Sometimes Indycar appeal to American race fans is compared to the appeal of Soccer to Americans.
Whatever your view, the following about soccer is funny:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...226957316.html
Sometimes Indycar appeal to American race fans is compared to the appeal of Soccer to Americans.
Whatever your view, the following about soccer is funny:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...226957316.html
The article was scoreless halfway through so i stopped reading...
"The number of threads by one poster in the OT is getting a little out of hand, IMHO. "
"In the land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness...If we speak..we say it the wrong way; if we do not speak we are cowards…."
ermmm? Kylie Minogue is Australian thus not from Europe. lolMuch like Kylie Minogue and Mister Bean and fascism, soccer is a European import that Americans do not need.
Stellar Journalism in general.
Someone should point out the author that Olympic soccer is a tournament that no first world country with professional soccer leagues actually takes seriously. Up until this year Great Britain has not bothered to enter a team for almost 40 years, France, Spain, Germany etc for the most part don't bother either. It shouldn't really even be an Olympic sport, but that's another debate.
Anyway that's why it gets no coverage. Nobody that actually follows the sport cares one single iota about men's Olympic soccer.
Well, indoor soccer, loaded with scoring, never took off in this country either. The author shoots and misses.
No surprise at all. You cannot throw a soccer ball but you can throw a football.That is the biggest reason soccer will never be big in America.
So some ******* writes for a newspaper that shouldn't even have a sports section. Big freaking deal.Originally Posted by lkchris
"It takes a special level of incompetance to make a schedule this terrible. America is possibly the greatest country in the world overall for tracks. To make a bad schedule in America takes effort. A special kind of effort. A kind of effort that only IndyCar could come up with."
Excelent article on the "sport of the next generation" (three generations and counting).
Soccer is the most repugnant, vile, and fundamentally un-American thing in the world. Despite 1000s forms of Big Media trying to shove this down out throats for decades, all Right Thinking Americans (and Canadians) continue to reject this pointless sport and continue to keep it in its proper place, as a game for girl children.
The fundamental point of the soccer versus actual sports divide is cultural. North America is an advanced culture, the most advanced in the history of the world. It has complex sports with actual points. Europe and South America have soccer.
^ May surprise you to know that Americans were playing "soccer" long before gridiron was invented. And yes, games like football and cricket need a level of concentration and tactical acuity that means you have to wait longer than 4 seconds before someone scores. But we're intelligent enough to cope with that.
Some countries do take it seriously, because it provides their best chance for a gold medal. Argentina for example.
"An emphasis was placed on drivers with road racing backgrounds which meant drivers from open wheel, oval track racing were at a disadvantage. That led Tony George to create the IRL." -Indy Review 1996
One of the stupidest posts I've ever read on track forum. Before you start trying to push the "North America is an advanced culture" bit, try to remember that Nascar and WWE were invented here.
And Americans buy Chevies.
And, I see it as even more humor that someone from Australia was identifed as European ... kind of makes the point, right?
Humor and satire escape most, it appears.
Okay I have lurked here but I signed up to post just because of this comment alone - funny that it's not even about racing.
Soccer is the most accessible and played sport in the United States when it comes to youth. It takes FAR MORE skill than football and many other sports because each player has to encompass every aspect of the sport itself - not just defensive, offensive positioning - or "throwing a ball". It's also a very dangerous sport when played at it's highest levels (speaking of youth specifically).
The reason it's not as popular as football is both an organizational issue as well as a demographic issue - specific to age. But that is changing with how clubs who participate in Pre-DA/DA are positioning players and stacking their coaches to "develop" rather than playing off the score board. The effort is as well trickling down into recreational programs where we are now seeing many college players volunteering to coach - as well as many clubs helping recreational soccer grow. Basically the stick and ball coaches are being replaced with parents who actually played the sport.
As this increases (slowly) the sport will grow more and become more popular - probably never as popular as American Football - which I frankly love, but it will grow nonetheless.
