OT - World Cup 2018 Thread

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

If FIFA have their way, Messi and Argentina wins the WC. Trust me

Anyone seeing the US beating France right now?

Or they would love an Argentina vs Brazil final. I don’t know if they could meet in the final but they would love that.

 

[Wax Frog]

We just steal names, calling it football is stupid. Not sure what the best option is though. Downball ?

Bradyball. I'd enjoy the exploding heads

 

[fightingirish595]

France is loaded

 

[1960Pats]

We just steal names, calling it football is stupid. Not sure what the best option is though. Downball ?

Now, as for Touchdowns. In Rugby when they score a "Try" which is the touchdown equivalent, they need to actually touch the ball down in the "end zone" to score. No crossing the plane. They need to TOUCH the ball DOWN. I wonder where we got that name given that we don't touch anything down

They got the name touchdown from the early days when players did touch the ball down in the end zone.

Those were also the days when you weren't down until somebody on defense kept you down.

 

[BelichickFan]

Football came to this country before soccer and is a far more exciting sport. Soccer hasn't really made an impact here yet. Lacrosse might even be more popular right now.

Soccer is very exciting. The low scores are similar to what our football would be like if you couldn't kick FG. TD or nothing. That wouldn't make red zone appearances less exciting, it would make them more exciting in some ways without the FG to fall back on. In soccer you can go from almost scoring to a fast break against you very quickly (a matter of seconds).

As for the name, don't you think it's weird that the only players who use their feet (other than to run) are considered to be not real football players ?

 

[1960Pats]

Soccer is very exciting. The low scores are similar to what our football would be like if you couldn't kick FG. TD or nothing. That wouldn't make red zone appearances less exciting, it would make them more exciting in some ways without the FG to fall back on. In soccer you can go from almost scoring to a fast break against you very quickly (a matter of seconds).

As for the name, don't you think it's weird that the only players who use their feet (other than to run) are considered to be not real football players ?

I don't think I expressed the sentiment that soccer players aren't real football players. They certainly are to soccer.

I'm only talking about my personal enjoyment. As for the name of each game, I call one soccer and the other football. That seems to work out best.

Edit: You can't take out kicking from football and then compare it to soccer. Kicking is a very big part of football.

 

[BelichickFan]

I don't think I expressed the sentiment that soccer players aren't real football players. They certainly are to soccer.

I wasn't talking about you but it's frequently heard that "kickers aren't real (American) football players". I just think it's weird that the only ones who use their feet are often considered not real football players. It wasn't anything you said just a general comment.

 

[1960Pats]

I wasn't talking about you but it's frequently heard that "kickers aren't real (American) football players". I just think it's weird that the only ones who use their feet are often considered not real football players. It wasn't anything you said just a general comment.

Oh, now I get what you were talking about. The funny thing is, if I searched my posting history here I could find myself posting "he's just a kicker" to somebody. You got that right for sure.

I do think that kickers in the NYFL are important but the decent ones are somewhat interchangeable.

 

[Triumph]

Football came to this country before soccer and is a far more exciting sport. Soccer hasn't really made an impact here yet. Lacrosse might even be more popular right now.

Soccer is yuge in this country. These younger kids grew up playing and are big fans of the sport. Anybody can play it. You dont need to lift weights or be 6 feet tall to play soccer.

 

[AzorianPats]

Football came to this country before soccer and is a far more exciting sport. Soccer hasn't really made an impact here yet. Lacrosse might even be more popular right now.

That’s false. Soccer is huge here. Maybe not the MLS or the US national team, but the English Premier league, Champions League/ European and South American soccer is.

The CL final was broadcast live on Fox as has been the European championship on ABC/ESPN

The World Cup without the US will probably get more viewers than the Stanley Cup playoffs.

 

[resdubwhite]

France Belgium and Germany for me. On paper the Belgian squad doesn't have a weakness. Except maybe their manager.
France will be very talented and Germans have big tournament pedigree. Neither of the big south american two for me although with Messi Higuan and dybala Argentina have serious fire power.
And of course Spain will be thereabouts. Cannot wait.

 

[oceansizer]

Of course I will support my national soccer team Poland. Despite appearances Senegal,Colombia and Japan are not so easy group rivals to my team. It is very balanced group and everything in this group is possible. Speaking of favourites Germany and Spain are mine.

 

[Belichick8384]

I also think if American football is going to go global, it needs to re-brand and be called something else. What we call soccer is football everywhere else, and quite frankly, it uses a foot on the ball 90% of the time vs. 10% of the time in American football (these stats are made-up). Calling it "American Football" makes it seem second-rate or something.

We call it football because in the beginning there were no official rules for football so everyone made their own rules that, individually, became official.

FA (Football Association) made their rules official in England.

RFU (Rugby Football Union) went on to make their rules official also in England

VFL (Victorian Football League) made theirs official in Australia

Here in the good ole USA most colleges had their own "official" rules and visiting teams would have to play by the home teams' rules. This went on for a while before the IAAUS (Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States). Mostly colleges played the sport until the formation of the AFPA (American Football Professional Association) later to be called the NFL. But football wasn't all that big of a deal in America until the 70s. Baseball was our big sport here for a long time, far too long before people started to realise that its f***ing boring lol

Canada & Ireland did their own version of football too but who cares about those?

