53 responses so far

• 1 Charles Boyd // Apr 3, 2009 at 2:56 pm

  Interesting, sounds alot like sour grapes, as yet havent seen anybody dying over the shanigans that u see in the news. A large number of countries live with the shame that the many have died in their exuberance of the game..I d enjoy watching but will quit if that type comes to the USA..

• 2 KT // Apr 3, 2009 at 2:59 pm

  MLS got rid of shootouts in 1999, not 2003.

• 3 Joey // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:00 pm

  God, we are embarassing. I think worse than anything is the MLS playoffs. Blah

• 4 MB Davis // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:02 pm

  Soccer “the world’s favorite sport” is that way due to the hundreds of years that were dictated by lack of choice. The U.S. is the land of choice, where nothing dominates. Perhaps if European naitons were to realize that soccer is one of many sports, and in fact is miserably simple and represents a marathon with a ball in the middle…athletic and entertainment progress could happen. The U.S. is a place where people without athletic ability play soccer because anyone can do it, unlike say hitting a fastball or tackling a running back.
  History and tradition are great, but let’s move on already…..soccer is just not that interesting of a sport.

• 5 KT // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:03 pm

  Not interesting to you, which is fair enough.

  But if you think soccer players have no athletic ability, I have two words for you: Bobby Jenks.

  Here’s two more: John Kruk.

  There are many sociological reasons why soccer is popular elsewhere and not as popular in the US. But those reasons are part of a discussion that’s very likely well over your head.

• 6 John // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:04 pm

  This was the least funniest rant ever.

• 7 thoswynmill // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:05 pm

  I can’t believe this article by Webb has made it so far to get published by the WSJ. I ran across this article through another blog called “On The Pitch”, who countered with “Ignorance Is Ruining America” (http://onthepitch.org/2009/03/12/ignorance-is-ruining-america-not-soccer/).

  Americans believe they can slag off soccer because it’s a “foreign sport”. But you dare say anything against the greta American sports like baseball or (American) football,… despite the fact that baseball originated from cricket in the 1800s and Amercian football originated from rugby.

• 8 Joey // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:07 pm

  MB Davis, that’s the allure of the sport. No, not everyone can do it, but most have the basic abilities. The beauty is that hard work and effort are rewarded more in this sport than most others.

  Sure, there are problems with the sport, like how officiating can pretty much decide every match, but not any more so than the NBA, where Dwayne Wade can shoot around 132 free throws in one game or something like that.

• 9 KT // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:10 pm

  Oh, and no one here says “British EPL,” either.

• 10 Nate // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:13 pm

  Ah, post-score celebration music. How I long for the days when the music was piped in only between the action instead of during. Just wait until you inherit the god-forsaken in-game music of the NBA - we’re forced to listen to top-40 pop crap while our favorite players are TRYING to score. Apparently the NBA thinks that the sound of 28,000 cheering fans is not enough to drown out poor officiating.

  Also, I cannot possibly apologize enough for the disgusting influence of our cheerleaders on your delicate British sensibilities. The thought of scantily-clad nubile young women impeding on the purity of English football matches makes me hang my head in shame. In the spirit of international cooperation and goodwill, I would be more than happy to take the Bluebelles off your hands. Just send them to America, c/o Nate. You can thank me later.

• 11 Avoiding The Drop // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:20 pm

  We actually got Webb to watch AND review a soccer game last week as penance.

  http://avoidingthedrop.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/first-timers-stephen-h-webb/

• 12 SoccerYank // Apr 3, 2009 at 3:22 pm

  I detest the way they call the English Premiership “the prem” on the Fox Soccer Channel too.

  If I remember correctly, wasn’t there once a meeting to discuss dividing footy games into “quarters” when the US got the World Cup in 1994 so the TV networks could assure more advertising opportunities? Or was that just a fantastic urban legend?

