World Cup

[coldwater coyotes]

what a horrible woman...

http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014- ... #read_more


MERICA'S FAVORITE NATIONAL PASTIME: HATING SOCCER
June 25, 2014

I've held off on writing about soccer for a decade -- or about the length of the average soccer game -- so as not to offend anyone. But enough is enough. Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation's moral decay.
(1) Individual achievement is not a big factor in soccer. In a real sport, players fumble passes, throw bricks and drop fly balls -- all in front of a crowd. When baseball players strike out, they're standing alone at the plate. But there's also individual glory in home runs, touchdowns and slam-dunks.
In soccer, the blame is dispersed and almost no one scores anyway. There are no heroes, no losers, no accountability, and no child's fragile self-esteem is bruised. There's a reason perpetually alarmed women are called "soccer moms," not "football moms."
Do they even have MVPs in soccer? Everyone just runs up and down the field and, every once in a while, a ball accidentally goes in. That's when we're supposed to go wild. I'm already asleep.
(2) Liberal moms like soccer because it's a sport in which athletic talent finds so little expression that girls can play with boys. No serious sport is co-ed, even at the kindergarten level.
(3) No other "sport" ends in as many scoreless ties as soccer. This was an actual marquee sign by the freeway in Long Beach, California, about a World Cup game last week: "2nd period, 11 minutes left, score: 0:0." Two hours later, another World Cup game was on the same screen: "1st period, 8 minutes left, score: 0:0." If Michael Jackson had treated his chronic insomnia with a tape of Argentina vs. Brazil instead of Propofol, he'd still be alive, although bored.
Even in football, by which I mean football, there are very few scoreless ties -- and it's a lot harder to score when a half-dozen 300-pound bruisers are trying to crush you.
(4) The prospect of either personal humiliation or major injury is required to count as a sport. Most sports are sublimated warfare. As Lady Thatcher reportedly said after Germany had beaten England in some major soccer game: Don't worry. After all, twice in this century we beat them at their national game.
Baseball and basketball present a constant threat of personal disgrace. In hockey, there are three or four fights a game -- and it's not a stroll on beach to be on ice with a puck flying around at 100 miles per hour. After a football game, ambulances carry off the wounded. After a soccer game, every player gets a ribbon and a juice box.
(5) You can't use your hands in soccer. (Thus eliminating the danger of having to catch a fly ball.) What sets man apart from the lesser beasts, besides a soul, is that we have opposable thumbs. Our hands can hold things. Here's a great idea: Let's create a game where you're not allowed to use them!
(6) I resent the force-fed aspect of soccer. The same people trying to push soccer on Americans are the ones demanding that we love HBO's "Girls," light-rail, Beyonce and Hillary Clinton. The number of New York Times articles claiming soccer is "catching on" is exceeded only by the ones pretending women's basketball is fascinating.
I note that we don't have to be endlessly told how exciting football is.
(7) It's foreign. In fact, that's the precise reason the Times is constantly hectoring Americans to love soccer. One group of sports fans with whom soccer is not "catching on" at all, is African-Americans. They remain distinctly unimpressed by the fact that the French like it.
(8) Soccer is like the metric system, which liberals also adore because it's European. Naturally, the metric system emerged from the French Revolution, during the brief intervals when they weren't committing mass murder by guillotine.
Despite being subjected to Chinese-style brainwashing in the public schools to use centimeters and Celsius, ask any American for the temperature, and he'll say something like "70 degrees." Ask how far Boston is from New York City, he'll say it's about 200 miles.


