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Soccer?

K

KL24

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Looking for a hand here. My wife and our girls are in love with this sport. I hate it, it's soooo boring. I'm sure I'm missing the intricacies of it but I just don't get it. It varies from league to league, but every time I watch it I'm under the impression that all I'm watching is a bunch of idiots kicking a ball around en route to a scoreless tie. I'm watching the "EPL" with my girls tomorrow and it's too early in the day to drink, what should someone who only knows football/baseball/basketball look out for?

Please help, thanks.
 
Saw this late but I'll chime in. First off, being half German/half American . . . soccer runs in my blood. I flew to Germany for the 2006 World Cup and its an experience I will never forget. No Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup or NBA championship can compare to the insaneness of the World Cup, and this is coming from somebody who was at Game 7 in 1997 when the Marlins won it all. The streets of Center City Berlin had over 1,000,000 people for a damn round of 16 match with Sweden. So much strategy, most countries have soccer teams for every city, including cities with less than 1,000 people. It is religion.

I can understand the "soccer" is boring notion you can get when you haven't grew up watching it. There is alot of possession involved, but alot of it is strategy. Think football, except you can't use your hands. You need to march down the field, without using your hands, and get by a goalkeeper who can use his hands. It is like defending the triple option in football . . . assignment football . . . one slip and a team takes advantage. Also remember, almost everybody in these countries played soccer from birth so it is a respect factor involved as well. To see guys do things on the soccer field its sort of like watching a great golfer. Golf can be boring to watch to many but when you see a guy hit a ball 230 yards from the rough and land it over the water 8 feet from the hole, you gotta enjoy stuff like that.

I don't watch much EPL to be honest with you, I love international soccer more . . . however I love Champion League soccer as well. Champion League pretty much takes the 32 best club soccer teams in Europe and they have a tournament that spans around 9 months or so. Some incredible soccer gets played. My favorite team is Bayern Munich. I'm actually a member of the club and I have already emailed them inquiring about Champions League final tickets for May 2012, which happens to be in Munich this year. If Bayern makes it to the final, I wanna be there. Then the atmosphere is incredible. While Stephen Ross is wanting fans to be comfortable in the stadium . . . these guys stand the entire time and sing and drink. Nothing beats being in a soccer stadium, nothing like it.

For you, watch the midfield play. If you get to watch a team like Barcelona, they are sometimes unbelieveable. There midfielder Xavi and Inesita are 2 of the greats in the world today. Incredible passes, creativity and then when you have forwards like Messi and Villa who can both finish like no others in the world, it can make for very exciting soccer.

Its hard to explain the love for it but you are living the life with all of your women loving soccer in the house. I would kill for that.
 
Kdawg954 said:
Saw this late but I'll chime in. First off, being half German/half American . . . soccer runs in my blood. I flew to Germany for the 2006 World Cup and its an experience I will never forget. No Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup or NBA championship can compare to the insaneness of the World Cup, and this is coming from somebody who was at Game 7 in 1997 when the Marlins won it all. The streets of Center City Berlin had over 1,000,000 people for a damn round of 16 match with Sweden. So much strategy, most countries have soccer teams for every city, including cities with less than 1,000 people. It is religion.

I can understand the "soccer" is boring notion you can get when you haven't grew up watching it. There is alot of possession involved, but alot of it is strategy. Think football, except you can't use your hands. You need to march down the field, without using your hands, and get by a goalkeeper who can use his hands. It is like defending the triple option in football . . . assignment football . . . one slip and a team takes advantage. Also remember, almost everybody in these countries played soccer from birth so it is a respect factor involved as well. To see guys do things on the soccer field its sort of like watching a great golfer. Golf can be boring to watch to many but when you see a guy hit a ball 230 yards from the rough and land it over the water 8 feet from the hole, you gotta enjoy stuff like that.

I don't watch much EPL to be honest with you, I love international soccer more . . . however I love Champion League soccer as well. Champion League pretty much takes the 32 best club soccer teams in Europe and they have a tournament that spans around 9 months or so. Some incredible soccer gets played. My favorite team is Bayern Munich. I'm actually a member of the club and I have already emailed them inquiring about Champions League final tickets for May 2012, which happens to be in Munich this year. If Bayern makes it to the final, I wanna be there. Then the atmosphere is incredible. While Stephen Ross is wanting fans to be comfortable in the stadium . . . these guys stand the entire time and sing and drink. Nothing beats being in a soccer stadium, nothing like it.

For you, watch the midfield play. If you get to watch a team like Barcelona, they are sometimes unbelieveable. There midfielder Xavi and Inesita are 2 of the greats in the world today. Incredible passes, creativity and then when you have forwards like Messi and Villa who can both finish like no others in the world, it can make for very exciting soccer.

