Euro 2008 — Running Thread

It's much more simple than all of this, or the no scoring, or anything else.
It's this: Baseball and baseball were here first. Really that simple. Baseball became the sport for towns and cities, football the sport of colleges and universities, and neither really gave soccer a chance.
Americans now have been so conditioned NOT to follow soccer that some see it as an act of rebellion to give the sport a shot.
And I'll say this, too: One reason Americans hold out is the snooty Eurosnob attitude some soccer fans have toward the game. It's our game, we're better at it, your MLS stinks, the whole deal. Breaking through that and getting to the beauty of the game can be tough. Worth it, but tough.

 

Eh, I was just throwing that out there. Obviously, that would be difficult, but I also think the time of year that MLS plays has proven to be an impediment for attracting overseas players who'd rather play on a typical schedule (for them).

 

I think there are several reasons Americans look down on soccer. One is the different scheduling than the sports here in the U.S. This means the different tournaments, all the different leagues around the country and the different schedules of soccer. It is much more different than people here are used to so they reject it.
Another is that we are programmed that the people that play soccer are different, meaning foreigners are just supposed to like soccer. The "American" sports are football and baseball. So soccer is rejectedas just something other people play.
One last reason is because, like someone mentioned above, America is supposed to be the best in the mainstream sports. We dominate football, basketball and baseball. If we don't dominate in a sport, than it's not really a sport we should like. So since we are not the best at soccer and probably never will be, who cares.
The European snoberry is also a good point. Foreigners look down on Americans because it is not the No. 1 sport in the U.S. They think because they grew up in that soccer atmosphere, and we have other sports to excel at, that Americans don't know anything about soccer.

 

Why couldn't they play in the winter? They play in the winter in Scotland and northern England, where conditions can be pretty awful. Granted, the fan bases there are established and will put up with a lot. Here, of course, not so much.

 

Climate's not the problem.

The problem here in the U.S. is, during those months you compete against pro and college football, basketball and hockey not only for fans, but also for media coverage.

That is why MLS chose to play in the summer months primarily, when baseball is the only competition. (It also helps that World Cup and Euro Cup happen in midsummer every other year, to give soccer a boost in profile.)

Perhaps at some point the MLS will shift its schedule to winter to coincide with European leagues, but the league has a long way to go before that happens.

 

Wow . . .the Spanish National Team, European Champions 2008, flies commercial. I once sat near the Peruvian national team on a flight to Japan (when japan was playing friendlies in the months before the 2002 World Cup), but that's Peru, a perennial also-ran. Of course they fly commercial.

Classic that the Spanish national team's flight looks like it was not chartered. At the same time, celebrating with fans must have been cool as hell.

MLS (please, never "the" MLS, unless MLB starts being "the" MLB . . .just a pet peeve of mine) has talked about changing the schedule to the winter months. Maybe with a month-long break in the middle, like other leagues, it can work.

I wonder sometimes if the summer play is a lure for foreign stars who have virtually retired from national team duty and are looking for one last paycheck. But the temperatures and humidity they must play in during games in July is every bit as oppressive as the winters.

The only major reason they need to adopt the world schedule is to accommodate major tournaments. But then, they seemed just fine with trying to showcase the LA/DC game this past Sunday before the Euro final. And of course, such a showcase usually pales, with most MLS teams having trouble stringing three passes together.

 

The day MLS goes to a winter schedule is the day it begins to die.
People in (pick one) New England, New York, Chicago, Utah, Columbus, Denver, D.C., and soon, Philadelphia will have no desire to go out and freeze to watch a game just to achieve some ridiculous symmetry with the biggest soccer leagues.
When I choose to go to a Crew game, weather has A LOT to do with it.

 

True, but isn't weather a deterrent to casual fans in Houston, Dallas, KC and other unbearably hot cities during the summer?

 

FC Dallas do not have a day match scheduled at home before Sept. 28.

 

Is that just for the remainder of this season? I could have sworn they have been at home on Telefutura's 2 p.m. CST game a few times already this season.

 

Yes, but you and I both know that 6 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. in Frisco can still be hellaciously hot and humid.

 

I thought it was like two weeks ago that FC Dallas played CHicago at home in a game that started at 2 p.m.. I think FC Dallas won that game 1-0 and the announcers wouldn't stop talking about how hot and humid it was. I think I saw the game on FOX Sports Southwest.