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Dev
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
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 Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 8:37 pm Post subject: The "What's So Great About The World Cup?" Thread |
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This is the thread for people who can't understand why others get so thrilled aver watching sports. Football (Soccer), Baseball, American football, Hockey, Basketball. Does it really matter at the end of the day which team won or if Joe Blow scored a goal?
If you're like me and think watching a bunch of guys kick around a ball is boring and senseless, this thread's for you.
What will you be doing while the others watch the World Cup? I think I'll be reading a few good books. 
*This thread is brought to you by Budweiser - The King Of Beers. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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Fantasy, violence, admiring human physical skill, vicarious living through people who are living the dream of some...many reasons.
The crime isn't watching it so much as the salaries the athletes make. |
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daskalos
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: The Road to Ithaca
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| Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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Reading.
Sleeping.
Steering clear of any rampaging crowds of fans who are happy or unhappy about some result of some game.
Shaking my head, trying to figure out what it is that makes people sooooo attached to a team or a sport in general that the demand for more more more of it all makes those obscene salaries possible.
Feeling sad for humanity.
Wondering how people will keep themselves entertained after the apocalypse. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Word. I enjoy being active, running, cycling, working out at the gym, walking. I quite like watching the Olympics (save for the sports over run by pro players). But I just don't have this crazy need to watch or glorify a bunch of over paid cry babies run around on a field. In Toronto, I did like once in a while going to see a Bluejays game, albeit more so I could eat stadium food and observe crowd behavior than rah rah a team. |
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Satori
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Location: Above it all
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| Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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| I dont follow any kind of sport at a local or national level, I do think its generally boring. But international events are a different story. |
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JLarter
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 1:12 am Post subject: |
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| It's the greatest sport ever. Period. |
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Newbie
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 1:46 am Post subject: |
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I think the excitment of soccer ranks up there with fencing and archery, HOWEVER, the World Cup can be quite exciting.
As for those who always complain about "over paid cry babies", sounds like sour grapes. Professional athletes get what they deserve. You try playing 182 games of MLB, 84 games of NHL, __ games of whatever the hell soccer players compete in, 16 games of ... hahaha, 16 games!! Well, I guess there are some babies.
Seriously though, the demand for them is there, so good for the pros raking up the money they deserve! Even better when they get together to represent their countries so we can see the best take on the best. World Cup, Olympic hockey, World Baseball Classic ... AMAZING SPORTING EVENTS. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 2:04 am Post subject: |
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| sports are boring. |
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JLarter
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 4:14 am Post subject: |
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Maybe American soccer teams don't play many games, but try asking a European team that. The team I support played 46 regular games plus winning the playoffs plus other cup games.
Steven Gerrard who plays for Liverpool will have played for a whole year, without a break from the game if England make it to the final.
Baseball, isn't tough to play day after day anyway, all you do is hit a ball with a bit of stick. American football has adverts and breaks every 3 seconds.
Try playing soccer. Ninety minutes of tough sport. Midfielders run over eleven miles in that time. |
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TheFonz
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Location: North Georgia
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 6:09 am Post subject: |
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Demophobe wrote:
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| The crime isn't watching it so much as the salaries the athletes make. |
I don't blame athletes for getting paid what they do. They are only getting a small portion of what the owners recieve. If the gm or owner is stupid enough to waste 50 million on someone who doesn't produce, I blame the gm/owner.
Ticket prices have gotten high, but most owners are going to charge the most they can get anyway. They just use players salaries as an excuse to fall back on. I certainly don't blame the players for wanting a piece of the pie. If players didn't make what they make, owners would have an even bigger share than what they already recieve.
To answer the OPs question i don't follow soccer, but I follow baseball and college football. College football is full of excitement. Those last two minutes in a ballgame when the score is tied is the ultimate cliffhanger. One team vs another team. Who will triumph? It just makes for a good storyline. I enjoy the excitement of not knowing what is going to happen as much as the competetion.
