Good old Soccer...

[Marshal Murat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6248835.stm

Hmmm. The new invasion of America by the British soccer star Beckham. I'm not bowing out to the use of the f word because that denotes a seperate game.
I'm asking for Brits feelings about it, and how any Americans feel about this attempt to popularize a very boring game.

[Slyspy]

What you've done there is that you've gone and got your definition all arsey-versey.

[Don Corleone]

The bloom is off the rose with Beckham, right? I thought some of his issues with Real Madrid had more to do with contract duration than actual funds per year. He'll probably gin up ticket sales for a little while, but odds are it'll only be a transient pulse, settling back down to current levels in a year or two's time.

The big reason <insert favorite name for that sport here> hasn't caught on in the US is lack of television support. It won't get much more of that until networks figure out how to air it and still make money without commercials.

Not to mention, Americans like their own brand of football. As long as it's pitched as a one-or-the-other proposition, that sport will lose every time. It needs to find it's own niche. Springtime?

[Vladimir]

Springtime?

Exactly. Most of the mainstream sports already dominate a certain time of year. Baseball, Basketball and FOOTIE(ball) each occupy about a third of the year. Where would you put it? Isn't three balls enough even if one is oddly shaped?

[Samurai Waki]

LA has a Soccer Team? wow. Where have I been?

[doc_bean]

I'm asking for Brits feelings about it, and how any Americans feel about this attempt to popularize a very boring game.

I thought baseball already was quite popular in the US ?

[Scurvy]

I think its good for him, hes still a good player, and i suspect will be the best in any team he plays for in the US, not been doing too well at Real Madrid, + LA team get loads of money from "the beckham brand", everyones happy...

im not sure that soccer football will ever catch on in america, basically for the reasons don said,

I'm asking for Brits feelings about it, and how any Americans feel about this attempt to popularize a very boring game.

football is in no way boring.

[Dave1984]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6248835.stm

Hmmm. The new invasion of America by the British soccer star Beckham. I'm not bowing out to the use of the f word because that denotes a seperate game.

I was under the impression that they are the same game sent down two different evolutionary paths.


Anyway, I wouldn't say that it's really an attempt to popularise the sport by sending an Essex pretty boy to the US- whatever he says, I'm certain that somewhere along the line someone has been conspiring to get this decade's pin-up of English footballing mediocrity to a place where his "talents" won't offend European passions for the beautiful game any longer.

[Idaho]

The big reason <insert favorite name for that sport here> hasn't caught on in the US is lack of television support. It won't get much more of that until networks figure out how to air it and still make money without commercials.

Not to mention, Americans like their own brand of football. As long as it's pitched as a one-or-the-other proposition, that sport will lose every time. It needs to find it's own niche. Springtime?

The lack of tv coverage is really just a symptom. It's a class thing. In the US, soccer is a middle class suburban game. Like field hockey or rounders is here. Sports that become successful in a society are working class sports. Mass sporting events are (generally) watched by beer drinking working men. Those men are watching other working class men who have made it big in their sport. Living in the middle of a big US city an atheltic youth is going to play basketball. In the rural areas it's football or baseball (correct me on the details).

No american kid is ever going to break out of the ghettos or rural dump by playing soccer. They are going to learn to jump/hit a ball/run fast.

In the rest of the world soccer is the working class game. Some of the best players the world has ever known have grown up running barefoot kicking a ball of string (or some such).

[drone]

Going from Madrid to LA. Well, at least he probably knows Spanish by now.

$250 million for 5 years is waaaay too much money though, I can't see how the MLS financials can support this. I wonder if Lamar Hunt would have supported this deal.

[Hosakawa Tito]

The evil influences of HollyWood will be his ruin. Probably end up getting busted with Mel Gibson on some drunken roadtrip and blame it on....

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

As I said in the Frontroom football thread, if I was him I'd have gone on a free transfer to a mid-table prem side, and spent the rest of my career there. I suppose his wife had something to do with him choosing this particular course.

Perhaps the bigger question is, why is Beckham so revered in the US, as opposed to, say, Henry, Eto'o or Kaka?

[KrooK]

Gah I'm so happy
Football player i hate most will be behind ocean.
Stupid Americans will be paying that #%R$#&(**#(
Live is OK

[Tribesman]

Gah I'm so happy
Football player i hate most will be behind ocean.
Stupid Americans will be paying that #%R$#&(**#(
Live is OK

And as a bonus Krook , they get his talentless trog of a wife overthere aswell

[Peasant Phill]

Why do Americans consider sports that don't regulary result in fights, spectacular injuries or huge scores as boring?

[drone]

Perhaps the bigger question is, why is Beckham so revered in the US, as opposed to, say, Henry, Eto'o or Kaka?

Probably because most of us don't follow the sport very closely, and figure from all the press he gets, he's got to be good! Some of us know better, though. That's a lot of money for a spot-kick and crossing specialist. Maybe he and Posh want to get into movies soon.

If there's one old player I would have loved to see come to the MLS, it would have to be Bergkamp. He could have offered so much and showed how beautiful the game could be. Shame he doesn't fly...

