Last night I visited Racer X advertising guy Jason Berry at his house to watch some big soccer match. He's English so he's allowed to care. I watched a game with him last week and it of course ended 0-0 (or nill-nill) so in the rematch last night, Manchester United beat Barcelona 1-0 in a comparatively high-scoring affair. Anyway, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it was kind of fun to watch. Just about every player had a hair style that could be made fun of (Man U was known as "the feux hawks." Barcelona started as "55 year old rocker hair" and was later narrowed down simply to "Robert Plant.")
Anyway 1-O seems boring but it was pretty tense in the final minutes when Barcelona was trying to score to stay alive, and couldn't. I thought it was good. Then a few hours later I was watching SportsCenter and they actually showed highlights. Apparently this match was a big deal. So what did they show? The one made goal, and two other misses. I then realized one of the main problems with soccer. You're not going to make it look cool in a highlight package against dunks, homeruns and touchdowns. People watching on SportsCenter probably thought "well those are just some of the highlights." Nope. Those were ALL the highlights. One made goal and two misses. That's all that happened in the entire game.
So I once again realize why soccer will never become popular here. And when I say never, I mean never, ever, just in case something else Beckham-like happens and people start predicting it will be big again. IT WON'T.
Wednesday, April 30
Catch All of the Action
Posted by Jason Weigandt at 3:17 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
11 Comments:
I always think they're showing soccer highlights to push some upcoming soccer event they're covering. But, as you say, it's hard to come up with highlights that would make an American want to watch.
Any sport where your hands can't be used and very little scoring....just too frustrating for us.
Dad
Amen.
And thank God.
Soccer is like wine or coffee.......its an acquired taste. If you know what your watching, its simular to a 20 lap main. There is action all over the place, if the ball is going down the right side of the field there is always alot of action "off the ball" like punching, kicking, pushing, trash talking. You need to watch while scanning the field just like a Supercross main. Like Supercross, Soccer on TV doesnt show all of the action. Yes I played in College.
The biggest reason why people don't get soccer in the U.S. right now is that its a game that requires an attention span. There is 2 teams and a goal. No music in between innings, no bright lights, no loud noises. The fans in Europe sings songs at the games,we need people to play music for us. There is true passion, not fake passion. We have yankee fans living in san diego, ca that were born in arizona. what?? you would never see that in Europe to the extent it is here. By the way, in 10 years, soccer will be very popular. All the kids today are growing up on it, and when they mature they will want to see more of it.
Weege, your blog is my lifesaver!!! i love it!
matt
Soccer sucks. Most of the world digs it so much because they have a major emotional investment in their favorite team, soccer has been around since balls were invented, and it's a tradition for them.
But I don't care how non-stop the "action" is, how physically fit the players are, or how skilled the attempts at goals are. When a 3 hour soccer match ends zip-zip, that's a boring f&%*ing sport right there.
The inclusion of a tiger would make futbol much more appealing.
I may catch some shit but oh well..
The reason FOOTBALL will not catch on here is very simple. 99.9% of Americans have the attention spell of a 1 year old hopped up on Soda & Candy.If there isn't something totally over the top going on every 60 seconds you all get bored.
We don't want football to make it big here it'd just be something else we gave you that you'd f**k - up much like the language.
Maybe soccer isn't so bad. I posted about a soccer match and received 7 comments here on the blog, but my post before the Vegas SX produced zero comments. So somebody cares!
Maybe they should introduce a soccer ball during sx races.... and lions.
i used to find soccer boring but have recently turned the corner. I think it is important to have some sort of "emotional investment" in a team since it makes the game a lot easier to learn while sustaining your interest. but the reason i love soccer is b/c the act of scoring a goal requires so many variables to go right. there are few other sports were a lower division minor league team (barnsley) face a soccer giant (liverpool), get lucky and win.
Anyway, the real deal for the real men in Europe is called Rugby. Just ask your english mate. And it's once again a sport you Americans will never understand.
Post a Comment