The World Cup has won me over.

[minivan2]

A couple of weeks ago some of you may remember my dislike of soccer, well, after watching some matches I am now a fan of soccer. Me from a couple of weeks ago would of been saying "WHAT?" But now I realize that soccer is pretty entertaining and the world cup is so amazing with all these countries celebrating one sport. I just wish that I was a fan when the US was still in. And to all those people that were celebrating the US's win. I'm sorry.

[malaise]

1. Well there's lots of football all the time starting next year

Next year is the women's world cup in Canada and the US are always a factor in that tournament.
We also have the Gold Cup which is our hemisphere's competition in the US as well.
The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup will be the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and 23rd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence.

The champion of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup will qualify for a play-off match against the United States, the champion of the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, to decide which team will represent CONCACAF in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.[1] The play-off will be played as a single game in 2015 at a venue to be determined. If the United States wins the 2015 tournament, they will qualify directly to the Confederations Cup. In addition, the top four teams (not including the United States, Mexico, and the winners of 2014 Caribbean Cup and 2014 Copa Centroamericana which qualify automatically) will qualify for play-offs which will determine the final two places of the 2016 Copa América Centenario.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_CONCACAF_Gold_Cup

[musiclawyer]

9. All true but you missed the biggest item of all : MLS

Why? Because virtually every member on the American team was developed by MLS clubs except the duel nationals. "That Kyle Beckerman guy is sure tidy on the ball and has a great brain." Yeah that guy toiling in obscurity for the last 12 years in MLS! I could go on. If former coach Bob Bradley did not possess typical Euro snob anti-MLS bias 4 years ago and brings Beckerman as the main defensive midfielder when Kyle was in his prime, Bob would probably still be the coach. It has been often repeated because it's true--you can't call yourself a true fan of the USA national team unless you watch at least some MLS. Ok you want to be a casual fan and support the USA's progress--fine. But if you really want to help the cause then pick an MLS team to support and watch them on tv and go see an occasional game live. THAT will help the National team more than anything else by far. ........The league is not top 5 yet but it's getting there. The quality of play is vastly improved and more entertaining than even when Beckham was in the league. And MLS benefits from a salary cap, lack of which is killing England's national team and making leagues like in England and Spain almost unwatchable because only a handful of teams are competitive and have a chance at winning. In MLS virtually every team has a chance and the entertainment factor is high, especially in person. Once the salary cap is lifted even a bit , watch out. You want to know who will replace Kyle Beckerman in 4 years? Watch MLS. Watch his anticipation and his clean work in transition. His name is Will Trapp. He plays for Columbus.... Rant over ....

[malaise]

10. Good rant re the MLS

but remember I am not in the US.
That said football in the US has improved big time and indeed the MLS is the strongest legacy of the US hosting the world cup twenty years ago in 1994. All of my nephews in the US played football in school and in their communities. There are way more fields available these days.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

31. Well put!

I loves me my MLS, even though we are considering renaming our team to misFire, due to all the leads blown, and missed chances -leading to so many ties.

We got this kid, homegrown, smart, fast, good with the ball and a great shoot, left or right footed -Schiff. He is great to watch. If he keeps developing like he is, watch for the premier league or Spain make a play for him.

[redqueen]

51. Nice rant

[hogwyld]

55. Love my Timbers!

I catch my beloved Portland Timber on TV whenever I can, and take the family to a few games a year. I am a big fan of the salary cap as we are considered a small market, but made it to the Western Conference Finals last year. This year? Not so much, but will still be with them!

[musiclawyer]

57. Just bought a house in West Linn. Will retire there in a few years

Good chance Nagby features for the 2018 NATS

[Arugula Latte]

2. I'm not really a sports fan in general (okay, big understatement), but

anything that pisses off the rightwing loons is A-okay in my book!