• 13 Ryan // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:12 pm

  Everybody takes this all too seriously. In the grand scheme of things, all sports are completely and utterly meaningless. This is most especially true at the professional level. There is no logical reason to waste your time watching any sport, much less caring about the outcome of what is nothing more than a game. In fact, the world would probably be a lot better off if so many weren’t so distracted by sports. Nevertheless, I do watch sports, and find soccer to be as exciting and interesting as any other. The author of the WSJ article is clearly not a sports fan however, and should therefore not be writing about sports. The writing does display a familiarity with the major sports, but only as a participant or spectator in organized sports. The author strikes me as a proud, self-important, reactionary neo-con. The only exposure he has had to soccer is at his daughters travel teams games. And he’s right that soccer in America is the sport of yuppies, but in the rest of the world it is not. His article should be about youth soccer in America, because that is all he knows about. His knowledge of professional soccer is laughable, as he thinks most games end in sudden death!?!?! But, the fact that the article has no mention of any popular sports figures reveals even more about the author. I would be willing to bet that he doesn’t follow sports at all. There are many people like that, more women than men, but hey, more power too them. As I stated earlier, pro sports are meaningless, and following them is not a constructive way to spend your time. However, I’ve always mistrusted people who take no interest in the sports world. Its almost as if they can’t be bothered, or refuse to admit anything is more important than themselves, and they tend to be the type that takes themselves and life too seriously. That this type of person would write an op-ed piece about sports is rather silly.

• 14 Program Pittsburgh // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:13 pm

  I feel bad for pro soccer players in Europe. They have to run around with huge corporate logos plastered all over their uniforms. They look like billboards out there. That’s not Americas doing. I’d hate if the my Steelers had to wear a big, I don’t know, Viagra logo on their helmet or jersey.

• 15 Ugly American pretending to be outraged // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:24 pm

  How dare MLS have a golden goal to determine a winner! It’s not like your cherished World Cup determines their champion that way, or anything. Weak rant.

  And SOCCER is about the 15th most popular sport in the states, right behind bowling and lawn darts. Kids play it because they can play an entire match without knowing if they played a good game or a bad one. If a kid plays little league baseball, he can be humiliated by striking out or making an error. In soccer, it’s ice-cream for everybody that didn’t kick the ball in their own goal!

• 16 Kelly Leak // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:28 pm

  Pizza Hut Park is somehow worse than Manchester United wearing AIG shirts.? Please. There’s nothing worse than wearing a corporate sponsor on your uniform. What’s next, Chico’s Bail Bonds sponsoring Tottenham Hotspur?

• 17 Jake // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:29 pm

  Wow. Sense of humor failure on behalf of most of the comments above. Didn’t anyone understand that this posting wasn’t supposed to be taken too seriously?

• 18 SE // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:41 pm

  Jake :-)

  MB Davis did he thinks Baseball players are athletes or you need some form of ability to tackle.

• 19 MB // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:51 pm

  Imagine what we could do to things we actually care about (I’m looking at you, global economy…)

• 20 Yank Chav // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:54 pm

  If you think we ruined soccer, wait until you see what we did with reality tv, Iraq and Guy Ritchie.

• 21 Joey // Apr 3, 2009 at 4:57 pm

  I think that we’re all so into this is a sign that the world really doesn’t give an S about the global economy as much as the news and politicians would like to think. I think CNN should choose their reports by doing a blog comment poll. Blog commenters are probably more informed than those goons.

• 22 shay // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:12 pm

  Have you no sympathy for the US soccer fan. What the hell else are we supposed to do?!

• 23 Anheuser Busch // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:15 pm

  Well golly, whaddya expect? Look what we did to beer.

• 24 Stevie the K // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:17 pm

  LOL @ Yank Chav!

• 25 JASONIAN // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:25 pm

  Secretly, you wish you had thought of that ingenious offsides line 35 yards from the goal that they used in the old NASL.

• 26 Sade // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:35 pm

  As a lifelong fan of the beautiful game i have a hard time listening to the commentary of MLS games. maybe we can import english announcers and hope for the best as for the stadium names no comment

• 27 Chris // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:06 pm

  Hate to break it to you UK but most Americans don’t like a sport where when a player gets slightly bumped they make it seem like an act akin to forcible rape. Hence the NBA becoming less and less popular despite what ESPN may make you think.