Baseball is something I enjoy when I am with other friends or at a bar somewhere. It is a conversation game because the pace of the game is slower than most. I listen to it when driving, cooking, or doing some other activity. I get glued to my seat when its the playoffs because all the regular season records are out the window and a lot is riding on every game.
I know most of sports is getting lost into the hype but so what. You can just as easily read a fiction book and get lost in the fantasy of it. In a book your imagination is fueled by someone elses thoughts. In sports your emotions are fueled by someone elses actions. |
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Newbie
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: |
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| JLarter wrote: |
Maybe American soccer teams don't play many games, but try asking a European team that. The team I support played 46 regular games plus winning the playoffs plus other cup games.
Steven Gerrard who plays for Liverpool will have played for a whole year, without a break from the game if England make it to the final.
Baseball, isn't tough to play day after day anyway, all you do is hit a ball with a bit of stick. American football has adverts and breaks every 3 seconds.
Try playing soccer. Ninety minutes of tough sport. Midfielders run over eleven miles in that time. |
The"16 games" was in reference to American football. Joke. the __ was for soccer cuz I have no idea how many games they play.
As for baseball. Yes, can be slow, but these guys play almost every day! Alos, North America is a pretty big place, so the travel is insane. I'm assumimg the EPL stays in England ... what, 10 hours from top to bottom?
Finally, don't be stupid. Baseball is not just "hitting a ball with a stick". Just cuz you don't understand it, no need to be ridiculous. It is a very stressful game that is both mentally and physcially taxing. I find soccer to be completely boring, but I wouldn't insult it cuz I know there's a lot more to it than I realize. You should try doing the same. |
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JLarter
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 7:12 am Post subject: |
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I understand baseball. And what's with the world's most lethargic commentators on it? They send me to sleep.
I would also think that baseball teams use aircraft to get between cities,making it no more travelling than in Britain.
And why do you need so many games? That's just pointless. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 8:03 am Post subject: |
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I was at tonight's world cup friendly, the last game for the national team before they head to Europe to prepare for the big dance.
2-0 Red Devils over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Wow. Even a one-sided game is interesting when accompanied by 50,000 cheering "Dae-Ha-Min-Guk" and doing the wave.
You gotta be there to appreciate it. It's the warrior spirit in a totally peaceful mold. The Koreans know how to be nationalistic without being violent.
Except for that queue-jumper who had a confrontation with six security guards and a couple of guys in line.
Priceless. For everone else there's mastercard and whatever lame excuse for consumerism that makes people buy products rather than spend on living experiences. You can't take things with you so why try?
Spectator sports, like any passion or hobby, is about tapping into feeling and emotions and experiences of life rather than rules and inhibitions and beliefs in things remote from the cheers, geers, screams and laughs of everyday life.
Long live the World Cup, Superbowl, World Series, Olympics and any other sporting or life experience that breeds preparation, expectation, exhiliaration, appreciation and a sense of success or failure.
It's more like living than watching a movie or reading a book. And that comes from someone who's read more than his fair share of books and certainly is a film buff.
Only gardeners and book writers have something on me. though a few drunks may beg to differ.
Booya! |
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midgic
Joined: 14 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 8:44 am Post subject: |
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I was at tonight's world cup friendly, the last game for the national team before they head to Europe to prepare for the big dance.
2-0 Red Devils over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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A little off-topic, but does Ahn Jeong-Hwan completely suck or does he just look like that on TV? |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 8:51 am Post subject: |
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| midgic wrote: |
| A little off-topic, but does Ahn Jeong-Hwan completely suck or does he just look like that on TV? |
Man, does he ever suck! 95 % of the time. Lazy bum.
But he's a finisher and occasionally a skilled one. His bread and butter comes from putting the bread in the basket and he's done that several times for the national team and for his Japanese league team.
Lee Chun Soo is THAT good, as he showed on a few incredible plays on friday: passing, intercepting, running, dribbling. But again he showed: he's THAT BAD at shooting.
Combine Lee Chun Soo and Ahn JeonHwan and you'd have a player of the year candidate. |
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