[IrishArmenian]

No fights in football Phil? Football has a large tradition of good brawls, and even a war in South America.
I am sick of Beckham. Yes, he's a good player, but he is so highly overrated and he has not aged well at all in terms of football. Now, Campo would be a good addition to American football. I think that European clubs should use American ones as training grounds for their younger players. It would be like a new youth academy. No more loaning intra-league. Just send your player to America. There, they will have a chance to shine and get experience, all the while converting Americans to football fanaticism.
BKS, good point. I could see Henry going to America in his old age. Americans are very shallow with their celebrities. They could never like a Wayne Rooney, a Damien Duff, a Peter Crouch, Tomas Rosicky, and especially Edgar Manucharyan because they are all, especially Manucharyan, ugly as...sin. They like Beckham because he's "pretty".

[The Black Ship]

Perhaps the bigger question is, why is Beckham so revered in the US, as opposed to, say, Henry, Eto'o or Kaka?

They're not brands yet, he is. That's what MLS is buying. Wait 'til they realize he's not the goal-scoring machine they think they've bought.

That said, the pedestrian pace of MLS should serve him well.

Why oh why didn't they try for Alan Shearer, Bergkamp, or Zidane? Sure they may be retired, but for $250 mil I bet they could've been coerced.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Why do Americans consider sports that don't regulary result in fights, spectacular injuries or huge scores as boring?

American football has none of those. Neither does baseball. Idaho has the real answer.

[naut]

Oh Football. Right. Beckham is past it, a spent battery.

Tomas Rosicky

Since when is Tom&#225;š Rosick&#253; ugly?

a very boring game.

Which one? Baseball or Basketball

Also will somebody explain how men wearing tights is exciting.

[Marshal Murat]

I'm just asking more along the lines of why is soccer popular and Idaho evidently explained it. People don't play it in America, except for specialized areas.
I just don't understand why people everywhere don't enjoy basketball (its like soccer but with 3 and 2 pointers) or American Football.

[naut]

Simple reason why people don't like Basketball:

The games involve stupidly high scores (anywhere between 70-120+), so this means when somebody scores it is nothing special. However, in Football goals are few and far between making them special and hard to obtain. So when you score in Football it is an ecstatic feeling because of the effort and skill required to score. However, Basketball just has some 7" tall African Americans running up and down a court putting balls in holes; not really exciting.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Simple reason why people don't like Basketball:

The games involve stupidly high scores (anywhere between 70-120+), so this means when somebody scores it is nothing special. However, in Football goals are few and far between making them special and hard to obtain. So when you score in Football it is an ecstatic feeling because of the effort and skill required to score. However, Basketball just has some 7" tall African Americans running up and down a court putting balls in holes; not really exciting.

To add to this glorious post:


Also, American football is not widely popular because the rest of the world happens to find the "pass, run, stop, pass, run, tackle, stop" theory repeating itself over and over again boring. It just doesn't have the same type of finesse, the beauty.

[KukriKhan]

...Mass sporting events are (generally) watched by beer drinking working men. Those men are watching other working class men who have made it big in their sport. Living in the middle of a big US city an atheltic youth is going to play basketball. In the rural areas it's football or baseball (correct me on the details)...

A more astute analysis of the "sport will set you free" mythos I've not seen - sport being one of the 3 ways to escape the grinding poverty of the american ghetto, or farm (entertainment and the military being the other two).

(correct me on the details)

Basketball = 'small' space required, therefore urban.

Football (yank) = 'medium' space required. IMO why it transitioned from rural to urban. Also requires a college degree for "pro", so benefited from affirmative action measures, nowadays increasingly nixed by voters.

Baseball = 'large' space required. Fields and such, to accomodate the hits. Recruitment lately has veered from the US to the Caribbean, where a combination of urban and rural youth have learnt the game, and see it as their salvation. US-based baseball heros tarnished by performance-enhancing drugs intake. I predict the Dominian Republic will become the 51st State. (and won't Puerto Rico be pissed?)

Re: Mr & Mrs Beckham: one word - Hollywood.

[Justiciar]

To add to this glorious post:


Also, American football is not widely popular because the rest of the world happens to find the "pass, run, stop, pass, run, tackle, stop" theory repeating itself over and over again boring. It just doesn't have the same type of finesse, the beauty.

Not yet, at least. France and Italy have managed to successfully catch on, though.

[IrishArmenian]

Oh Football. Right. Beckham is past it, a spent battery.


Since when is Tomáš Rosický ugly?

Wife says he's ugly. She does however had bad taste, she's somehow attracted to me.

[IrishArmenian]

Oh Football. Right. Beckham is past it, a spent battery.


Since when is Tomáš Rosický ugly?

Wife says he's ugly. She does however had bad taste, she's somehow attracted to me.

[Ronin]

Best move Real Madrid have done in years....

this guy is totally overrated...he´s about useless for the team 90% of the time....I´ll admit...he scores a great free-kick....but he can´t do practically anything else!!!....how does someone with so limited skills gets the kind of contracts this guy gets I´ll never know

anyway....now the americans have to put up with him...good....maybe now the tv stations won´t be compelled to show him on tv every time he gets a new aircut

[naut]

maybe now the tv stations won&#180;t be compelled to show him on tv every time he gets a new aircut

Although that's not as often as Cisse, gets a new hairstyle once a week.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

The guy is getting paid huge amounts of money over there not to mention the sponsorship deals. Who wouldn't go? His england career is over (which i don't agree with) and he won't be in the long term plans of Real. So save going to Italy or back to blighty there wasn't much choice