Futbol/Soccer thoughts

hutch wrote:
well there's a few Americans who are too stupid to understand or enjoy soccer and that is fine…nothing wrong with that…

LOL always that last debate when there is nothing of merit to say.  No matter how you slice it, the game is one that has a substantial amount of down/idle/slow/nothing time.  There are flashes here and there of excitement but you have to sit through over an hour of watching a ball being kicked back and forth to finally see some real action.  It has nothing to do with the level of intelligence of anyone, it is just the nature of the game and to me, such games are boring.  I don't find it particularly enjoyable to watch a game that has well over 90% of the play merely running up and down the field and a typical shots on goal combined for both teams at ten or less (in a game that is a minimum of 90 minutes).  I have nothing against a low scoring game at all, in fact (for example) some of the best hockey games I have seen were 0-0 ties.  But don't make me sit though endless minutes of guys playing kickball to finally see someone get close to some real action and excitement.  As I said in an earlier post, some of the stuff those guys do does take some skill.  But simply the fact that a given action/event takes skill does not alone mean it would be enjoyable to watch.

RatBastard wrote:

hutch wrote:
well there's a few Americans who are too stupid to understand or enjoy soccer and that is fine…nothing wrong with that…

LOL always that last debate when there is nothing of merit to say.  No matter how you slice it, the game is one that has a substantial amount of down/idle/slow/nothing time.  There are flashes here and there of excitement but you have to sit through over an hour of watching a ball being kicked back and forth to finally see some real action.  It has nothing to do with the level of intelligence of anyone, it is just the nature of the game and to me, such games are boring.  I don't find it particularly enjoyable to watch a game that has well over 90% of the play merely running up and down the field and a typical shots on goal combined for both teams at ten or less (in a game that is a minimum of 90 minutes).  I have nothing against a low scoring game at all, in fact (for example) some of the best hockey games I have seen were 0-0 ties.  But don't make me sit though endless minutes of guys playing kickball to finally see someone get close to some real action and excitement.  As I said in an earlier post, some of the stuff those guys do does take some skill.  But simply the fact that a given action/event takes skill does not alone mean it would be enjoyable to watch.

substantial downtime?

They play non stop with a 15 minute break..

If you want downtime watch "American Football" where a game with 1 hour of action takes four hours to play!

RatBastard wrote:
But don't make me sit though endless minutes of guys playing kickball to finally see someone get close to some real action and excitement.

No one is making you do anything and it really is okay to just say you don't get it and move along.  I have done the same with Nascar.  Your ignorant rants are quite amusing though so feel free to carry on.

hutch wrote:
If you want downtime watch "American Football" where a game with 1 hour of action takes four hours to play!

The average NFL game contains 11 minutes of action

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html

i like soccer, but there is no denying it is a slow-paced game.  faster than american football, slower than hockey.

and of course argentinian soccer is the slowest.  fucking diving divas.

Re slow soccer, how about MLS?, last night I saw DC United's game, the whole league's pace is awful, what a waste of time…they really should try to increase their talent level, because after seeing the Barca-Madrid games last Wed, it was a reminder of how good leagues are elsewhere (and the Argentinean one is really good, BTW)

sweetcell wrote:
i like soccer, but there is no denying it is a slow-paced game.  faster than american football, slower than hockey.

and of course argentinian soccer is the slowest.  fucking diving divas.

I'm not taking the bait about the Argentine league!

;D


But to say soccer is slow.. if you measured how much each player runs you would not believe it.. or how many passes there are per minute.. its arguably TOO FAST as the physical development of players makes the game so fast that its hard for anyone to actually break through..

lagas wrote:
Re slow soccer, how about MLS?, last night I saw DC United's game, the whole league's pace is awful, what a waste of time…they really should try to increase their talent level, because after seeing the Barca-Madrid games last Wed, it was a reminder of how good leagues are elsewhere (and the Argentinean one is really good, BTW)

A couple of years ago I realized I could no longer justify watching MLS.. why would one want to do that with all the great soccer thats out there? You have to be a masochist

Sad thing is that in the late 90s DC United was not half bad to watch

hutch wrote:
I'm not taking the bait about the Argentine league!

