Soccer, the other white mea...errr football (in Off-topic)

I have never been into it. It is really being pushed on ESPN and on local radio. I never was into hockey, which is unfortunate being that I missed out on the Super Mario years in Penguins hx. Now I can't get enough of it. Is Soccer my next hockey epiphany? How many of you are soccer fans? I never have been able to get into soccer...

I love soccer.... you have to be willing to embrace the fact that there IS such a thing as a thrilling 0-0 draw.... or a 3-0 can be considered a thrashing.

Not too mention:
World Cup > all

Soccer is nice, but it really is worthless watching unless you really understand the game.

And the thing that turns me off is the bad acting.

You see someone get taken down in a "tackle", writhing around in pain like on his deathbed. Get taken off on a stretcher. Then 2 minutes later comes running back on the field. All in an attempt to draw a yellow or red card.

Man up and play the game.

And this latest fiasco with the French vs Irish qualifier to the World Cup. Makes one lose all respect for the game.

And the thing that turns me off is the bad acting.

Absolutely 100% with you on that. It's called "simulation" which I think is just a wishy washy way of avoiding using the correct word - "cheating".

Football is a great game however and is a huge part of the sporting lifestyle of many nations around the world.
World cup fever is about to infect the globe in advance of next summer in South Africa, and I'll maybe even find myself supporting the USA team this time given that they're going to be playing England in the qualifiers :)

You mean, "american football, the other kind of rugby" ?
:)

Well, to be honest, I'm not much of a sports fan either way anymore, no matter the sport.
I root for the national team when there's a World Cup qualifier and I'm around to watch it, but honestly, that's about it. Lately, I didn't bother to stick around to watch even that.
But I distinctly remember that once upon a time, I used to like it... I have just... outgrown it ?

Gotta love the offsides penalty... Yeah they get caught out of position and leave one of your guys wide open, but don't pass it to him or you'll turn the ball over...

Nothing wrong with that rule, it stops you simply leaving one guy in the penalty area for 90 minutes tapping in goal after goal.

Soccer/Futbol is a great game! Played it in middle school and enjoyed it a great deal :-) I agree with Loch that you have to get used to no shot high intensity games and low scores meaning someone got pwned. Ranger is right too though, there has always been a lot of omg injuries only to see them come back to the game to play not long after. I do have to say one thing though, it happens to some degree in every sport so if you can get past that aspect it's all good.

My philosophy in sports after all of these years has come down to one thing: Only watch the Big Dogs play! All of the in between games can be exciting but they didn't make it to the "Big" game. World Cup, Superbowl, World Pennant etc etc. I got tired of the time consuming schedules, ups and downs of multiple games......expense of some pay per view events *cough* Conspiracy *Cough* Just one great big rush or let down per sport/season and be done with it. Yes I know I am weird :-)

And the thing that turns me off is the bad acting.

I know how you feel, soccer or whatever sport should be about the sport itself, you know, the game. Not about which team can abuse the rules the most to their advantage. The Mr. T commercial I posted in the other thread says it beautifully: Get on with it!

im english, so of course i liked FOOTBALL :P haha, not gonna get into that argument tho.

but yeah the diving and simulation is getting pretty annoying at the moment, really annoys me seeing people go to ground to try and get a penalty, when if they just stood up through the challenge they might have ended up scoring anyway

I would like to say that I've NEVER seen a sport where people didn't act like an injury was worse than it was in an effort to get some kind of reward.

I would honestly say American Football players are worse than soccer players at this. Granted, I've watched much less soccer than football, but I've seen 3 minute pauses in a football game that ended with the player just standing up and walking basically unassisted from the field.

Always very frustrating to watch.

Love soccer. Hardly know the rules of basketball/baseball much less golf or hockey. American football is nice.

i live in Brazil, motherland of Futebol. I love it, and i am goalkeeper. I am fan of Inter, Chelsea and Botafogo.

its fantastic. specialy when i do a fantastic elastic defense i feel the same way as when somebody score a goal, its impresive the passion we brazilians feel about this sport

The NBA used to be the worst with 'flopping'. They instituted a fine and it isn't much of a problem anymore. The last time something like that frustrated me was the last Stanley Cup and Chris Osgood noticed his player took a big hit so he pulled a Janet Jackson and said he had an equipment malfunction to try and slow the momentum and buy some time.

FIFA has 16 more member nations than the UN....

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/4716073/ce/us/fans-applying-1-million-tickets&cc=5901?ver=us