[Art_from_Ark]

3. The World Cup is so predictable

In the entire history of the World Cup, the winner has always been a team from Western Europe or South America, and the Final Four now almost always consist of teams that have won the World Cup, or appeared in the championship match, at one time or another.

[Threedifferentones]

6. That's true of almost every sport.

There are still NFL teams that have never won a super bowl after decades of trying every year. I would wager that a sizable majority of the 120ish college football teams have no chance of winning the title.

Still, I was absolutely rooting for all the underdogs, and I really wish that the USA or Mexico or Costa Rica had made it to the semis at least. But that's the way it tends to go in sports. Success often attracts talent, builds interest, and leads to further success. Unless soccer becomes popular enough to start attracting top shelf American athletes, it is hard to imagine the USA ever being a serious contender.

[DanTex]

14. I don't think so.

Germany 7, Brazil 1? Predictable?

Sure, there are better teams and worse teams, and the better teams tend to do, uhh, better. But that hardly makes it predictable.

Predictable is the Spurs and Heat in the NBA finals.

[Art_from_Ark]

17. Germany and Brazil have both appeared in the Final Four on numerous occasions

and have both won World Cups. That was my main point, not individual scores.

[DanTex]

19. That's true. The same few countries are usually at the top.

Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, France, England, Spain, Holland I would say are the perennial favorites. But that doesn't mean that it's predictable. Right there you have 8 quality teams year in and year out, that could win any given cup. And this year, Italy, England and Spain didn't even make it out of the group stage.

Spain didn't win their first World cup until 2010, and Holland still hasn't won. Meanwhile, Colombia could be climbing to the elite level.

I don't think the World Cup is more predictable than most sports leagues in any give year -- NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. Brazil was the favorite going in to this one, and they're not in the finals. Spain, defending champion and twice defending Euro winner was highly touted, but collapsed. It's true that Germany and Argentina were both among the top few favored teams, though.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. And little Costa Rica? They did great!

[malaise]

42. England?

England won only one WC ever - in 1966 and that win was suspect (ask Germany). England are only perennial favorites to the English and their biased commentators who dominate media coverage of world football. No one else gives them a chance.

[DanTex]

43. Well, maybe not so much England.

On paper, they usually seem pretty good, but they haven't done much since 1966.

[malaise]

44. What is strange to me is that not one of Norway, Denmark or Sweden

qualified for the WC this year. One of them is usually among the top 32.

[DanTex]

47. Sweden was a surprise.

Kinda unlucky in qualifying. First, they got stuck in a group with Germany. Then they drew Portugal for the play-off spot. Too bad, World Cup without Ibrahimovic. But if they had beaten Portugal, it would have been World Cup without Ronaldo.

[KamaAina]

4. I see you're in California.

MLS has San Jose Earthquakes (remember the U.S. guy who skied the ball over the bar? Guess whose striker he is?), LA Galaxy (where David Beckham finished out his career) and Chivas USA (an offshoot of a Mexican club that shares a stadium with the Galaxy).

[Threedifferentones]

5. I used to hate American football.

But, back then I was ignorant of its finer points, and even some of its rules. I used to say American football is boring because its just 22 huge dudes slamming into eachother for a few seconds, and then standing around for 45. But, after watching a lot of it in my adult life, and playing some Madden on the x-box, I now appreciate all the strategy that goes into it, and actually find the time they spend "lining up" to be really exciting. Trying to figure out what sort of play a team is going to run before the snap can be half the fun. In American football the coaches play a bigger role on game day than in any other sport, often calling every play rather like a general directing troops.

"Soccer" is the opposite. Of all the major sports, it is the most free flowing. No time outs, limited substitutions, and rare scores mean that the game is usually moving. But, in order to be successful a team must remain coordinated and disciplined. The beauty of soccer to me can be summed up by the phrase "organized chaos."