;D

lol.  good on ya :)

hutch wrote:
But to say soccer is slow.. if you measured how much each player runs you would not believe it.. or how many passes there are per minute.. its arguably TOO FAST as the physical development of players makes the game so fast that its hard for anyone to actually break through..

the problem here is that you're looking at the end-of-game, 90-minute stats: X total number of passes, Y total miles/kilometers run, etc.  i'm taking about what is happening on the field at any given moment.  dribble up the middle, pass forward, broken up, cleared back to defense, defense kicks back to goalie, goalie pokes around with the ball, eventually kicks it, opposing midfielders cut off the long pass and clear it back to other teams' defense, which kicks it around trying to get something going, but nothing is so they kick it further back to the goalie again… repeat.

soccer has very high peaks, but there are also valleys.  luckily not as bad as baseball of NFL ;D

hutch wrote:

RatBastard wrote:

hutch wrote:
well there's a few Americans who are too stupid to understand or enjoy soccer and that is fine…nothing wrong with that…

LOL always that last debate when there is nothing of merit to say.  No matter how you slice it, the game is one that has a substantial amount of down/idle/slow/nothing time.  There are flashes here and there of excitement but you have to sit through over an hour of watching a ball being kicked back and forth to finally see some real action.  It has nothing to do with the level of intelligence of anyone, it is just the nature of the game and to me, such games are boring.  I don't find it particularly enjoyable to watch a game that has well over 90% of the play merely running up and down the field and a typical shots on goal combined for both teams at ten or less (in a game that is a minimum of 90 minutes).  I have nothing against a low scoring game at all, in fact (for example) some of the best hockey games I have seen were 0-0 ties.  But don't make me sit though endless minutes of guys playing kickball to finally see someone get close to some real action and excitement.  As I said in an earlier post, some of the stuff those guys do does take some skill.  But simply the fact that a given action/event takes skill does not alone mean it would be enjoyable to watch.

substantial downtime?

They play non stop with a 15 minute break..

If you want downtime watch "American Football" where a game with 1 hour of action takes four hours to play!

They move the ball nonstop.  Downtime as in nothing worth watching going on.  Downtime as in the ball being kicked down the field one direction then back up the field the other.  Nothing of substance going on at all 90% of a kickball game.  Just because the ball is moving does not mean there is any real action going on.  Kickball you watch a 90 minute game to see maybe 5 minus of real action.  I am not a huge football fan but the ration of action to time played is higher there than in soccer.  Again, just because the pay is ongoing does not mean there is any action happening.

hutch wrote:

sweetcell wrote:
i like soccer, but there is no denying it is a slow-paced game.  faster than american football, slower than hockey.

and of course argentinian soccer is the slowest.  fucking diving divas.

I'm not taking the bait about the Argentine league!

;D


But to say soccer is slow.. if you measured how much each player runs you would not believe it.. or how many passes there are per minute.. its arguably TOO FAST as the physical development of players makes the game so fast that its hard for anyone to actually break through..

You are mixing the meaning of slow.  Yes the game is continually played.  I have not said it isn't.  Just that a huge majority of the time there is no real action going on.  You sit thorough some mildly entertaining ball movement for well over 90% of a soccer game to see a flash or two of real action.  Those guys do have to be in shape to play the game and some of what they do takes skill, but a player running up and down the field however much does not mean action to me.  You boil it down and you get the fact that guys run and kick a round ball.  Not exactly exciting.

RatBastard wrote:

hutch wrote:

sweetcell wrote:
i like soccer, but there is no denying it is a slow-paced game.  faster than american football, slower than hockey.

and of course argentinian soccer is the slowest.  fucking diving divas.

