Soccer really sucks, doesn't it?

[Ming]

Are you really trying to say that the ratings for an early round matchup between the USA and England would be anywhere even close to comparable to the ratings if the USA made it to the finals. Trying to compare something that isn't even close simply because "some" non-comparable numbers are available is moronic.

Talk about lack of intellect... something we do expect from you on a regular basis.

[Asher]

10 games into the world cup, and 9 teams haven't scored a single goal.

[Ming]

10 games into the world cup, and 9 teams haven't scored a single goal.

I have to agree... the "EXCITEMENT" is almost too much to take...

[BeBMan]

3) Why is headbutting the ball legal, but not other players?

It was possible in the first prototypes to header-shoot players around, but this turned out to be impractical, and so they introduced a ball for that.

[Ming]

It took a while, actually. NBC is channel 6 here, while MSNBC is up in the 300s. You can't just look in the sports channel list, either, since MSNBC isn't a sports channel.

Gee it's nice to see you admit how mentally challenged you are by giving us an example on how long it takes you to find an event you want to watch on TV.


It must be tough for you to watch tv when it takes you so long to find something. Do you miss the start of many programs you really want to watch?

[Drake Tungsten]

Yes, I'm retarded for taking a while to scroll through 300+ channels to find a sporting event being shown on a cable news channel.

[Ming]

Yes, I'm retarded for taking a while to scroll through 300+ channels to find a sporting event being shown on a cable news channel.

Yep... retarded for having to scroll 300+ channels to find something that was heavily promoted.
Smart people just went straight to the right channel. Only idiots needed to scroll through 300 + channels. But thanks again for providing proof of your limited mental skills.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Seriously. Who the **** scrolls through every channel to find an event during the Olympics. Even if you don't know the exact channel, you check NBC, CNBC, MSNBC or Universal. Going through any other channel is dumb.

[Ming]

Seriously. Who the **** scrolls through every channel to find an event during the Olympics.

I guess only people that are mentally challenged...
I wonder how much of the game Drake missed just trying to find it

[OneFootInTheGrave]

here is the real reason why the world cup sucks so far

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8739146.stm

Manufacturers adidas claim that altitude is the main factor affecting the World Cup ball - not its design - as criticism from players grows.

Slovenia's Robert Koren admitted that his winning goal against Algeria was helped by the Jabulani ball, which he said was "really difficult to control".

Nigeria's Dickson Etuhu told the BBC he thought it was "the worst ball ever".

An adidas spokesman said those who have had the most problems are nations who have not practised enough with it.

"What is strange is that people are saying the ball is lighter and that is just not true," said Thomas Schaikvan, head of global public relations at adidas.

"Playing at altitude is not the same as playing at sea level - that is just plain science.

It's the worst thing they could have done. It's so hard to play with

Dickson Etuhu

"There are players who play in leagues with other balls, there are players that have not played in the Africa Cup of Nations, and players with other federations who have not practised with this ball.

"Those are the players who take the most amount of time to get used to it."

The Jabulani was supplied to all countries in February but the issue of practising with it over a concerted a period of time, either within competitive games in domestic leagues or when training with club or national sides, appears to be tied up with sponsorship.

The new Jabulani ball has been extensively used in Germany's Bundesliga as well as France and Argentina - all national sides sponsored by adidas - and a number of other national leagues.

Germany romped to a 4-0 win over Australia in their opening group D encounter on Sunday.

The Jabulani has also been used in Major League Soccer in the United States, who held England to a 1-1 draw on Saturday with goalkeeper Robert Green believing his error in allowing American forward Clint Dempsey's shot to squirm from his grasp was partly because of the movement of the ball.

Koren also agreed with that observation, while Algeria's Madjid Bougherra called the Jabulani "horrible" after the glaring mistake made by their goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi when he allowed the Slovenian's shot to bounce past him in their 1-0 group C defeat.

When BBC Sport asked the English Premier League if the adidas Jabulani had been considered for use in its matches ahead of the World Cup, a spokesman said: "We use Nike balls.

"We've had a contract with them for nine years and just signed a new three-year deal with them."

After Nigeria's 1-0 defeat by Argentina, Etuhu said: "You can't head it [from goalkeeper's kicks]. You don't know where it's going to go. If you pass the ball into a player's feet, if it's off the ground - you don't know where its going to go.

"It's the worst thing they could have done. It's so hard to play with."

bah, if I knew this I'd make Germany as the WC winners in the league

[Asher]

What kind of idiot teams don't take into account altitude?

Even hockey teams know playing in Calgary (3500feet/1048m) is different than playing at sea level.

[Al B. Sure!]

This is several pages back but it stuck out and I wanted to respond to it.

VJ:

Additional muscle mass means more body mass, which means less explosive running speed

No... additional body mass does NOT mean less explosive running speed. In fact, more body mass brought on by more squats and deadlifts probably would make someone a better sprinter. Where extra body mass comes into play is in endurance activities.



Note the drastically different physiques. If you've ever watched the Olympics, you should already know this. Football players (well everyone but linemen and DT's) are of the sprinter type. They are explosive and blazing fast but likely would wear down at distances greater than 10K. You want muscle (fast twitch) to be a sprinter. The extra weight of muscle is a liability for marathon runners, however.

It's anecdotal but I'm much faster running 100m, 200m, and 400m at 205lbs than I was at 180lbs, though I'm slower at a 5K.

[Al B. Sure!]

Oh and as for the endurance aspect of soccer versus Men's football. The problem is that different positions in football go different distances per play. Wide receivers on average run about 40 yards per play as they run their routes (including lateral distance). Some offences which rely on more vertical attacks, send receivers on streak and post routes that take them 50-60 yards down field quite often. The cornerbacks who cover the receivers have to cover similar distances per play.

Now the stop and go of American football is one thing but soccer involves quite a bit of stop and go as well considering how often the ball goes out of bounds (basketball and I suspect hockey have relatively little stop and go).

The funny thing is though that the stop and go actually likely makes things harder. If any of you have any experience with running, what do you consider worse? To run a 5K or to do 4x800m sprints? You're covering less total ground with the sprints, but I challenge anyone to say a 5K is harder than several 800m's.

A more relevant comparison to American football would be perhaps 10x100m's with 30 seconds between sprints. I personally don't think that would be worse than 800's but that would still be brutal.

The point is, intensity is more physiologically taxing than sustained effort.

[Al B. Sure!]

Oh and just to re-iterate, who would you assume is a better overall athlete between the marathoner and the sprinter? Who would you assume is more functional and capable of doing a variety of activities at a high level? The sprinter, obviously. The costs to general physical abilities of being a top marathon runner are significant.

(Note: Soccer players have more in common with the sprinter than the marathon runner but are not as close to the sprinter as an American football wide receiver or runningback is)


library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ-trial.pdf

That is a .pdf file but if you scroll down to the bottom, you will see a rough comparison of the time spent in the three metabolic pathways between different sports and even positions. Soccer halfbacks resemble mid-distance runners while football players resemble 100-200m sprinters in their metabolic activity levels.

[Ben Kenobi]

I beg to differ. Soccer players have more in common with marathoners. Much more

I'm a long distance runner and it made me play well in soccer. I was a terrible sprinter.