OT - How many former non-soccer fans are now soccer fans?
I've read a few articles saying that the U.S.-Algeria match, and all the excitement surrounding the U.S. team in the World Cup, will increase the popularity of soccer as a spectator sport here. I've also read articles saying the opposite. This made me curious. How many people here, as a result of watching this World Cup, now count themselves as soccer fans?
I care about soccer during the World Cup. I doubt I'll care during non-World Cup times.
this is me. i tend to watch the kids more in the summer. 4 years ago when my daighter was 6 mos., what else is on? so i got ooked on WC soccer.
this year, my son is 19mos. ditto, basically.
America, Fuck Yeah!
I'm patriotic. That might be as far as I can take it, but we will see.
Not a huge soccer guy, but the USA is the USA! AM I RIGHT?
Plus, anytime I get the opportunity to post this I feel it is necessary (for good luck reasons, of course!)
I can now see that it is a sport like any other. Not a soccer fan, but I can actually sit down and watch a full soccer game if USA is playing.
Club and foreign leagues: fuck that noise.
But I'm finding that, once I get more familiar with other national sides in World Cup play, I can watch their games with more interest. I think I saw two of Uruguay's group matches, and I find them rather interesting to watch. I would even cop to wikisurfing Uruguay (the country) while at work this week. Consider it a learning experience!
Now, the diving and acting/embellishing I can definitely do without. Professional soccer players can be such little beyotches sometimes (amateurs like myself have little interest in diving). Case in point, the yellow card on the South Korean in the 83' of the Uruguay match. The tackle deserved a card; the acting by Perez after the ensuing hold is chintzy. This is exactly why the NHL instituted a diving rule!
I get interested in soccer whenever the World Cup comes around. It's been that way since 1994. Since my interest has waned for the interceding three years every time, I'm pretty sure that will be the case this time, too.
But for the time being, I'm really enjoying it. I've watched at least one game almost every day.
.....for college football season. Maybe if they added land minds to the soccer field I'd watch.
"Land minds" sound very mystical. I think I saw one of those in The Never Ending Story...
Agreed, I still find soccer painful to watch. The only good part is that the game ends in less than 2 hours.
It's filling time before fall camp. Baseball, were's Lebron going to play, dudes blowing horns for 90+ minutes...
I have to admit for as much acting that goes on in soccer reminds me when I was a kid watching WWF. Guys pretending to get fouled, Refs are bought and paid for. Seems too dramatic.
I don't really like soccer, and I can't really watch the whole games. I'll whoop and holler and yell about US superiority in everything possible, but I just can't sit and watch an entire soccer game. Every World Cup I hear "Well this is bound to start a soccer revolution in America!" or something along those lines, but Americans will tune in for the World Cup and then just tune out again.
i am enjoying watching it but this stuff is driving me crazy,,,
also....i wish there were more stats in soccer....i think in american sports we get used to debating/analyzing different stats.....in soccer there are really only assists and goals, but to answer the OPs question......i guess i am a fan now.
I really haven't converted over. I barely watched the US/England game as an intense game of cornhole in the backyard had most of my attention. I did take quick breaks to check the score. I will be watching today vs. Ghana though. I really am trying hard to break through and be open about soccer but it just hasn't done it for me yet.
Look, Im all for the US kicking some ass in the world cup. But it seems that the world cup gets the same attention as a natural disaster. People care now but as soon as the US run ends, its out of site out of mind. Dont confuse national pride for people becomming soccer fans. I still think soccer is a very boring sport filled with men who act like women when they get fouled.
just like basketball, but we love it because IT'S AMERICAN BABBY
I really get into the World Cup but no other soccer leagues or games. One thing I'd like to see is no more goal differential deciding who advances from the group stage. That puts too much emphasis on garbage time. I mean, that's why Portugal were killing themselves to put up 7 on North Korea. They should adopt something similar to the NHL point system. Maybe each team gets 1 point if regulation ends in a tie and then after 30 minutes of overtime the winner gets another 1 point
but I have learned that anyone carrying a large plastic horn should be banned from Michigan Stadium
as a casual sports fan but never really got that into it. This time for whatever reason I have been obsessed ever since the friendly against Australia. I actually see myself continuing to watch soccer after the world cup ends, it isn't going to be my new favorite sport, but I will keep watching on at least a semi-regular basis.