Liberals get angry and tell us that the metric system is more "rational" than the measurements everyone understands. This is ridiculous. An inch is the width of a man's thumb, a foot the length of his foot, a yard the length of his belt. That's easy to visualize. How do you visualize 147.2 centimeters?
(9) Soccer is not "catching on." Headlines this week proclaimed "Record U.S. ratings for World Cup," and we had to hear -- again -- about the "growing popularity of soccer in the United States."
The USA-Portugal game was the blockbuster match, garnering 18.2 million viewers on ESPN. This beat the second-most watched soccer game ever: The 1999 Women's World Cup final (USA vs. China) on ABC. (In soccer, the women's games are as thrilling as the men's.)
Run-of-the-mill, regular-season Sunday Night Football games average more than 20 million viewers; NFL playoff games get 30 to 40 million viewers; and this year's Super Bowl had 111.5 million viewers.
Remember when the media tried to foist British soccer star David Beckham and his permanently camera-ready wife on us a few years ago? Their arrival in America was heralded with 24-7 news coverage. That lasted about two days. Ratings tanked. No one cared.
If more "Americans" are watching soccer today, it's only because of the demographic switch effected by Teddy Kennedy's 1965 immigration law. I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer. One can only hope that, in addition to learning English, these new Americans will drop their soccer fetish with time.

[Driver Love]

With all due respect, I have to agree with much of that. Obviously she can be smarmy as it is her job to be provocative, but she makes a number of good points and I could pile on 10 more points about how and why soccer is painful to watch in its current form.

[coldwater coyotes]

How could anybody possibly consider that enjoying playing soccer or watching the world cup is "a sign of the nation's moral decay"
What absolute nonsense. How can someone possibly think this way???? Absolute embarrassment to the US intellect.

[mattjb]

With all due respect, I have to agree with much of that. Obviously she can be smarmy as it is her job to be provocative, but she makes a number of good points and I could pile on 10 more points about how and why soccer is painful to watch in its current form.

As we say in the UK, that is a load of old bollocks mate.

[Driver Love]

As we say in the USA, if you cannot outline how and why something is a "load of old bollocks mate" the comment holds little water. Some of what she said about soccer (which is painful to watch and soccer fans can spare me the "you aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate soccer" nonsense) and soccer coverage is spot on. Obviously she purposefully says provocative stuff to ruffle feathers. That is her job. She succeeded. The media seems to be covering her comments more than they are covering the IRS scandal.

I have great admiration and respect for the athleticism of truly great soccer players. Sadly, the current rules stifle these players so much you are lucky to see them make the players they are capable of. Having said that it is hard to take a sport serious when flopping to draw penalties is literally an important part of your sport. It is hard to take a sport serious when faking injuries happens more often than actual shots on goal at a ratio of about 30 to 1. It is hard to take a sport serious when a significantly superior team easily can win a game 1-0 on a lucky bounce or ricochet. I get why soccer is a world wide passion. Much of it is civic pride and nationalism. Some of it is that it is a sport that can be played with a rolled up ball of duck tape and a dirt field and any nation in the world can play it. Soccer does not require or have much strategy and thus requires little engagement from the fan. They can chant songs, pay mild attention to the game. Focus their energies when the ball gets somewhat near goal. Collectively throw their hands to their head if a shot gets deflected or a chance goes a wry and all s cream "oooohhhhh" and once in a while, when a goal actually happens, they can lose their minds and rejoice.

All sports needs a proper scoring pace to be appealing. NFL football would lose its luster if games ended routinely 6-3. MLB would lose its appeal if games ended 14-12 regularly. The NBA changes rules not long ago when winning teams were scoring in the 80's. When the greatest thing you can do in a sport is score, the pace of that scoring matters.

Here is what Soccer needs to appeal in the USA where we have more options and a higher threshold for our attention as sports fans.

-Eliminate the off sides silliness. Why can't soccer have a fast break? Why cant they choose to be ultra aggressive by sending guys down the field (it is a field, not a pitch) trying to cherry pick long, exciting, well placed passes? Thus making themselves vulnerable to a ball going the other way? Why would soccer be against this?

-make a line (like the blue line in hockey) where only so many defenders can get back. Creating a situation for more offensive skill on display. More passing, more dribbling, more strikes/shots on goal, more saves by the goal keeper, etc. Again, a team that wants to press on offense leaves itself vulnerable on defense. This could open things up and let these guys display their amazing talents that are so often not seen.

-Put in aggressive penalties for flopping and faking injuries. If you go down grabbing your calf like you were hit by a snipers bullet from the second deck and once you realize what call the ref made you jump back up and continue to play, you get a yellow card or are ejected.


