This thread has already come full circle. Soon the white folks in the U.S. will join the black folks in the minority and the immigrants from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries will run things and put soccer to the forefront and put the MLB and NBA on the free channels not numbered 2, 5, 7 or 32.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
white_tea said:
The one thing that does trip me out about the World Cup is FIFA always changing the ball. Does this happen throughout club soccer? Granted baseball had subtle tweaks of the ball over the years that kept it in or out of the ballpark. But basketballs, footballs, pucks -- all of that has kept relatively the same, meanwhile FIFA has the ball flying in all sorts of new directions. Not very cool, IMO.
I completely agree. It's certainly had a detrimental effect on the quality of the football during this World Cup, which (whisper it) hasn't been too great. Over here, commentators and pundits have focussed on the woeful shooting (not a single goal scored from a free-kick yet), but for me the most noticeable thing has been the standard of the crosses - either overhit and straight out for a throw/goal-kick, or badly underhit. The number of crosses that have found a striker's head can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
ok , what the fuck is up with dude 20 seconds in?!! half these motherfckers look like they are flying!
damn.
for real, please explain to me what the fuck jus thappened there. it look slike he jumps and then the hand of god pull sup him up another notch. this defies all laws of white boy gravity
Its all about the timing and getting a good drop on your opponent and using your knee on his shoulder or back to get launched airborne. A true art and major feature of our game
i still dont play, but it feels like the rest of the world is finally cracking thru that american isolationism
Folks said that at the last World Cup.
i think in nyc there's a lot more interest,,, features in the Post about which bars are showing what...
i think the internet helps.. makes following it easier...
also, there are more immigrants from mexico and central america here than there was 4 years ago...
regardless, it def feels like there is more interest than last time... not on some breakthru everyday part of life thing like in most of the world, but it does feel like more hype and interest is happening...
TV's so powerful that the NBA and NFL games stop FOR it! That's crazy, when you think about it...the broadcast isn't so much reporting on the games anymore, it's part of the sport. "TV time out."
That is fucked. Up. The cliche is that American sports fans have short attention spans and want 'instant pay-off', high-scoring events, yet they're also happy for their sports to regularly be interrupted. Doesn't make sense.
The facilities and equipment needed for American sports is also a problem, especially for poorer countries. Tripledouble, talking about a crate nailed to a telegraph pole - you're forgetting the tarmac. In a lot of places there isn't any, or every square inch of it is in use already. I've tried playing basketball on grass, and it doesn't work. Sand? Nope. And because of the emphasis on scoring, the hoop is the focal point of basketball, right? Simply passing the ball to friends isn't very rewarding because it's easy...
... and people saying they dislike football because you can only use your feet seems odd. If you could catch the ball in tennis, run over to the net and slam it down for a point - that would be too easy! It's challenging and fun precisely because you can only use your feet, and you can play around in a park, the street or the beach without even using goals, just seeing how well you can pass the ball, or trying to keep the ball off the ground with your feet, knees and head.
For all the talk of football being too slow and not enough action, because the ball is being kicked it can move more dynamically than any other sport with a large inflated ball:
Is anybody in the NFL, NBA, or any code of Rugby moving the ball that fast?
Comments
I completely agree. It's certainly had a detrimental effect on the quality of the football during this World Cup, which (whisper it) hasn't been too great. Over here, commentators and pundits have focussed on the woeful shooting (not a single goal scored from a free-kick yet), but for me the most noticeable thing has been the standard of the crosses - either overhit and straight out for a throw/goal-kick, or badly underhit. The number of crosses that have found a striker's head can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Its all about the timing and getting a good drop on your opponent and using your knee on his shoulder or back to get launched airborne. A true art and major feature of our game
i think in nyc there's a lot more interest,,, features in the Post about which bars are showing what...
i think the internet helps.. makes following it easier...
also, there are more immigrants from mexico and central america here than there was 4 years ago...
regardless, it def feels like there is more interest than last time... not on some breakthru everyday part of life thing like in most of the world, but it does feel like more hype and interest is happening...
That is fucked. Up. The cliche is that American sports fans have short attention spans and want 'instant pay-off', high-scoring events, yet they're also happy for their sports to regularly be interrupted. Doesn't make sense.
The facilities and equipment needed for American sports is also a problem, especially for poorer countries. Tripledouble, talking about a crate nailed to a telegraph pole - you're forgetting the tarmac. In a lot of places there isn't any, or every square inch of it is in use already. I've tried playing basketball on grass, and it doesn't work. Sand? Nope. And because of the emphasis on scoring, the hoop is the focal point of basketball, right? Simply passing the ball to friends isn't very rewarding because it's easy...
... and people saying they dislike football because you can only use your feet seems odd. If you could catch the ball in tennis, run over to the net and slam it down for a point - that would be too easy! It's challenging and fun precisely because you can only use your feet, and you can play around in a park, the street or the beach without even using goals, just seeing how well you can pass the ball, or trying to keep the ball off the ground with your feet, knees and head.
For all the talk of football being too slow and not enough action, because the ball is being kicked it can move more dynamically than any other sport with a large inflated ball:
Is anybody in the NFL, NBA, or any code of Rugby moving the ball that fast?
But hell, it's not for everybody.