I'm looking for a Premier League team to follow anybody have any suggestions? I don't really want to cheer for one of the big 4 though.
...at this page from the fine Yanks Abroad blog which lists Americans playing in non-US leagues. Among the various EPL teams with American players, Everton features Tim Howard (Landon Donovan had a successful loan period with them this past season) and Fulham features Clint Dempsey and Eddie Johnson.
If you're player driven, the post-World Cup signings may also help you figure something out.
I'd be fairly surprised to see Johnson play another game for Fulham. He's been on loan for most of the last two years. He spent the second half of this past year in Greece with Freddy Adu. At least he found some playing time. He spent most of his year in Cardiff riding the pine.
Good call on Everton. I sort of tentatively picked Fulham to follow for the American connection after the '06 World Cup, but didn't really get into it until I discovered that I could watch games on FSC. The problem with Fulham is that they are basically a small-market team, despite being located in London. Under Roy Hodgson, they've consistently build good teams out of guys that are at the tail-end of their careers or that hadn't produced elsewhere.
Going back to Everton, I'll deny that I ever said this, but sometimes when Fulham is being outbid for a guy they wanted (Peter Crouch) or selling off a young asset for the cash (Chris Smalling) I secretly wish, just a little bit, that I'd chosen to follow Everton. They're an attractive team who like Americans, have a great rivalry (Liverpool) and have a bunch of other players that are fun to watch (Tim Cahill, Steven Pienaar, Mikel Arteta, etc.).
...and I can't believe I forgot about Eddie Johnson's loan to Aris FC.
WRT Everton, they are definitely a great side to root for if you don't want to root for Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea. They finished 8th in the last EPL season, just missing qualifying for the second tier Europa Cup competition.
I wouldn't necessarily "pick a team" cause that's kind of artificial and boring. Personally I have a favorite team in Brazil and one in Germany, both of which I grew up with, but it's about impossible to watch them play. So when I watch another league I mostly root for the teams that play attractive, positive soccer. I've also learned more about tactics and that has deepened my appreciation for the game.
I started somewhere in every other sport so I'll probably do the same for soccer.
Well then I would make sure not to pick a team that plays ugly ball.
i do admit, it is sorta like cheering for the yankees and i even feel dirty for it but i have the excuse that i cheered for them since i was 6 because that was the team we "named" our 6 yr old rec team after .... so basically i just got lucky that they were good
but on the other hand, if you are into the elite level of football, you basically have to cheer for one of the following teams: epl- man u, arsenal, liverpool, chelsea; la liga- barci, real madrid; series a: inter, maybe roma, juve (if they get over the scandal); and i guess Bayern München. to me those 10 teams are it. So really, the epl is the deepest with 4 of them.
if you want top level football .... man u baby
You could not be lame and pick a team other one of the 10 best in Europe. There are plenty of other sides worth following.
I've always been one of the every-four-years types (though for this WC, I started paying attention to the qualifiers too.) I guess I could get into the Premiership under the right circumstances, but really what it would take for me to be a full-blown soccer fan is an MLS team in Detroit.
This describes me too. However, I am starting to get interested in learning about and following the European leagues. I used to only care about NHL, MLB starting in August, college football, and college hockey. I kinda want to follow Dempsey and Altidore after the WC ends.
I've always had a hard time becoming a "fan" of something I never did myself. Because I've played them all at some level I can get into, and appreciate on a deeper level, football/basketball/baseball and to some extent track & field. I never played soccer (thank god...no offense) or hockey growing up so I've never felt "connected" to the game.
That being said, I was working from home and watched the entire US/Algeria match. I was going insane like I do for UofM football (ok maybe not that much) or a tight Tigers game. I've watched plenty of soccer before (not necessarily by choice) and this was the first time I've ever enjoyed myself. I guess, consider me a fan of the USA....not quite soccer yet.
