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Henry, with my little knowledge of soccer and my knowledge of American sports players here is my rebuttal

1. The tie - Americans don't accept a tie. Good, this will only make them more competitive at soccer.

2. The bad acting - this is something I've tried to explain to my spouse, and even my spouse coming from soccer country hates it. True, Americans will not milk a foul with bad acting. But since you watch basketball, the same applies, they'll draw the foul to get the same outcome. Only in a more respectable fashion. This is exactly what soccer needs right now a team with no acting to bring the referees down to earth.

3. Bad referees - well I don't know if bad, or biased or payed or all of the above. Spain/Korea 2002, Italy/Australia 2006, Italy/Chile 1998 - some teams will always be favored: Italy, Brazil, England and the home team.

4. The clock - yes they make up time, but at 45 minutes they have to state the length of time they will add. Usually they only go over a couple of seconds. Once I've seen them go on longer than the alloted extra time looking for the outcome. Money again.

5. Off Sides - doesn't hockey have an off sides? Doesn't American football have an off sides as well? While I agree that it is stupid, it's the rule in order to keep things fairer.

It's amazing that such an honor sport has been turned into such a show only for money.

My response to your response:

1. It's not about making American's more competitive at soccer. It's about outlining why the game is not palatable to the average American. And a tie is not acceptable outcome to a 2-hour sporting event.

2. I was trying to be polite, but soccer players are pussies. They roll around like they are going to die, just to get up a second later and run full speed.

3. The refs in the world cup are bad. Period.

4. Now they have that rule, but before it was ridiculous. Again they could solve that problem very easily. I'd like to see the clock stop when it's supposed to stop and start when it's supposed to start.

5. Offsides. Yes they have it in hockey and that's why hockey is the distant 4th major sport. Probably more people watch poker than hockey these days. Offsides in football is not the same. If football had an offsides rule like futbol then they's never score a touchdown because a receiver could never legally get beyond the defenders to catch a pass. Think about it.

"because a receiver could never legally get beyond the defenders to catch a pass" not in front, but that does not mean they can get very far away on the other side....

Anyway, yes they are pussies, but referees have allowed this. Referees in the world cup are bought - not bad. They are paid to bias in favor of the big teams to get them through.

As for the tie, I wasn't implying ties would remain; I was implying that an American team would be sure the game would not end in a tie.

The Pitbull speaketh: Soccer is a terminally boring sport, played either by effete Europeans or Third-Worlders... IN SHORTS, for cryin' out loud!!

In America we need pads and cups and we tackle and hit grand-slams and duck the basket! Jeez. I am so fucking bored with soccer...

Tangentially, I don't care what Bud Selig says: there are no ties in the Official Rules of Baseball, therefore the 2002 All-Star Game is still left to be finished.

FUCK BUD SELIG. No one person, Curt Flood included, has fucked Major League Baseball up more than him. You are right about the 2002 All-Star Game -- play ball!

Holy Crap - you hit the nail on the head(s) with this post. i was discussing this with my family after we watched the US team lose to Ghana. I said soccer will never be big in the US because the refs suck, are Anti-american, and/or have too much ability to make calls that can change the outcome of the game. It's almost intrinsically unfair. The whole family was aghast at the pussy like nature of the players taking dives and writhing in pain - because they were bumped.
After the game, my sister said she would never let her son play soccer because its boring and she had better things to do with her time than watch that crap from the sidelines.

George,

I'll preface this by saying that I'm a huge baseball fan. I think it's the greatest game ever invented.

There's a lot to dislike about Bud Selig. Particularly the way he hobnobbed with fidel about 10 years ago and the way took it up the ass for fidel this past spring. But to be fair, under his watch baseball has gotten a second wind. Attendance and viewership is higher than ever across the big leagues. The players union was finally put in check and had to make concessions. The game is better for it. I read a long piece in SI about him and it really got me to change my mind about him. Yes he's an owner but he is a baseball fan first and foremost. That's why I think he enjoys being commissioner more than owning a team. Being an owner was just the door to becoming commissioner. Again, I'd verbally assault the guy for all the Cuba bullshit but on the field baseball is healthier than when he took over. It's relevant again.

