Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

I find soccer quite boring and can't understand at all why it is so popular (other than the fact the poor people can easily play it) However I am not so arrogant to think that a huge majority of the world is wrong and we North Americans are in the right so every 4 years since 1994 I have tried to get into it. Still having some troubles that I would love to have cleared up for me by some of you soccer-wise folk.

I'm not going to prattle on like the typical, idiotic yank and mention how stupid it is that players can't use hands, or how slow and low scoring the game is. Here are my concerns...

1) Does England have the thinnest, non-long distance running athlete in the world? That Church guy is an absolute toothpick. (ok, so I'm starting off with a rather superficial concern)

2) As a rugby player I could always run at full speed, take a good header, then get up feeling right as rain. Why do the same actions taken by a soccer player seem to cause the same trauma as a 100 mph car accident?

3) That question leads neatly into my biggest problem with soccer-- the drama. I know most people blame Italians for the diving and other crap, but I watched Enlgand play last night and there was the same stuff. In hockey, if a player over-embelishes a foul he'll get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Anything like that in soccer? I'd love to see the guys who fall, look around for 30 seconds, and then start rolling around in pain be handed a yellow or red card.

4) How the hell do the goalies make the ball fly so far? Do they have led in their boots or something. I've kicked a ball around once or twice as a grown man and the most I can do is make it float a good 10 or 20 meters. I'm just amazed how far goalies let it go.

5) Can you actually sit through an entire 90 minutes? I've never been able to. Can watch the majority of a World Cup game, but still have to change the channel every 10-15 minutes.

Finally, a huge kudos to soccer for the following. I love the fact that if team A commits a foul that goes uncalled by the ref, they'll just hand the ball over to the other team. Also really like the handshaking at the end of the game. Reminds me of the NHL playoffs. Great sportsmanship. If only we could teach the yanks to try it out

[schwa]

Heres a snippet of the funniest take on soccer ever:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D-E6weZIdG8&search=simpsons%20soccer

[flotsam]

I remember that one.

"And ties? You bet."

Now that's funny.

[flakfizer]

[Jeju Rocks]

It's funny because it's so true.

[poker player]

I forced myself to watch the England Paraguay game and the highlight was a guy scoring on his own goal and that was all the scoring.That tells you all you need to know about soccer.

[jinju]

[sjrm]

[poker player]

[sjrm]

[dbee]

It's true that some games of soccer can be especially boring. The England Paraguay game was definitely one of those games. Same thing can happen in just about any sport though. I think that people how have preconcieved notions about the game are going to highlight the 1-0 own goal game between those nations, as opposed to the six goal thriller between Germany and Costa Rica, which had some outstanding goals and action the night before.

The thing about the low scores and games ending in a tie probably seems a bit strange to North Americans. As indeed do basketball games that end 110-109 seem kinda strange to non-NA's. I don't really like basketball, I don't get baseball, but I think American football isn't too bad when you get into it.

The thing that most seperates soccer from the NA sports though in my opinion is the history of the game, and the history of the countries that the games are played between. Every England vs Germany game is a re-run of WII, every time England play Argentina, it's the Falklands all over again. Any of the South Americans countries are playing for not only their national pride, but also for their place on stage amongst the world's top countries.

The other great thing about soccer IMO is the fact that it just isn't as commercial as the large NA sports. The world cup in the US actually had to run commercials on the loudspeakers during the games. And when the womens soccer team won their World Cup, the first thing they did was a 'we won the world cup and now we're going to disneyland' chorus for the TV cameras. There were many other changes the American soccer association wanted to bring in to the game before that world cup. Most were rejected however for being contrary to the spirit of the game.

The countries at the world cup play for pride and honor. You'll never get that in an international baseball, basketball, American football game. The game hasn't been polished for your viewing pleasure to the same extent that most NA sports are. I'm not sure that's such a bad thing though.

[Guri Guy]

Hockey is my sport of choice though I like soccer too. I wish Canada was better at soccer.
Jinju is best ignored. He obviously doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to hockey. Insulting people for no reason is all is also not cool.

[VanIslander]

[sjrm]

[ajgeddes]

Baseball is excruciating to watch on TV, it sucks the life right out of me. The funny thing is, I love baseball and I love playing baseball. Normal baseball is not nearly as slow as professional baseball. I don't mean the pitches or the running or the hitting, but just the game pace. Professional baseball is slow and boring because they are terrified of making a mistake.

The one sport I don't really care that much for is American football. It isn't so much the game that is so boring, but the game pace that really keeps me away from getting into it. It's like the last 45 seconds of a baseball game that actually take about 15 minutes to play. It really makes the game boring.

I also find rugby to be quite boring, but I am going to blame that on never really even trying to get into it.

My favourite sports are Hockey, soccer, baseball, and Aussie Rules (even though I only see it on tv)