The other football....

[BamaGrad03 0]

Its soccer, if your kids arent playing, who cares?

241357[/snapback]

Ditto.

Soccer is sort of like basketball; the only reason people play it is so they don't have to watch it.

241367[/snapback]

Please put the crackpipe down. To compare soccer to basketball is down right insanity.

[Argo 8]

As for a worldwide football league, I thought we did that already. Have you forgotten about the World League of American Football. I think it last just one season didn't. Then NFL Europe developed from it. Anybody got an Birmingham Fire memoribila?

241400[/snapback]

Ironically, I named my fantasy football team the "Birmingham Fire" last night in the CT league. Yeah, I remember it, but I think I was 7 or 8. Was it an actual "world league", or just named world league?

[Captain Liger 0]

Its soccer, if your kids arent playing, who cares?

241357[/snapback]

Ditto.

Soccer is sort of like basketball; the only reason people play it is so they don't have to watch it.

241367[/snapback]

Please put the crackpipe down. To compare soccer to basketball is down right insanity.

241402[/snapback]

OK then. I'll make a comparison that is a little more sane.

Soccer is sort of like Alabama football; it sucks.

There.

[Captain Liger 0]

Soccer is sort of like basketball; the only reason people play it is so they don't have to watch it.

241367[/snapback]

Calm down and stop hatin' on basketball.

241382[/snapback]

I gots to hate on somethin', you hardly come around anymore.

[TexasTiger 12,922]

Wow, just took a goal away.... 

You know, alot of these players would make great actors...  I think I've seen about 4 Italy players just fall on the ground acting like they've just been shot, only to get right up and start playing.

241333[/snapback]

yeah...you gotta love the acting jobs these guys do when somebody knocks them down. You would think the broke their freakin leg

241334[/snapback]

Sounds like a punter faking a roughing call. What's the difference?

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

I'm going to be the heretic and admit I love soccer almost as much as i love college football, but this is what i don't get. There are many sports I don't understand and wouldn't walk across the street to watch, but I'm not hostile toward them. What's the deal w/ the anger toward soccer? Unitl I blew out my knee 3 years ago, I played soccer since 1971 (including some of the best times I had @ Auburn, from 81-85) as well as high school football (on the state runners up). Soccer fans (at least in most of the world) hate the players sucking up to the ref by rolling around just as much as you do. Offsides in soccer (or hockey for that matter) is like offsides in football, it limits activity but there's reasoning behind the rule. One of the reasons people freak out so much when a goal is scored in soccer (e.g. GOALLLLLLLLLLL) is BECAUSE a goal is so rare. I think this adds to the excitement when a goal is scored or almost scored. (Incidentally, 3-1 in soccer is 21-7 in football, maybe we should count each goal as 10 points, then there would be "more scoring"). If you thought today's 1-1 tie was exciting, you may see what I mean.

Soccer in this country is (fortunately) past the point of having to "sell" itself to folks that don't care for it, but if it burns you up, turn the channel.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

I'm going to be the heretic and admit I love soccer almost as much as i love college football, but this is what i don't get. There are many sports I don't understand and wouldn't walk across the street to watch, but I'm not hostile toward them. What's the deal w/ the anger toward soccer?

Ya this one always cracks me up, people just have to tell you how much they hate the sport. Usually obese, middle age males that are left with nothing but glory stories of how they beat some small town in Class 2A HS football... if they even played.

Soccer fans (at least in most of the world) hate the players sucking up to the ref by rolling around just as much as you do.

Correct. Can't stand it when I watch it, go down to get a call but don't act like your dying. On the field I liked melodramatic actors, refs usually knew they were actors and you could foul the #$%^ out of them up and down the field and rarely get called for it. NBA and baseball is following suite now though and getting its share of actors.

US team didn't pull any acting today, good for them.

[Captain Liger 0]

Ugh, I hate soccer. It's so boring that it makes watching grass grow look exciting. Spare me.