I will tell you that I am not a big soccer fan. Most of my experience with soccer has been watching my kids play it from the sidelines when they were younger. However, for some reason I have found myself watching more of it during the World Cup. I would like to see a higher scores. One sugestion would be to score based from where in the field the ball was kicked before going into the goal box, allowing for underdogs to actually win, which is something very American...to root for the underdog.

Soccer is a very beautiful sport,even though I love baseball the most,but living for years in
Europe,in Holland,which is a very well know of
fountain of good players and good benchcoaches as well and seeing every single match of this World Cup,I have to say that is shamefull how the
biassed referees are doing,it is a letal scourge,
against USA that was NOTORIOUS,against Holland as well,Yesterday the unwarranted penalty against
Australia was outrageous,I mean it is mandatory to revamp fIFA and the way they train and pick the
referees.On behalf of the yuma team I have to say
that in the game against Italy they played well,
with skills and Courage,but now they,as Holland and other countries have to wait to the classification matches for the next world cup in South Africa

Wasn't there some scandal several years ago about some Argentine goalie faking an injury? Maradona? Do I have that right? I was living in Chile at the time and as the Chileans love to hate the Argentines, it got a lot of play in Chile.

class factotum:
you might be thinking of chile.. in the qualifying for the 94 world cup, chile played brasil in maracana, in rio.. someone threw a flare that landed close to the chilean goalie.. he faked as if he was hit.. in the locker room, the chilean team cut the players face with razors and claimed the flare had done the damage.. the game was called and rio went into riot mode, thinking they had been banned from the copa.. the very next dau o globo, rio's newspaper printed frame by frame pictures showing the flare had not hit the player.. fifa banned the goalie for life, and chile was banned for a few years..

on soccer itself, i love the game, its my life, its my job, and i think its fine the way it is.. part of the probelm is americans (in general) want to change the game to suit their tastes.. thats why the mls is a joke of a league that no one takes seriously.. the game has done fine for years the way it is.. different strokes for different folks..

Thankfully Soccer does not need to take off in America. I am very American but when it comes to this sport I am forever glad that America has neither the interest nor the talent. we'll leave it at that.

Oscar

I'm not trying to Americanize anything. I'm just documenting my feelings on why Americans haven't adopted the "world's sport."

And let's face America adopting the sport would be great for the game. Don't kid yourselves. We have 300 million of the world's most affluent consumers. Everybody wants a piece of that pie, FIFA included.

Henry,
I think you hit the nail on the head, affluent consumers. The real reason Soccer will never take off in America. The game does not lend it self to TV commercials, so no Ad revenue. You can't very well expect the game to change to accommodate advertisers.
As for the # of affluent consumers, they estimate 40 billion viewers for the 2006 world cup. I don’t think FIFA is hurting for money.

Baseball has recently perfectly demonstrated why soccer does not need to have a higher score. I remember when I was a kid games used to be 3-1, 4-2. If scoring went into double digits, it was unbelievable, and homeruns were really exciting. now? homerun, ho-hum, another one. what, 13-9? only? scoring in baseball has become BORING because there's so fucking much of it!! it's like grade inflation... once everyone is getting A's, who gives a shit about grades at all?

this is why soccer is so much fun, because a goal MEANS something (and if you know anything about a sport, you know a 1-1 tie can be either extremely exciting or paralyzingly boring.) that's why you get all excited and jump around and scream. it's like all the scoring of a basketball game rolled into about 3 seconds. good times.

on the other hand, the faked fouls are unbelievably obnoxious, and it would be nice to see the game modernize a little and institute an american football-style replay option. the way it stands now, elaborate cheating is part of the game and certain teams *cough*ITALY*cough* would rather just keep it that way.

oh, and by the way, you think offsides is stupid? here's an analogy: imagine baseball without the rule that baserunners have to tag up to advance after a fly out. yeah, total absolute chaos.

Partly right, conductor, but while it's not absolute chaos, soccer without an offsides rule is a decidedly worse game to play. Soccer without offsides would become like NBA basketball, where the first 3 quarters never matter and the winner is whoever has the ball last.

Spot on on the refs, though; they're the reason dives work, and part of the reason that soccer is not appealing to America (we hate authority figures who can't pull their heads out). I've seen some improvement in this World Cup compared to the last one, but they've got a LONG way to go.