IMO, Americans who try to site objective reasons that soccer is obviously boring are simply ignorant, just as I was ignorant of American football. You didn't grow up watching it and, like Sarah Palin, you've only really seen it played by kids. If you just focus on the soccer ball, and ignore the movements of the other players, I'm sure it can look like a bunch of kids chasing a ball. But if you appreciate how organized the players have to be, without the aid of timeouts and scripted plays, and how hard it is to quickly control a ball with your feet, then soccer is absolutely as exciting as any other sport.

This really should not be surprising, because ignorant Americans like Palin genuinely believe that everyone else in the world loves a boring sport and that, by implication, they are not as smart or as competitive as Americans. What a load of bunk!

I'm glad you have seen the light.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. I wish I could rec your post...

I am a huge American football fan who used to turn his nose up at soccer. But if you watch it a bit and pay attention you can change.

[X_Digger]

7. I still think it's stupid to pay grown folks gobs of money to put on costumes and play kids' games.

(And yes, that applies to all sports. I'm an equal opportunity kinda guy.)

[DanTex]

15. "Some people think football [i.e. soccer] is a matter of life and death.

I can assure them it is much more serious than that."

--Liverpool manager Bill Shankly

[redqueen]

52. Love that quote

[jimlup]

8. I find it hard to watch a whole country having a breakdown

Brazil became a country in mourning on Tuesday. I like soccer and all but really Brazil - it's just a game!

[dembotoz]

12. kinda neat to see such pride without tanks and bombs

[malaise]

21. Cartharsis is good

and you can have both the happy and sad versions.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. I have to admit...

they got me too. I used to work for a Dutch company, so I was following the Netherlands. I still think the players flop worse than NBA players, but I have cleared up a lot of my misconceptions and I was entertained. Not saying I am totally hooked and am going to go out and buy the English Premier League package on DirecTV (American football already consumes too much of my time), but I won't turn my nose up at it anymore.

[DanTex]

18. FYI: English Premier League is now on NBC Sports Network.

I don't know if it's standard on DirectTV, but I get it on Time Warner. Not to encourage wasting more time watching sports, but if you're interested...

[awoke_in_2003]

22. thanks...

I will look into it

[malaise]

23. I prefer the Spanish La Liga

and even the Italian Serie A to EPL.
What I do love is the UEFA Champions League. We only watch the last few matches of the EPL. We're lucky we get the Brazilian and Argentinian competitions as well.

[DanTex]

24. I agree, to an extent.

If this were a soccer forum, this would be the start of a flame war...

I disagree about Serie A. They used to be maybe the best league, but have dropped off in recent years. I like La Liga, but the problem I have there is that it's too top-weighted. Barca, Real, and Atletico are just far better than everyone else there, and who knows if Atletico can keep it up with wealthy teams trying to buy all their players. But there's nothing better than El Clasico (besides the world cup).

The thing about EPL is that there are five world-class teams there: Man U, Man C, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool. IMO, at the moment, no other league has as much broad class as EPL.

The other problem is that, in the US, it's hard to watch Seria A, La Liga, or Bundesliga without either buying some special cable package or finding an internet stream. But EPL comes in on NBC Sports.

[malaise]

25. The Seria A scandals

weakened Italian football. My only team in EPL is Tottenham Hot Spurs because I actually watched a few matches at their home. I have cousins in the neighbourhood and they were riding high back then.

[DanTex]

45. Speaking of the top-heavy La Liga.

Barca just signed Luis Suarez from Liverpool. That makes their front three Messi, Neymar, and Suarez. Pretty strong, assuming Suarez can have a bite-free season. Go Barca!

[malaise]

46. You know Barca and Green Bay Packers are the only two sports teams in the world

with no corporate owners - love them both.

[DanTex]

48. Nice! I didn't know that about Barca.

Kinda figured that some rich guy or corporation was funding the whole thing. All the more reason to cheer for them.

