Steve Rushin - Soccer Nazi

Ignorance is bliss.

 

This is all hysterical to me.
Love the world cup. LOVE IT. Tied with NCAA tournament in terms of interest.

You don't like it? I don't care.
Why should i care that people don't like soccer?

Is it boring? Not to me. To me, the MLS is boring.

I love the global unity for a sporting event. I was at the gym today, and paused to watch a free kick in one of the games. An old guy came up to me and goes, 'i dont get it - if the usa, czech, and italy are all ranked in the top 10 in the world, why are they in the same group?' Me: 'The USA got shafted on that, but don't put any stock in the rankings. Just pray for a victory over Italy.'

i will not watch one second of the golf tournament this weekend. i have not watched one second of the NHL SEASON. i have not watched one second of anything michelle wie has done. am i a fool? that's debateable. but regardless, i don't care.

 

Man law!

BTW, I absolutely abhor the "You don't like soccer because you don't understand it" attitude.
I love watching golf on TV. I recognize a large percentage of people do not. I would never think or tell anyone it's because they don't understand the game.
I don't understand it. : Don't sprain your ankle when you get off that high horse.

 

I'll throw in with Mr. Westerberg. Like it, watch it. Don't like it, don't watch it. It's soccer, and if you don't like soccer, why should you watch a soccer tournament? Just being an Olympics that people care about isn't enough.

And I'll add: the main issue I have with some during the World Cup is that they fall to idiotic stuff like making fun of countries' and players' names. "hey, why can't we be in a group with Togo!" "yeah, and Subway! Jared in goal! Hee hee, we're so clever!"

"Those guys have one name! How stupid!"

Um, no. It's just their culture. I always thought it was dumb and slightly xenophobic to make fun of other countries' names and such.

 

let's reverse this line of logic and say Rushin's writing a column for a UK sports mag. he writes that people there lack intellectual curiosity about sports because football (not soccer) is huge in america and yet barely registers a blip on their radar. he'd be written off as an ugly american for suggesting that what's important in america should be important in the rest of the world.

well who says what's important in the rest of the world has to be important in america? david hasselhoff is a huge singer in germany, but i'm not listening to that shit. it's ENTERTAINMENT and I'm not going to like something just because someone else thinks I should. he's probably right that americans' lack of interest in the rest of the world plays into its lack of interest in soccer. so what? I'll bet the rest of the world isn't all that interested in what's popular in america, either, save for the pop culture stuff that gets crammed down their throats on Euro MTV. that's part of why baseball and softball were just removed from the olympics.

these columns, and man are there a shitload of them, get under my skin. i don't need some douchebag columnist suggesting that I can't like what I like without having to like something else. that's probably also why some people are anti-soccer -- that people keep trying to shove it down our throats and saying we're somehow uncultured if we don't like it as much as football or baseball or whatever.

This probably sounds like a soccer hater talking, but I don't mind the world cup at all. I went to a bar to cheer for the US yesterday. I'll probably do so again when they play Italy. If I don't have anything to do, I'll flip over and watch some of the other games and keep up with what's going on a little bit. I don't like people who say soccer sucks without having a good reason, either, but you're going to have a hard time convincing me that I have to watch something just because it's big somewhere else. i don't give a shit.

 

Yet more proof that Germans love David Hasselhoff.

 

Can't Mr. Lobo just stick to anecdotes about his latest adventure in the world of the women's basketball?

Actually, there are times I really enjoy reading Rushin's column. This one, however, pissed me off. I do know a good bit about soccer. I've covered it plenty as a reporter and I do have a decent understanding of the game. I don't hate it, but I won't choose to watch it outside of work. Don't ask me why. I just know it doesn't hold my interest.

And it's not an ugly American thing. Lots of Americans love auto racing. I think it's a bunch of guys making way too many left turns and occasionally smacking into each other. Wake me when they show some groupies in tank tops and Daisy Dukes will ya?

Want to try to sell me on soccer? Fine. But shove that elitist line of bull in which you state that I just don't know enough to appreciate it. I know plenty and I still don't like it.

 

Nice post, djc. Agree 100 percent.

 

I agree and I actually love soccer. There's no problem with not watching soccer, but when you start ripping it for no good reason, then you're wrong.

 

Not at all. My wish is for every soccer-hater to have kids who love the sport. The side of this argument I get tired of is people saying soccer players play soccer because they aren't good enough athletes/tough enough to play other sports. Not the case at all.

And for the record, I haven't tried to sell anyone on the sport this week. I've merely said that I'd be up early to watch games and endured their eyerolls.

 

I think a lot of what djc says is true.
Some people who might tolerate it if they give it half a chance are put off by the militant soccer geeks who demand everyone like it, demand it be given parity in the US with other major sports and bristle when people effectively tell them to back off because they dont love it...

And a lot of it is we just dont give a shit about a 1-0 game of any kind played on a bigger than football field.

 

That's called presenting the full circle of the argument in one neat post.

Here's an idea, non-soccer fans. Don't explain yourself. It just pisses off the soccer fans, because the reasons are so ... sigh.