OT: England v USA

[Jeff1979]

Yeah, i'm finishing at 1, should be back home for 2, that gives me enough time to have shower and cook a pizza before the SA vs Mexico game! I think the first game will be a real belter too, SA are going to hit it hard and the Mexicans are pretty old!

 

 

Give the whole competiton a lift if SA win aswell

[Mr R Gecko]

Oh well. Whilst the rest of the world loves football and will be glued to the TV for the next month it's the US that misses out, not everybody else

[TheRymanChu]

[ke2]

All of our athletes go into more lucrative sports like American Football, Baseball, or Basketball. US Soccer, i.e. US MLS, doesn't pay anywhere close to the base salaries in any of the other sport leagues in the US. Most of the guys in MLS are making 5 figures, some as low as $15,000. Compare that to the minimum salary in the NFL of $285,000 for a first year player and goes up ~$80,000 per year until the fifth year, where there isn't an increase until the 8th year and then the 11th year. Form Major League Baseball, the minimum pay for an MLB player is $400,000/year. The National Basketball Association pays a minimum $473,604 for the season that is about to end. From a pure money perspective, no athlete in their right mind is going to pick soccer over the other big sports in the US.

Morten Gamst Pedersen is from the same county as me, he`s not a VERY profiled player, but good. He`s also on the national team.

He plays club football for Blackburn in the UK.

He makes a little over 4 milllion $ a year.

John Carew is a more profiled player, he`s playing club football for Aston Villa in the UK. (And also on the national team)

He tips the scale at 5,4 million $ a year

John Arne Riise 3,4 million $ (Roma & the national team)

There`s a lot of money in football, but it would take moving to Europe to play

[eudaimonia02912]

The amount of pure ignorance, egocentrism, and ethnocentrism in this thread is sad. I'd have thought at the very least, you {censored}ing assholes could get behind your flag, regardless of the sport. But I guess it's just cool to bash the most popular sport in the world because you are too {censored}ing uncultured to understand it. The fact is, this is the single most important sporting event in the world. Your ignorance of it doesn't make it any less so. GO USA!!!!!

 

 

Not caring isn't the same as bring culpably ignorant, ethnocentric, or uncultured. And I am not a nationalist, so no, I won't rally behind the flag.

P

[gdwill2u]

What is the World Cup?

 

 

Only the biggest single sporting event in the entire world. Football (as it is called in every country except America), is the number one sport in the world.

 

We are just late bloomers but soccer's day in the US is coming. Why, because it is a great sport and fun to watch?

 

Go USA!

[kayman121]

Only the biggest single sporting event in the entire world. Football (as it is called in every country except America), is the number one sport in the world. We are just late bloomers but soccer's day in the US is coming. Why, because it is a great sport and fun to watch? Go USA!

 

 

Doubtful. Most ADD mouthbreathing mongoloids can only cope with instant gratification. Watching soccer requires an attn span greater than a pencil's which will probably keep it at bay from the US.

[gdwill2u]

Go back a couple months when I said basketball sucks {censored} too.

I guess that settles it then, doesn't it!

[tetaJ]

you've nothing to say, you are dead.

go England and go everyone else!

[Zakko]

this

[gdwill2u]

Awww... not this damn commie-ball {censored} again!

No wonder the world hates us, you are cutting down the most fiercely loved sport in the entire world.

Do you really think we are so superior to the rest of the 5.5 billion people on our planet? Do you think we should just keep on displaying that "better than everyone else" attitude?

Come on Sheiky I have read a lot of your posts and you are smarter and fairer than that.

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

No wonder the world hates us, you are cutting down the most fiercely loved sport in the entire world. Do you really think we are so superior to the rest of the 5.5 billion people on our planet? Do you think we should just keep on displaying that "better than everyone else" attitude? Come on Sheiky I have read a lot of your posts and you are smarter and fairer than that.

Oh go take your "the world hates us" pompous, idiotic, apologist POOT and kindly ram it up your sanctimonious ass SIDEWAYS, will ya?!

Pray tell, spell out for me where I said anything about ANYONE being "superior" to anyone else? What I said was that soccer is VASTLY less important than the big 3 in the US outside of youth sports, and it's TRUE. If you have some empirical data that proves me wrong, now's your chance. What percentage of top US athletes choose soccer over American football, baseball or basketball, do you suppose? WELL?! For the record, this doesn't make us any "better" than anyone else, just DIFFERENT, and in a good way to those of us for whom soccer is quite frankly the most boring excuse for a sport we've ever witnessed, IN OUR OPINION.

And just how in the blue {censored} does the irrefutable FACT that soccer is on the very bottom of the sports totem pole in this country equate to a "we're better than anyone else" attitude in that chaotic stew of random synapse-firing brain of yours?

