A poll for the World Cup of Soccer

[BeerCur]

Good post fredlc... I appreciate you thoughts as I do anybody else that has posted on the board so far... though, I might not show it sometimes (okay, always... lol)

Soccer is wildly popular in the world. There can be no doubt about that. What I've been saying is that there are many sport out there, and there's one that's probably more popular, in basketball.

Going back to the theme of the show (The Board) I do not like to watch soccer; although it is fun to play. It's a bit like hockey, which is also fun to play, but force me to watch a NHL game and I'm asleeep after about 2 minutes. It took me a couple years, in soccer, just to figure out what offside was... hehe.... But seriously teach thy own... What ever floats your boat.. What ever makes you go ding-dong. I'm just trying to make the board interesting.... lol

btw... about the name soccer.. what about Australian football... looks like American football more so than Soccer... should we rename it too?

~Matthew

 

[MrPresident]

"By the way, from end of december to end of february Soccer is out of season, both in Europe and in South America"

Not in England. In fact the Christmas season is usually the time when the leaders make a claim for the title. Although I accept that we are a special case playing so many games and all.

"force me to watch a NHL game and I'm asleeep after about 2 minutes."

I can't watch hockey games because I can never follow the puck (spelling?).

Ok I have decided that Americans can't be pursued to change the name of their sport from American Football to anything else. So I will accept that they have to call football 'soccer'. However I ask one thing and one thing only. Please refer to the World Cup not as the Soccer World Cup but as the World Cup (or even the football World Cup).

 

[FredLC]

Originally posted by MrPresident
"By the way, from end of december to end of february Soccer is out of season, both in Europe and in South America"

I've seen seasons that reach the other year in Brazil, but when something unexpected happens that forces an extention.

I always imagined that England league also begun in one year and were finished in the other. Perhaps i was wrong at that.

When is the season off there?

 

[Dell19]

Football in England usually stops in June and starts agin in late August however this season in ended in May because of the World cup. Russia and Japan and a few others play during the summer instead however I think they have a mid season break in Japan.

Generally over Christmas there are more games than usuall...I think he did state the correct answer, its just the person who he quoted was talking about something slightly different.

 

[Flatlander Fox]

Fredlc:

The Smiley was placed after my statement to somewhat note the lighthearted comment. I personally like football better than soccer, and was stating so in a "light" way...

Unfortunately, their is no World Cup of Basketball... But if there was, a team of Shaq, Kobe, Iverson, Duncan and Kevin Garnett would be fielded by the U.S. (If it were so important to the country, these guys would play for us.)

Nobody else in the world could stand up to that team... Early '90s though, the FRY team would have been VERY tough to beat, providing you could get them to stop killing each other...

I don't question the popularity of Soccer at all...

I just call it a different name.

I will edit the poll at the top in the interest of world peace...

 

[Sodak]

fredlc, to call futbol a graceful, non-violent sport belies that you don't watch the english league!

Thank you for the point about ease of play. As fredlc mentioned, many around the world play soccer instead of another sport simply because they can. He played with balled up socks. My youth coach, who was from Botswana, played with a tennis ball - the only ball they had in their village. All you need is a round object and an open space. On weeknights, I play at an open field. We have a real ball, but shirts suffice for goalposts. Some Mexican laborers join us in their blue jeans and cowboy boots before going home. Good fun!

I've read that long ago, people would play something resembling futbol with a severed head. Whatever is at hand...

 

[FredLC]

Originally posted by Sodak
fredlc, to call futbol a graceful, non-violent sport belies that you don't watch the english league!

Indeed, I don't see the english league that much. The European soccer i DO like is the spanish, probably the best league in the world.

There are a lot of players that play it hard. It's actually the ugly part of this sports reality. Even in our national team there are some of this quality, such as Roque Júnior and Lúcio.

However, my point was that this sort of rough play is actually against the rules. To use violence against the other team constitutes a foul, no matter how you do it. If the judge is honesty and is paying attention, you'll be penalized.

Football, on the other hand, will admit use of violence. Nothing against it, there are sports in wich violence is a unescaple part, such as box (or any kind of fight for that matter).