[malaise]

56. Barcelona is the anti-fascist club

Enjoy this
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/club/detail/card/fc-barcelona-the-members-club
<snip>
The slogan “more than a club” expresses the commitment that Futbol Club Barcelona has maintained and still maintains beyond what belongs in the realm of sport. For many years, this commitment specifically referred to Catalan society, which for many decades of the 20th century lived under dictatorships that persecuted its language and culture. Under these circumstances, Barça always supported Catalan sentiments, and the defense of its own language and culture. It was because of this that, even though Catalan was not an official language, in 1921 the club drafted its statutes in the language of Catalonia. It was also in this era that in 1918 the club adhered to a petition for a statute of autonomy for Catalonia, which was being demanded from all sectors of the catalanista movement.

The club’s orientation led to reprisals from the Spanish authorities and it was closed down for six months under the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. During the Second Spanish Republic, the club intensified its message of implication with Catalonia’s own culture and institutions. President Josep Sunyol led this process using the slogan “sport and citizen ship”, the purpose being to imply sports in the country’s social and cultural affairs. Sunyol, who was also a member of parliament, was shot dead early in the Spanish Civil War in 1936; and from then on, the club came to be an icon of the defence of the Republic, as shown by the tour of Mexico and the United States in 1937. When the Civil War ended, General Franco’s dictatorship sought to destroy the club’s social significance.

It enforced the Spanish version of its name and the removal of the four Catalan stripes from the crest. Despite the dictatorship’s persistence, in the late 1960s the club starting recovering its former spirit, as made so evident by the speeches of President Narcís de Carreras, the man who coined the famous nation of being “more than a club” in 1968. Outside of Catalonia, in many parts of Spain, Barça also became symbolic of democracy and anti-centralism. When democracy returned after the death of Franco, the club maintained its social commitment and new ways of supporting charitable causes emerged, which would later be encompassed by the creation of the club’s Foundation. Now in times of globalization, Barça has extended its social commitment to the rest of the planet, with a specially significant event being the signing of an agreement with Unicef in 2006, which was a way of saying that a sports club should not be marginal to problems going on in society, in this case, the plight of children around the world. Because of this, Barça continues to be “more than a club” both in Catalonia and elsewhere in the world, and is implied in numerous cultural, social and charity initiatives.

[redqueen]

53. Wow, I didn't know that...

Cool!

[Cali_Democrat]

16. I first got into it in 2002

That was when it was in South Korea/Japan.

I was watching games at 3am PST.

But I was in college then so it didn't matter

[3catwoman3]

20. My sons, who were 9 and 12 at the time...

...and I got up to watch those games in real time during that World Cup.

[Cali_Democrat]

39. WOW! That's dedication!

[griloco]

26. theres no "soccer" in FIFA. nt

[lovemydog]

27. It's never too late to enjoy the beautiful game.

I played in high school (we won the state championship!) and I've loved it ever since. Haven't gotten to watch it as much as I'd like but every time I do I love it. So much tension & drama. I've watched a lot of the world cup this year and love love love it. Here's a good link to see some cool videos and short recaps and great stuff like the best goals from the great players: http://www.espnfc.com/index

I'm going to watch more as I get older and can afford the premiere league, mls and other paid channels. Everyone who watches a lot says league play is even more fun than watching the world cup. Or at least, that it's a lot of fun to watch.

[rurallib]

28. In 2 weeks Mrs. Lib went from totally passive about sports

to an absolute freak for futball. We missed nary a minute if the knockout round. She insisted!

[redqueen]

54. Haha, nice!

Hope she checks out some MLS games... The EPL is also on network TV sometimes for big games

[rurallib]

58. we will be doing that

[Crowman1979]

29. If you have any local pro, semi-pro, or college soccer teams nearby--support them as well.

I'm just saying!

[LittleBlue]

30. Took me a bit to get into the sport

To really get into it, you should just watch a season of the Premier League. Club football is so much better than the World Cup (international football)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

33. Dunno about that. I LOVED Germany beating up Brazil.

That was an intense 15 minutes.

