Frank Deford, USA-Today and others sound off about soccer

Columbo · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

cjericho said:

Sam Mills 51 said:

buckweaver said:

DisembodiedOwlHead said:

â€œThere’s not enough scoring, and ties make no sense,â€ Deford
says.
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Notre Dame-Army, college football, 1946, 0-0 tie

Considered by many (like Deford) one of the greatest football games ever.

THAT makes no sense.
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October 27, 1991. Twins 1, Braves 0. Greatest baseball game ever in my lifetime.

BUT, the argument is, and why it makes sense, is that a 1-0 baseball game or a scoreless football game is a rarity, not the rule. If all baseball games were 1-0, like, say, college softball, then "they" would be making the same arguments against baseball, too.

Also, people are xenophobic and sports fandom is generally a local/regional thing (i.e. most teams' fans are from that area. Exceptions include Yankees, Cubs, Notre Dame, et al.)
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One of these days, I'll get a just explanation on why 1-0 baseball games are labeled "gems" and considered pieces of greatness, while a 1-0 soccer match is just boring. I've yet for a seamhead to offer a just reason for this lack of consistency.
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In a 1-0 baseball game, both teams are at least trying to score. In many 1-0 soccer games, teams are not trying score for a
large part of the game. They may be trying to control the ball, but they are not pushing it forward.
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They are trying to score. In soccer, sometimes you have to re-set, especially because of the offside rule.

To someone who doesn't like the sport, it may appear that they aren't trying to score. Just like when a guy on a team losing 1-0 in the ninth, pops up on the infield with one out and a man on third.

trounced · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

Boom_70 said:

At leaset he has been consistant.

Here is what he wrote in 2002

Desperately, soccer smug-nuts always fall back on accusing us American yahoos of failing to appreciate the grace and nuance of their superior game. First of all, any sport in which you hit a hard ball with your head is, ipso facto, neither graceful nor nuanced. Even ignoring that ugly idiosyncrasy, any run-of-the-mill 6-4-3 double play is more graceful than the most precious soccer maneuver. And nuance? For pete's sake, every sport has nuance. Hello. That's why Tim McCarver, John Madden and Mary Carillo have jobs. Nuance doesn't make people care. About 99.44% of NFL fans don't have the foggiest what nuances the nickel defense possesses. So what? It's third and three on the 36. Turn up the volume and crack another brewski. The authors also make a big deal out of how many Americans saw the World Cup when it was foisted on the United States in 1994. That argument is specious too. The World Cup has no more to do with ordinary soccer than the Kentucky Derby has to do with Wednesday at Suffolk Downs when 4,500 grizzled septuagenarians drag in off the streets to box exactas. Markovits and Hellerman also salivate over the Women's World Cup of 1999, when the U.S. beat China, 0-0, at the Rose Bowl. The 90,000 attendance is stressed. What is not dealt with is the score, of which there was none--excuse me: nil--till we got to the pinball finale. Why do you think the only image we have of that game is of Brandi Chastain ripping off her shirt? Because there was nothing in the game to remember. Sports authors, beware: Don't read too much into one-shot anomalies. The 1980 victory of the U.S. hockey darlings over the big, bad Commie bullies is, surely, the most lionized American game ever. It did nothing whatsoever for hockey (though it did make Mike Eruzione the Brandi Chastain of 1980). So soccer has been around these colonial precincts for something like 125 years. It has had its game of the century. It has borrowed the player of the century. It has been spoon-fed the globe's biggest tournament. It has had league after league, outdoor and in, bankrolled by well-heeled angels. It is blessed with legions of ready-made fans who immigrate here and millions of suburban children who are indoctrinated from kindergarten on. Still, it never catches on. At a certain point, Markovits and Hellerman, you have to accept the obvious. It ain't our cup of tea. Nothing wrong with that. There's no accounting for taste. The same British sophisticates who call me a parochial rube for not appreciating soccer prefer watching snooker to basketball. Fine. But here's the nasty down-home American reality: Far from being graceful, soccer appears, in fact, awkward. You can't sweetly control a ball using feet and head any more than you can drive a car fast with your nose and knees. We value efficiency in the United States. Soccer is inefficient. Remarkably, Markovits and Hellerman don't offer an in-depth analysis of how other American sports overcame integral problems of tedium. Football added the forward pass. Baseball souped up the old horsehide. Basketball introduced a shot clock. Soccer says bugger off, barbarians, and learn grace and nuance. We prefer offense in the United States. Soccer is defensive. It is not only that soccer lacks scoring, either. It also has no small victories, no cumulative successes. Baseball teams build rallies. Football teams drive down the field, even if they have to settle for a field goal. Soccer is the coitus interruptus of sport. Watching TV, I'm astounded how announcers ooh and ahh over some failed play: "What a magnificent run!" Only the player did not succeed. In the end, the ball was taken from him and he stumbled back the other way. Nonetheless, analysts keep praising pretty disappointment, raving about the glory of almost. We expect satisfaction in the United States. Soccer celebrates frustration. Soccer developed outside the U.S., and unlike most everything else in the world, it lacks our influence. In countries that care about soccer, the point is always made, ad nauseum, that soccer is not a game; it is a way of life. I'm sure that's true. That's the point that eludes Markovits and Hellerman. Ultimately, the reason that we don't care about soccer is that it is un-American. It's somebody else's way of life. So most American kids abandon interest in the game when they realize it's not consistent with what they are finding out about Americanism. The same with immigrants and their children--as soon as they discover more appealing games that reflect American spirit, American values. It's really very simple why most of us nonsocialistic Americans will forever reject soccer.

