detlef Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 Finally, someone got yellow carded for diving. The funny thing is, I'm not certain he didn't simply fall because he lost his balance. I definitely know I've seen much worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 The funny thing is, I'm not certain he didn't simply fall because he lost his balance. I definitely know I've seen much worse. You may have been watching the NBA. How that actors guild avoids getting the same finger pointing as soccer is beyond me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddahj Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 (edited) Howard may have broken ribs If he can't go...the US is screwed. Â On a side note...I'm the only one out of my group of friends that enjoys watching a soccer match. Maybe it's because I played the sport for many years or maybe I'm just like everyone else in the rest of the world. Edited June 13, 2010 by buddahj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
untateve Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 Soccer is a beautiful game to watch. For me, I love watching a game in person. It's much better to see the build up, the runs, the development of the play. I enjoy soccer on television but much more in person. Â I recently changed television providers and now I have the Fox Soccer Channel. I started following English Premier Soccer as well as soccer in Italy. I'm looking forward to next season. Â I don't know why it doesn't catch on. I know it is one of the largest youth sports in our country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I'm interested to see how Germany plays without Michael Ballack. Â well they looked pretty awesome. granted, they didn't have much competition, but they looked very slick on the attack. their two strikers, klose and podolski, are REALLY good. I would think they go deep in the tournament. they certainly looked more polished than france and england did in their games, to me at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 well they looked pretty awesome. granted, they didn't have much competition, but they looked very slick on the attack. their two strikers, klose and podolski, are REALLY good. I would think they go deep in the tournament. they certainly looked more polished than france and england did in their games, to me at least. Absolutely. Klose is a stud, and even with him pretty much sucking for Bayern over the past few months, he ALWAYS comes to play for the WC. Podolski is also very, very good. Together, they are, as you say, very slick. Germany's even slicker with Ballack, though. Â France is a mess right now, and England apparently really misses their midfielder captain Ferdinand. Â Germany has fielded one of the youngest teams in the WC, apparently, but they still have a ton of caps between them. Looks like that might be a nice combination that could fire them up at the right time. Â I still think they're a step behind Brazil, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, though. Will watch the Dutch pound my poor Danes tomorrow morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Sacrebleu Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Howard may have broken ribsIf he can't go...the US is screwed. Â On a side note...I'm the only one out of my group of friends that enjoys watching a soccer match. Maybe it's because I played the sport for many years or maybe I'm just like everyone else in the rest of the world. Â Â As someone posted earlier, the US has keepers that play internationally at the highest levels. Howard's back ups play for Aston Villa (a regular top 6-8 team in the premiership) and for Wolverhampton (pretty low in premiership, but still higher than any MSL team by a wide margin). Don't know why it is that the US produces top caliber keepers by the handful, but keeper is the one position in which we can afford to lose a star Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Sacrebleu Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I thought the original poster that brought up the vuvuzelas or whatever they are called was being a whiny little man. I take it all back. Those things are not only annoying as all get up, but they rob each country of their individual voice. The English fans, who are some of the greatest in the world sing a lot during their matches, and really have a neat repertoir (as opposed to say, the US which has the monosylabic, one note "U S A. U S A..." and france isn't much better) as do many other countries. Instead now all the matches sound exactly the same: like the inside of a bee's nest (or as my wife pointed out the soundtrack of a really bad horror flick). It would have been great for the fans to use that during the S African games, but only distracts for the rest of the games. Boy did Germany pound australia last night. I think the Aussie's tactic was to take it to the germans rather than play 11 back. Good for the game, not great for Australia. Two bad calls in another wise well called game DID however make a major difference. No call on the handball by the german in the penalty area (which could have made it 2-1) and Cahill's red was a bit harsh. Still no one has been robbed by a bad call yet. Crosses fingers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I heard on the radio this morning there is talk of banning those horns. They said this is South Africa's way of celebrating instead of singing like other places. They said they have been blowing these horns 24/7. Even the teams are complaining about lack of sleep. These suckers reach 127 decibels. I could've watched more than 3 minutes of England-USA without this crap. As gay as I think singing during the match is, it is better than the mosquito/fly buzzing sound. They also said ABC was pleading with them to stop it because I can guarantee you it's driving viewership down. We had a family get together and only the true soccer fans (my sister's husbands family is from Holland) didn't complain about the horns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miner Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I recently changed television providers and now I have the Fox Soccer Channel. I started following English Premier Soccer as well as soccer in Italy. I'm looking forward to next season. Â I don't know why it doesn't catch on. I know it is one of the largest youth sports in our country. Â I used to be one of those people who said soccer was lame, boring, stupid, etc. Until I caught a Premier League match. I now watch it every weekend (in-season), have been over to England to see "my club", and choose it 90% of the time over an NFL game and its endless commericials. To me, it is the perfect setup. Play each other twice, the team with the most points at the end of the season are champs. A team sucks, they don't get rewarded with the #1 pick, they get relegated to the lower leagues. The domestic and European cup competitions give you "playoff-style" excitement. Atmosphere at the games is unmatched. If the soccer-haters gave the Premier League a watch for a couple of weeks, I guarantee you'd see alot of them change their minds. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I guess I don't think it's boring to watch rocket shots missing the goal by inches or amazing behind the back shots played off a great pass that get thwarted by an alert goalie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I guess I don't think it's boring to watch rocket shots missing the goal by inches or amazing behind the back shots played off a great pass that get thwarted by an alert goalie. Â +1 . The 4 times this happens out of 96 minutes is electrifying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 +1 . The 4 times this happens out of 96 minutes is electrifying  4? You must've have been watching Germany kick the crap out of Australia like it was 1942. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I used to be one of those people who said soccer was lame, boring, stupid, etc. Until I caught a Premier League match. I now watch it every weekend (in-season), have been over to England to see "my club", and choose it 90% of the time over an NFL game and its endless commericials. To me, it is the perfect setup. Play each other twice, the team with the most points at the end of the season are champs. A team sucks, they don't get rewarded with the #1 pick, they get relegated to the lower leagues. The domestic and European cup competitions give you "playoff-style" excitement. Atmosphere at the games is unmatched. If the soccer-haters gave the Premier League a watch for a couple of weeks, I guarantee you'd see alot of them change their minds. Â Let's not forget that pretty much anybody can start a team and if they keep winning, they can keep advancing into better and better leagues. If the owner of your local team is a dick, you can just support a different local team. It's funny that the system there is much more free market than ours is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_the_swammi Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 this is why your average sports fan in America cant sink their teeth into soccer. Â which is why the average American sports fan is a boorish dolt, who can't appreciate a sport unless it involves a lot of scoring. The NFL caters to this mindless twit by changing the rules to encourage more scoring. The NHL changes it's rules about offsides to encourage more intra-zone passing to create more scoring. MLB builds sandboxes to enable more home runs. Â I guess FIFA should double the width and the height of the goal to encourage more scoring...maybe then cro-magnon American sports fan can appreciate the world's finest game. Â then again, keep it the way it is....the sport is better without them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miner Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 No, the attention span just isn't there. TV hates the sport because it doesn't allow for endless commercials. Neither does rugby. All three top American sports lend themselves to almost infinite commercial breaks, each infinitely long. There's a reason NFL Network's Gameday is so popular. Â Consider this though....... in soccer, out of the 90 minutes (actually 95+ once injury time is taken into account), how many minutes is the ball in play (in other words moving around the field)? Answer: About 45-60 minutes, IIRC, on average. Now ask the same question about football......... Â IIRC it is about 11 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Let's not forget that pretty much anybody can start a team and if they keep winning, they can keep advancing into better and better leagues. If the owner of your local team is a dick, you can just support a different local team. It's funny that the system there is much more free market than ours is. Wimbledon FC are a classic example of this and there are many others. The promotion and relegation system runs all the way from the Premiership to local parks leagues. By contrast, the US system is a closed shop that protects the cozy club of owners above all else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonkis Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I tried to watch some this weekend. I have no problem watching the sport, but thought the signal feed was bad so I stopped watching after a few minutes. I couldn't hear the commentators. I was hoping to learn more about the sport so I could appreciate it. The new stadium was gorgeous in HD. After reading the above posts, the bad feed was actually whatever horns they were blowing. That has no place in any sport outside of competitive horn blowing. Absolutely ridiculous. If I knew more about the sport, maybe I could follow it better without sound, but until those horns are banned, forget it. I can understand loud noise at certain times in all sports, but all the time? What does it sound like when a goal is scored? I would not have found out because the game ended up in a zero-to-zero sister kisser. Â No wonder Webb-Ellis picked it up and ran. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 which is why the average American sports fan is a boorish dolt, who can't appreciate a sport unless it involves a lot of scoring. The NFL caters to this mindless twit by changing the rules to encourage more scoring. The NHL changes it's rules about offsides to encourage more intra-zone passing to create more scoring. MLB builds sandboxes to enable more home runs. I guess FIFA should double the width and the height of the goal to encourage more scoring...maybe then cro-magnon American sports fan can appreciate the world's finest game.  then again, keep it the way it is....the sport is better without them.   Why would that matter ? These teams get about 6 combined shots on goal per tournament Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonkis Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Why would that matter ? These teams get about 6 combined shots on goal per tournament   If it's wider, then they will take more shots... like 8 or 9 combined shots on goal in a tourney!! It would be upwards of 30% more exciting........                                 ........ than hornblowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 If it's wider, then they will take more shots... like 8 or 9 combined shots on goal in a tourney!! It would be upwards of 30% more exciting........                                ........ than hornblowing.   Thats why soccer fans riot. They are yearning for action Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egret Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Soccer is a beautiful game to watch. For me, I love watching a game in person. It's much better to see the build up, the runs, the development of the play. I enjoy soccer on television but much more in person. I recently changed television providers and now I have the Fox Soccer Channel. I started following English Premier Soccer as well as soccer in Italy. I'm looking forward to next season.  I don't know why it doesn't catch on. I know it is one of the largest youth sports in our country. There is a ton of soccer to watch on espn3.com. There are many different leagues available, but I don't believe English Premier is one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexgaddis Posted June 14, 2010 Author Share Posted June 14, 2010 What happened to the Univision feed????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Paraguay 1 - Defending Champs 0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTed46 Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Paraguay 1 - Defending Champs 0. Â 1-1 tie final. Paraguay did good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.