A Yellow Card to Bad Reasons to Hate Soccer

GOOOOOOOAL!

Ok, so as I mentioned on Boogie's article yesterday, I am not a soccer fan. But as a fan of sport, soccer does get a bad wrap. The average American sports fan (Boogie) blames soccer for being boring, for not having enough scoring, for ending in ties, and for not having enough action. "Besides," they say, "it's just a bunch of guys running around and kicking a ball while crazed fans paint their faces and kill other fans when their team loses."


Let's look at each argument and counter:

1) Ties: I hate to break the news, but you NFL fans - or Donovan McNabb - may not know that the NFL ends games in ties as well. And as much as I realize this is the south and we hate hockey, until the strike, the NHL did the same thing. In important games, like the NFL, soccer ends in sudden death or shootouts too.

2) No scoring: Ugh, I'm pretty sure baseball ends in 1-0 matches or 2-1, or 3-2 matches EVERYDAY. I even believe that I watch a few NFL games (i.e. Browns, Raiders, 49ers, etc.) end games every year with nothing but field goals. Unless you're the Patriots of 2007 or Colts of any 2000 year, most teams only score 3-4 times a game at the most. So if we award 3-7 points for each soccer goal, the score now turns to 21-14. The score is no different. NHL, yeah its same thing.

3) Boring: This goes hand in hand with the score. Baseball takes an OCD batter (ARod, Nomar, Jeter, etc.) to the plate where they play with their gloves, hats, crotch, and bat, and then take practice swings before going into the batter box. At the same time a pitcher takes signs that they wave off, overrule, grab their crotch, spit and then throw a pitch. Repeat each round 3-10 times an at bat and you get a 4 hour baseball game. The NFL is just as bad with the Payton Manning’s and Bret Favre's of the world getting 45 seconds to make a play, get up to the line, touch the fat guys butt, and then yell things - at the conclusion, he starts the actual play that takes all of 3 seconds when he gives the ball to a guy 3 feet behind him where that guy runs 9 feet and falls.

4) Fans: If you YouTube "Raiders Chargers Stab" you'll know exactly why this argument is invalid. While fans of soccer get a bad wrap for having killed players, NFL and Baseball fans are just as guilty of everything but that one incident. Fans throw glass bottles, stab each other, have gang fights, and light fires in players’ yards. EVERY sport has those annoying fans that paint their faces and scream profanities - i.e. Kentucky and Louisville fans.

I will agree that those stupid horns in the World Cup are really annoying. It does sound like a swarm of bees about to attach the alien saucer stadium. But even with that, the Saints have cowbells, the Vikings have the same loud horns, and other teams have annoying chants and cheers (i.e. the Cleveland Browns bark).

So before you go and bash the sport that is most popular in the world for the same thing your favorite sport does, take a step back and think. Maybe you shouldn't be just like that girl you dated that hated sports, primarily because she knew nothing about it. Step into the sport, learn a thing or two - and then watch the competition. This is the largest sporting event in the world. Support the Americans as they go out there and remind the not so Great Britain that we still own them!

Viva Estats-Unis d'Amerique!