Soccer... What???

John · Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

There is no such thing as soccer.

There is football, and many different types of it!

There's regular "Football" that we play here in England and around the
world. There's American Football, mainly played in the United States
as NFL Europe has never really taken off. The Canadians have their own
version of it. There is Rugby Union and Rugby League. There is Aussie
Rules. And I'm sure there are many other types of football as well.

Football (English, soccer to the Yanks) may be the worlds number one
sport but nobody can doubt how major American Football and the NFL is.

If you decided to host a regular season Premiership football match
between Liverpool and Man Utd in the United States at Giants stadium,
how many people do you suppose would turn up to watch the game? Would
the stadium fill to capacity? How many ticket requests would there be?

If you want to understand how big the NFL is outside of the USA then
you have to take a look closer to home and to next weekend at Wembley
Stadium 28 October 2007. The first ever regular NFL game to be played
outside of North America in London between the New York Giants and the
Miami Dolphins.

Within 72 hours of the website being set up at the beginning of the
year there were over half a million (500,000) ticket requests. That's
enough to fill Wembley 5 or 6 times over and this is just for a
regular season game.

For those of you that say only Americans are interested in American
Football or that it's not a real mans game like Rugby because they
need loads of padding and protection you seriously need to think
again.

They need the protection because it is a high impact game. Neither
regular Football that we play here in England or either of the Rugby
codes are high impact sports. Rugby League is a good game, but it
isn't that aggressive and it certainly isn't as tense and exciting as
the NFL. Rugby Union is a southern softies game. Both Rugby games they
seem to spend a lot of time rolling around in the mud having big group
hugs and grabbing each others bollocks. Good old regular Football
(English) is great, but you can't deny there are those long boring
dull games that make up a large percentage of the fixtures. There are
hardly any games like this in the NFL, it is the greatest show on
Earth.

Every play is tense and very tactical. It is like a bunch of warriors
meeting each other on the battlefield just before they are about to
charge at each other.

I always hear these bollocks comments from time to time about Rugby
being a real mans game. What's that supposed to mean? Isn't it just a
bunch of bulky blokes on steroids rolling around in the mud together,
and hugging each other in scrums (amongst other things they do in
there!)? Sounds more like a thicko working class/dole bludger game to
me. I mean I like Leeds Rhinos but as for it being a real mans game,
they can't even invent their own songs up they have to pinch Leeds
United ones to sing.

I love American Football and support the New York Giants, have done
since a young age. Am off down to London to see them at Wembley
against the Dolphins at the end of October. For this regular season
NFL game let me remind you again, there were over 500,000 that's five
hundred thousand i.e. half a million plus ticket requests. The number
of people wanting to go and watch this "regular season" game could
fill out the new Wembley stadium six times over. The first 40,000
tickets were sold out within 90 minutes of going on sale. There is now
even talk of franchise teams outside the United States, in Mexico,
Canada and even in the UK in London.

I can't see the same being the case for the Challenge Cup or a Grand
Final between the Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls in this country
never mind another one can you? And they aren't even regular season
games. Even Leeds United games don't sell tickets as fast as this NFL
game has done for next weekend, though we do manage to sell more
tickets than all the League One, Championship and half the Premiership
teams despite being in the third tier of English football. Our
supporters are simply the best and most loyal in the World. If the
likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U or Arsenal dropped down two
divisions their entire stadiums would be bare. Hell, Chelsea's stadium
is bare at the moment for Premiership games and has been bare in the
last few months for Champions League games too. What does that say for
top tier football and the loyalty of the supporters? I like the
Rhinos don't get me wrong, but Rugby isn't at the top of my list of
favourite sports. I have Football at the top followed by American
Football, probably followed by F1, Aussie Rules and Female Tennis
before I'd scribble Rugby in.

A real mans game is one where you have to make the most use of
intelligence, skill, speed and tactics. Rugby is one of the more
simpler of games where you don't need much in the way of skill to play
it, you just need more brawn than brains.

Football may be the number one sport in the world but American
Football and the NFL is the greatest show on Earth, of that there can
be no doubt.