I never actually read a book on Football's rules, so correct me if mistaken, but you can legaly grab your adversarie if it's above the waistline, right?

Institucionalized violence in the sport.

Soccer don't admit it in the rules. Not all players, however, obey the rules. That's what i was trying to say.

It's not about violence same way that politics is not about stealing people's money. Oh, yeah, all politics are honest so this example don't work.

regard .

 

[el_kalkylus]

Good last example.

Yes, the players test the limits all the time. Humans test the limits all the time, anything to win.

 

[PieceMaker]

Originally posted by MrPresident
However I ask one thing and one thing only. Please refer to the World Cup not as the Soccer World Cup but as the World Cup (or even the football World Cup).

I agree. It is really unnecessary to refer to it as anything other than the World Cup. This is similar to how Major League Baseball refers to their final championship series as the World Series (and, please everybody, I am not interested in starting a debate in this thread about the appropriateness of that name for a championship series of a league located only in North America ).

Calling it the World Cup is all that is necessary to properly identify the greatest sporting event on the planet!

 

[konigstiger]

Originally posted by BeerCur
Basketball is the sport that the world loves more than any...

~Matthew

GET REAL!!!!

Might as well say that badminton is the sport that the world loves more than any just because most chinese women and men know how to play it. Btw, basketball is not dominating in China, soccer even have a slight edge on that. So we can count China out.

 

[PieceMaker]

Might as well say that badminton is the sport that the world loves more than any just because most chinese women and men know how to play it.

Or Ping Pong! Surely this is the world's most popular sport!!

 

[MrPresident]

Or Ping Pong! Surely this is the world's most popular sport!!

If you are going on numbers then surely cricket is more popular than any American sport.

I am not interested in starting a debate in this thread about the appropriateness of that name for a championship series of a league located only in North America

Actually is was called the World Series even when the only teams involved came from the East Coast of America. Lets just put it down to being slightly over ambitious.

To use violence against the other team constitutes a foul, no matter how you do it.

Depends what you consider violence. A shoulder to shoulder challenge is legal, at least in England. Also you often here someone in crowd shout 'get stuck in' which basically means put in a few hard tackles. Football is a contact sport so some degree of violence has to be allowed.

shirts suffice for goalposts

Jumpers for goalposts.

Football in England usually stops in June

It usually ends in May. Third Saturday in May is when the FA cup is held (the best footballing competition in the world by the way). However this year the Premiership unusually held a week after the FA cup so it was held on the third Sunday.

 

[FredLC]

Originally posted by MrPresident
Depends what you consider violence. A shoulder to shoulder challenge is legal, at least in England. Also you often here someone in crowd shout 'get stuck in' which basically means put in a few hard tackles. Football is a contact sport so some degree of violence has to be allowed.

Ok, ok, it's a point.

2 things:

1th:

You cannot coun't seriously the requests of the crowd. They'll get excited and scream most anything.

2th:

Keep things in perspective. Shoulder to shoulder contact is one thing. To have a guy in an armor running specifically to knock you down is another quite diferent.

 

[Hitro]

Originally posted by fredlc
There are a lot of players that play it hard. It's actually the ugly part of this sports reality. Even in our national team there are some of this quality, such as Roque Júnior and Lúcio.

However, my point was that this sort of rough play is actually against the rules. To use violence against the other team constitutes a foul, no matter how you do it. If the judge is honesty and is paying attention, you'll be penalized.

I have to support the guy from that Island near France here.
That may be true for Brazil, but in certain regions of Europe that is completely different. It's not only okay but also enjoyed (by the fans) when someone tackles in a way that hits first the ball and then the opponent. That's not a foul usually. And it's far more 'violent' than running into each other in an armored suit .
Brazil traditionally played football focused on technical play. But Germany and England for example have always very much set on physical play. There's no portugese word for "Blutgrätsche" for a reason.

 

[basta72]

About 750 million people live in Europe so to whoever said that Europe´s population compared to the worlds are less then 5% is wrong. Unless, ofcourse, there are 15 billion people living on this planet, but I doubt it


Edit1: "...whoever said that..." = BeerCur
Edit2: Some spelling...