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Football came to this country before soccer and is a far more exciting sport. Soccer hasn't really made an impact here yet. Lacrosse might even be more popular right now.

I don't think that's entirely accurate or fair.

The history of soccer vs. American football is a bit intertwined, both starting roughly around the same time. They both claim the same game as the first US game, Rutgers vs. Princeton in 1869.

Soccer is also 4th in terms of favourite sport for Americans, right after football, basketball, and baseball. It's the second-fastest growing sport behind lacrosse, though still more popular than lacrosse.

American football is #1 by far, but demographic breakdowns show soccer on the same level as basketball or baseball among younger people.

Football Still Americans' Favorite Sport to Watch

The best analogy I can use is rugby. It's wildly popular in certain countries, and it's more popular than soccer in those countries, but that doesn't mean globally it's more popular or more exciting. I love American football more because I grew up with it, but I wonder if I grew up in Australia, if I wouldn't love rugby more. Or if I grew up in Brazil, I'd love soccer more.

But globally, it's not even close.

 

[Belichick8384]

Well, in Australlia they're into Rugby League which is far less popular than Rugby Union in most other places. But they also have the AFL which is probably equally as popular there as Rugby League. Though since I'm not from there, its hard to imagine what sport I'd be more into if I were born there.

But yeah, it does pretty much boil down to what you were raised on. Its just that most of the world was raised on Association Football - soccer to us Americans lol - and so that is the most popular sport in the world followed, oddly enough, by Cricket....

 

[BelichickFan]

As for rooting interests I will just enjoy good soccer as the U.S. didn't make it. What an embarrassment just needing a tie with Trinidad & Tobago (currently ranked #91 in the world) and losing.

 

[XLIX]

American football is #1 by far, but demographic breakdowns show soccer on the same level as basketball or baseball among younger people.

Football Still Americans' Favorite Sport to Watch

That’s a ridiculously flawed poll. Asking someone “what’s your favorite” and only allowing one single answer is a horrible way to gauge a nation’s interest in various sports.

The best way to gauge interest is by looking at TV ratings and in that regard, soccer lags behind in the U.S. Don’t get me wrong, the soccer olympics can good ratings once every 4 years, but so does figure skating.

If you want a fair comparison and a true take on national sentiment, look at the TV ratings for leagues which compete every year across the various sports. In other words, for example, compare the World Series to the MLS Championship.

 

[AzorianPats]

That’s a ridiculously flawed poll. Asking someone “what’s your favorite” and only allowing one single answer is a horrible way to gauge a nation’s interest in various sports.

The best way to gauge interest is by looking at TV ratings and in that regard, soccer lags behind in the U.S. Don’t get me wrong, the soccer olympics can good ratings once every 4 years, but so does figure skating.

If you want a fair comparison and a true take on national sentiment, look at the TV ratings for leagues which compete every year across the various sports. In other words, for example, compare the World Series to the MLS Championship.

Again though, your comparing the MLS with MLB and the NBA. When you look at it like that, the sport looks behind, but it’s not.

But Champions League soccer which plays all of their games minus the final on a weekday at 245 eastern time draws high ratings. That’s why FOX (now Turner sports)payed a boatload to acquire the rights here. Same with EPL and NBC.

And the World Cup/Euro Cup draws in more ratings than the world baseball classics, and they have MLB players in that. All of those competitions are every 4 years I believe.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

That’s a ridiculously flawed poll. Asking someone “what’s your favorite” and only allowing one single answer is a horrible way to gauge a nation’s interest in various sports.

The best way to gauge interest is by looking at TV ratings and in that regard, soccer lags behind in the U.S. Don’t get me wrong, the soccer olympics can good ratings once every 4 years, but so does figure skating.

If you want a fair comparison and a true take on national sentiment, look at the TV ratings for leagues which compete every year across the various sports. In other words, for example, compare the World Series to the MLS Championship.

I think you're misinterpreting what the word "favourite" means. Asking someone what's your favourite thing is, and allowing one single answer, is exactly how you would measure a favourite. It's one thing.

You're confusing it with popularity. Popularity may cover more than one thing. Lots of things can be popular at the same time. I can like multiple sports. But I only have one favourite. So they measure two separate things.

In terms of popularity, TV ratings are useful. But soccer has been on the rise. It trails the big 4 in North America, but is just a touch behind soccer. And the youth demographic pointing to it as a favourite means there's more potential growth.

Top 10 Most Popular Sports in America (TV Ratings) - Sporteology

At the bottom is a table which incorporates several different measures. Nothing in the US is close to American football, but soccer has been on the rise for a while now and is not far behind basketball since 2005.

It's an outdated, antiquated way of thinking that soccer in the US doesn't matter that much.

 

[XLIX]

I think you're misinterpreting what the word "favourite" means. Asking someone what's your favourite thing is, and allowing one single answer, is exactly how you would measure a favourite. It's one thing.

It is not me confusing "favorite" with "popular" but rather the writer of your own article, who concludes "soccer now nearly matches baseball's popularity" (direct quote from the article). It is not a logical conclusion based on the data given.