Orange slices for everyone, or the I Hate Soccer thread

I'd argue that the people throwing out phrases like "jingoistic xenophobes" are responding to the Jim Romes and rondembos of the world - people like the thread starter. No other sport, save NASCAR in some circles, inspires such inexplicable active hate. Just ignore it, people.

 

I don't hate soccer. I don't love it, either. I respect it and I actually had a great time at a World Cup match in 1994.
There are a lot of sports that I like more than soccer, however.
What really bothers me about it is how it seems like in most games where there is a winner, the losing team seems to be able to say it was really the better team.
It happens in most sports, but it seems like it happens more in soccer.
What does it say about a sport when the better team can lose so often?
I could also say the same thing about fast pitch softball.

 

Happens a ton in playoff hockey, too, with the hot goalie factor, etc.

 

I couldn't give a shit whether people like soccer or not. I love it. The bashing doesn't bother me. I bash the WNBA.

The funniest thing was I was watching Fox Soccer channel last week - an hourlong retrospective of the England-Germany rivalry.

At halftime (or overtime) of the 1966 World Cup final match, they showed players, resting, eating - you guessed it - orange slices.

 

I would have thought Fruit Roll-Ups.

 

One of the local colleges here actually does that with its scoreboard clock. Makes for a nice climax to the game, especially when the home team is leading and their fans start counting down the final seconds of the game.

 

Ever read a quote from a losing Williams sister after her tennis match?

 

There are truths in both these posts.

 

I have no problem with ties, but I like the NCAA method of running the clock. Set it at 45:00, count down, and stop it only after goals, cards and injuries (e.g., when the referee stops it). Everybody knows how much time is left, there's no room for ambiguity, and each half is exactly 45 minutes. Pretty simple ... but I know, it's not the way the game has been for 125 years, so we can't do it that way.

 

It's a niche sport, and always will be. Like most niche sports, it's fervently followed by a select few and largely ignored by the rest of the population except for a few big events every year/few years (World Cup, Olympics).

One of my co-workers came up with a theory that in America, soccer is a game people "outgrow," something they do when their little and most of us move on to other things. Good point ... possibly because, for most people in our generation, there was no major professional league to follow in the U.S. And even now that we do have one, it's not as good as the Euro leagues.

 

All this other shit is ticky-tack complaining.
Just eliminate the offside rule and the sport would be fine. If you wanna cherry pick, why should there be a rule against it.

 

The animosity towards ties is silly. If that's what the result is after 90 minutes, so be it.