The Zidane Incident

I understand the frustration us Americans have with the flopping, and hopefully FIFA starts giving more yellows for flops, but what really frustrates me, is how as a nation, we need high scoring action, or we consider it boring. Some of the best games in soccer are 0-0 ties. Yeah its 90 freaking minutes, and no goals, so deal with it. It really shows that some people do not have the patience to admire the finer points of the world's greatest game. Do you know why there are so few goals? It's because scoring a goal in soccer is much harder than to score in a game of football.

I agree with all your points except for this one. This is kind of like saying that people SHOULD appreciate wine and taste all the subtleties when it's really just how we're raised. We are raised in an unfortunately fast-paced society and I don't see anything wrong with enjoying high scoring action. That's another reason baseball isn't more popular than it is. I believe that the "majority" of sports have their charm and no one is better than the other "value"-wise, but it's something that has a simply subjective entertainment. It's wrong for anyone to say that people are idiots for not enjoying this sport or that sport.

I agree with all your points except for this one. This is kind of like saying that people SHOULD appreciate wine and taste all the subtleties when it's really just how we're raised. We are raised in an unfortunately fast-paced society and I don't see anything wrong with enjoying high scoring action. That's another reason baseball isn't more popular than it is. I believe that the "majority" of sports have their charm and no one is better than the other "value"-wise, but it's something that has a simply subjective entertainment. It's wrong for anyone to say that people are idiots for not enjoying this sport or that sport.

Ok I do get what you are saying, and maybe my anger made me come off wrong. I really do not care if people do not like a particular point, but I do not like it when people critcize sports without backing it and just straight bashing. I am more upset in the way people criticize soccer, and you are right our fast paced society adds to our need of high scoring action. At same time I feel that this need has not only created soccer "haters", but has also negatively impacted other games, such as baseball, football, basketball, etc. This just doesn't have to do with soccer, I think there are finer points in all these sports that are not appreciated. Maybe I should have said world's most popular rather than world's greatest game.

I'd agree with that. The bad part is, unless a person was raised playing or being near a certain sport, they can't appreciate the nuances that are involved in that sport. I was raised playing football, baseball and basketball. All sports I love to play, and I still am only truly entertained by football. If I wasn't raised playing baseball, then I REALLY would dislike it. It's just the nature of some games to be especially slow. I would think that most people's argument against low-scoring soccer games would be the fact that you watch something for ninety minutes and [especially] when the ball remains at midfield, you know that no one is going to score. That's my gripe against it, but I'm also not going to tell anyone they are wrong for enjoying it.

I'm ONLY going to tell people they are wrong for watching golf. ;)

Great posts, Hooskins. Don't really know why people get so angry about soccer. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Whatever. Arguing about which version of putting a ball into a goal, across a line, etc. is better is pretty silly.

Zidane apparently will go on French TV soon to give his version of events. My feeling is no matter what was said, the right move would have been scoring a goal to win the game. You can always headbutt the guy after the match during the soccer riot. ;)

He won the golden ball award for his play against Brazil especially. Man, he controlled that game from start to finish. Plus, the voting was done at HALFTIME of the final, before the butting. There's some thought that they may take it back, but I doubt that.

No offense Buster, but you really shouldn't call out the most popular sport in the world like that without actually supporting yourself, and putting forth a decent arguement. It is this ignorance of the game, that also creates a negative image of Americans. As mentioned before 3 goals is a lot in the torney, Klose had 5, henry had 3, etc. Beside the goals, he pretty much controlled midfield, and set up some brillant goals. Another point; the votes for the golden award thingy were counted before the headbutt, therefore the voters did not have that issue in mind when voting.

I understand the frustration us Americans have with the flopping, and hopefully FIFA starts giving more yellows for flops, but what really frustrates me, is how as a nation, we need high scoring action, or we consider it boring. Some of the best games in soccer are 0-0 ties. Yeah its 90 freaking minutes, and no goals, so deal with it. It really shows that some people do not have the patience to admire the finer points of the world's greatest game. Do you know why there are so few goals? It's because scoring a goal in soccer is much harder than to score in a game of football. The whole team has to keep pushing, and flowing at almost a perfect rate, or their has to be a very very rare mistake. If you take that into consideration, you would realize that Zidane's 3 goals is a great stat, and we also know that all stats on paper do not explain what a player has done in a game.