Sniffer-Dog

New York Giants
Super Leeds United

The Future is Bright
The Future is White... and Big Blue.

Archived from group: uk>sport>football>clubs>leeds-united

Graybags · Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 2

Breathe, boy, breathe!

lifes2complicated · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

"John" wrote in message @4ax.com...
> There is no such thing as soccer.
>
> There is football, and many different types of it!
>
> There's regular "Football" that we play here in England and around the
> world. There's American Football, mainly played in the United States
> as NFL Europe has never really taken off. The Canadians have their own
> version of it. There is Rugby Union and Rugby League. There is Aussie
> Rules. And I'm sure there are many other types of football as well.
>
> Football (English, soccer to the Yanks) may be the worlds number one
> sport but nobody can doubt how major American Football and the NFL is.
>
> If you decided to host a regular season Premiership football match
> between Liverpool and Man Utd in the United States at Giants stadium,
> how many people do you suppose would turn up to watch the game? Would
> the stadium fill to capacity? How many ticket requests would there be?
>
> If you want to understand how big the NFL is outside of the USA then
> you have to take a look closer to home and to next weekend at Wembley
> Stadium 28 October 2007. The first ever regular NFL game to be played
> outside of North America in London between the New York Giants and the
> Miami Dolphins.

its a novelty, a one off. fact is that London is a far more accessible place
from Europe and most people will have never had the chance to see an NFL
game.

I don't know anyone who is even remotely interested in NFL but I have no
idea 'how big' it is outside the US and neither do I care quite frankly.
what does it matter? you're interested so fair enough, go see the novelty
game. to be honest, given the chance I would go see it just for the sake of
it, its a one off, give it a go.

but Football is the biggest sport in the World. I doubt NFL comes to a
fraction of its popularity overall.

there are plenty of examples of football being played to sell outs in
America, just look at the 94 world cup for an example. or more recently,
here are some extracts from a report of man utd's tour in 2003:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/07/23/908609.htm

"English Premier League giants Manchester United have kicked off their
four-game tour of the United States with a 4-0 triumph over Scottish rivals
Celtic in front of a sell-out crowd of 66,722 at Seahawks Stadium in
Seattle.
....
The tour is an event that could have huge implications for worldwide soccer.
Should it be the success organisers say it can be, it has the potential to
crack the egg that is the American soccer market.
Signs from Tuesday were good as the attendance surpassed that for any
Seattle Seahawks home National Football League game last season, including a
Monday Night Football clash with the San Francisco 49ers that drew a crowd
of 66,490.

In fact, three of the four matches sold out months ago, while some 65,000
tickets have been sold for the fixture at the 92,000-seat Los Angeles
Coliseum.

The Manchester United-Barcelona clash at Philadelphia will be the first
ticketed event at the new 68,532-seat Lincoln Financial Field, and tickets
for the match sold faster than those for Bruce Springsteen concert tickets
for the same venue. "

what say you now? a friendly between man utd and celtic is hardly as
prestigious as a big EPL match yet drew more people than the regular NFL
matches played there.

I would bet that an EPL game would easily sell out many times over if held
in America. Theres no difference.

Football or "Soccer" = massive worldwide. NFL = who cares outside of
America? really?

where is NFL played here? in schools? in parks? how about in Europe, Asia,
Africa? anywhere? yet soccer is really taking off in America, whilst fourth
or fifth behind other sports, its THERE. and its being played more and more
in schools etc as it is more accessible to everyone. expect it to get much
bigger over there.

ultimately, America has NFL and Baseball. The rest of the world plays
soccer. End of.

Diablos Rojos · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

"John" wrote in message @4ax.com...

Who cares you boring fucktard.

Take your rambling bollocks elsewhere.

Le Dieu · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

"John" wrote in message @4ax.com...
> There is no such thing as soccer.

I beg to differ. We played a game at school on the parquet flooring of the
one of the class rooms with a bunched up pair of socks. Socker. The skills I
learned then - chipping, swerving, volleying etc, stood me in good stead for
the rest of my career.

