national team used to be pretty much all of Croatian, Italian and Greek descent. Now I think football is the most popular junior sport.

Talking of boring sports, you should try sitting through an AFL game. What seems like about 50 blokes running around a cricket oval chasing an egg for a whole morning or afternoon. Does have the odd highlight though! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5qVLJEOTpo

For a nation of supreme athletes their sports are utterly shit.

I put a bet on the nfl and watched about 40 mins of play take nearly 3 hours. zzzzzz.

Thankfully i won in the last few mins but if i didnt have a bet on that was so f*cking boring.

More stoppages than rugby.

Im surprised footballs never really taken off there as theres far more
technical skill involved than any of their sports.

So then Einstein, how long would a soccer game take if the "in play" time was 90 minutes. I'm googling as we speak

Well then?

what the f**k is "soccer"

what the f**k is "soccer"

I dont think the name helps over there tbh. the made that name up and its queer.

I also dont understand why u.s. football is called football when its 90% run and catch.

Cheers chrisdoi, interesting read.

Bondi too. the ausies another nation of athletes who im sure if they took football seriously could be a major force.

To be honest I've been watching the NFL for years and its more of a tactical sport than anything else. However what Bondi said is true and when i lived in Sydney football was called 'Wogball'. Even their league (the set-up has changed now) you used to have the Croatian supported team against a Greek supported team and so on and tensions were high at times

True, in the old NSL (National Soccer League) days most of the teams were based around ethnic lines. I seem to remember a huge incident when a player of Serbian origin gave a three fingered war salute to Melbourne Knights (Formerly Melbourne Croatia) fans. Funnily enough it still regularly seems to kick off at the tennis in Melbourne if a Croat player comes up against a Serb. Can't imagine that at Wimbledon!

In terms of the national team and what Polo said, I honestly think Australia's 'once in a generation' team was the one they had at Germany in 2006. Kewell, Cahill, Viduka, Bresciano all etc in their prime or thereabouts and Gus Hiddink as manager. Would have given anyone a decent game and pretty much robbed by Italy. The current side is no where near as good although there is a great young winger called Tommy Oar who I would love to see at City. Think he will be a good player soon and is currently at Utrecht.

I watched Sydney Olympic a few times who were the Greek team and Brett Emerton was captain at that time. Also watched Nothern Spirit a few times too[/quote]

Yeah, used to go and watch Northern Spirit at North Sydney Oval. Was a good laugh actually. Not sure if you remember but there used to be a singing section in one corner near the bar (mainly ex pat poms) and people used to chuck beer around when they scored. Robbie Slater came home to be captain and I also remember Ian Rush having a brief spell!

For a nation of supreme athletes their sports are utterly shit.

I put a bet on the nfl and watched about 40 mins of play take nearly 3 hours. zzzzzz.

Thankfully i won in the last few mins but if i didnt have a bet on that was so f*cking boring.

More stoppages than rugby.

Im surprised footballs never really taken off there as theres far more
technical skill involved than any of their sports.

Fair enough if you feel that way but have you ever taken part in any of their sports or gone to watch them live? Do you understand the rules for the NFL?

Some of our sports here are shit.

The make up of the national team used to be pretty much all of Croatian, Italian and Greek descent. Now I think football is the most popular junior sport.

One of the saving graces for our national team is that we have so many GIs impregnating German women while they are stationed in Germany with the military. Combine that with the naturalization of African, Mexican, and South American children and we can put together a decent team. During a recent international match, 4 players were German born to American fathers, 5 were naturalized citizens as children yet born in another country, and 12 were American born and bred...although many of those 12 were just making up the numbers. In the 90s, several of our players could barely even speak English.

My brother and I always joked that if we were good enough we would have chosen to play for Wales since we qualify. So ironically (playing the likes of Germany and Italy appealed to us more than Barbados and Nicaragua). In any case it seems that Wales, Australia, and the U.S. have a history of "questionably qualified" players.

I have always heard that at one time the egg is pushed on school children in Wales and that football is discouraged. Perhaps our three nations are more alike than we think...aside from the U.S. bombing the hell out of whoever we don't like.

It's really a matter of taste. I love the our sports over here. College sports are massive. The NCAA rules in my part of the country. College basketball and football are fabulous. I understand that baseball is lost in Europe but Americans love it. Polo is disagree with yoy100 percent but it's a matter of opinion this not worthy of an argument. Also I am 40 years old and while I have seen an increase in youth soccer, I have heard its growing all my life i have not seen results of that yet. I have seen a growing intrest in the EPL but the sport is still behind baseball, American football, hockey, and basketball.

I love American football its a fantastic sport, I love how a whole team has to work together to achieve the end result, if one player lets the team down the whole team fails. Football will be my number 1 love but American Football is fun to watch, I dont get Baseball but I dont have time to watch it so I wont pass judgement till I know whats going on.

Big follower of the NFL. Never used to follow a team till my brother moved to Milwaukee 10 years ago. Been following the Packers since.

I never thought I would like American Sports, but when my son started playing American Football I came to love it.
Think about it, there has to be some great qualities in a sport for millions of people to love it and get passionate about it.
That doesn't mean I don't still prefer Football, I'll be skipping work Tuesday lunchtime (my time zone) to watch us destroy Palace

I bet (and won! Total points over 34) on the broncos v steelers game last night and must admit it was much better to watch than the previous night.

Game seemed to move quicker and more offensive play. Even after my bet won at the
start of the last quarter i stayed up to watch OT as it was such a good game.

NFL may have itself a new fan.

Fecking knackered in work now though.