Soccer really sucks, doesn't it?

[Drake Tungsten]

Americans care just as little about soccer as Canadians, but we're even bigger and can't help but be decent at anything we try, even gay European sports.

[Wezil]

Yeah, it is the population pillar mentioned in the article Cort posted. According to that article we have 2+ million soccer players in this country. It fails to neglect the overwhelming majority are little kids. Adult leagues are moribund.

Using the factor of 10 the US should have 20+million players (possibly more).

[Drake Tungsten]

Soccer is great for kids, as it's really the only sport simple enough for elementary school kids to play at a level that isn't completely unrecognizable as the same sport adults play.

I don't understand what adults see in it, though.

edit:

The beauty of soccer for very young people is that, to create a simulacrum of the game, it requires very little skill. There is no other sport that can bear such incompetence. With soccer, 22 kids can be running around, most of them aimlessly, or picking weeds by the sidelines, or crying for no apparent reason, and yet the game can have the general appearance of an actual soccer match. If there are three or four coordinated kids among the 22 flailing bodies, there will actually be dribbling, a few legal throw-ins, and a couple of times when the ball stretches the back of the net. It will be soccer, more or less.

http://www.slate.com/id/2142554

[Cort Haus]

Oceana only had two teams capable of stringing two passes together,and one of those has left in disgust.

Both Australia and New Zealand scored more points in group play than France and Italy, and as many points as Greece, Serbia, and Denmark. Clearly, they deserved to be at the World Cup as much as 38% of the European entrants...

Oh sure, Europe is having a lousy tournament so far this time, but in the last World Cup the top four teams were Italy, France, Germany and Portugal. All European. The other Quarter-finalists were Argentina, Ukraine, England and Brazil. Six from Europe, two from South America.

In the round of 16 there were also Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Holland. So ten out of the top sixteen teams were European last time round.

On the face of it, the 40% looks high, but it is proportionately lower than South America in terms of number_of_entries/total_countries_in_region.

So you think Europe should be rewarded for being riven by ethnic hatreds and divided into an absurd amount of irrelevant little countries?

But there are only half as many Germanies as there used to be :shrug:

[Drake Tungsten]

So ten out of the top sixteen teams were European last time round.

And Europe would still have ten teams in the World Cup under my system. Thank you for showing that the way to bring European group stage success up to South American levels is to eliminate three European teams.

[Wezil]

So what's with the ball? Our soccer news today is about complaints the WC balls are ****.

FIFA acknowledges there might be something wrong with the Jabulani World Cup ball, but won't act on any problems until after the tournament.

Many players have likened the Jabulani to a “supermarket ball,” saying it is too unpredictable and flies through the air too easily.

“We're not deaf,” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said Saturday. “FIFA is not unreceptive about what has been said about the ball.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/soccer/fifa-admits-problems-with-jabulani/article1619500/

Comment?

[Drake Tungsten]

They ***** about the ball at every World Cup. It's as much a part of the experience as the diving and horrible officiating.

[Wezil]

I'm trying to appear engaged and interested.

[a.kitman]

17 of the 32 top teams on the fifa world ranking are from europe. under a "fair" system there would be more teams from europe and south america.

[BeBMan]

I'm trying to appear engaged and interested.

Yeah, you guys show how hard you don't care over pages!

[Cort Haus]

They're just stumbling on this thread while "flicking channels" BeBro.

[Wezil]

They're just stumbling on this thread while "flicking channels" BeBro.

It's a slow day.

[Drake Tungsten]

Yeah, you guys show how hard you don't care over pages!

That just shows that I'm far more interested in trolling Euro pussies on Poly than in watching the World Cup.

17 of the 32 top teams on the fifa world ranking are from europe.

The FIFA rankings are a joke. They have England ranked five spots higher than the U.S., for god's sake...

[Wezil]

I'm not really trolling. I think it's a boring as hell game and certainly won't watch it but understand why others do.

I've been following the thread as it is far more interesting than the sport.

[a.kitman]

the fifa ranking has its flaws but your gona have hard time finding a ranking that doesnt have 50% of the top 32 from europe.