Posted on 06/10/2014 5:50:15 AM PDT by C19fan
Growing up as a soccer fan in England, I've witnessed my fair share of horrors. I've seen shocking acts of violence, overheard hundreds of abusive chants and watched Pelé retire to sell erectile dysfunction pills.
Over the years, I've been angered, saddened and ashamed by these things. But through it all, my love for soccer remained undimmed.
But lately, I've discovered there's a new scourge on my beloved game that I simply cannot tolerate: Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Sounds racist.
Wow...glad you clarified that.
'Cause, you know...soccer sucks.
But, for your sake, I hope all 22 soccer fans in America behave themselves.
Sort of funny that these Soccerphiles have been telling us Yanks what supposedly a great game it is. Now there is a decent audience for say English Premier League games and quite naturally Yanks adopt what they see on TV then this wanker starts complaining.
American... Soccer Fans.
oxymoron
I’ve never watched a soccer game in my life. It’s maybe one step above Golf on the boring as heck scale.
Forget soccer. It’s RUGBY.
He thinks soccer fans are cultured.
Yeah, thats why they throw toilets from the stands and kill people in Brazil.
American soccer fans? Who knew?
The soccerfacation of America is the last straw causing our downfall.
One to add to the daily soccer “caucus” thread.
I agree with most of the points the author makes about the subset of Americans who basically are soccer “fans” as some kind of hipster counter-culture movement. But as a more typically American fan of soccer, I will still use terms like “field” and “pitch” interchangeably, and I will refer to my kids’ soccer uniforms as having a home and away “kit”, but I don’t think I’m the type of “fan” being complained about here.
Agreed. I watched my first Rugby game in Ireland about three years and found a sport that interests me!
The Guinness was good too!!
The article made the exact opposite point. He said that soccer is a working class sport in the rest of the world, but these poseur American fans (with their same "study abroad stories") think it makes them classy and cultured.
He's making fun of the hipster wanna be euroweenie douches you'll find in Boston and NYC and Ivy League bars.
I know a bunch of these goofballs. The type that pronounce Barcelona "Barthelona" because they've been there and know the secret pronunciation.
I call them "Soccer Moms."
I dunno, I had trouble reading much of the article and I did try.
Soccer? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I can’t believe how popular it’s getting here in America. The only explanations I can come up with are A) it’s rather cheap to participate...shoes, shorts, shirt, maybe pads, and B) part of the pussification of America...not as dangerous as football or hockey.
Sounds arrogant.
I shared that view for many years. I've now watched enough youth soccer to have developed a bit of an appreciation for the game. That said, soccer has one major barrier to overcome before making it big in the U.S., and that is television. Soccer does not lend itself to a television commerical every 38.4 seconds. Unless soccer starts allowing a tv timeout on every throw-in, it will never get a big time tv contract, and it will remain a small budget game.
I hope that soccer does not compromise. U.S. basketball and football have turned themselves into grotesque parodies of the game that used to be played to accommodate television. At least with soccer, you still get to watch an uninterrupted game, as opposed to a steady parade of commercial messages with a few athletic highlights thrown in during the breaks.
Soccer fandom in America is about affectation, not appreciation.
I played it in grammar school and in high school.
It's fun, it's a good workout, and there is more of tactics and strategy to it than appears on first glance.
In America it is still basically a pick-up game for amateurs.
And I find it difficult to obsess over English Premier League play because I'm not English.
Well, ethnically I am, but you understand my point.
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