[musiclawyer]

37. Germany figured out what the USA women have known forever :

Brazil crumbles at the first sign of adversity. Think of Brazil as England 2.0 --group of stars, not a team. The opposite is Mexico--finally started playing well when they built a team and added the stars where necessary. This was a long coming wake up to the lazy and corrupt Brazilian Federation that skill is not everything. A good team is comprised of players with skill PLUS grit, steel, determination and intelligence. Brazil thought it could show up, put on the yellow shirt, and the crowd would carry them. Wrong ! Epic fail by the experienced coach who should have known better. And I use the word epic without hyperbole...
Germany basically has incorporated the Spanish tiki taka but with better athletes and better wide and direct play. Does not mean they will win Sunday because this Argentine coach knows that defense wins championships and Germany can't play keep away as well as Spain circa 2008-12. But it's fascinating to watch. .....One day the USA will be in a World Cup final. Hope I'm still alive because it's an incredible achievement ......The ultimate improv

[ChairmanAgnostic]

40. exactly! Leaderless prima donnas, no matter how talented each one clearly is.

[malaise]

49. Then what explains the fact that they have five world cup wins from seven finals

(1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002) while Germany has three from seven (with Sunday being their eighth).
Brazil is a world class football power - the real problem is that they are not playing their own game and they had a lousy defense in this competition. Add to that losing two key players - their captain and their best scorer and home pressure for the semi-final against a very good German team and it is what it is.

The Brazilian coach should have been fired the moment he dissed Pele.

[musiclawyer]

50. Because they were better then. The best.

The rest of the world caught up. Better tactics. Better strategy. Better nutrition. Brazil only recently incorporated top shelf real time medical monitoring technology. Look, no team lies down like dogs unless there is a character defect embedded in the whole squad. Brazil left home a dozen defenders d mids and some attackers more disciplined who would walk through fire and never give up. But they are not the biggest stars. Like I said. Good teams need stars but a bunch of stars does not make a team. See Mexico before Herrera. Brazil is replete with skilled personnel. I hope they now understand a team needs personnel with the proper mentality as well. How in the heck does the USA keep getting into the knockout round? It sure ain't skill.

[FailureToCommunicate]

34. And 'the beautiful game' welcomes you! The youth league in our town has 1700 kids and

growing strong. I volunteer coached for over ten years and loved (almost) every hour of it. It really is a terrific sport for kids because it requires teamwork, because it's basically simple, but loaded with complexity, because it's great exercise (one of the U.S. players ran TEN miles in ONE game at the World Cup), because it doesn't cost more then the price of a ball, because the rest of the world plays it, you will learn about other cultures, because, because, because, so many more reasons...

Sure, basketball, and some other sports have those qualities too, but right now, during World Cup, it's futbol!

[ellie]

35. I agree. I have been enjoying the World Cup.

It is a nerve wracking game to watch. One wrong move on defense and the other team can score.

[glowing]

36. I grew up in small town, rural VT... We didn't have big enough schools many times to support an

actual football team, so soccer in the fall was our "IT" sport. And while I played during my elementary and middle school years, I knew well enough that I would not come close to the skill that the highschool JV team would require.. So, next best thing, Varsity Boys Soccer manager. I had to keep track of shot's on goal, assits, fouls, etc.

My husband started watching the futbol/ soccer World Cup matches (because basically if its a sport and on ESPN, he'll watch it). For the first time, it was really nice being able to school him on the game. He's really quite appreciative of the athletecism and is understanding some of the "plays" and special set ups better. When the World Cup first began, he wasn't sure why there were corner kicks...

So, if we ever have an MLS team close by, he's all about going and watching that. So, first up would be regular football and then soccer (he prefers that over baseball now-- lol).

[3catwoman3]

38. Welcome aboard.

We are glad to have you.

[IronLionZion]

41. Ann Coulter is against it

so that's another plus! She claims its too liberal or something.