Why Most Americans Consider Soccer Girly

[Fifty]

1. Diving and prancing around pretending to be hurt are widely done at the professional level.
2. Many world class soccer players seem like pretty boys (the quintessential example of this being David Beckam)
3. The fights tend to be really really really girly.

Am I wrong? Could someone clear up these misconceptions for me? I'm not trying to troll soccer lovers, I'm genuinely interested because so many crazy rioter types like it, I have a hard time accepting that its really as girly as it seems, and so I must be mistaken.

Discuss.


*note: The mere fact that hard hits (eg slidetackles) occasionally occur does not make it non-girly. Even figure skaters crash hard sometimes, and I'm sure it hurts like heck.

[illram]

Who says it's girly?

[Son_Of_Dido]

It's a "girly" sport because we aren't good at it.

Duh.

The only sports we care about or respect are the ones we invented or the ones we dominate.

Our National Team hasn't won a world cup (and we know it never will) and our professional league is at least one grade below the elite international pro leagues. Therefore we can't be the best at it. Therefore we don't care about it, or respect it, and we reject it as unimportant, because after all we're The Greatest Country In The World (tm) and if it mattered, we'd be good at it. We're bad at it so therefore it must not matter.

[holy king]

Originally Posted by Fifty

3. The fights tend to be really really really girly.

this is great!

allready a classic:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zAjWi663kXc

some better fighting and cruel fouls:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YerDjw3Lo8A&feature=related

valencia - inter brawl
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DbOyDBsDkQw

great turkey - switzerland brawl (switzerland is through despite the score from this match)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EnOuIg-15Xw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ET04PfQ4xug

[BCLG100]

Originally Posted by Son_Of_Dido

Our National Team hasn't won a world cup (and we know it never will) and our professional league is at least one grade below the elite international pro leagues. Therefore we can't be the best at it. Therefore we don't care about it, or respect it, and we reject it as unimportant, because after all we're The Greatest Country In The World (tm) and if it mattered, we'd be good at it. We're bad at it so therefore it must not matter.

Well i would say the second tier of professional leagues would be say the Scottish or Dutch leagues, they all have reasonable players in so i would say the US league is far below one grade.

Sure its not as impact heavy as NFL but at least they keep moving for 45 minutes rather than a stop every twenty seconds. That and how is it anymore girly than NBA?

I wouldn't say this is very girly-

[Son_Of_Dido]

Also, there's not enough of this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1JnGXKQbVlI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bTq6aApCBnA

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Fifty

3. The fights tend to be really really really girly.

Worst argument ever. Fights, girly or not, have no place on a football field (nor on any other sports field for that matter)...

[downtown]

Honestly, you could say similar things about the NBA (at least the first two), and I LOVE the NBA

[willemvanoranje]

If football is a girly sport, what is baseball then? No physical contact! :S And what is funny about waiting five minutes for a thirty second play in American football? Just play rugby! Much more fun (and less girly)!

[azzaman333]

Australian Soccer doesn't generally have the diving. We hurt people who do that.

[warpus]

Fifty, people who say that Socer is girly say so because they have nothing better to do with their time.

Seriously.. it's not some sort of a well-thought out argument. It's just a flame. Who have you heard say that soccer (or any sport!) is girly, outside of internet forums and high-school cafeterias?

Popular things tend to be belittled.. and soccer happens to be the most popular sport on the planet.. So of course you can expect a couple brain-less morons to make the argument that the sport is "girly". You'd hear the exact same thing about any other sport, if it was the most popular.

The fact that a non-American sport is the most popular and widely played in the world only helps to fuel the lame flames. Americans only want American things to be #1.

And it's not like this is some sort of prevailing attitude in North American society. I just came back from a sold out 21,000 strong soccer game in Toronto.. Everyone was on their feet the entire game, waving flags, chanting, singing.. It was one of the most passionate displays I've seen in years.

Yeah, you'll run across people who belittle the sport with pathetic insults that don't really make sense.. but you'll also easily find people who think the Earth was created 6,000 years ago.

There are idiots out there.