Its hard to explain the love for it but you are living the life with all of your women loving soccer in the house. I would kill for that.
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Bayern Munich fan myself.

I think KD hit the nail on the head pretty much. It might seem like a bunch of idiots kicking a ball to outsiders, but it's much more than that. Soccer might be the most skilled team sport there is. Physical talent won't get you very far like in the case of football or basketball. It's all about conditioning and skill. I agree with KD about Barcelona, definitely one of the most fun teams to watch. Xavi and Iniesta are the 2 best passers in the sport, and Lionel Messi is one of the best scorers in the sport. So if you want to try and get into soccer, that would be a great start.
 
Just follow a team, I guess. For me, my family comes from Honduras. So, soccer is what I grew up. I'm a big fan of C.D. Motagua, a Honduran club, that plays in the national league which the level of talent is incredibly low. Still, I follow the team for a long time and enjoy the glory moments.

Also, a Newcastle United fan since like ...2002. I think. Just need to find a team.
 
Domon said:
Just follow a team, I guess. For me, my family comes from Honduras. So, soccer is what I grew up. I'm a big fan of C.D. Motagua, a Honduran club, that plays in the national league which the level of talent is incredibly low. Still, I follow the team for a long time and enjoy the glory moments.

Also, a Newcastle United fan since like ...2002. I think. Just need to find a team.
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Outside of Bayern, I also follow Koln (Cologne) in Bundesliga. It gets complicated because you have 2nd tier and 3rd tier leagues . . hell even the smallest of the smallest towns have teams and compete. Koln went down some years ago and worked their way back up and have been steady in the Bundelsiga I for a few years now. I agree, just follow a team and go with it.

If the United States EVER wants to take the next step in soccer, they they need to buy there way into the Champions League or something. Have one automatic qualifier and one playoff qualifier. Get there players exposed to that brand of soccer because the elite players play in Europe.
 
Well, Koln, like many other small clubs, have long history and traditions that appeals to the locals. Similar to St. Pauli. Nothing wrong to support the local team even if they don't compete with the big dogs.
 
You know its funny, many people in Europe would consider American Football boring considering all the stoppages and that a game can last for up to three hours, yet I hear alot of North Americans claim soccer is boring for the reasons you pointed out.

I dont think you can go wrong watching games from any of the top league in Europe (Spain, England, Germany mostly). If you want to see the best quality of football/ best players in the world then stick with the English Premiership or La Liga. However the quality of the players and the league doesn't always guarantee the best games, as you can see a good game mostly every weekend in any league.

My advice would be pick a team, watch their games for a few weeks in a row, thus becoming more interested in the team and the sport the more you watch it.

As for soccer being just a bunch of idiots kicking a ball around a field, its easy to say the same for any sport that you dont take an interest in? But their is always so much more to every sport. With soccer, you try to outsmart the opposition, whether its by the tactics you implement, the type of players you play, what style football you play, the tempo you want to play, the quality of the opposition, etc. Funny thing is,all those examples I just mentioned,you can apply to American football also.
 
Kdawg954 said:
If the United States EVER wants to take the next step in soccer, they they need to buy there way into the Champions League or something. Have one automatic qualifier and one playoff qualifier. Get there players exposed to that brand of soccer because the elite players play in Europe.
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I think US teams would be better suited trying to get into the Copa Libertadores, as Mexican teams already play in the that competition, so it would not be that much of a stretch to get teams from the US into it. Would allow US players to be exposed to more competitive games on a regular basis and teams that play football differently.

The sheer logistics to trying to get US teams in the Champions league just wouldn't work and European teams would be flat against the idea of traveling to the US to play. Most Europeans are quite arrogant with regards to football outside of Europe and South America. Alot of them dont respect the US in soccer terms.

For me, the biggest problem with football in the US is the college system. It basically means MLS teams are unable to develop their own players at a young age and also colleges dont give soccer the same funding as Football, basketball, baseball, etc. Therefore youth players are not getting the top coaching in order to take them to the next level.
 
It's the typical argument that most Americans make about soccer, that it's boring. If you ask they'll tell you that there is not a lot of scoring. Soccer is a game of skill, and if you ever played it you'll know that when you have 11 players looking for the same ball scoring is not that easy. If you watch good professional soccer played it is a thing of beauty. Better yet, play it yourself if you can. Ultimately it is a cultural thing, you grow up a certain sport chances are you'll be a fan. In the U.S., soccer is a sport that is played mostly by women (US Women's soccer team is #1 in the world). It's hard change a sports culture mainly dominated by football and baseball. So my advice to you in watching the games is, don't focus so much on the score but take a look at the skill involved in the game. Pay attention to the skill of individual players, how the teams defend the goal, how they attack, how they control (pass) the ball. If you make an effort to learn the game in time you'll begin to appreciate this sport, it is after all the most popular sport in the world.
 
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