Ole, Ole Ole Ole!

[Skaag]

I am starting to understand why The Purge usually doesn't last for more than a few months in any game. You see post after post of "how the game could be better". But the truth seems to be, some of you are just to stubborn and set in your ways to be bothered with learning something new or rather live in the past instead of adapting to change.

International Football is full of measurable results and comparisons between the players and teams. Problem is, you may actually have to try and learn what they are instead of reading some stat sheet or being given a 1 min break between 10 secs of plays to watch 5 replays of what just happened. That is part of the beauty of the game. International Football is a flowing sport that is constantly changing and requires players to adapt to quickly during the course of play. Sadly, a lot of this is lost on people who have never played at a truly competitive level or been exposed to a culture of fans who understand what is taking place on the field.

I gotta lawl at the "You play to win" comment. Do you know how a tournament like the World Cup works? I guess NFL and Baseball teams should quit the season as soon as they lose a game. I mean, it should be a perfect season or whats the point, right? What idiots for cont. to play and realizing that a tournament or season is about more than just one game. Or how about those "stupid" teams that rest players against weaker teams or less important games in order to prepare for the later stages. You call that idiotic, I call that strategy. A tie in the first round of the World Cup is like being 500 for other sporting teams. You try and leave yourself in a good position to finish strong when the knock out or play off stage starts.


There are three big handicaps to International Football catching on in the US.

1) Diving and asking for calls: As Jake pointed out, American don't like this. It is seen as giving up or being a baby. I agree, this is something I think FIFA needs to do a better job of addressing. Depending on the league you watch, this has become less of an issue over the past 5 years. But the nature of soccer being a flowing sport makes it hard to police for the refs. This has lead to lots of debate on the use of replays, extra refs, and sensors to assist the field ref. But applying these changes across the whole globe and every league is much harder than just making such changes in 1 league like US sports. Also, the current President of FIFA is at the stage of being more worried about his legacy than the whats best for the sport. Something I am sure you Baseball and Hockey fans can relate to.

2) Poor use of replays and highlights: A player gets fouled, dives, or shanks a shot 20 yards wide of the goal and you see it replayed from diff. angles. Yet the build up play, footwork, and passing that lead up to those plays goes unnoticed to those who may have missed it during the play. Even watching the games in HD on 50+" TVS does not allow people to pick up all the skill and ability that goes into making plays happen. Highlights and replays are the best chance to help educate the viewers or show them what they may have missed. The best example of this is usually the post game report. When they have time to use fancy video replays and graphics to to explain it. They need to find ways to apply some of this during the game and make better use of their breaks in action to showcase these moments. I would rather watch a nice build up of play that happened 10mins ago in the game, than see the coach scratching his ass on the sideline or players sub on and off. Or the classic, show 2 secs of a player skying a ball, instead of the 3-4 great passes that produced the opportunity.

3) Old/stubborn and short attention span audience: I won't go into the whole attention span part because I think most of us can agree on that one. Sadly, a lot of US sports fans seem to have a hard time following more than 2 mins of action without being given a break to stuff their face with a hot dog or analyze a dozen diff stats based on 5 secs of play. This is not something isolated to just sports in the US and North America. But can be seen in everything from politics to movies.

Americans grew up on Baseball, US Football, and Basketball. It is what has been passed down through generations and something we feel most people can relate to in some way or another. The hardcore fan can sit down at a bar with someone who barely follows the team, and they can discuss the good and bad moments together. There is enough exposure in our culture that people have a basic understanding of the sport or what is "good and bad". This isn't true of International Football. Yes it has been in youth sports for awhile now, but high school, college, and semi-pro leagues are still relatively new in the states. These are the generations that will start the tradition of passing it down to their kids and grand kids.

But Americans are resistant to change or accepting of other peoples ideals. If it isn't American, why should we care? Thankfully, this is something slowly getting phased out with each generation as they are forced to face the reality of globalization and offered better education with regards to history and how our interactions affect one another.

I bet I could spend hours trying to explain even the more minor nuances of International Soccer I have taught to young kids to someone like Vllad, and still he would not get it. Not do to lack of intelligence, but because he doesn't want or care to learn something different. Which is fine, but you really shouldn't use your ignorance as an argument against something.