Some dip{censored} posts nonsense about people being too "uncultured to understand" a sport that features regular fan riots often resulting in death and serious bodily harm, PROUD hooliganism, throwing piss-balloons at each other and other miscellaneous acts of violence, I point out the error in his logic and you try to sell me that I'm somehow disrespecting 5.5 million other people and making them all hate America in the process?!

Logic really is a very foreign concept to you, isn't it?

[gdwill2u]

Oh go take your "the world hates us" pompous, idiotic, apologist POOT and kindly ram it up your sanctimonious ass SIDEWAYS, will ya?! Pray tell, spell out for me where I said anything about ANYONE being "superior" to anyone else? What I said was that soccer is VASTLY less important than the big 3 in the US outside of youth sports, and it's TRUE. If you have some empirical data that proves me wrong, now's your chance. What percentage of top US athletes choose soccer over American football, baseball or basketball, do you suppose? WELL?! For the record, this doesn't make us any "better" than anyone else, just DIFFERENT, and in a good way to those of us for whom soccer is quite frankly the most boring excuse for a sport we've ever witnessed, IN OUR OPINION. And just how in the blue {censored} does the irrefutable FACT that soccer is on the very bottom of the sports totem pole in this country equate to a "we're better than anyone else" attitude in that chaotic stew of random synapse-firing brain of yours? Some dip{censored} posts nonsense about people being too "uncultured to understand" a sport that features regular fan riots often resulting in death and serious bodily harm, PROUD hooliganism, throwing piss-balloons at each other and other miscellaneous acts of violence, I point out the error in his logic and you try to sell me that I'm somehow disrespecting 5.5 million other people and making them all hate America in the process?! Logic really is a very foreign concept to you, isn't it?

You are a rude little twit

Logic, you should faint using the word.

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

You are a rude little twit Logic, you should faint using the word.

Coming from the most sanctimonious, self-righteous, logic-bereft pinhead on the entire forum, should I take that as a compliment?

[Megadeth Man]

LOL @ the tards that have just come into the thread to say "football is {censored}"; I don't acknowledge anyone that uses the term "soccer".

Doesn't the concept of friendly banter exist in the States, WTF?

[timmyfirst]

That SA goal was brilliant, they played awesomely in the second half, the Mexicans didnt deserve the draw.

[GodBlessTexas]

Morten Gamst Pedersen is from the same county as me, he`s not a VERY profiled player, but good. He`s also on the national team. He plays club football for Blackburn in the UK. He makes a little over 4 milllion $ a year. John Carew is a more profiled player, he`s playing club football for Aston Villa in the UK. (And also on the national team) He tips the scale at 5,4 million $ a year John Arne Riise 3,4 million $ (Roma & the national team) There`s a lot of money in football, but it would take moving to Europe to play

Exactly. There is money in it, but not in the US. If the money were comparable in the US, you'd have a lot more inner city kids playing, and that would increase the talent pool considerably. And then there's the whole issue of coaching in the US. As a former youth coach for 5 years, I can say that US soccer won't become world class until we have good coaching from the youth programs on up. The coaching is better the higher up you go, but at the youth rec level, where I coached, it's exceptionally bad. Most of these guys are volunteers so their kids can play, which is how I got into it, but I spent a lot of time and energy learning and getting better as a coach and even then I wasn't what I'd consider good. US Soccer is building on the trickle down system. It's better at the top, and that trickles down to the lower levels of play, but it's going very slowly.

[Digi V]

Oh give me a {censored}ing break. I could give a rat's ass how much the rest of the world enjoys watching the sporting equivalent of watching paint dry, in THIS part of the world, the fact is that it's nothing more than a kids' game that even they inevitably grow out of and drop like a pair of crappy drawers by the time they reach high school. Wake me up the moment the top US athletes start ditching the NFL, NBA, MLB and even the freaking NHL to go kick a damn soccer ball around, will ya?!

You're a {censored}ing clown.

Kids don't grow out of soccer, they just don't get pushed into playing it in later years. It's not very lucrative to most americans. Baseball is the most boring sport on the planet, for americans to even dare say futbol is boring in the face of watching the same {censored}ing guy pitch a ball to some asshat sitting on a mound is beyond my understanding. It's the slowest, most mundane sport in the entire world, that's why only a handful of small countries and Japan/U.S play it.

But i'll say this, if i could go back and play 1 sport it'd be baseball. Old white americans pay these players an unbelievable amount of money to sit in a dug out and come out every so often to hit a ball. {censored}, that's genius why didn't i think of playing it in high school?

The NFL is a made for tv sport. In person it's horrifically slow and painstakingly boring. (drinking and tailgating helps this a great deal)

NBA has been suffering a great deal lately. I only end up watching the finals most of the time.