Your comment of "Girl Children" is absolutely a joke - maybe that's it - you're joking right??? Let me guess you kid played rec and could not figure it out?
Laughable - why you need to bash a sport enjoyed by millions of kids at all levels of play is beyond me. If you don't like it fine but to call these kids out in such a childish way is completely ignorant.
My 15 year old is at Dallas Cup this week. He's a Keeper and he can throw a ball.
Do they throw balls in NASCAR? Aren't they big?
Wow!
Good luck to him! A good performance at Dallas Cup can make for a much cheaper college bill! Got a bunch of friends who were recruited at that tourney.
"Unfortunately, the business types who now permeate the sport don't share this same gut centered devotion. I can only hope that the truly addicted will prevail, and that the original spirit of open wheel competition will somehow manage to survive and prosper into the future."
-Dr. Stephen Olvey
All of whom grow up to watch American sports, like football, baseball, or auto racing. As stated, the sport of the "next generation". Three generations and counting.
Minor League Soccer, the NASL2, will go the way of its pointless predecssor within five years. Nobody is watching. Nobody cares. There are more baseball fans in Evansville than soccer fans in the entire USA.
I've always said that if they gave them 7 points for each goal instead of 1, soccer would have about the same amount of scoring as NFL Football.
lollll this is one of the best "out of touch old man" gimmick trolls I've seen in awhile.All of whom grow up to watch American sports, like football, baseball, or auto racing. As stated, the sport of the "next generation". Three generations and counting.
Thanks - we are in the quarter-final today at 130PM. I wish I was there with the rest of them - getting that far in any sport is something incredibly special.
Our club is doing very well altogether with 4 teams representing Illinois - boys should be very proud and yes many of them will get full rides and 2-3 have a shot at going pro if they choose to stay in it.
1. Its only that way because its organized day care for parents. A chance for their kiddo or kiddos to run around for an hour and get themselves tired. And while they are running around, the parents can go shopping or talk to their friends.
Once those kids become old enough to know better, they move on to other sports.
2. Who cares? It probably takes more "skills" to race in Formula 1 then it does in NASCAR. Nobody cares. We want to watch NASCAR. We don't want to watch F1.
Prime Minister of Gackland
Soccer would be more popular if it was marketed better and had a better TV contract.
I agree to some extent on the "day care" thing. There's a reason why the "soccer mom" is now a negative stereotype. My mom and dad wanted my brother and I to choose the sport we wanted and then they came and supported us. I was a baseball kid and my mom would take score while my dad made some extra bucks doing umpire duties. My brother was a football kid and we were always there to support him through his secondary school years. My cousins on the other hand were soccer kids. One time they played up here in a tournament and we went to support them only to find out that their mom wanted my mom to go shopping, and my uncle wanted to have idle chat with my dad. It was just day care for the kids to run around and kick the ball at each other.
I've tried to get into soccer before, but the concepts are just too abstract. In most American sports there is a set objective and strategy in order to win the game. In soccer there are formations, but mostly it's just getting the ball down, shooting and returning the favor. It's not because its a foreign sport either, I would take a single game of rugby sevens over a game of pro football any day. It's just that there is a whole bunch of nothing with splices of getting the ball into the box.
Right now we are seeing the popularity of soccer as it's going to be. Americans are going to back their teams in the World Cup because we are proud of our teams no matter what we do. However club soccer is going to be the niche sport, kinda like IndyCar racing is now. The MLS isn't going anywhere, but I think the growth is going to plateau right about here.
For some yes - for others no. There is a program called Academy where kids can play from 4-7 which is run by USSF certified coaches who have won State and Regional Championships - those parents are not there for day care. For those in recreational soccer - I would agree that half are there for the reasons you mention. However as quality coaches start to become involved and clubs start organizing youth programs to focus on development, parents finally see that there kids CAN become decent players and that is when the they become more involved as parents and less for social or babysitting reasons.
