Fuuuuuuuck, one of tv's great characters
Fuuuuuuuck, one of tv's great characters
Originally posted by: Edso
Soccer is called the Beautiful Game for a reason. It has artistry in regards to the incredible skill the players possess, both in dribbling, passing and shooting....bicycle kicks are crazy. There is strategy in regards to the formations that are used and the defenses used to counter those formations. There is also stamina involved in that soccer players run close to 5 miles a game with midfielders going even longer distances. And the speed that they play at is way faster than it seems like on TV.
And then there is the way that soccer unites people from all over the world. Dems and Reps, Liberals and Conservatives alike put aside their petty political ideals and cheer on their National United States team when it is playing. Yes, games are and can be low scoring when you have teams playing their best against each other.
My Mother, who loves Trump, was on our cruise this week cheering on Morrocco and Paraguay, cheering when Morocco scored and devastated when Paraguay came up short vs. France. She was also unhappy when her Nation....Germany lost to Paraguay earlier in the week and equally upset that the US lost today.
As for myself, I like getting into the stategic side of the game and enjoy the chess match that takes place on the field between two teams of high caliber abilities.
So defensive soccer has outpaced and outmatched offensive soccer. When two highly skilled teams play, a goal by either side is a very rare occurence. That's why it's a terrible spectator sport IMHO. The players are definitely fun to watch...for a while.
I see it all the time, a player trying to advance with the ball...he feints, stutter-steps, and gets around one defender...then another one tries to block him...and he gets around that guy...and if and when he succeeds in evading about five defenders, he may be able to take a shot. But usually, he loses the ball before that happens, and the process of moving down the field goes in the other direction...until that team loses the ball...et cetera...et cetera...et cetera...it gets old pretty fast. The field is just too damn big and it's just too damn hard to get past a swarm of defenders.
I'm sure there are nuances that I'm missing, and my analogy is baseball, which can also be pretty boring to watch if you aren't aware of all the strategies, minute adjustments, and positioning that goes on, what a pitcher does to try to defeat the batter, etc. etc. At least with baseball, though, the score isn't always 1-0.
Getting upset or overjoyed about how a sports team does, when you have absolutely no influence over or stake in the outcome, is IMHO kind of silly. I wouldn't be devastated if Burkina Faso lost to Andorra even if I was from Burkina Faso. But I understand fandom (all too well).
I agree with you, at least when these matches are going on, people aren't shooting at each other. And like the Olympics, the World Cup softens international relations, modifying from dropping missiles on other countries to playing sports with them. Sort of like when we're all nice to each other for one day out of the year (Christmas).