Soccer needs a scoring pace like hockey. Imagine if a team gets up 2 or 3 goals and there is actually a chance the trailing team could mount a great comeback. Now that would make Soccer more interesting.

[mattjb]

I can't repsond to her drivel as virtually none of it is accurate.

As for what soccer needs...it doesn't need anything it's the most popular sport on the planet.

[mattjb]

But what the heck...


(1) Individual achievement is a huge part of soccer like pretty much any other team sport. Every game has a man of the match (MVP) and there are individual superstars. Tell Messi the ball goes in by accident. Ridiculous.

(2) Soccer is not co-ed at any age in the UK . You can do what you want.

(3) Low scoring makes goals special.

(4) This is hilarious. Try going to a derby game in the UK. No US sport has the same passion. Not even close.

(5) That's why we call it football. Because you use your feet. You lot failed that intelligence test.

(6) It is catching on. Will it ever reach the level of the main American sports over here? No.

(7) OK.

(8) Why are we banging on about the metric system. The UK uses miles and feet and inches.

(9) Of course the NFL is more popular here. And?

[Heisenberg]

As we say in the USA, if you cannot outline how and why something is a "load of old bollocks mate" the comment holds little water. Some of what she said about soccer (which is painful to watch and soccer fans can spare me the "you aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate soccer" nonsense) and soccer coverage is spot on. Obviously she purposefully says provocative stuff to ruffle feathers. That is her job. She succeeded. The media seems to be covering her comments more than they are covering the IRS scandal.

I have great admiration and respect for the athleticism of truly great soccer players. Sadly, the current rules stifle these players so much you are lucky to see them make the players they are capable of. Having said that it is hard to take a sport serious when flopping to draw penalties is literally an important part of your sport. It is hard to take a sport serious when faking injuries happens more often than actual shots on goal at a ratio of about 30 to 1. It is hard to take a sport serious when a significantly superior team easily can win a game 1-0 on a lucky bounce or ricochet. I get why soccer is a world wide passion. Much of it is civic pride and nationalism. Some of it is that it is a sport that can be played with a rolled up ball of duck tape and a dirt field and any nation in the world can play it. Soccer does not require or have much strategy and thus requires little engagement from the fan. They can chant songs, pay mild attention to the game. Focus their energies when the ball gets somewhat near goal. Collectively throw their hands to their head if a shot gets deflected or a chance goes a wry and all s cream "oooohhhhh" and once in a while, when a goal actually happens, they can lose their minds and rejoice.

All sports needs a proper scoring pace to be appealing. NFL football would lose its luster if games ended routinely 6-3. MLB would lose its appeal if games ended 14-12 regularly. The NBA changes rules not long ago when winning teams were scoring in the 80's. When the greatest thing you can do in a sport is score, the pace of that scoring matters.

Here is what Soccer needs to appeal in the USA where we have more options and a higher threshold for our attention as sports fans.

-Eliminate the off sides silliness. Why can't soccer have a fast break? Why cant they choose to be ultra aggressive by sending guys down the field (it is a field, not a pitch) trying to cherry pick long, exciting, well placed passes? Thus making themselves vulnerable to a ball going the other way? Why would soccer be against this?

-make a line (like the blue line in hockey) where only so many defenders can get back. Creating a situation for more offensive skill on display. More passing, more dribbling, more strikes/shots on goal, more saves by the goal keeper, etc. Again, a team that wants to press on offense leaves itself vulnerable on defense. This could open things up and let these guys display their amazing talents that are so often not seen.

-Put in aggressive penalties for flopping and faking injuries. If you go down grabbing your calf like you were hit by a snipers bullet from the second deck and once you realize what call the ref made you jump back up and continue to play, you get a yellow card or are ejected.


Soccer needs a scoring pace like hockey. Imagine if a team gets up 2 or 3 goals and there is actually a chance the trailing team could mount a great comeback. Now that would make Soccer more interesting.

I agree with Mattjb about Ann Coulter but the above post has a lot of good points about soccer. Just repeating "it's the most popular sport in the world" rings hollow when much of the world barely has running water and soccer is pretty much the only sport due to its simplicity. I agree soccer could be a lot more appealing with some rule changes.