A. Dieu.

>
> There is football, and many different types of it!
>
> There's regular "Football" that we play here in England and around the
> world. There's American Football, mainly played in the United States
> as NFL Europe has never really taken off. The Canadians have their own
> version of it. There is Rugby Union and Rugby League. There is Aussie
> Rules. And I'm sure there are many other types of football as well.
>
> Football (English, soccer to the Yanks) may be the worlds number one
> sport but nobody can doubt how major American Football and the NFL is.
>
> If you decided to host a regular season Premiership football match
> between Liverpool and Man Utd in the United States at Giants stadium,
> how many people do you suppose would turn up to watch the game? Would
> the stadium fill to capacity? How many ticket requests would there be?
>
> If you want to understand how big the NFL is outside of the USA then
> you have to take a look closer to home and to next weekend at Wembley
> Stadium 28 October 2007. The first ever regular NFL game to be played
> outside of North America in London between the New York Giants and the
> Miami Dolphins.
>
> Within 72 hours of the website being set up at the beginning of the
> year there were over half a million (500,000) ticket requests. That's
> enough to fill Wembley 5 or 6 times over and this is just for a
> regular season game.
>
> For those of you that say only Americans are interested in American
> Football or that it's not a real mans game like Rugby because they
> need loads of padding and protection you seriously need to think
> again.
>
> They need the protection because it is a high impact game. Neither
> regular Football that we play here in England or either of the Rugby
> codes are high impact sports. Rugby League is a good game, but it
> isn't that aggressive and it certainly isn't as tense and exciting as
> the NFL. Rugby Union is a southern softies game. Both Rugby games they
> seem to spend a lot of time rolling around in the mud having big group
> hugs and grabbing each others bollocks. Good old regular Football
> (English) is great, but you can't deny there are those long boring
> dull games that make up a large percentage of the fixtures. There are
> hardly any games like this in the NFL, it is the greatest show on
> Earth.
>
> Every play is tense and very tactical. It is like a bunch of warriors
> meeting each other on the battlefield just before they are about to
> charge at each other.
>
> I always hear these bollocks comments from time to time about Rugby
> being a real mans game. What's that supposed to mean? Isn't it just a
> bunch of bulky blokes on steroids rolling around in the mud together,
> and hugging each other in scrums (amongst other things they do in
> there!)? Sounds more like a thicko working class/dole bludger game to
> me. I mean I like Leeds Rhinos but as for it being a real mans game,
> they can't even invent their own songs up they have to pinch Leeds
> United ones to sing.
>
> I love American Football and support the New York Giants, have done
> since a young age. Am off down to London to see them at Wembley
> against the Dolphins at the end of October. For this regular season
> NFL game let me remind you again, there were over 500,000 that's five
> hundred thousand i.e. half a million plus ticket requests. The number
> of people wanting to go and watch this "regular season" game could
> fill out the new Wembley stadium six times over. The first 40,000
> tickets were sold out within 90 minutes of going on sale. There is now
> even talk of franchise teams outside the United States, in Mexico,
> Canada and even in the UK in London.
>
> I can't see the same being the case for the Challenge Cup or a Grand
> Final between the Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls in this country
> never mind another one can you? And they aren't even regular season
> games. Even Leeds United games don't sell tickets as fast as this NFL
> game has done for next weekend, though we do manage to sell more
> tickets than all the League One, Championship and half the Premiership
> teams despite being in the third tier of English football. Our
> supporters are simply the best and most loyal in the World. If the
> likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U or Arsenal dropped down two
> divisions their entire stadiums would be bare. Hell, Chelsea's stadium
> is bare at the moment for Premiership games and has been bare in the
> last few months for Champions League games too. What does that say for
> top tier football and the loyalty of the supporters? I like the
> Rhinos don't get me wrong, but Rugby isn't at the top of my list of
> favourite sports. I have Football at the top followed by American
> Football, probably followed by F1, Aussie Rules and Female Tennis
> before I'd scribble Rugby in.
>
> A real mans game is one where you have to make the most use of
> intelligence, skill, speed and tactics. Rugby is one of the more
> simpler of games where you don't need much in the way of skill to play
> it, you just need more brawn than brains.
>
> Football may be the number one sport in the world but American
> Football and the NFL is the greatest show on Earth, of that there can
> be no doubt.
>
> Sniffer-Dog
>
> New York Giants
> Super Leeds United
>
> The Future is Bright
> The Future is White... and Big Blue.
>
>
>