I do love the hooligans though. Nothing says "your team sucks" quite like throwing darts at the opposing team's fans. I'll be glad when we can get some of that going on at JHS when bama comes to visit.

Remember these two guys???

"Now THAT was first rate hooligany!!"

[TigersTalons 10]

Another bs call and now the US is down to 9 men. That ref is a moron. No wonder soccer has so many riots. Soccer refs have more control of their sport then any ref in any other sport.

241325[/snapback]

It is the Italians isn't most of the premier league under investigation {players and refs}for fixing games?!!

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

Also, the game is not conducive to innovation.  With football, we've seen the evolution of different offenses over time:  single wing, T, I, pro set, double wing, wishbone, veer, west coast, spread option, etc.  It's always changing and the defenses have to adapt.  With soccer, ... you kick the ball down the field & hope someone can head the ball in from a corner kick. 

Actually have been several formation changes though the years, especially in the use of number of midfielders and their attacking and defensive responsibilities (which is zone, man to man, and man/zone combinations.. a very adaptable and changing man/zone is what is used most often). And damn, overlapping runs, diagnol runs, proper use of for opening space, forcing overloads and proper use/recognition of for switching the field etc etc etc. and all we had to do was kick the ball downfield and hope it went out for a corner kick.

I won't insult you and pretend to know as much about football offenses as you do about soccer offenses cause I don't have kids that play the sport. Now correct me if I am wrong, but the offensive designs are done so to break apart defenses in seperate ways with different looks. But when it comes down to it, a 3 step 5 yard out is a 3 step 5 yard out in the I, the West Coast, the Pro-set, or the A set. So both sports regardless have its basic constants.

No innovation though? The game is based off innovation. There is no predesigned plays to attack except after fouls. You can throw any defense on the field that you want and run them in any preset manner you want and come up with any play you want and out of any type of formation you want. I'll take 7 guys that can think the game, give them no preset play, no formation, just say score and they will beat your D.... easily if you confine them to formation structure and preset zone coverages or man coverages. Lol, look at the difference in compliments. You get a big gain in football.... good play way to execute. You score or open up a good scoring oppurtunity in soccer....... it was a brillant idea.

Course your comment supports the general European/South American attitude toward American soccer that was held for years and still is but not as strongly... that Americans are unable to think the game above a one dimensional level.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

Ugh, I hate soccer. It's so boring that it makes watching grass grow look exciting. Spare me.

I do love the hooligans though. Nothing says "your team sucks" quite like throwing darts at the opposing team's fans. I'll be glad when we can get some of that going on at JHS when bama comes to visit.

Remember these two guys???

"Now THAT was first rate hooligany!!"

241414[/snapback]

Ugh Saturday Night Live, some of the worst television... if not the worst, for the past 15 years. Talk about dumbing down America, hell it even makes British comedy look funny.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

I can't wait for the day that the world decides they want a world league to play American football.  It won't even be close.

241384[/snapback]

Maybe the first year or two or three it wouldn't, European sports don't include many athletes that are prone to develop metabolic syndrome so they wouldn't have the size for linemen, nor do they have the obesity rates we do in the United States.

Far as being physical, I have no question that those rugby boys givin pads can handle easily any lick any American could put on them.

It would be just like where other American sports are going. Athletes just want money and complain or cry about its the offseason.... let someone else play for the United States. Then we would get our butts kicked by other countries who's players would be winning the MVP's in the NFL. The whole while commenting about how superior American athletes are and making excuses for losing.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

Another bs call and now the US is down to 9 men. That ref is a moron. No wonder soccer has so many riots. Soccer refs have more control of their sport then any ref in any other sport.

241325[/snapback]

Yup this ref sucked really bad. From Uruguay. Mastreoni should have gotten a yellow at the worst and Popes second yellow was BS, his first was also. Italian striker did a good job of concealing himself grabing Pope's jersey and pulling him down on top of him (old striker trick).