[Yellow Ledbetters]

She is one of many conservative pundits who will best serve their country by dying.

[pabalouch]

Why so serious?

[JohnP]

She is one of many conservative pundits who will best serve their country by dying.

Really? Wow. You should be embarrassed. Plenty of conservatives did die defending this country for shmucks like you.

[Edwards Kings]

She is one of many conservative pundits who will best serve their country by dying.

Really? Wow. You should be embarrassed. Plenty of conservatives did die defending this country for shmucks like you.

Don't waste your fingers. This guy is an alligator...all mouth and no ears!

[Heisenberg]

I certainly do not want to turn the thread into the typical political pissing match but lets be honest, people like Ann Coulter gets attacked on a personal level primarily because those attacking her cannot win a debate on the merits of her real points. Does she at times cross the line and say things I disagree with or think are in poor taste? Sure, sometimes. However, her broader points are often accurate and interesting. She is an unabashed conservative who believes in smaller government and personal responsibility in a nation that is dramatically shifting toward bigger government and governmental handouts that lead to less personal responsibility.

If one person can outline examples of how this nation is improving and progressing in a good direction I will then start to question the value of Ann Coulter and her perspective. I can live with the overly provocative statements when the other 90% of stuff she says is accurate or important to recognize and consider.

[Outlaw]

One of the reasons more Americans were watching the US world cup soccer this go round was, they are not working, Especially the age under age 35 group (the group who also saw the largest uptick in viewership ratings) , whose unemployment numbers are staggering. I tried watching the soccer, its like watching grass grow... but that's how I see it. It has popularity worldwide, but in the US, it's where it is for many reasons. We'll see just how much it grows in the next 4 years when the WC comes around again.

Unfortunately the country seems to have clowns like the above saying people like Coulter should be dead. The anger and venom on both the liberal and conservative sides by people on each side is at levels not ever seen. Scary times indeed in this country these days, tick tock on $77 trillion in REAL DEBT. The $17 trillion number they feed us all is total BS.... but hey, should we expect anything more with the clowns that have running things the past 15 years. If I'm not mistaken the latest national polling shows Obama now having passed Bush Jr as the worst president ever. Pretty scary when the country appears to have had back to back losers...but not all their fault, got to throw in clowns like Boehner, Pelosi, Reid, Cantor and all their ilk...

The least of this country problems is our interest in Soccer......

[BK METS]

Ann Coulter is very accurate in her points. Sorry for the bad news but Pro Soccer will never catch on in this country. It is just plain boring. Americans like exciting sports. Football #1. Even baseball is losing its draw, due to its boring nature, but it is America's pastime and will always have a place in our hearts. No need to get into the politics and wishing death on people... that's a little strong, but has anyone noticed that since the US was eliminated, soccer is hardly being spoken about, even though the World Cup is still happening? Inner cities, where many different nationalities still have their home country in it, you will find ethnic restaurants with viewing parties, but its no longer the first news story, no longer the first sports story, and I actually listened to WFAN, one of the most listened to sports radio stations in the country, for 5 hours, on a drive back from New York. Not one mention of any of the soccer matches still going on.

Like the Olympics, the World Cup will always have its patriotism appeal, but that's all it will ever be. Pro Soccer, in this country, has tried and failed many times, to become more popular. I personally like watching a good soccer match, when there are no other real sports going on, unlike other countries, where there are no other real sports.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Soccer and politics. In a lot of ways, they are very similar. We seem to really only pay attention every four years and in between, we either don't care about them or grouse about them without fully understanding either.

Soccer is an un-American sport. Not patriotically, it just has few characteristics that Americans enjoy. We enjoy real contact if enduring a low scoring event, like hockey. We see 'floppers' in basketball. It is a small part of that game. It seems to happen so much in soccer that the referee should hand out penalty cards for 'bad flopping', but they don't.
My favorite part of soccer, and this is the American in me, is when somebody gets to kick a ball and some of the opposing team stand a short distance away covering their packages. If they had more of that and less flopping, the appeal factor would go up in my estimation.
And why does the goalie get to use his hands? There would be more skill in defending a net without them, right? And without the use of those hands, scoring would go up, correct? I guess other countries don't want that.
For you real soccer fans, don't listen to me. I'm just a typical American who thinks the game is another country's game, not ours.

