Soccer really sucks, doesn't it?

[Cort Haus]

Cesc Fabregas scored a penalty against Barcelona this year with a broken leg.

The players used to be able to play with a bit of blood on the shirt.

[Asher]

I still don't get how so many people can get so enthused by a game that moves soooo slowly and seems to end up with a tie more often than not.

And the announcer was creaming himself that there were "so many scoring opportunities" with 24 shots on goal or something. 24 total shots on goal! In a 90 minute match. Jesus christ.

[Drake Tungsten]

It is terrible, no doubt. It really is girl's ice hockey played at 10% speed and with 1000% more fake injuries.

[Ben Kenobi]

Sure, that's possible, explain how the idiotic offside rule makes sense when all you have to do to defend your goal is step in front of the offensive player.

I played this position for years.

We played a 5-3-2 system. Had no problems scoring with the offsides rule as is. All you have to do to score is blow by the defender.

That's it.

The problem isn't the offsides but the systems. When you have 1-4-5 systems, you are surprised there is no scoring?

[Al B. Sure!]

The big jessie. Bert Trautman played the FA Cup final with a broken neck, and if anyone had offered to carry him, he'd have hit them.

Bugs, to be fair, Leftwich's team was trailing in the 4th quarter and he was trying to orchestrate a comeback with time running out. As you could probably tell by that clip if you know American football at all, they were running a no huddle offense. They would've wasted a lot of time if Leftwich tried to limp his way down field following that big play so being carried was actually a means for them to keep their comeback viable to minimize time ran off the clock between plays.

Donovan McNabb played an entire game with a broken leg, was never carried, and no one on the team knew he had a broken leg (he lied to the medical staff) til after the game. After the game, he was placed on Injured Reserve for the rest of the season.

[Kitschum]

It is terrible, no doubt. It really is girl's ice hockey played at 10% speed and with 1000% more fake injuries.

Compared to the NHL these days I'd say it's about 1:1 in diving. It seems the North American game has succumbed to the European disease as of late.

[Asher]

There's definitely a lot of diving in the NHL, mostly thanks to the Eurotrash players , but it's nowhere near as bad as I see watching soccer (either MLS or World Cup)

In the NHL, diving is a penalty. Is it in soccer? Never seen it called

[Kitschum]

Yes, it is. It should be called more often, but you do see it.

[Barnabas]

I still don't get how so many people can get so enthused by a game that moves soooo slowly and seems to end up with a tie more often than not.

And the announcer was creaming himself that there were "so many scoring opportunities" with 24 shots on goal or something. 24 total shots on goal! In a 90 minute match. Jesus christ.

You don¡t get it, football/soccer isn't about being entertained by the sport itself, it is the drama (the cheating, the faking, the eating crow) and chauvinism that makes it good.

In normal years with national tournaments the chaivinism is directed at people from rival neighbourhoods, cities (Madrid vs Barcelona), or different social class (some teams attract wealthy people, others low class people), and in some cases you even have different religions like in Glasgow Scotland where you have Protestants vs Catholics

The world cup just allows us to take the Chauvinism to a global scale

I agree that Basketball or Tennis (men tennis) are much more enjoyable sports to watch tan football soccer.

Only Baseball is more boring. But soccer still has too many extra sport intangibles to make it exciting to follow during the world cup

[Drake Tungsten]

You don¡t get it, football/soccer isn't about being entertained by the sport itself, it is the drama (the cheating, the faking, the eating crow) and chauvinism that makes it good.

So you're admitting that soccer is not an entertaining sport? Thanks.

In North America, we have sports that are actually fun to watch in addition to providing us with drama and a chance to hate people from other parts of the country.

[Barnabas]

I am admitting that, but then, only Basketball is fun of the big American Sports

American Football is fun, but is around the world seen as a pansy version of Rugby, Rugby is for real men, American Footbal for fat people with shoulderplates

And even if Football/Soccer is boring, those guys are still the best athletes on earth. Football/Soccer has a talent pool of billions of people, the best soccer players are the best athletes out of billions of people who play soccer, all other sports are ants in comparison to soccer, no matter how boring soccer may be.

[Drake Tungsten]

American Football is fun, but is around the world seen as a pansy version of Rugby,

Typically ignorant foreign opinion. How many people die every year playing the "hard" sport of rugby?

And even if Football/Soccer is boring, those guys are still the best athletes on earth.

Distance runners aren't particularly athletic; they're just fit.

[Barnabas]

Soccer needs a lot of skill, and soccer players are the best at what they do out of billions of people, in no other sport the best players are the best out of billions. All other sports are ants in comparison to soccer, those are facts, I don't even like football/soccer. American Football compared to International Soccer is Lacrosse like in depth.


I don't know how many people die every year in Rugy accidents, but every year I see a few times on the news that some rugby player died in some rugby country, or more often, that he was left paralyzed in an accident.

I just googled rugby paralyzed and found this.

http://sci-news-blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/paralyzed-rugby-player-now-wants-to.html

"Friday, 4 December 2009
A man who wanted to die after being left paralysed by a rugby accident is now celebrating a first class law degree and a job at a top city firm.

He is one of several people with a disabled or terminal condition who are glad they didn’t end it all, and who now live a life of value and meaning.

Matt King, who was 17 at the time of the accident, suffered injuries to his spine which left him permanently paralysed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe.

His case has been compared to the tragic death of Daniel James, another young man who suffered a debilitating rugby injury and committed suicide at the Dignitas facility in Switzerland. "

[Drake Tungsten]

One guy? Big ****ing deal. ~14 people die every year in football, with another ~13 suffering catastrophic injuries. Lesser injuries are so widespread that the average professional football player's career lasts only 3.8 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_issues_in_American_football

[Al B. Sure!]

I highly doubt there is a single soccer or rugby player as supremely athletic (I'm talking about strength, speed, power, endurance, everything) as guys like Vernon Davis or Patrick Willis.

At the combine, Vernon Davis ran a 4.38 40-yard dash, had a 42-inch vertical, a 10'8" broad jump, and benched 225lbs for 33 reps at 6'3" 254 lbs. Let those numbers ruminate in your head for a second. He can bench 225lbs for 33 reps AND still run at a sprinter's speed.

Granted, supreme athleticism does not always translate into NFL success (Mike Mamula, for example), but professional football players are definitely the fastest and strongest men in all of sports.