My Obligatory Soccer Post

I never made my post reviewing a WC soccer game. That would have been hard given that I watched about 10 minutes combined of the first 3 matches. I watched about 30 minutes of the Ghana game and the last 5 were pretty exciting even though the announcers had given up and started reviewing the U.S.'s WC run while they were down only 1 goal. Donnie did a great job of putting things in perspective and using analogies to make a whole bunch of sense for both soccer and non-soccer fans. Shane just went through the motions but did make a good point about the surge of soccer fans all of a sudden. As everyone knows, I don't care for Soccer. I never played it and have watched very little of it. It bores the hell out of me. Some say baseball is boring but I see it as a sport where every single pitch has a multitude of things going on and any pitch could determine the outcome of the game. Soccer fans might say the same about each dribble. I see Soccer as a crap shoot. Penalty kicks are dumb, only one guy in the entire stadium knows when the game is going to end. A team can dominate possession, shots on goal, and have far better players. Still, they could lose 1-0 because the one time they let the other team in the box a guy falls and screams and the referee lets him kick an extra point to win the game. It seems like a whole lot of time and space wasted on a freak break. Breaks happen in every sport but not to the point where it determines so much. And when the breaks don't happen, some people would misconstrued what they are watching for cross country. Thats my take based on very little observation. When I was young I always had the idea that the kids that played soccer instead of football were scared of getting their ass kicked. Some probably were terrified while others just liked soccer more. I also knew that BSS had a co-ed soccer team and that alone might have shaped my opinion. Nothing against my friend. Still, I always had this perception that I think will stay with me forever.

As far as the US in the 2010 World Cup, in all seriousness and as a non-Soccer fan I view their run as a failure. They went 1-1-2 in what many considered the weakest group on paper. For Tech fans .500 might be acceptable, not for Americans. If not for a last minute goal that was dramatic albeit involved a 10 yard unimpeded shot that a 10 year old could execute, the US would have been heading home without a win. If not for that goal, the signature moment would have been a tie with an England team that was slaughtered by Germany in their knockout game. In 2002 the US advanced to the quarterfinals. If I was a US soccer fan 8 years after that finish, I would be extremely disappointed with this World Cup.

Finally, I will be glad to see this event end. ESPN has force fed this stuff for the last month for ratings. I think they might have driven away some people who might have been attracted otherwise. If your hobby, sport, or form of entertainment is good enough for you then thats all that matters. I know nobody really cared about Georgia softball other than myself and Anymouse, and that was because of his love affair with Megan McCallister, but I'd rather watch 1,000 softball games than 1 soccer match. And maybe I shouldn't have wanted the US to lose but this crap has taken way to much time away from talk about whether Christian Robinson or Daryl Gamble should start. The United States has a whole bunch of high level sports to offer that are more exciting and entertaining to the general public. The majority of the rest of the world has little other than soccer to offer and is why the worlds game is just that. But the US is awesome because it has more and better to offer its citizens. When Georgia plays Louisiana- Lafayette there will be 92,000 people in attendance and 10 times as many people at Coaches' for a meaningless non-conference game in which everyone knows the outcome than the biggest soccer match in US history .Soccer, just like olympic sports, will always struggle to gain attention on a regular basis in this country. And at the same time, the US will struggle to compete because the best, fastest, and strongest athletes we have to offer will play the sports that ESPN covers 365 days a year, not 4 weeks every 4 years.