Politics is American. It's a rich man's game. I've often thought that if a guy like Yogi Berra were President, our country would be a lot better off. Not THE Yogi Berra, but an everyday man, like Yogi Berra. Somebody who is unencumbered by back room deals and lobbyists.
Instead, we get folks who seemingly go to bed dressed in a suit. Sure, during campaigns they wear white shirts with their sleeves rolled up (their amusing way of copying the American worker), but for the most part, both republicans and democrats are members of the 'Penguin Party'.
Back in the day, a President was elected based on how much the voters thought he could help America.
Now, the Republican and Democratic parties roll out candidates with the most 'electibility'.
The object of their game is not to improve America, as much as it is having the power to do so, if they choose.
So, we get folks like George Bush who had a father as President or a smooth talking minority candidate like Obama, who seems to get poor people to polls, just as they would to a convenience store for a lotto ticket.
For the most part, I look at Bush and Obama as figureheads. The person themselves, seem less important than the party who got them elected. Both the Republicans and Democrats have failed. And in so doing, America needs Yogi Berra even more.
A man with no personal or party agenda.
A man without even a party to tie him down.
A man who just wants to do the best he can.
A man who actually wants to help America first and everything else second.
A man who will jump into America's arms and give them a hug, like Don Larsen, when America succeeds.

[headhunters]

3 sports that are really really boring to watch- if you have never played them: golf, soccer and you can throw in baseball- for the low scoring games. hockey is getting way more popular on tv and i have have had several people tell me it is hd tv- you can now see the puck- for me that is the most exciting sport.. one of my daughters soccer coaches told me in the rest of the world soccer is the sport of the poor- in the u.s. it is the sport of the rich. like ann or not she hit nail on head with soccer moms. yes- soccer is different here. in the woman's game (which we dominate) the best players do NOT belong to their college teams- if they are on u-19 20 or 21 they will play for those teams if called. can you imagine an alabama starter or auburn missing the iron bowl to play for the us "u- 19' team? it is different in the rest of the world and i just like the american system of sport. btw- and i have said this for 20 years- you want to kick the worlds ass in soccer- go into the inner city in every city over 500,000 and get (pay) the african american and hispanic kids to play soccer. we aren't beating anybody in anything with white americans. golf- nope, tennis nope, baseball- not really but our best hope ONLY because african amercans quit playing it. basketball- please. Oh , and by the way- i notice quite a few strikers on those European teams that are "african French" or Dutch . pretty sure i could make an all-star team up of those guys and kill everyone else. the reason we don't do that- $$$$. winning soccer at the international level isn't the most important thing- it is travel coaches that couldn't get a job at mcdonalds making $100,000 coaching 12 year old girls.

[Driver Love]

As we say in the USA, if you cannot outline how and why something is a "load of old bollocks mate" the comment holds little water. Some of what she said about soccer (which is painful to watch and soccer fans can spare me the "you aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate soccer" nonsense) and soccer coverage is spot on. Obviously she purposefully says provocative stuff to ruffle feathers. That is her job. She succeeded. The media seems to be covering her comments more than they are covering the IRS scandal.

I have great admiration and respect for the athleticism of truly great soccer players. Sadly, the current rules stifle these players so much you are lucky to see them make the players they are capable of. Having said that it is hard to take a sport serious when flopping to draw penalties is literally an important part of your sport. It is hard to take a sport serious when faking injuries happens more often than actual shots on goal at a ratio of about 30 to 1. It is hard to take a sport serious when a significantly superior team easily can win a game 1-0 on a lucky bounce or ricochet. I get why soccer is a world wide passion. Much of it is civic pride and nationalism. Some of it is that it is a sport that can be played with a rolled up ball of duck tape and a dirt field and any nation in the world can play it. Soccer does not require or have much strategy and thus requires little engagement from the fan. They can chant songs, pay mild attention to the game. Focus their energies when the ball gets somewhat near goal. Collectively throw their hands to their head if a shot gets deflected or a chance goes a wry and all s cream "oooohhhhh" and once in a while, when a goal actually happens, they can lose their minds and rejoice.