All the carding sucks, FIFA has told them to crack down on things, but it is ridiculas at the moment. Your right they do have alot of control. Most games used to go like the last 20 minutes of the US game did (notice he pulled no cards, didn't call anything that was close, only very clear deliberate fouls) today. Soccer refs have a ton of control on the game if they want. Wish in this crackdown they would start carding the dives like they are suppose to, but I havn't seen one yet for a dive.

Prior to the 2002 World Cup you pratically had to break someone's leg or pull a gun and shoot them to get a second yellow or a red card.... even the first yellow.

[blue93 0]

This constant "I Love Soccer, I hate Soccer" is useless. This is the football board?

[SKCAUB 0]

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!

[BamaGrad03 0]

Wow, just took a goal away.... 

You know, alot of these players would make great actors...  I think I've seen about 4 Italy players just fall on the ground acting like they've just been shot, only to get right up and start playing.

241333[/snapback]

yeah...you gotta love the acting jobs these guys do when somebody knocks them down. You would think the broke their freakin leg

241334[/snapback]

Sounds like a punter faking a roughing call. What's the difference?

241410[/snapback]

1) Punter's dont get carried off in stretchers

2) Its ONLY punters, who are kickers...who are jokingly considered the weenies of the team. Its not EVERY SINGLE player on the team...who goes down and writhes in pain because they got sneezed on...

3) When a punter flops, it cant lead to a guy getting tossed...a team having to play the REST of the game with 10 players...and a team having to play without a key player in the NEXT game

[SKCAUB 0]

Wow, just took a goal away.... 

You know, alot of these players would make great actors...  I think I've seen about 4 Italy players just fall on the ground acting like they've just been shot, only to get right up and start playing.

241333[/snapback]

yeah...you gotta love the acting jobs these guys do when somebody knocks them down. You would think the broke their freakin leg

241334[/snapback]

Sounds like a punter faking a roughing call. What's the difference?

241410[/snapback]

1) Punter's dont get carried off in stretchers

2) Its ONLY punters, who are kickers...who are jokingly considered the weenies of the team. Its not EVERY SINGLE player on the team...who goes down and writhes in pain because they got sneezed on...

3) When a punter flops, it cant lead to a guy getting tossed...a team having to play the REST of the game with 10 players...and a team having to play without a key player in the NEXT game

241439[/snapback]

Let's all watch paint dry...it's more exciting....

[Wishbone 0]

I don't really care for sports in general. I like Auburn football because I went to school there and grew up an avid football fan. I can't bring myself to watch any other sport with the exception being World Cup Soccer. The reasons are similar. The passion behind the sports are super intense. American football, SEC football particulary in this case, has more strategy and overall intense game play due to the design of the sport itself, however World Cup soccer has more passion, as hard as that is to believe, since it only happens once every 4 years and the nation's pride is on the line. World Cup soccer is happening on a scale dealing with billions, while SEC football as awesome and intense as it is, deals with a scale of 10's of millions of people. Also, World Cup Soccer is kind of like my sports vacation where i get to experience what the rest of the world is up to.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. Some people have a curiosity about the world around them and others don't share that same curiosity.

The only other kinds of sports I might watch are the occasional strongman comp. or something else that might provide an occasional singular interest for a passing moment.

[DKW 86 7,425]

Think I will go fertilize the grass now...It would be more interesting.

[Captain Liger 0]

The History Channel is running a good series on the Revolution if anyone is interested. Later, I think Modern Marvels will run a repeat of its special on "Concrete."

Long live American futbol...I mean football.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

Wow, just took a goal away.... 

You know, alot of these players would make great actors...  I think I've seen about 4 Italy players just fall on the ground acting like they've just been shot, only to get right up and start playing.

241333[/snapback]

yeah...you gotta love the acting jobs these guys do when somebody knocks them down. You would think the broke their freakin leg

241334[/snapback]

Sounds like a punter faking a roughing call. What's the difference?

