It is Olympic time which means competition in a bunch of sports most Americans don't care or even know about. But soccer, or Football as the entire world except us call it, has always been a subject of debate. Although this time around I think I might have found some explanation, at least for myself, on why we dog the world's most popular sport so much.
Random Olympic competition during the weekend and late at night is far better than most crap on TV so I find myself flipping through the 3 channels NBC is broadcasting on. I can't remember which teams were playing but it was an opening match in pool play. I found myself compelled to see how this hard fought match would end as the tension kept building towards the 90th minute of this deadlock. Then all of a sudden someone broke away and scored. I felt it! That weird excitement and I could understand why people go crazy when a goal is scored.
I woke up the other morning before work and turned on the TV to find the US down to Nigeria with about 15 minutes left. I watched the US bring out all the big guns, shooting at the goal from every angle and all the close calls that ensued. The US lost match but the flurry of activity was thrill enough.
So even though I still don't totally understand the finer rules (like how people are offsides), I have found myself glued to each soccer...I mean football match that comes on TV. Then I realized maybe this is similar to my feelings on hockey. For me, hockey is only good to watch when it is the NHL playoffs as opposed to a regular season game. The big reason is that the teams actually play hard cause each games means something. That is why I think I will continue to enjoy Olympic football and hate the MLS. Football is a grueling endurance sport. It really takes alot of conditioning to run that much. So that would be an obvious excuse not to give it your all without good reason.
Well right now football means something. For some of these countries this is the most important thing in their world because it may be the only thing they are truly good at. Thus, we Americans in our quest to be better at more things than anyone else have sorta given up on football at times. We realized that we could never get as much dedication out of our country for one single sport as the rest of the world seems to. So instead we created our own sports, got them into the Olympics and continue to kick everyone's ass in them because no one else really cares.
Friday, August 15, 2008
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2 comments:
I've always felt soccer's popularity worldwide is more socioeconomic than anything else. A vast majority of the world is poor, but can still play soccer. All you need a ball and some ground. Therefore youth pickup games are of soccer, not football, baseball or basketball (though the NBA has changed that some by building hoops everywhere in asia and europe. Then all people need is a ball.)
I think you hit the point. If you like competition and watching sports, you'll likely find some enjoyment and excitement out if played well and at a high level.
Bad or average sport is just that. If you don't have a personal bond to it, you ain't going to watch long.
Oh, and I think they spell it Futbol. (Not 100% sure on that though :)
I would still contend that it is more what we teach our children to play as a society. To play American Football all you need is a ball and some ground as well, or Rugby for that matter. How many kids grew up learning baseball with some rocks and a stick. The true success behind any sport is how society accepts it and how much they will support it. The countries that are tops in the world at Football would have comparable wealth to the US to play more complicated sports but instead they pump more of that money into Football. At the same time that is the part that I love about watching Football, the majority of the world is good at it so it is an open race. (Futbol would be the Spanish spelling)
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