lescor · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

John wrote:
> There is no such thing as soccer.
>
> There is football, and many different types of it!
>
> There's regular "Football" that we play here in England and around the
> world. There's American Football, mainly played in the United States
> as NFL Europe has never really taken off. The Canadians have their own
> version of it. There is Rugby Union and Rugby League. There is Aussie
> Rules. And I'm sure there are many other types of football as well.
>
> Football (English, soccer to the Yanks) may be the worlds number one
> sport but nobody can doubt how major American Football and the NFL is.
>
> If you decided to host a regular season Premiership football match
> between Liverpool and Man Utd in the United States at Giants stadium,
> how many people do you suppose would turn up to watch the game? Would
> the stadium fill to capacity? How many ticket requests would there be?
>
> If you want to understand how big the NFL is outside of the USA then
> you have to take a look closer to home and to next weekend at Wembley
> Stadium 28 October 2007. The first ever regular NFL game to be played
> outside of North America in London between the New York Giants and the
> Miami Dolphins.
>
> Within 72 hours of the website being set up at the beginning of the
> year there were over half a million (500,000) ticket requests. That's
> enough to fill Wembley 5 or 6 times over and this is just for a
> regular season game.
>
> For those of you that say only Americans are interested in American
> Football or that it's not a real mans game like Rugby because they
> need loads of padding and protection you seriously need to think
> again.
>
> They need the protection because it is a high impact game. Neither
> regular Football that we play here in England or either of the Rugby
> codes are high impact sports. Rugby League is a good game, but it
> isn't that aggressive and it certainly isn't as tense and exciting as
> the NFL. Rugby Union is a southern softies game. Both Rugby games they
> seem to spend a lot of time rolling around in the mud having big group
> hugs and grabbing each others bollocks. Good old regular Football
> (English) is great, but you can't deny there are those long boring
> dull games that make up a large percentage of the fixtures. There are
> hardly any games like this in the NFL, it is the greatest show on
> Earth.

"Hardly any boring NFL games" ? You could fool me. I watch it
quite often. There is plenty to admire. Great running ,
passing and receiving at times. It has its own followers here
- enough to fill Wembley - but not enough to make it a success
when tried every week. Why? Probably because it is more hype
than substance.

I don't know why you need to make this direct comparison with
Rugby, but if you want to do it on the basis of it being more
macho you are not on very strong ground. Those macho heroes of
the NFL play for one hour, divided into 4 to save them from
stress. The average period of play lasts for just a few
seconds.....5 or 6 maybe? A teams dee-fence will spend half of
the hour sitting on the bench watching the game, as will the
offence players. Add a few extra rest periods for time outs
and we have players whoes stamina is hardly tested.

Just as well maybe, because half the team on the field is made
up of overweight men. It is the only sport in the world, apart
from Sumo, where fat fellers can make a good living. Yes there
is more direct contact in NFL. but much of this is fat men
leaning on each other. Those who have to withstand tackles at
speed are well protected with face masks, helmets, back
protection, massive shoulder pads and even gloves.

Do you really want to compare this with rugby or football,
where players are in continued action for 33% longer, have
only one break and where every player is involved throughout.
How would those NFL players cope with 5 mins of continuous
play? The pundits already suggest a defence will be "tired" if
it is kept on field for too long....like almost a whole
quarter of broken action.

The game has its moments of skill to save it, but it pretends
to be far tougher than it is. They don't really dash off to
have a few stitches slapped in before rushing back on do they?

You are right to call it a show....it is hardly an athletic
sporting event because there are not enough atheletes on the
field. Have you ever seen the All Blacks v Springbox.

Tough? I'll show you tough!