241410[/snapback]

1) Punter's dont get carried off in stretchers

2) Its ONLY punters, who are kickers...who are jokingly considered the weenies of the team. Its not EVERY SINGLE player on the team...who goes down and writhes in pain because they got sneezed on...

3) When a punter flops, it cant lead to a guy getting tossed...a team having to play the REST of the game with 10 players...and a team having to play without a key player in the NEXT game

241439[/snapback]

Acting for a foul is acting for a foul. I really don't why they use the stretcher they just always have, in American football players with leg injuries are carried off by the training staff.

I personally don't like the severe acting that some players do and its over the top, never have. It has its strats though, get the card on the other guy and he has to loosen up his marking (like when a player in basketball gets foul problems). They also try and cover their mistakes with it to stop breaks that can result from the turnover. Do you complain if a punter pulls off a acting job and your team gets to maintain possession of the ball or it results in a first down when the kicker fakes it and end up with TD instead of a FG? Doubtful. And lets be clear with football kickers, 9 out of 10 times they are the kids that couldn't cut it on the soccer field. Players in basketball flop all the time trying to get charges, putting the other guy in foul trouble and gain possesion of the ball. How many basketball players do you see stay down, acting like they are in pain when they think it might be a flagrant foul... which can result in a player getting ejected. Baseball players fake injuries all the time when a pitch barely knicks their jersey, wither in pain, go see the training staff. Umpire starts watching those inside pitches, and pitcher has to be careful with them or he could ejected.. moves the ball back out of the plate. In soccer your faking ankle/knee injuries, kinda hard to sell it if your walking around.... just like faking arm injuries in basketball and baseball they let the arm go limp, lean over, and cradle it. In football there is no advantage with faking the injury. Though I have seen quite a few players that got burned act like they are injured and them pop up and are back in two plays later.

They have been ridiculas with the cards this year, Beckenbaur who is a German legend and head of the German league has complained about the amount of cards and what they are being given for. Basically the cards work like personal fouls in football, in football if you get two personal fouls your ejected from the game. In basketball if you get two technical fouls your ejected from the game. Penalty to the player and team is just more severe in soccer.

Problem is they are giving the cards for everything, cause FIFA told them to crack down and they are severly overdoing it. Like 10 years ago you had something like 95 cards givin for the entire tourny, they have given out over 100 this year already and group play has not even finished.

If the slide tackles are so innocent, and can't result in injuries, and only hurt sissies, then why does college baseball have a rule in it that protects defensive players from slides? The same type of positioning and slides that soccer players deal with every day. Honestly most that complain about the sport have never played at a high competitive level, and most of them would get injured and be withering on the ground and limping off the field. Or perhaps kids that play in Alabama are just weenies, cause when we would play Alabama teams they got injured and their parents constantly complained about how we were too physical and cheap. Alabama and Kansas, biggest cry babies we ever played.

We can test it if you want though, even put money down. Two tackles, first you run at full speed and let me also at full speed cleated slide through you ankle. Then you put all your weight on one leg and let me slide cleated full speed through that ankle. Since its all acting, if you scream, limp, or stay down I win. I'll even return the favor and let you tackle me American football style, used to play no pad tackle with kids that played at Texas, Oklahoma, aTm etc all the time. Part of the problem with the actors, unless you have experienced it at a competitive level you have no idea how much it hurts.... all you see is the acting and it overshadows it.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Well lets see...

for starters...you might see one or two flops in a basketball game. And no when they go down they dont SCREAM and CRY every single time like in soccer. And no, they never come off of the strectcher unless something is sticking out of some other thing that it shouldnt.

Secondly, to say kickers are soccer players who couldnt hack it is funny.

Third...to compare a kicker flopping to an ENTIRE GAME'S strategy being built around the ability to flop is weak. If the kicker flops...it leads to 15 yards...not to a guy getting ejected, the team playing a man down, and they guy having to SIT OUT THE NEXT GAME. That is freaking stupid. In a sport that is already ruled by how subjective a ref is...to allow subjectivity to be even more impressed upon by actors and crybabies removes the "athletic" part that is necessary for it to be a sport.