[Dubai Vol]

You can argue that soccer isn't girlie, and I won't bother to argue, because soccer is BORING. Call it football and I won't argue, I'll just tell you that what you call football is BORING.

I have played soccer/football, and it's a great game to play, but you could not PAY me to watch a game. i'd rather watch cricket, and if that doesn't tll you how boring soccer/footy is, then you have no pulse.

Just as an example: Mrs Dubai is English, and an avowed hater of sport. (Yes, the English say "sport." They save up the "s" to put on the end of "math.") SO on our first visit to Tennessee, of course I took her to a proper football game, in beautiful Neyland stadium with 100,00 of my closest friends. We started off by tailgating with a group that I only knew via the internet, people Mrs Dubai had repeatedly told me were "not real." Real they are, and treated us as long-lost friends they had never laid eyes on. Next was the attitiude of rival fans, and the way they were treated by us Vols (Hmm, Tennessee Volunteers, Dubai Vol, a connection?) Where Mrs Dubai would have expected hooligans and fistfights, she found friendly cameraderie and "welcome to Knoxville!"

A brief chalk talk, drawing Xes and Os, and a running commentary during the game, and mrs Dubai caught on magnificently. (She's dead clever, is Mrs Dubai.) After her second game, she demanded a Vols shirt of her very own.

Warning: pic of ugly old people!














So there you have it, proof that soccer is shiite, and American football is the only game worthy of the name "football." If you don't agree, you are just not smart enough to understand American football, and deserve to keep watching "footy." That is all.

[warpus]

Originally Posted by Dubai Vol

I have played soccer/football, and it's a great game to play, but you could not PAY me to watch a game. i'd rather watch cricket, and if that doesn't tll you how boring soccer/footy is, then you have no pulse.

Hey man, different strokes for different folks.

If your idea of excitement in a sport is the American-style WHAM-BAM-Thank-you-ma'am type of thing, then of course you're going to find soccer boring. That's not what the sport is about at all, though. It's not inherently boring. It's boring to you, because you expect something else out of a sport entirely, and thus soccer does not appeal to you.

I find American football and baseball boooring beyond belief. I can't stand all the breaks... I need my sport to flow! which soccer does. Am I going to claim that these North American sports are inherently boring? Nah, not really. I even know people who find baseball exciting! Heck, I used to be into baseball myself, when I first discovered it and found it interesting just because it was so.. different.

SO yeah, just becuase you find something boring doesn't mean that it actually is.. And hey, most of the planet would disagree with your assessment of the beautiful game, so there ya go.

[BCLG100]

I would certainly not say footy us boring, im already excited/nervous about the game tonight. I'd agree that American football is fairly boring, perhaps if you were at the stadium and didn't have to watch commercial breaks every two seconds it might be better.

[warpus]

Hey, not too many sports are boring if you're there in person, sitting in the stands, enjoying the game..

Except maybe baseball.. I've only been once, at the SkyDome, and it bored me to death.

[Verbose]

Originally Posted by Fifty

1. Diving and prancing around pretending to be hurt are widely done at the professional level.

Because professional defenders are experts at kicking, shoving and pulling offensive players juuust enough to get them of balance and ruin whatever creative thing they were attempting. So they try to get some back by emphasising.

Originally Posted by Fifty

2. Many world class soccer players seem like pretty boys (the quintessential example of this being David Beckam)

Well, English football has come a long way since Euro92, when Stuart "Psycho" Pearce was still the quintesentiall English footballer, starting the pre-game prepping by playing Sex Pistols at ear popping volume in the locker room.

As for Beck's über-fame I think a lot of credit for packaging the product goes to Posh, the little Mrs. He's one hell of an overrated footballer imho.

Originally Posted by Fifty

3. The fights tend to be really really really girly.

Not at all.

Thing is, you won't see the real fights. These tend to occur off-camera, when the referee's back is turned. To be a world class offensive footballer you have to be able to break away from your defender. If you find yourself unable to do that by allowed means, at some point you just belt him good and proper. Quick but painful jabs with knees and elbows are favourites. That will make him keep his distance.