As the biggest Cuban-American soccer fan I'm aware of, I'd like to make a few points about Conductor's comments.

- Ties are no big deal. Sometimes after 90 minutes, both teams deserve some kind of positive result, especially in an evenly played game. Hockey was the same for a long time, even now they award the losing team in overtime 1 point.

- Bad acting IS a problem, and referees are supposed to enforce the rules and give out yellow or even red cards when appropriate. However, a lot of what you see out there when players are sprawled out on the field is just plain exhaustion.

- Speaking of referees, this World Cup has had WAY too many unnecessary cards given out.

- I have no problem with the official time kept by the referees. It adds that extra level of intrigue and suspense at the end of games that no other sport has. I can't help but cringe when I see college soccer games played with a clock that winds down to zero. Soccer should be played as the rest of the world plays it.

- The Offsides rule is absolutely necessary. Think of the mess you would have if you kept 5 players camped out in front of the opposing goal. Instead of 1-0 games, you would have 10-8 games with no skill involved whatsoever. Offsides exists in hockey for the exact same reason.

Overall, I think soccer is great the way it is. Americans are a "special" breed who will never totally embrace the sport. That's OK, but way too many sports commentators out there make stupid comments about a sport they know absolutely nothing about.

Oscar,

I think you underestimate the capitalist's ability to commercialize anything that is popular. There's pre-game commercials, half-time commercials and post game commercials. Their scarcity also drives up their value. But you can have creative ways to advertise in game. I remember as a kid watching the little animated character of the "Churros Barcel" on the screen. Not only that have you seen ABC's "side by side" coverage of motorsports? Like soccer, auto races don't stop so they split the screen and put the commercial on one side.

As far as offsides goes. YES they have it in hockey (not a good example since the sport is dying) but the rule is different. It's based on zones on the ice.

"In ice hockey, play is said to be offside if a player on the attacking team enters the attacking zone before the puck. When an offside violation occurs, the linesman blows play dead, and a faceoff is conducted in the neutral zone." http://www.answers.com/topic/offside-ice-hockey

In soccer you can be offside anywhere. It's a moving target. Maybe they should put a line on the field over which an offensive player without the ball would be offside. In essence creating an offensive zone as in Hockey. Once you are legally in the zone, there would be no offside. It would really remove a lot of the BAD offsides calls.

There isn't any sport were refereeing has been fair.

offsides not anywhere, not offsides if the player is on his own side of the field, can't type now, watching the game :)

Oscar,

you know what I mean. You can be offsides 22 meters away from the goal or 20 feet away from it. In Hockey once your in the offensive zone onside, then you're good.

The only times I get into soccer is 1) During the World Cup 2) When the U.S. plays an international match and 3) When Mexico loses. Let's face it--we enjoy other sports more in this country but think about how great it will be someday if the U.S. actually won the World Cup. Wouldn't that be one giant middle finger to the rest of the world?

I know what you mean Henry, I'm just giving you shit. Soccer is the only sport I pay attention to and it's very near and dear to my heart. I't my spanish roots. Arriba con la furia roja!!

how can you possibly compare soccer to hockey? they wear skates and play on ice, for christ's sake. it's a totally different game, with totally different dynamics, strategies, etc. might as well compare lacross to water polo, or cricket to baseball.

Well let's see. Both are transition games in which the object is to stike something into a goal being guarded by a goal keeper. Both sports are relatively non-existent in North America.

Everyone is playing for second place behind Brazil. I'd like to see somebody else win for a change, but after today's match against Ghana, it's their world and every other soccer nation is just living in it.

My father has always called soccer a "communist sport." :-)

"Why Soccer will never take off in America" . . .

My humble opinion is that this is all a matter of "marketing" ... I think it's very difficult to market or sell something you really don't believe in ... sports fans in the States who are already soccer fans have the advantage to either watch the matches via Univision or through the respective satellite channels from the countries broadcasting the matches ... thus all these commentators have the passion and euphoria for the sport ... something that trickles down to those watching the sport on these channels. However, those who happen to be "agnostic" about soccer and who do not speak anything other than English, have to rely on the monotone and very unenthusiastic broadcasting by ESPN ... resulting in failure to make "soccer converts" of their viewers, who are not already soccer fans. I can speak for my 14 yrs. old son, who does not speak English, but would rather follow the matches on Univision than watch them on ESPN.