A better test would be for you to repeat every single soccer tackle on someone that happened in a game. And see just how many of those require me to leave on a stretcher...or even roll around screaming and whining. Not just the worst possible soccer tackle that happens a little bit of the time. Then you let me attempt every single type of tackle that makes people scream and yell on the football field (which is like less than 1%). And usually is the result of something bone or appendage pointing in an unintended direction until reset by a physician or trainer.

For the record...ive been playing basketball all my life...ive seen a guy try and deke the ref into calling a flagrant maybe twice. Contrast that with the amount of guys screaming and yelling after a soccer tackle...the percentage is much higher.

[freebody 0]

Wow, just took a goal away.... 

You know, alot of these players would make great actors...  I think I've seen about 4 Italy players just fall on the ground acting like they've just been shot, only to get right up and start playing.

241333[/snapback]

yeah...you gotta love the acting jobs these guys do when somebody knocks them down. You would think the broke their freakin leg

241334[/snapback]

Sounds like a punter faking a roughing call. What's the difference?

241410[/snapback]

1) Punter's dont get carried off in stretchers

2) Its ONLY punters, who are kickers...who are jokingly considered the weenies of the team. Its not EVERY SINGLE player on the team...who goes down and writhes in pain because they got sneezed on...

3) When a punter flops, it cant lead to a guy getting tossed...a team having to play the REST of the game with 10 players...and a team having to play without a key player in the NEXT game

241439[/snapback]

Acting for a foul is acting for a foul. I really don't why they use the stretcher they just always have, in American football players with leg injuries are carried off by the training staff.

I personally don't like the severe acting that some players do and its over the top, never have. It has its strats though, get the card on the other guy and he has to loosen up his marking (like when a player in basketball gets foul problems). They also try and cover their mistakes with it to stop breaks that can result from the turnover. Do you complain if a punter pulls off a acting job and your team gets to maintain possession of the ball or it results in a first down when the kicker fakes it and end up with TD instead of a FG? Doubtful. And lets be clear with football kickers, 9 out of 10 times they are the kids that couldn't cut it on the soccer field. Players in basketball flop all the time trying to get charges, putting the other guy in foul trouble and gain possesion of the ball. How many basketball players do you see stay down, acting like they are in pain when they think it might be a flagrant foul... which can result in a player getting ejected. Baseball players fake injuries all the time when a pitch barely knicks their jersey, wither in pain, go see the training staff. Umpire starts watching those inside pitches, and pitcher has to be careful with them or he could ejected.. moves the ball back out of the plate. In soccer your faking ankle/knee injuries, kinda hard to sell it if your walking around.... just like faking arm injuries in basketball and baseball they let the arm go limp, lean over, and cradle it. In football there is no advantage with faking the injury. Though I have seen quite a few players that got burned act like they are injured and them pop up and are back in two plays later.

They have been ridiculas with the cards this year, Beckenbaur who is a German legend and head of the German league has complained about the amount of cards and what they are being given for. Basically the cards work like personal fouls in football, in football if you get two personal fouls your ejected from the game. In basketball if you get two technical fouls your ejected from the game. Penalty to the player and team is just more severe in soccer.

Problem is they are giving the cards for everything, cause FIFA told them to crack down and they are severly overdoing it. Like 10 years ago you had something like 95 cards givin for the entire tourny, they have given out over 100 this year already and group play has not even finished.

If the slide tackles are so innocent, and can't result in injuries, and only hurt sissies, then why does college baseball have a rule in it that protects defensive players from slides? The same type of positioning and slides that soccer players deal with every day. Honestly most that complain about the sport have never played at a high competitive level, and most of them would get injured and be withering on the ground and limping off the field. Or perhaps kids that play in Alabama are just weenies, cause when we would play Alabama teams they got injured and their parents constantly complained about how we were too physical and cheap. Alabama and Kansas, biggest cry babies we ever played.