Not really. Many more today stay in soccer than before. Some stay in Rec and then play in Jr High and High School. MANY are now moving to travel or development/competitive clubs at earlier ages - u12 for example. Again it's here that the parents see what better coaching can do and they also see their kids enjoying the sport even more so. It goes back to what I said earlier - as better coaches permeate the Rec levels - soccer will grow.
Parents are getting smarter - they are moving their kids at earlier ages to clubs and DA clubs. Kids in clubs stay until high school and kids at DA clubs generally stay until college. The numbers in terms of youth players are on the largest increase ever in the US for competitive soccer. And in general for soccer altogether.
So kids stay in it all the way through - and at DA - they don't even waste time with high school soccer.
Who cares??? Some people do and some people don't but it sounds like you grabbed the Paff brush here. Fact is there are far more people in the world that watch F1 because of the call for a higher degree of technical innovation and driver skill. Heck more people probably now watch F1 for that reason than IndyCar in this country. It's a matter of personal taste.
On one hand I think as a game - American football is the best sport ever developed - so I watch it all the time (despite the fact that my Redskins are terrible). But I also enjoy the technical demands that Associated Football requires - so I watch that as well - but more so at a youth level because I enjoy seeing players learn and develop.
As far as Pro-Soccer is concerned, it's not even a blip on the radar. I'll concede that but that is a huge marketing failure. For example why in the hell could you buy 4-5 womens US World Cup jerseys and not one of them was for keeper Hope Solo? That's a huge waste of a marketing opportunity from Nike and the league altogether. But that's just one example. SamC said that the sport is shoved down the throat of people. I totally beg to differ in that most people could only name DB as a popular soccer player - and that's only because of his high salary and who he is married to.
If Nike and other sponsors actually spent 1/10th the time to market personalities as much as other sports, the sport itself would grow. But in reality they do not so it's only growth comes from the ground up - which is why it's tremendously slow in becoming mainstream.
I think as a game - for youth, it's FAR harder to comprehend then any other sport.
For example in football you are: Defensive end - this is what you do, Quarterback - this is what you do. In baseball you catch, throw, run and hit - pretty simple.
Soccer is more like basketball in that there is a bit of every part of the game in every position and if you do not learn it - you will only make it so far. The simple way - as you explain it, is to get the ball down field and score. While that could be said of basketball, polo, football and so on, in Soccer you need to know how to control the ball with your feet in a defensive and offensive manner - each person on a team must master that, not just block or punt.
That's what makes youth development soccer really rewarding to watch and coach. And I am not talking about rec - ugh that can be horribly painful to watch.
Most people here have probably not seen even a somewhat decent soccer game in their life so I don't expect to change any minds here. All I am saying is that you don't need to call out people as "girl children" and come off so arrogant about something you really have no exposure to.
There is a big difference between a quarterback throwing a touchdown and a goalie throwing the ball back into play!
Explain how so...
Short of getting sacked I beg to differ but I would really like to hear your argument on this one.
First of all good luck to your son.
All i am saying is that a quarterback can make a throw for a possible touchdown while a soccer goalie can only throw the ball back in play. In other words one can score points while the other cannot.
That has always made football more appealing to American youth in my opinion.
I agree - from a fan perspective - far more interesting!
Thanks
Just for the sake of argument, a quarterback cannot score points throwing the ball either. Without the receiver who catches the football in the endzone, it's just a incomplete pass.All i am saying is that a quarterback can make a throw for a possible touchdown while a soccer goalie can only throw the ball back in play. In other words one can score points while the other cannot.
new sig pending
The goalie can save penalties. A fairly rare occurrence, on a par with scoring a hat-trick.
Very true.Just for the sake of argument, a quarterback cannot score points throwing the ball either. Without the receiver who catches the football in the endzone, it's just a incomplete pass.
A good TV contract is tough to do in this country. Networks aren't all that fond of going nearly an hour without a commercial break.Soccer would be more popular if it was marketed better and had a better TV contract.
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