 

[FredLC]

I have to support the guy from that Island near France here.
That may be true for Brazil, but in certain regions of Europe that is completely different. It's not only okay but also enjoyed (by the fans) when someone tackles in a way that hits first the ball and then the opponent. That's not a foul usually. And it's far more 'violent' than running into each other in an armored suit .
Brazil traditionally played football focused on technical play. But Germany and England for example have always very much set on physical play. There's no portugese word for "Blutgrätsche" for a reason.

Sure, we here have the tradition of the technical play. It does not mean that we don't have brutes in the game too. In fact, we resent that their space in our national team have grown way too much in the last years, taking the place of more technical players.

I agree that Germany and England have a tradition of a far more physical play than us, and that's somewhat violent. And i won't argue with you that interpretation on "what's violent and what isn't" plays a huge role in whether the referee will book those as a foul or not.

However...

The players that excel in both this countries, through history, have been the ones that escapes from the stereotype and play a good, skilled game, such as, for example, Franz Beckenbauer for Germany and David Beckham for England. The skill is the star, even among the strength.

Also, and it's a fact, not a opinion, FIFA is against hard plays that endangers the physical constitution of the players. More and more they demand yellow and red cards in the event of exaggerated roughness and aggressive tackles, specially those criminal sliding ones from behind. So, we go back to the point of following the rules or not, and we add traditions in nation gameplay and connivance of the referees to the equation.

Finally, as you said, in Soccer it's a matter of how the referee will interpret the rule. In Football, there's no room for interpretation. It's legal, end of the story.

 

[BeerCur]

About 750 million people live in Europe so to whoever said that Europe´s population compared to the worlds are less then 5% is wrong. Unless, of course, there are 15 billion people living on this planet, but I doubt it

Being ignorrant I only consider Western Europe to be actually Europe -3% of the
world population as per
http://www.prb.org/
And as for England, if given the choice to join NAFTA or the EC they probably would choose NAFTA if only because they could call their horrible Cadberry's milk-chocolate, chocolate, and keep their money with a ugly picture of the witch or something of other. Besides which I only have five extremities on my right hand so anything past five percent is inconceivable.

Might as well say that badminton is the sport that the world loves more than any just because most chinese women and men know how to play it. Btw, basketball is not dominating in China, soccer even have a slight edge on that. So we can count China out.

Or Ping Pong! Surely this is the world's most popular sport!!

I hope you are not speaking ill of the great sport Ping-Pong... Or else I'll have to come over there and paddle your ass like your mum used to do. (Hey seriously, if you guys know what the hell is going on in China please let our CIA know!!! We're kinda clueless about them.)

If you are going on numbers then surely cricket is more popular than any American sport.

Hey cricket is a damn good sport... Allows for much drinking... In order to pass the time until it's over... LOL

~Matthew

 

[basta72]

to BeerCur...

Yes, you are ignorant.

That site divides Europe into north, south, east and west. The UK for example doesn´t count to western Europe according to their way of counting. You should pay more attention to the figures.

And calling the queen of england a witch is probably offensive to some people.

http://www.prb.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Other_reports/2000-2002/sheet1.html

This is out of topic, so this will be my last post

 

[Dell19]

It may have escaped your notice but the United Kingdom is part of the EU and would be very unlikely to join NAFTA. We just have not changed our currency yet...

 

[MrPresident]

And as for England, if given the choice to join NAFTA

Not to go off-topic but the UK (England doesn't do anything on its own - perhaps winning the world cup but thats about it) would never join NAFTA. If only because it is called the North American Free Trade Area and the UK is clearly not in North America. Anyway, the UK is happy in the EU since it is far and away our biggest trading partner. And as for the single currency I think we will join within 10 years. The numbers in favour of joining are rising every year (I think about 40% at the moment).

And calling the queen of england a witch is probably offensive to some people.

Damn straight. Luckily I'm not one of those people.

Being ignorrant I only consider Western Europe to be actually Europe

You are ignorant because in 2004 10 Eastern European countries are joining the EU.

About 750 million people live in Europe

Which Europe is this? I thought the population of Europe was more like 320 million people.