I'm not taking the bait about the Argentine league!

;D


But to say soccer is slow.. if you measured how much each player runs you would not believe it.. or how many passes there are per minute.. its arguably TOO FAST as the physical development of players makes the game so fast that its hard for anyone to actually break through..

You are mixing the meaning of slow.  Yes the game is continually played.  I have not said it isn't.  Just that a huge majority of the time there is no real action going on.  You sit thorough some mildly entertaining ball movement for well over 90% of a soccer game to see a flash or two of real action.  Those guys do have to be in shape to play the game and some of what they do takes skill, but a player running up and down the field however much does not mean action to me. "  You boil it down and you get the fact that guys run and kick a round ball.  Not exactly exciting.

no "real action"??

but that is a purely subjecive determination… obviously  billions of people around the world disagree!

hutch wrote:

RatBastard wrote:

hutch wrote:

sweetcell wrote:
i like soccer, but there is no denying it is a slow-paced game.  faster than american football, slower than hockey.

and of course argentinian soccer is the slowest.  fucking diving divas.

I'm not taking the bait about the Argentine league!

;D


But to say soccer is slow.. if you measured how much each player runs you would not believe it.. or how many passes there are per minute.. its arguably TOO FAST as the physical development of players makes the game so fast that its hard for anyone to actually break through..

You are mixing the meaning of slow.  Yes the game is continually played.  I have not said it isn't.  Just that a huge majority of the time there is no real action going on.  You sit thorough some mildly entertaining ball movement for well over 90% of a soccer game to see a flash or two of real action.  Those guys do have to be in shape to play the game and some of what they do takes skill, but a player running up and down the field however much does not mean action to me. "  You boil it down and you get the fact that guys run and kick a round ball.  Not exactly exciting.

no "real action"??

but that is a purely subjecive determination… obviously  billions of people around the world disagree!

Some people think watching a ball kicked endlessly from one end of a big field to the other is action packed.  I don't.

Rat,
If you don't like watching a ball being kicked obviously soccer is not the game for you!

Soccer can be hit or miss with people. I love the sport to death, but there can be boring matches. However, that's the silver lining in it, because the game can change in an instant. You may watch a 90 minute game that ends in only a 1-1 draw, but that 90 mins has the potential to be absolutely thrilling - not knowing when the score will happen, and the fact that it can change in a heartbeat creates a nice  suspense. You watch the game for these moments; and while they aren't guaranteed to happen at a certain time, its not knowing what can happen or when that makes it captivating.

I'll take soccer over any American sport. I find baseball to be boring, slow-paced, and predictable. American football has way way too many pauses and "timeouts" allowed. It ends up taking 3 hours to play a 1 hour game. I can appreciate the strategy involved in football, but it just frustrates me that they have all of these reasons to stop the game. Basketball is a great sport, but I've but just never been a huge fan of it for whatever reason.

Also, it helps to watch soccer with the right people. I went out to bars to watch the WC 2010 games and took friends of mine who normally don't care for the sport, but they were just as into it as everyone due to the environment.

really hope klinsmann works out for the US but there are some red flags:


http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/87/germany/2011/08/23/2632478/bayern-munichs-philipp-lahm-we-had-to-come-up-with-our-own?synpar=yahoo

I've read that Joachim Low was the real brains behind Germany's run to the 2006 WC semis.

anyone know the reasoning behind this? seems to make the champions league poorer to lose a player of forlan's stature


http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-inter-forlan

would love to see Barcelona turn down the sponsorship deal from the Qatar Foundation whatever that is… and remain "unsponsored" as far as their jerseys go.. but I guess its hard to turn down $230 million..still I hope they do.


http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-barcelona-shirtvote

Guardiola takes over at Bayern Munich at end of season…


I just can't imagine Bayern playing like Barcelona..going to be interesting to see what happens..