After all of the hullabaloo, who here still thinks soccer/futbol is an absolute bore?

I really don't get soccer it seems like a bunch of dullards that aren't smart enough or able enough to play baseball or hockey or even take up bowling.

I take in about 20 minutes of it per year as penance for my sins.

Watched three of the American women's world cup games, I was very impressed. The ending was upsetting though (even if Japan's win was nice).

I will be preaching sheer heresy to those that like 'footy' but the use of PKs (penalty kicks) to end the soccer game are the absolute worst sports rule of all time.

The rule that determines that referees alone secretly determine how much time is left to play in the match confounds me. For those that are in the know, do I have this correct?

The game is not dynamic enough action for me: the field is far too big, the scoring way too infrequent and players that make fake dives cheapen the sport.

Now those fans that make the annoying constant bee-buzzing sounds with voovoozellas are the final straw.

Not only that, they don't know how to spell either 'foot' or 'ball'.

Everything you say here is the Gospel truth Sir Ragman! Testify!

I've always figured those who don't find soccer interesting just have a short attention span.

Well, actually, it probably means they don't appreciate the subtleties of the game. Like, I cannot stand to watch more than a few moments of a NASCAR race ... evidently because I don't understand the subtleties of the "sport".

Gawd I hope you're not implying that in comparison to American Football

i like games

Maybe we'll catch a break there, and watch them all go out on strike.

My jaundice-eyed view of NASCAR race and racers:

1. put down beer or beverage and get your fat ass inside car
3. floor it for all the car can handle
4. turn left for 250 or 500 miles
5. stop at finishing line
6. pick up beer or beverage and fat paycheck

I wouldn't think of comparing soccer to anything that we 'the holy' call football.

What amazes me is that many of these EU fellas (and fans) play or watch Rugby. Now that is action. Rugby players have leather balls!

Well, maybe not an "absolute" bore, but on an excitement scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being abolute snooze-inducement and 10 being edge-of-the-seat engagement, I find soccer to be about a 3, even with the added enticement of having a good women's team involved.

The games are too long; the field is too big. The scoring is too infrequent, like someone else said. It's hard to maintain one's interest when the odds are that you are going to just be watching an hour and a half of fighting for control of the ball and a couple dozen unsuccessful goal attempts. And that's all I ever seem to see.

If you think of a goal as a touchdown, though... they only get one point rather than 6 (+ extra point), but a score of 14-14 in a championship football game would be quite respectable. (As in, equivalent to the 2-2 score in the women's final before the penalty kicks - say a final score of 21-14.)

I find the "fighting for control of the ball" to be pretty much as interesting as the stuff that happens in football when they're not scoring. Megan Rapinoe is so good at passing and ball control (there's really a lot of basketball in soccer, too), just seeing some of those passes was awesome. (Same as an amazing Brett Favre spiral that hits its mark exactly.)

I almost wonder if some of the problem is the pace, or the lack of replays that are such a feature of football, now. Soccer moves fast, at field level, but they don't have the endless time-outs and pauses in play so you don't often get to see in detail just how awesome that pass or that header or that footwork was. Because the camera has to stay pretty far out to catch where the ball is going.

I can't think of soccer goals "in terms of" a touchdown in football, because it ain't the same thing. There is so much more accompanying drama and potential dynamic contact involved when a football is hiked, in my opinion. And after all, it is just a matter of preference and opinion that can't really be persuaded away. You enjoy soccer, I don't. C'est la vie.

Good point about the camera work necessities, lack of camera zoning in. I think, since I don't actually watch the games but follow them in online blogs when I do. But what you say makes sense re some u.s. football fans being bored with soccer.

hockey games are often like this too.
i guess if you care about a team and it's players in a particular sport, the games are never boring...

Wow. I've been reduced to being called 'someone else'. Almost as good as being called 'that guy'.

I do think that having played the game makes you appreciate play that doesn't involve scoring. I find it odd that some people think scoring is the only thing worth seeing. Why not watch basketball? My ideal game of basketball is give each team 100 points and start a minute from the end.

I guess it's about your personality whether you want the instant gratification of lots of meaningless scores or the orgasmic but infrequent quality of rare scores.

But as someone who prefers to watch rugby (League more than Union), but has played soccer, basketball, cricket and rugby union (and squash,volleyball, netball, aussie rules and hockey, and chess) I still stay up late at night to watch my EPL team play. There aren't many sports I'd do that for.

Go Cadel!

No offense intended. It was an effort to not take credit for something I hadn't thought to say first, without being diligent enough to check back to see who'd said it.

Hingehead:

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...seems to insert a value judgement where none is really appropriate. Just because someone doesn't like the same things doesn't make their sensibilities any less sophisticated, just different.