• 28 Raph88 // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:36 pm

  …as opposed to ‘unforcible rape’, chris eh?

• 29 KT // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:36 pm

  “I detest the way they call the English Premiership “the prem” on the Fox Soccer Channel too.”

  That’s pretentiousness. There’s a lot of it on FSC.

  “How dare MLS have a golden goal to determine a winner! It’s not like your cherished World Cup determines their champion that way, or anything. Weak rant.”

  Except…the World Cup doesn’t have golden goal. FIFA got rid of the Golden Goal after Euro 2004.

  So, please….STFU. You don’t like soccer. We get it. We also don’t care. We’ll be fine without you. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re here to stay.

  That is all.

• 30 guy who got the golden goal thing wrong // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:42 pm

  Sorry, not a Golden Goal…a penalty shootout can determine the winner of the World Cup. BIG difference, apparently. And much worse, as well.

• 31 Bokolis // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:48 pm

  Though some of it smacks of home bias, for the most part, it’s not far off from the truth.

  Piling on useless statistics and butchering analysis is endemic of television in general…everything on television is porn/professional wrestiling. That said, 15 years ago, I had to scour NYC looking for a place to watch footie; I prefer the present embarrassment of riches.

  The sport will be truly ruined when we, more or less, dabblers, win a World Cup, which will surely be before England win another.

  You should be glad we didn’t invite you. Having geared up to shoot hooligans, I was mildly disappointed.

  For the record, I can- and have- hit a fastball over the wall and tackle a running back. I prefer the beautiful game.

• 32 Grant Imahara // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:53 pm

  you forgot “air bud: world pup”.

• 33 Pablo Chicago // Apr 3, 2009 at 7:06 pm

  Pizaa Hut Park? I can top that:

  Dick’s Sporting Goods Park

  Kind of gives new meaning to a spot of Dick now doesn’t it?

• 34 Martin Regnen // Apr 3, 2009 at 7:14 pm

  Have anyone here thought of WHY PEOPLE WATCH SPORTS in the first place?

  My theory: I think we watch sports for the same reasons we read novels - to provide our minds with dramatic stories which teach us lessons useful in life’s various struggles.

  If you’re interested, I back up this statement here: http://www.corrupt.org/news/why_we_watch

• 35 D // Apr 3, 2009 at 7:25 pm

  Soccer/Football takes more athleticism than American football and baseball. Let’s see do you have do be a better athlete and in better condition to play 45 minutes+ straight of soccer or to run a football play for 5 seconds, take a 40 second rest (maybe even run to the sidelines for a breather) and then run another 5 second play….hmmm, not a tough call there

• 36 Frank // Apr 3, 2009 at 8:12 pm

  @Martin Regnen: So your theory is that the Champions League fills the same function as Shakespeare’s plays, only for people who aren’t pretentious? I suppose the MLS, being the same type of thing only American and modern and stupid, would then be The Vagina Monologues.

• 37 Program Pittsburgh // Apr 3, 2009 at 8:59 pm

  @D: You’ve described nothing but endurance and there’s a lot more to athletics than that. I’m not a pro athlete but I have run a marathon.

  Anyway, it’s a senseless argument and we shouldn’t be bashing each others favorite games. In any of the aforementioned sports, it takes exceptional talent to play at the professional level. None of these men are any more or less athletic than the other.

  Although, I still think the corporate logos on the football/soccer uniforms need to go away.

  P.S. My favorite team plays at Heinz (ketchup) Field. Go Steelers!

• 38 El Queso // Apr 3, 2009 at 9:37 pm

  The Seattle Sounders are the closest thing in the US Northwest to a real football legacy. The name (derived from the fact that a body of water adjacent Seattle is called “Puget Sound”) stems from the 1974 North American Soccer League team of the same name, and is directly descended from the USL.

• 39 Ryan // Apr 4, 2009 at 2:41 am

  El Queso said the first (and probably last) intelligent thing on this entire page.