LC

Baldoni · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

Le Dieu explained :
> "John" wrote in message
> @4ax.com...
>> There is no such thing as soccer.
>
>
> I beg to differ. We played a game at school on the parquet flooring of the
> one of the class rooms with a bunched up pair of socks. Socker. The skills I
> learned then - chipping, swerving, volleying etc, stood me in good stead for
> the rest of my career.
>
> A. Dieu.
>
>
>
>>
>>

We would have had 6 across the arse for using socks. The reason for
this was the head master considered this practice decadent on account
of those in the world who had never felt the luxury of wool upon their
feet.

We played barefooted with an out of shape cricket ball.

--
Count Baldoni

Evo · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

"Baldoni" wrote in message @gmail.com...
> Le Dieu explained :
>> "John" wrote in message
>> @4ax.com...
>>> There is no such thing as soccer.
>>
>>
>> I beg to differ. We played a game at school on the parquet flooring of
>> the one of the class rooms with a bunched up pair of socks. Socker. The
>> skills I learned then - chipping, swerving, volleying etc, stood me in
>> good stead for the rest of my career.
>>
>> A. Dieu.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>
> We would have had 6 across the arse for using socks. The reason for this
> was the head master considered this practice decadent on account of those
> in the world who had never felt the luxury of wool upon their feet.
>
> We played barefooted with an out of shape cricket ball.
>

Ball!! You were luck t'have ball, we played with bare foot on broken glass,
kicking around a sharpened piece of steel with nails in.

Alex · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

At 00:17:57 on 23/10/2007, John delighted
uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool by announcing:

> A real mans game is one where you have to make the most use of
> intelligence, skill, speed and tactics. Rugby is one of the more
> simpler of games where you don't need much in the way of skill to play
> it, you just need more brawn than brains.

Often the sign of someone who has no grasp of a sport.

--
"Shaun Wright-Phillips has got a big heart. It's as big as him, which
isn't very big, but it's bigger." - Kevin Keegan

marrer · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

american football is fucking shit.

Charles · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:10:51 +0100, marrer
wrote:

>american football is fucking shit.

We are duly indebted to you for that insightful gem!

Diablos Rojos · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

"Charles" wrote in message @4ax.com...
> On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:10:51 +0100, marrer
> wrote:
>
>>american football is fucking shit.
>
> We are duly indebted to you for that insightful gem!

No point beating about the bush is there?

Mighty Mouse · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

"Evo" wrote in message@mid.individual.net...
>
> "Baldoni" wrote in message
> @gmail.com...
> > Le Dieu explained :
> >> "John" wrote in message
> >> @4ax.com...
> >>> There is no such thing as soccer.
> >>
> >>
> >> I beg to differ. We played a game at school on the parquet flooring of
> >> the one of the class rooms with a bunched up pair of socks. Socker. The
> >> skills I learned then - chipping, swerving, volleying etc, stood me in
> >> good stead for the rest of my career.
> >>
> >> A. Dieu.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> > We would have had 6 across the arse for using socks. The reason for
this
> > was the head master considered this practice decadent on account of
those
> > in the world who had never felt the luxury of wool upon their feet.
> >
> > We played barefooted with an out of shape cricket ball.
> >
>
> Ball!! You were luck t'have ball, we played with bare foot on broken
glass,
> kicking around a sharpened piece of steel with nails in.
>
>
Bare foot? You were lucky! We had to play with barbwire wrapped around our
feet on a pitch of scorpions kicking around an unexploded mine whilst
dragging a 25 pound steel ball attached to our ankles by a rusty chain.

Stephen O'Connell · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

Diablos Rojos wrote:
> "Charles" wrote in message
> @4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:10:51 +0100, marrer
>> wrote:
>>
>>> american football is fucking shit.
>>
>> We are duly indebted to you for that insightful gem!
>
> No point beating about the bush is there?

And it was the truth!

John Turner · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

"marrer" wrote

> american football is fucking shit.

Hmmm, shit is useful as fertiliser, what use is American Football? I
watched the NFL when it was first featured on C4 some years ago, but rapidly
bored as a result of the breaks in play and lack of continuous action.

Soccer has become a joke with players falling over if the wind blows too
strongly, and God forbid that one player should accidentally tackle another.

Rugby League is a far, far better game, and I have to say I'd even sooner
watch Rugby Union (as second best) before either English Soccer or American
Football.

John.