We are not amused.
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Best column about soccer ever written.

Jones · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

If having trounced on their side doesn't give soccer's non-fans pause, nothing will.

friend of the friendless · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

Mr Trounced,

Your message was cut off. I'm sure it was:

"Best column about soccer ever written of the pair that I've read."

YHS, etc

Oz · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

JayFarrar said:

Because, for the 1000th time, women's soccer in American is huge and successful at home and abroad.
One could make the argument that Mia Hamm is the most well-known women's athlete in America. What sport does she play? Soccer.
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Two words -- Jenny Finch.

Chi City 81 · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

Oz said:

JayFarrar said:

Because, for the 1000th time, women's soccer in American is huge and successful at home and abroad.
One could make the argument that Mia Hamm is the most well-known women's athlete in America. What sport does she play? Soccer.
Click to expand...

Two words -- Jenny Finch.
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Also known as Jennie Finch.

Oz · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

The Good Doctor said:

Oz said:

JayFarrar said:

Because, for the 1000th time, women's soccer in American is huge and successful at home and abroad.
One could make the argument that Mia Hamm is the most well-known women's athlete in America. What sport does she play? Soccer.
Click to expand...

Two words -- Jenny Finch.
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Also known as Jennie Finch.Â
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Eh, like spelling is important to journalists.

Jay, I would also throw out there the Williams sisters. And Michelle Wie.

Columbo · Jul 7, 2006

Re: Frank Deford sounds off about soccer

Oz said:

The Good Doctor said:

Oz said:

JayFarrar said:

Because, for the 1000th time, women's soccer in American is huge and successful at home and abroad.
One could make the argument that Mia Hamm is the most well-known women's athlete in America. What sport does she play? Soccer.
Click to expand...

Two words -- Jenny Finch.
Click to expand...

Also known as Jennie Finch.Â
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Eh, like spelling is important to journalists.

Jay, I would also throw out there the Williams sisters. And Michelle Wie.
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Jennie Finch and Hamm, however you order them, are fourth and fifth at best

poindexter · Jul 7, 2006

USA Today: Why the United States doesn't take to soccer

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/worldcup/2006-07-06-soccer-in-the-us_x.htm

I don't know if this subject has been approached here at SportsJournalists.com yet so I thought I'd throw this column out there.

By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — On the Fourth of July, Marcus Beisel and his extended clan were glued to a TV set here. They watched in anticipation, and then horror, as their beloved Germany lost in overtime in a semifinal of soccer's World Cup, whose championship game Sunday in Berlin — matching Italy against France — will be watched by more than a billion people. (Yes, with a B.)

Avid sports fan Jeff Wong, meanwhile, didn't notice any contests on the Independence Day schedule worthy of his attention, so he took his family to a county fair in nearby San Rafael. Arcade games, petting zoos and all that jazz.

So, let's recap. Come World Cup game time, one American sees an epic athletic ballet that taps into generations of ethnic pride, and the other sees a chance to pet a goat.

Cue Rodney Dangerfield.

SOCCER SWEEP: Read more theories on Americans and soccer, then share your thoughts

There's no disputing the deep disconnect that endures between those in this sports-crazed country who respect and adore what the masterful Brazilians call "the beautiful game" and those who don't.

Beisel, 35, a banker and son of German immigrants, grew up in this melting pot of a city playing soccer and watching games with his family. "It's not just a game for us, it's a part of our cultural identity," he says. "Each team reflects that nation's culture. The Brazilian players dance. The Germans are physical and precise. It's way beyond just being a sport."

Wong, 48, an architectural designer whose parents emigrated from China to the Bay Area, fell hard for baseball and football, which he coaches in his spare time. "I'm sure soccer is fun to play, but watching it is tough," says Wong, who has two sons, one of whom plays soccer. "I don't see that there's the same level of intense strategy as we have in our sports."

And the list of criticisms spills on from there, with the chief accusations being the game doesn't have enough scoring and, at worst, is simply boring.

While some argue soccer has no future in this country, other indicators say the sport could be on the road to mainstream respectability. OK, make that a long, slow shuffle up an alley that eventually could lead to a fan base that would give hockey pause.

continued at link

Oz · Jul 7, 2006

Re: USA Today: Why the United States doesn't take to soccer

poindexter said:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/worldcup/2006-07-06-soccer-in-the-us_x.htm

I don't know if this subject has been approached here at SportsJournalists.com yet so I thought I'd throw this column out there.
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You must have missed the DeFord thread.

JR · Jul 7, 2006

Re: USA Today: Why the United States doesn't take to soccer

Oz said:

poindexter said:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/worldcup/2006-07-06-soccer-in-the-us_x.htm

I don't know if this subject has been approached here at SportsJournalists.com yet so I thought I'd throw this column out there.
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You must have missed the DeFord thread.
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Oh, he's quoted in the USA article.

Pretty soon the anti-soccer threads are gonna outnumber the anti-Muslim threads on this board.

Pastor · Jul 7, 2006

Re: USA Today: Why the United States doesn't take to soccer

Poindexter is a funny guy.

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