All sports needs a proper scoring pace to be appealing. NFL football would lose its luster if games ended routinely 6-3. MLB would lose its appeal if games ended 14-12 regularly. The NBA changes rules not long ago when winning teams were scoring in the 80's. When the greatest thing you can do in a sport is score, the pace of that scoring matters.

Here is what Soccer needs to appeal in the USA where we have more options and a higher threshold for our attention as sports fans.

-Eliminate the off sides silliness. Why can't soccer have a fast break? Why cant they choose to be ultra aggressive by sending guys down the field (it is a field, not a pitch) trying to cherry pick long, exciting, well placed passes? Thus making themselves vulnerable to a ball going the other way? Why would soccer be against this?

-make a line (like the blue line in hockey) where only so many defenders can get back. Creating a situation for more offensive skill on display. More passing, more dribbling, more strikes/shots on goal, more saves by the goal keeper, etc. Again, a team that wants to press on offense leaves itself vulnerable on defense. This could open things up and let these guys display their amazing talents that are so often not seen.

-Put in aggressive penalties for flopping and faking injuries. If you go down grabbing your calf like you were hit by a snipers bullet from the second deck and once you realize what call the ref made you jump back up and continue to play, you get a yellow card or are ejected.


Soccer needs a scoring pace like hockey. Imagine if a team gets up 2 or 3 goals and there is actually a chance the trailing team could mount a great comeback. Now that would make Soccer more interesting.

I would welcome a respectful friendly discussion from a high level soccer fan or expert regarding this above post. Primarily about the rule change ideas that could open things up and allow these amazingly talented players the chance to display their talents more.

[rockitsauce]

brilliant tweet from God himself -

"Ann Coulter’s column about how soccer is an example of the decay of America, is an example of the decay of America".

Love HIM

[mattjb]

Ann Coulter is very accurate in her points. Sorry for the bad news but Pro Soccer will never catch on in this country. It is just plain boring. Americans like exciting sports. Football #1. Even baseball is losing its draw, due to its boring nature, but it is America's pastime and will always have a place in our hearts. No need to get into the politics and wishing death on people... that's a little strong, but has anyone noticed that since the US was eliminated, soccer is hardly being spoken about, even though the World Cup is still happening? Inner cities, where many different nationalities still have their home country in it, you will find ethnic restaurants with viewing parties, but its no longer the first news story, no longer the first sports story, and I actually listened to WFAN, one of the most listened to sports radio stations in the country, for 5 hours, on a drive back from New York. Not one mention of any of the soccer matches still going on.

Like the Olympics, the World Cup will always have its patriotism appeal, but that's all it will ever be. Pro Soccer, in this country, has tried and failed many times, to become more popular. I personally like watching a good soccer match, when there are no other real sports going on, unlike other countries, where there are no other real sports.

haha she is very accurate?

Honestly you sound ridiculous. You'll be pleased to know I often have to defend American sports to my British friends so this level of stupidity level is not an American disease.

I would have thought a baseball crowd would have a better grasp on things. This thread is basically the equivalent of a soccer fan coming on here after a no hitter and concluding that baseball is an awful spectacle as no-one could even get a hit. Let's make the bill bigger and the bats wider and maybe take away a couple of fielders.

[mattjb]

Oh and anyone who thinks the USA v Belgium game was boring wasn't watching.

No sports fan could think that was boring.

[headhunters]

i guess i am not getting "the amazing talents' of these guys as opposed to pro golf, tennis, baseball. i have seen goalies drop shots hit right at them. i have seen players miss wide open nets etc etc. usa- belgium? i saw about 6 usa players literally struggle with chesting the ball to their feet- shoot my daughter could do that as a u-12. some of these guys- like messi are a treat to watch- but honestly the "separation points" in soccer are just very hard to find or see between the great the good and the average. the sport is the most popular because it is so easy to play. nothing wrong with that at all- but if you say "hard to play at a world class level" watch that belgium match that people think was so great. howard was great- the rest of the U.S got out classed. seriously- chesting a ball to your feet? completing 3 passes in a row? the usa looked like a u=12 girls team.