I have an especially vivid image on my mind of a Sweden-England game, where an incident was caught on camera. That "Perfect Gentleman" footballer by all conventional accounts, Alan Shearer, was holding the ball. He looks up and glances sideways at the Swedish defender Joakim Andersson approaching. Then he looks down at the ball again, moves forward, and without looking up just when Andersson comes into range, as he takes a stride forwards with the ball Shearer's elbow shoots out and very precisely hits the Swede in the throat, and down he goes.

That's a classic use of violence in football. It can be criticised for not being spectacular enough I guess, but regarding consistency and efficiency of use, it's rather American sports which are mostly show.

[warpus]

Besides, fighting does not belong in football.

You start a fight - you're banned for weeks.. if not months. Heck, starting a fight could earn you a ban for life.

So I'm not really sure why Fifty is bringing up fights - which don't really happen in Football.. and how is it relevant to the sport anyway?

[scy12]

because they are out of their minds. A. Now seriously football is one of the few sports that combine strategy , flair of movements , raw athleticism and teamwork at such complex levels. The relatively big pitch of football stadiums elevate these elements. If a whole culture doesn't find football the best sport in earth and call it soccer then something very very odd is happening.

[warpus]

Originally Posted by scy12

because they are out of their minds. A. Now seriously football is one of the few sports that combine strategy , flair of movements , raw athleticism at such complex levels. The relatively big pitch of football stadiums elevate this elements. If a whole culture doesn't find football the best sport in earth and call it soccer then something very very odd is happening.

I don't think it's odd. Americans prefer to be entertained by more to-the-point performances.

In most north american sports plays are one-dimensional: a play is performed, a decisive outcome is achieved, and everyone can gather what has happened by examining the provided stats. 2 touchdowns! 1 strike 2 balls. bases loaded. It's all so simple and to the point.

Soccer though, is a very free-flowing game. There are plays going on all the time, but they are interleaved and do not result in a specific 5 gnarls or 6 frongs. The game goes on and on, without pause, and you sort of need a long attention span to appreciate it all; Americans prefer sports that do not require this level of attention. They enjoy seeing a play being set up - executed - and finished. On to the next play!

Soccer just does not work that way, which is why a lot of Americans do not get it. They view the GOAL as the culmination of a play.. and then determine that since there's 2-3 goals a game on average, that not much happens in a game.. ahhhh but sooo much does happen.. you just have to know what to look for, and forget about BAM-SLAM-THANKYOUMA'AM type plays, which only happen during free and penalty kicks.

[illram]

Originally Posted by warpus

I don't think it's odd. Americans prefer to be entertained by more to-the-point performances.

In most north american sports plays are one-dimensional: a play is performed, a decisive outcome is achieved, and everyone can gather what has happened by examining the provided stats. 2 touchdowns! 1 strike 2 balls. bases loaded. It's all so simple and to the point.

Soccer though, is a very free-flowing game. There are plays going on all the time, but they are interleaved and do not result in a specific 5 gnarls or 6 frongs. The game goes on and on, without pause, and you sort of need a long attention span to appreciate it all; Americans prefer sports that do not require this level of attention. They enjoy seeing a play being set up - executed - and finished. On to the next play!

Soccer just does not work that way, which is why a lot of Americans do not get it. They view the GOAL as the culmination of a play.. and then determine that since there's 2-3 goals a game on average, that not much happens in a game.. ahhhh but sooo much does happen.. you just have to know what to look for, and forget about BAM-SLAM-THANKYOUMA'AM type plays, which only happen during free and penalty kicks.

Basketball? Hockey?

Unfortunately I don't see soccer (football, excuse me!) taking off until Americans get good at it, and by "good" I mean competitive on an international level. None of this sweetheart one in a million world cup shots and then losing in the semi-finals.

Don't know when that will happen, because athletes go off to play other sports when they are young in the US. Soccer is pretty low on the totem pole. I don't find it boring at all, but it just isn't compelling to watch an MLS team stumble around knowing that they'd get cleaned out by any decent professional European team.