NHL as a league did so many things wrong coming out of the glory 80's. The 90's were {censored}ed with very defensively minded teams, obstruction, and poor expansion decisions. The game has vastly improved after the lockout. It's a great sport to watch live, and the tv aspect has improved a great deal with HD.

MLB blows ass in every single way.

[Phishmonkey]

Because of the bandwagon. I know. You can't be a New Yorker if you aren't yelling around about the Yankees. Out of all the baseball teams in this country only a few teams garnish that kind of adoration.

Yeah its not like NY has another baseball team or anything. And its not like people watch baseball in new england, or chicago, or philly...

Baseball is a dying game, it has been for some time now. It was temporarily saved by those home run marathons (all the owners knew what was going on, the comish knew exactly what was going on with the steroid use but it filled seats) but now it's going back down again. The next generation will give a rats ass about baseball and the trend will only continue.

Very true, people only care about home runs, that's why no one ever buys pitchers jerseys. Last Mets game I went to everyone was wearing Carlos Santana shirts, he doesn't even play baseball

[Digi V]

Yeah its not like NY has another baseball team or anything. And its not like people watch baseball in new england, or chicago, or philly... Very true, people only care about home runs, that's why no one ever buys pitchers jerseys. Last Mets game I went to everyone was wearing Carlos Santana shirts, he doesn't even play baseball

Like I said, a few teams in this country pull in that kind of fans and usually only if they are doing well. Baseball is on tv 24-7 during the summer, and yet everyone dreads the summer when it comes to sports. It's the only damn thing on tv, people are almost forced to watch it.

At the bars it's on, but no one is watching half the time. I asked a buddy of mine today why he watches baseball and his reply was "well.. there's nothing else on until football"

[OC_cub]

But i'll say this, if i could go back and play 1 sport it'd be baseball. Old white americans pay these players an unbelievable amount of money to sit in a dug out and come out every so often to hit a ball. {censored}, that's genius why didn't i think of playing it in high school?

Its really not that easy, guys can spend their whole lives in the minors and never see a major league field. You're exaggerating but it can get slow, the biggest problem is the length of the season, its a slow grind. If anyone wants to see what an exciting baseball game is about then you should have watched Strasburg's debut the other night, that was fun to watch.

The NFL is a made for tv sport. In person it's horrifically slow and painstakingly boring . (drinking and tailgating helps this a great deal)

High school, college and pro football are all very different in atmosphere and in style, ive never found it boring.

MLB blows ass in every single way.

So does cricket

Bottom line is SOCCER is un-american and will never be part of our culture. Like it or not we have our hands full with other things, hell we're probably still sour about the bad breakup and we still dont like tea either.

We like aggressive actions not long sections of the game where teams play keep away. If you get taken off on a stretcher here, its because you're {censored}ed up really bad and we hope you'll be able to walk again, not be back on the sidelines prancing around later. We like a clock with a defined ending, we do not and will never come to accept a draw as an acceptable ending. Taking dives is un-american as well, yes it happens in the NBA but guess who brought that over here? Vlade .... Personally I think MLS is the equivalent of the WNBA, which is insulting but you cant ram something down our throats and tell us we suck for not liking it, I mean really if its something that France is good at we probably dont want anything to do with it.

[Big Hair]

I;m looking forward to tomorrow evening

 

 

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!

[HKSblade1]

But i'll say this, if i could go back and play 1 sport it'd be baseball. Old white americans pay these players an unbelievable amount of money to sit in a dug out and come out every so often to hit a ball. {censored}, that's genius why didn't i think of playing it in high school? MLB blows ass in every single way.

Kids don't really grow out of the sports they play. They GIVE UP since the competition is there as they get older. When they are younger everybody wins....

Baseball is not an easy sport to play at MLB levels. The odds of hitting a ball at 95mph with a round bat are totally against you... hence the best players having less than .300 avg's sometimes and only 7% of all active players (not juiced) hitting above .325.

It's pace is slower, but it's a game that is pure strategy and if you don't know that, you never played, coached, or watched a game from a perspective other than wiffle ball.

[Mr R Gecko]

"Top US athletes" this and that. As if footballers aren't top athletes. Look, I get that the US doesn't like football and that's fine but be aware that you're the one's missing out, not the rest of us

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

"Top US athletes" this and that. As if footballers aren't top athletes. Look, I get that the US doesn't like football and that's fine but be aware that you're the one's missing out, not the rest of us

Never said that, either, I said the top US athletes don't go into SOCCER. Sure SOCCER PLAYERS are athletes, they're probably only second to professional basketball players in cardio & stamina, it's just that here, without having to move to another country, there are 4 more lucrative, popular options for the best American athletes to pursue. Don't look for that to change any time in the forseeable future, either.

I've watched SOCCER matches before, and I just really didn't see much of anything to miss out on, but that's just my opinion, feel free to have a differing one!