[mattjb]

i guess i am not getting "the amazing talents' of these guys as opposed to pro golf, tennis, baseball. i have seen goalies drop shots hit right at them. i have seen players miss wide open nets etc etc. usa- belgium? i saw about 6 usa players literally struggle with chesting the ball to their feet- shoot my daughter could do that as a u-12. some of these guys- like messi are a treat to watch- but honestly the "separation points" in soccer are just very hard to find or see between the great the good and the average. the sport is the most popular because it is so easy to play. nothing wrong with that at all- but if you say "hard to play at a world class level" watch that belgium match that people think was so great. howard was great- the rest of the U.S got out classed. seriously- chesting a ball to your feet? completing 3 passes in a row? the usa looked like a u=12 girls team.

I said it was exciting not high quality.

The USA, unfortunately like England, are not just not technically good enough.

The focus is far too much on creating athletes in the States - and as they are always going to get the 3rd or 4th choice athletes, losing them to the other sports. They should be focusing on technique. Football or Basketball wouldn't have been interested in Messi or anyone with his body type.

This isn't the best generation for soccer - but there are still some fantastic players on display in this world cup. James from Colombia has been sensational.

[Yellow Ledbetters]

She is one of many conservative pundits who will best serve their country by dying.

Really? Wow. You should be embarrassed. Plenty of conservatives did die defending this country for shmucks like you.

Don't waste your fingers. This guy is an alligator...all mouth and no ears!

I think I understand why you have a difficult time holding down a job.

[Driver Love]

Honestly you sound ridiculous. You'll be pleased to know I often have to defend American sports to my British friends so this level of stupidity level is not an American disease.

I would have thought a baseball crowd would have a better grasp on things. This thread is basically the equivalent of a soccer fan coming on here after a no hitter and concluding that baseball is an awful spectacle as no-one could even get a hit. Let's make the bill bigger and the bats wider and maybe take away a couple of fielders.

Matt,

I am responding to you because you seem the like resident soccer expert and clearly a passionate fan. I also think (from reading other posts of yours) that you are intelligent and well intentioned. What troubles me is when someone makes a point about something here (in this case soccer) and the response is to insult them or call it stupidity.

I am hoping to have a rational discussion with you on this topic. I want to do this because I am a lover of all sports. Including some more obscure ones that do not garner the respect they deserve because people are ignorant to their nuances. I tried to have a discussion with my brother while watching the Brazil game that ended in penalty kicks to no avail because he, like others I have tried to talk to, avoided my actual questions. My brother has been to Premier league games and is a passionate sports fan. However he is a fan of wild passionate energy and the spectacle of soccer. I explained to him that I recognize how and why that kind of energy can be infectious and the vibe in the stadium exciting and the occasional or eventual outburst when a goal is scores or just missed can be wild.

None of these things address the legit problems I raised about what is actually happening on the field. Your example of a no hitter is at least an effort to address the issues I mentioned. Now I could argue no hitters almost never happen, where as low or no scoring games in soccer constantly happen. I could argue that during a no hitter there are many things that are happening constantly from an athletic standpoint and strategy stand point (how to attack each hitter as they come up). In soccer, I see very little strategy. I just see a lot of very fit guys with high running stamina who can handle a ball with their feet well waiting around for a moment where the ball may make its way toward them and then they try to advance it toward goal in hopes a clear shot can happen. Of course the clear shot almost never happens because there are so many defenders clogging everything up that, as was stated before, we seldom get to see Rooney with a great bicycle kick goal more than once in his entire career.

Let me start with one basic question Mattjb, why have the offsides rule? Why not allow a fast break in soccer? Why not allow a team to play ultra aggressive and send their best scorers down field to possibly accept a long (exciting) pass and have a legit shot on goal? What am I missing?