• 40 John Ramos // Apr 4, 2009 at 4:29 am

  I live in NY and I want to kick this dudes ass. He’s an idiot. One of the first mistakes from the countless on that essay is that SOCCER IS NOT DEMANDING. LMAO. Is this guy retarded. What in the world was THE WALL SHIT thinking of? This guy has absolutely no idea what FOOTBALL is about. Does he know that there are more countries associated with FIFA then the UNITED nations. I’m going to stop before i pop a blood vessel and wait for this guy outside his office to give him a proper beating with my feet. Football rules asshole. Excuse my french.

• 41 ahmad // Apr 5, 2009 at 6:46 pm

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW2d-QrnFgA much much worse american commentary

• 42 Michael // Apr 6, 2009 at 5:12 am

  I am a full blooded American and a BIG EPL fan. What this idiotic, ignorant sycophantic excuse for an academic makes me worried for the future of American education. The fact that a paper like the WSJ would actually print this drivel also worries me deeply. That said, I found his contact info. Feel free to make your thoughts heard by the man himself (his pic is hilarious btw):

  Webb, Stephen H. Title(s): Professor of Religion & Philosophy
  Department(s): Religion, Philosophy
  E-mail Address: webbs@wabash.edu
  Phone Number: 765-361-6264

  http://www.wabash.edu/directory/images/users/Webb,-S.jpg

• 43 The Fan's Attic // Apr 6, 2009 at 6:38 am

  hate to break it to you, but Green Street was written by a German and a Brit. It was also financed by an UK outfit.

• 44 Ollie Irish // Apr 6, 2009 at 12:01 pm

  http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=4348

• 45 Aaron // Apr 6, 2009 at 12:37 pm

  Hitting a baseball requires very little athletic ability, and is just one off those talents some people are born with, and I played college baseball. Association football requires much more all around talents as well as the endurance. Hitting a baseball really isn’t that difficult, if you have the god-given ability, and Ted Williams was full of himself when he suggested hitting the baseball was the hardest thing to do in sports. If it’s so hard, why do we see usually around 15 or so hits per game, let alone the hits that are outs.

• 46 Todd Brooks // Apr 6, 2009 at 2:35 pm

  I thought this article was hilarious. Some of point on too.

• 47 Danny L // Apr 6, 2009 at 4:36 pm

  @Program Pittsburgh: Irony, I would say, from your end. As you are from Pittsburgh, I’m sure you’ll understand this: Remember when the Pens were about to move out of town because of low attendance, and then some deus ex machina corporate figure came in and saved the team? Remember how the Pirates haven’t really gotten out of last place in their division in the last how many years? Those teams struggle financially because your city tends to ignore the teams that do poorly, which is all but the Steelers. Therefore, your team does not need so much financial help, while the other teams do. Soccer is not much different, the logos help the smaller teams. I mean PNC Park, Heinz Stadium, etc, it’s just another way for them to make money.

  But when it comes to talent, those Ben Roethlisberger commercials where he’s dancing around with the lizards - I seem to be able to see some kind of beer belly. Now, if having a gut is athletic talent then why aren’t there millions of pros everywhere? Running into someone requires no talent, nor does catching a ball, nor does throwing one. Why do you think football players are almost all above 6′3″? It’s because you don’t need talent in football, just size.

  Logos on jerseys is nothing, in reality it represents an era in a team. It’s nothing more than the team logo placed on American football teams’ jerseys. Instead of having a trillion commercials during an american football game, (something like 10 every 3 minutes), they have a logo on the jersey, 45 uninterrupted minutes of play and then a break, followed by the rest of the game.

  No one is criticizing anyone’s liking another sport, it’s merely pointing out the obvious that other sports are athletically as well as skillfully inferior to soccer.

• 48 marco s. // Apr 6, 2009 at 5:01 pm

  And Brits wonder why they have a reputation of being snotty and overly self-important.

  By far the highest any one country that truly insignificant on a global scale thinks of itself. Just as the rest of Europe. Yeah that’s right UK, you are actually in Europe yourselves.

• 49 marco s. // Apr 6, 2009 at 5:02 pm

  as = ask.