We can test it if you want though, even put money down. Two tackles, first you run at full speed and let me also at full speed cleated slide through you ankle. Then you put all your weight on one leg and let me slide cleated full speed through that ankle. Since its all acting, if you scream, limp, or stay down I win. I'll even return the favor and let you tackle me American football style, used to play no pad tackle with kids that played at Texas, Oklahoma, aTm etc all the time. Part of the problem with the actors, unless you have experienced it at a competitive level you have no idea how much it hurts.... all you see is the acting and it overshadows it.

241518[/snapback]

Is there a FIFA-sanctioned "Franz" Broyles award? You got some bad comps there. Baseball slides are intended to take out the 2B/SS to prevent the DP - the soccer slide should be an attempt to disown the ball. Guys who have leg injuries in football are truly injured, they aren't faking for a call, and won't be making a "heroic" re-entrance moments later. Prothro/Closner/Britt definitely weren't faking (although if I were caught wearing dark pink in front of thousands, I would want a quick ride out of there as well, but not with the floppy leg stuff!) And, football kickers are soccer rejects - yeah cause there are so many opportunities for scholarships to play in front of thousands in soccer. (Duval was a terrible soccer player - so was a guy from Hewitt I played against who kicked for Miami back in the very early 90's). Basketball players flop only to draw a charge, and are not faking a melodramatic injury.

I grew up playing soccer in Alabama, all the way up through high school in the late 80s - one of the first four-year lettermen in school history (along with 2 classmates), third on the team in goals scored (since I was nearly a half-foot taller than most of the guys, I was the target on many corners), so I was not a complete scab. Soccer was fun, but you know what ruined it for me? Super rah-rah soccer-is-great year-round expensive club season no-time-for-other sports "weenies" like what you are sounding like. After a couple of years at Auburn, I decided to go play soccer on the club team. At the third practice, I went a block up Thatch and met a group of much less pretentious guys, playing a sport that was more fun (at least to me) and had a much better time doing it, and by the end of spring I was a scrummie in the first 15. (No doubt you've heard that soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen).

So what would you prove by cleating a guy? That it hurts? That's not the argument being made here, because the fakers are not receiving that type of contact - the closest I saw was the first US red card. So, what I see is that you are offering to cheap-shot somebody who likely has never played soccer, to prove what a great cool soccer player you are/were? That would be a deliberate and legitimate foul, which I have seen to cause broken ankles and fibulas - doesn't do anything to offset the fact that the fakers and Ernest Angley miraculous sideline healings sully the "beautiful game" to an ugly foreign spectacle with at times all the fairness and honesty of figure skating.

So, if I take you up on the toughguy slide tackle, and ruck over you to return the favor, what would that prove? (Although it should be noted that one, the way you describe, is a foul that should result in a card, and the other is a legal and fair play within the flow of the game). If you're trying to impress or win over these soccer haters with that bravado, I would expect it to have the opposite effect. You come across more as that fat over-forty guy bragging about hs football glory days. Don't be the soccer equivalent of Al Bundy. Just accept that some people will never get it, and that's OK - a lot of people don't get rugby, cricket, tennis, bowling, curling, .......

[BamaGrad03 0]

Man Rugby is awesome...but I also know that Im not man enough to play it. At least i know my limits heh.

[SKCAUB 0]

Ugh, I hate soccer. It's so boring that it makes watching grass grow look exciting. Spare me.

I do love the hooligans though. Nothing says "your team sucks" quite like throwing darts at the opposing team's fans. I'll be glad when we can get some of that going on at JHS when bama comes to visit.

Remember these two guys???

"Now THAT was first rate hooligany!!"

241414[/snapback]

Ugh Saturday Night Live, some of the worst television... if not the worst, for the past 15 years. Talk about dumbing down America, hell it even makes British comedy look funny.

241417[/snapback]

SIMMA DAH NAH!!!