I hate soccer

Ooh, another hate soccer thread.

I love soccer, but I hate some soccer parents. Just like I hate some tennis parents, football parents, etc.

 

Sorry, pal. You don't hate soccer. You hate your job because soccer is part of your job.

Do your job. If that means making a couple of phone calls to have the soccer coach at the high school call in results because you will b staffing a playoff basketball game instead of a non-conference soccer game, do your job and make the call so things are set up.

You may very well be completely disinterested in soccer as a sport. But you job at a community newspaper, and I assume you have one if you would even consider staffing a February high school soccer game, is to cover the community.

 

You're an ass.

If you have resources to cover a first game of the soccer season, you should cover it. Period. Even if it's an intern from the local J-school. Like it or not, the sport's getting more popular and you blew it for almost completely blowing off the story.

 

I agree with those who say that you have a job and you need to do it. We all have to do things we don't like. Most of us learned that lesson in the third grade.

But then I don't see much wisdom in arguing with someone who takes his screen name from Eric Cartman.

I will say this: you work for the sports department. Not the football department, not the basketball department, not the "department of what you like". The sports department.

 

uh ... to play devils advocate, what about cheerleading. they have "competitions" like figure skating (in the sense they're judged).

 

We have a staff of three people, and we had region basketball tournament semifinal games at three different locations. Do the math. And as I mentioned, we had a call-in on the soccer game. We all cover things we dislike. Most secondary sports appreciate the coverage they get, but soccer people feel their sport should be on the same level as football, basketball and baseball, which at least where I am are the three major sports. I always love when people make the argument that non-soccer people just don't understand the sport. One team tries to advance the ball and put it in the net. Ooh, that's really complicated. Soccer is a great participation sport because it requires little skill. If you can run, you can play it. That's why it's so popular.

 

Well, then you're going to chuckle at a lot of us, because you do NOT get it.

 

Outing alert: RespectMyAuthoritah is Jim Rome.

 

I think RespectMyAuthoritah got dumped by a soccer player in college.

 

I have never worked anywhere that soccer attendance was more than a small fraction of football attendance. I covered a soccer doubleheader tonight where maybe 300 people crammed into a stadium that seats 20,000.

 

I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I have noticed something over the years.

People who think soccer is a "boring" sport feel that way because of the same reason others say baseball is "boring."

It's simple: They don't know what to watch for. They don't understand the game enough to know what makes it a great game.

An example: Real baseball fans would rather see a 1-0 pitching duel between Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens than an 11-10 Coors Field game. But casual baseball "fans" would rather see a home run derby than a truly great baseball game.

 

Something like that. I was a pitcher throughout my playing days so I confess that I am partial to a pitching duel at any level, but the most memorable game I attended last year was a 15-12 game (Braves def. Padres back in July).

In any sport, there are some boring low-scoring and some boring high-scoring games. There are also very exciting low-scoring and very exciting high-scoring games.

It's true in baseball, it's true in soccer, it's true in hockey -- all sports that so-called "casual" fans are supposed to find boring. It's also true in football or basketball.