• 50 Program Pittsburgh // Apr 6, 2009 at 5:21 pm

  @ Danny L: You’re way off base on just about everything you’ve written. Fist of all, I was trying to be friendly and somewhat humorous in my posts and I’m sorry if anyone other than Danny L was somehow offended. I should have known someone would go out of their way to try and make an idiot out of me with nothing but biased opinions on athletics and ignorance regarding the financial state and fandom of Pittsburgh’s pro teams. Thanks, Danny.

• 51 Andrew // Apr 7, 2009 at 1:27 am

  wow Danny L. Wow.
  You must be mentally ill. You have to be kidding if you think larry fitgerald, kobe bryant, lebron james aren’t the most athletic people in the world. Soccer is a mental game of endurance and technical skills, but mostly mental. If you can run a 4.3 40 and catch a ball rocketed over your shoulder.
  You clearly don’t understand 1. Roethlisberger’s power and quick release.
  He isn’t in that commercial by the way.
  You clearly don’t understand how hard it is to tackle a running back. You are completely ignorant and in the wrong. Size is definitely important and America likes our Atheletes to be athletic like lebron not skillful like messi.
  also the penguins have always had a hard core fan base, but the stadium is outdated (getting a new one). The pirates also play over 150 games of suck a year. You clearly don’t get a baseball commitment. It is much different than football were every game is important.

  As for American soccer, the reason it is ruining america to say is because unathletic suburban white kids play it when they can’t play basketball or football. We have ties and everyone gets trophies and technical skills are poor. In Europe football is king and it is competitive. I’m just saying until we keep getting better at football, our competition level will still undermine the fact that we have the 4 of the best non soccer leagues in the world.

• 52 Troy Processor // Apr 17, 2009 at 7:17 pm

  As an ex-pat in the USA, I can say there’s a great soccer scene here. The Spoiler is spot on, and the WSJ does not look good publishing such a badly written piece.

  Sure, we watch soccer on the Spanish channels because the commentary makes more sense. And no, we don’t speak Spanish.

  And sure, supporting the USA abroad is especially fun because it’s still a pretty rare thing to do.

  But we have great amateur leagues, and all the soccer you want on TV and in bars. If soccer became popular enough for the WSJ to like it, it might lead to 10 minute periods rather than 45 minute ones, the abolishment of the red card, and the best players being rotated between teams every year or two.

• 53 PhilRig // May 18, 2009 at 10:28 pm

  It’s tough to be a Soccer fan in the US… The article is a sad and frustrating thing for me to see in a major US publication.

  I grew up watching American Football. I played it in school, but stopped because I was too small. When I got older I watched Baseball, because my family was interested in it. It wasn’t until I was stationed in Germany and watched the ‘94 world cup that I discovered soccer (funny, I was in Germany during the World Cup in the US). I had finally found a sport that I enjoyed just for the sport. Not because it was the sport I grew up with. But that’s just it… in the US, we grow up with American Football, Baseball, and Basketball as THE sports. The rest of the world grows up with Soccer. That has a major affect on a person’s interest in a sport. Most in the US can’t understand Soccer as the rest of the world does because they have only been exposed to the US style of sport.

  Unfortunately, I came home from Europe to no real coverage of the sport and no real league to follow. At least now there is Fox Soccer Channel and GoalTV. Sure, FSC is pretty sad and GoalTV is primarily Spanish, but we have something! I wear my Chelsea home jersey proudly, though not many people have a clue what it is. But, I am seeing more and more kids wearing Arsenal, Liverpool, and even Juventus kit. Granted, I do live in the San Francisco Bay area, where there seems to be a better following of Soccer than in a lot of the country.

  I visit the UK almost every year now as my wife’s family is from there. I can only dream of the day when the US embraces Soccer even a small percentage of they way you do. Until then, I have to make do with the MLS and lack of complete Soccer coverage and only Sky Sports News on FSC to keep up to date.

  Money and greed corrupts all sports. No sport is better or worse, it is only the fan’s connection to the game that matters.