That connection you describe is how I feel too. Most of the sports I follow, I also played at some point during high school and college (baseball, hockey, football, track and field, cross country, road racing, crew). I have not played soccer since I was a seven. I don't feel a connection to follow it. Although this world cup and my wife graduating from Furman University, Dempsey's college team, have given me a reason to follow soccer more closely, I would love a primer on the EPL.
soccer = hockey for the less economically advantaged.
I do love hockey, but soccer doesn't have that "toothless Canadian" vibe going for it. And doesn't everyone love toothless Canadians?
I'll admit, World Cup soccer can be fun to watch. much more fun than my little sisters playing soccer.
Also fun to watch: my dog eating crunchy things.
The Pennsylvannia Dutch would DOMINATE
I agree that Americans will watch pretty much anything that features other Americans against internationl competition. However, I think a victory in the World Cup would mean more to Americans than a victory in Olympic Basketball, or the World Baseball Classic, or the International Butter Churning Championship because soccer is the sport that the rest of the world cares about the most.. We all would love to have bragging rights in that sport for the next 4 years. Plus everyone loves the underdog story
I wouldn't put the world cup above Olympic Basketball with regards to winning.
We have teams such as the Dream Team and we sucked for a couple Olympics in a row and had the Redeem Team.
Not being embarrassed at a sport that you are supposed to be head and shoulders above the rest of the world > surprising everyone and winning a world cup IMO.
I'd give up not winning Olympic Gold in basketball for 50 years for one WC win.
We only had one bad Olympics (and by "bad," it was a bronze medal) in basketball - 2004 - though we did lose a couple of World Championships.
In hoops we've won gold every year we've participated (we boycotted in '80) except 1972, 1988 and 2004.
Im an America fan! Any huge tourny or event will gain my attention...Curling etc....GO USA!!
I don't really like basketball. Or baseball. Hockey and football what what I like to watch.
Soccer also seems to be hindered by perhaps the worst officiating in the world. I had thought the NHL was screwed up. And basketball, obviously.
Apparently, soccer can't even get decent refs for only the biggest sports extravaganza in the world.
for the last few weeks, this site has been World Cup Soccer central, which is a shame, as I come her for MICHIGAN SPORTS. Please tell me we will not now be subjected to pages of Ghana vs Germany (or whoever) on our beloved Michigan site.
and saying anything about how boring soccer is causes huge negbangs......my previous identity got negged off the site by the soccer fans. Isnt there some World Cup site for them?
its not like there hasnt been M content available, Brian just decided he was interested in soccer.......which encouraged me to get out and sample some of the other Michigan sites. Of particular note is "Wolverine Historian", which has some awesome game tapes. Check out 1978 M-Notre Dame.......Ufer at his best, and Montana as our patsy....
a) If you don't care about soccer, then why do you keep posting "I don't care I don't care I don't care"? One post would be sufficient. The fact that your other identity got negbanged into oblivion should give you a hint - it wasn't because you don't like soccer, but because you repeated that thought so many times.
b) Stop telling Brian what to put on his blog. It's his blog, and he's been pretty damn successful at running it. Go start your own blog if you're so unhappy. Or visit those "other sites" that have all that fancy football content in mid- to late June.
You don't get negged for not liking soccer, you get negged for plastering every soccer thread with your unsolicited opinions and insisting that Brian shouldn't be able to talk about whatever the fuck he wants here.
This is not some new turn for this blog. Brian has talked USMNT as long as I've been a reader.
You've posted more about soccer than most people here, just by bitching about it. You keep threatening to take your business elsewhere, but I don't think you have the guts to and I don't think most of us would mind if you did.
...ties. From here on out there will be a winner for each game. If tied at the end of regulation, there will be two 15 min OT periods. If still tied, the game will go to PKs. Five aside. If still tied after five, sudden death shots.
And yes, I realize that non-soccer fans will now complain about games being decided by PKs.
Normally I think ties are awful, which is why I like the shootout in hockey for example. But I like them for the WC because they introduce a lot more complexity into group play.