It is people like you that have ruined the game of soccer. FIFA is trying to increase goals, by have lighter balls, that can drop and swing off unexpectidly, making it harder for the goalie to stop. They are also calling more bullshit calls, which increase the set pieces, and penalty kicks, which add to goals, just to please people who do not have the patience or appreciation of the game. Because of people who do not appreciate the finer points of game, the NBA, MLB, and yes even our beloved NFL have changed to rules to please people who can't FCKING sit and try to enjoy the game without bitching. Now pass interference rules are almost ridiculous, which makes even more high scoring games, and almost kills the contact sport aspect, at the CB position. The refs call everything in the NBA even if you rest your arm on a player while play D, like for D. Wade in the finals, and now its considered good D if you hold and opponent to under 100 points. All of this just to please people who want more scores.

I am sick of this shit, people need to start being open and quit bitching. No one is fucking dissing soccer in that nature, without me saying anything.

I personally don't agree with much of anything you said.

Point number 1 you made, that Americans don't appreciate low-scoring games, I kind of half-agree with. Some Americans don't, but then some Americans do. Talk to any baseball purist, and they'll tell you that they'd rather watch Pedro Martinez vs Johan Santana pitch a 1-0 game than see Pujols and Ortiz hit 3 HRs apiece. I personally like nothing better than a defensive slugfest in football.

The low scoring is not why Americans don't like soccer. For some reason, Americans just don't take to sports where the idea is to put a ball or a puck past a goaltender and into a net. Hockey was made to be more high-scoring this year, but it's success as a sport has only improved very marginally. Gotta give the NHL some time, but my assertion is hockey is never going to be as big as the NFL, MLB, or NBA. Americans just like football, baseball, and basketball much better. That's all there really is to it. We have other sports leagues here to attract our attention, that's why nobody cares about soccer. There are other sports we find more fun to both watch and play.

The low scoring is not why Americans don't like soccer. For some reason, Americans just don't take to sports where the idea is to put a ball or a puck past a goaltender and into a net.

I've never really thought about that, but that's very true. I know I personally get bored of back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until there's FINALLY a shot on goal. I guess subconciously there's something about the symmetry of sports like that I don't like. Baseball, while very slow to me, is at least a fairly dynamic game when it comes to the "area" it's played in.

For some reason, Americans just don't take to sports where the idea is to put a ball or a puck past a goaltender and into a net.

Since college I've really started to enjoy lacrosse, although I don't watch it that often b/c its rarely on.
I don't mind goal-oriented sports but they do tend to be rather boring. LAX, to me, is very fast and can be very entertaining.

It's already been touched on in a couple of posts but interest in a particular sport is relevant to the amount of experience a person has with that sport. I love both high scoring and low scoring baseball games. Football goes the same for me. Another factor to influence a person's interest is the passion an enthusiast has when describing the game. I never had an interest in the Tour de France until some guy (UPS driver) spent about 2 non-stop hours explaining to me what the deal was. I'm in the process of trying to learn to like soccer because the area I live in is trying to develop a solid league for youth.

Zidane's best play of the World Cup wasn't any of his three goals (2 of which were on PKs), but the beautiful cross he hit to Thierry Henry to beat Brazil 1-0.

There is an arrogance from Americans when it comes to soccer. Not sure why, but the casual fan will never embrace it the way they embrace other sports. I'm a fan of sports in general, so watching soccer is just another reason to sit for a few hours and watch a highly competitive match.

Schneed, your point is taken, but I do think that a big part of why Americans do not like soccer is because of the low scoring. In order to get fans back, it was rumored that baseball "juiced" the balls so that they would fly further, increasing Home Runs and scoring. The NFL have all but outlawed any contact downfield between receivers and corners. The NHL, to bring back fans, have increased scoring chances with smaller creases, smaller goalie pads, and other rule changes. The NBA has become very lax about travelling and other things that slow the game down. These things would haven't happened if Americans didn't care one way or another about low scoring. It's a shame that soccer gets a bad rap because of low scoring...I don't expect it to compete with the big boys, but that's no reason to totally write it off.

But what's funny is, take any rivalry in the US (Yanks/BoSox, Skins/Cowboys, etc), and it will nowhere near match the intensity of the rivalries in Europe.

I don't think anyone disagrees about those rivalries. We know the deal in the rest of the world.

Also, with 1,000 coming up, you might want to give a shout out to BSB. :D