I agree with Daniel's comment: "different strokes for different folks..." Some enjoy soccer, others enjoy football and other sports, but we should not "belittle" or "disrespect" the sport or its fans, just because we don't like it or appreciate it.

:) Melek
"Soccer is not about justice. It's a drama - and criminally wrong decisions against you are part and parcel of that."~P. Davies

I wasn't belittling anything. Just one man's observations. And I don't think the problem is with the coverage or the announcers. Dave O'Brien is a HELL of an announcer. He had never done soccer before but he's a pro broadcaster. My problem isn't with the packaging. It's the sport itself. Again, I'm a fan. But there is a huge disconnect between Americans whom I would rate as the biggest sports fans in the world and the biggest sport in the world.

If you look at the beefs I listed most everyone agrees that the fake injuries and the poor officiating take away from the game. If this is soccer at its highest level shouldn't the officiating be the best? But soccer refs have not only been bad in the past they've been corrupt. Why do you think that boxing is dying in America? People that watch sports want to see an honest match.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I echo Melek's point about US announcers, they are ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE.... I yelled about it here, particularly the way that the announcer blew it when calling the exciting US-Italy game.
http://bolicarreras.blogspot.com/2006/06/rant-world-cup-us-soccer-espnabc.html
The proper ways of calling a soccer game, are doing it like the Brits do, using their terms and language (instead of calling Penalty Kicks PK), and like Latin Americans do. American broadcasters try to "Americanize it" which is stupid.

As far as ties being boring, How many times have you been on the edge of your seat watching your team tied 7 to 7 going into the fourth quarter??

Or for that matter low scoring? A TD is 6, extra point is 1, 3 for a field goal. a 14-7 football game is 2-1. 7-0 is 1-0.

Football is hours and hours. Baseball can go on forever. Thank God for Beer and Wrigley field, I would never survive a Marlins double header. Golf hole after hole of low key???? NASCAR is a train of frame-tube pseudo-stock cars going around in circles for hours.

Many Americans do not "hate" soccer because it is boring, they watch plenty of other boring sports. These folks - outside of the immigrant communities and "soccer geeks" - simply have not been "acculturated" to soccer, have not grown up with the passion and flow of the game. And it does not help that US sportswriter culture, has almost made it an article of faith to hate on soccer. Your typical American male sportsfan, many of whom read the sport section first (and sometimes only) in their daily paper, absorb all this soccer-bashing, then see the game badly called on TV, isn't going to go for it.

Henry,

Sorry it took a while, but better late than never. Some points have already been made here in the great comments, wow I guess I am not the only Cuban-American Soccer fan.

1. Tie: As you see in the World Cup there are ties only in the first round, in the next round two 15 minute halfs are played and then if still tied penalty kicks, loser goes home. We watched the US/Italy game together and enjoyed it!

2. Bad Acting: easily managed by referees, once they start giving yellow cards for acting, like they are starting to give them out for diving in the penalty area this will stop.

3. Bad refs: You have that in every sport, some good and some horrible. We have them in flag football, we've lived that. This World Cup there have been more bad than good, I agree with you. At least you can blame the Americans, no US refs were picked to ref World Cup games this year.

4. The clock: has gotten much better since they announced the time to be played at the end of regulation, rarely do you see a referee extend the game way over.

5. Off-sides: here I disagree, I like the rule, it is there just like the 3-second rule is there in Basketball.

Plus technological advances will be implemented into the game, remember the NFL before instant replay, or tennis before computerized lines. The chip in the soccer ball is already being tested.

As far as it being big in the US, I think it eventually will for various reasons:

1) The most popular sport played by kids, eventually at least some of the kids will develop the love for the game.
2) The MLS has made great strides, next season will be the first time since its existence that the networks will pay it to air their games instead of the league paying the network.
3) The incredible growth of the Hispanic population in the US will definitely influence soccer's popularity in the US.

Robert you are the man, I never forgot Los Churritos Barcel from that World Cup!

Last thought, for the soccer lovers, check out GOL TV if you haven't seen it!

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