Why dont Americans like Football (soccer)?

[Sween]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
We call it soccor over here as well. Rugby before it got union-ised used to be called football, so...

they just love there rugby over there. Its a good sport rugga nice chance to have a good old scrap. Whats up with american football and all that padding i just cannot take them seriously as hard men ive seen harder jelly.

[BeardofPants]

I used to think that as well. However, one of my friends from San Fran, her son has played both US rugger, and the normal style. The US version is a LOT more violent, and rough than the unpadded version. It was *very* telling, when he came over to NZ to teach some of the local players some of the styles, and they went home bruised, bloody, and broken.

[Sween]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
I used to think that as well. However, one of my friends from San Fran, her son has played both US rugger, and the normal style. The US version is a LOT more violent, and rough than the unpadded version. It was *very* telling, when he came over to NZ to teach some of the local players some of the styles, and they went home bruised, bloody, and broken.

sound like fun to me

[BeardofPants]

Sure, I'll break your nose for you. Just step over this way...

[Sween]

Im affraid you will have to get in the que for people that want to cause me serious physical harm .

[galadriel88]

Is there a reason why it's called "football" when it almost ( note: I said almost ) has nothing to do with your feet? I know running is involved!

Well they DO kick the ball, in case you didn't know that. SO that's prolly why they chose that name, I dunno.

But where did the name "soccer" come from?

It's an abbreviation for "association football. " (Source: dictionary.com)

[galadriel88]

And you can read more about the American soccer - football thing in this thread.

[Celandine]

I like soccer a lot, I play, and a lot of people say i'm good.

[Brokehorn4000]

Originally posted by galadriel88


Well they DO kick the ball, in case you didn't know that. SO that's prolly why they chose that name, I dunno.



It's an abbreviation for "association football. " (Source: dictionary.com)

Ohhhhh........

[Khamûl]

Since this is a football (soccer) thread, here's something that I just couldn't resist passing on: British scientists find that penalty shoot-outs can trigger heart attacks.

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have found medical evidence of something every football fan already knows -- penalty shoot-outs are literally heart-stoppers.

The British Medical Journal said that researchers who studied England's 1998 World Cup soccer matches found that heart attacks increased by 25 percent when England lost to Argentina after a gripping penalty shoot-out.

"These findings support the view that heart attacks can be triggered by emotional upset, such as watching your football team lose an important match -- particularly those in which there is a penalty shoot-out," the journal said in a statement.

Researchers from the University of Bristol and University of Birmingham said that football fans would have experienced a fair amount of tension before and during the England-Argentina match -- both because matches between the two countries always produced intense rivalry and it was a shoot-out.

The researchers examined hospital admissions for heart attack, stroke, deliberate self-harm and road traffic injuries on the day of and five days after, England's World Cup matches, compared with admissions at the same time in previous and following years and in the month before the tournament.

They found that the risk of admission for heart attacks increased by 25 percent on June 30 -- the day of the England-Argentina match -- and the following two days. Admissions were higher among men than women.

But no extra admissions were noted for any of the other medical conditions.

The researchers suggested that, in the interests of public health, the penalty shoot-out should be abandoned.

Even though I don't watch football (soccer), I think doing away with penalty shoot-outs is a bit extreme.

[Dunadan]

They tried to get American football to catch on here in the 80s with limited success; there were a few pro teams playing in a European league. HOwever, it's died a death, thankfully, because it is dreadfully dull (IMHO).

I think it's partly to do with commercialism. American football is very advertiser-friendly, with lots of breaks in the action. More accurately, there are occasional breaks in the advertising to show you five seconds of blokes in armour belting the crap out of each other. It seems that basketball and baseball are similar.

Soccer will never catch on because major networks will never touch a format that prevents you from showing advertising for 45 minutes at a time.

However, it does sound like there is a strong, grass roots movement of normal people playing soccer. This might bring about a "bottom-up" shift in culture, in which case, the rest of the world should watch out!

I have to say that one of the great delights of this year's World Cup was the performance of the USA team. They were bright, positive and attacking, and produced some great results, especially beating Mexico.

cheers

d.

[Dunadan]

Originally posted by Khamûl
Since this is a football (soccer) thread, here's something that I just couldn't resist passing on: British scientists find that penalty shoot-outs can trigger heart attacks.

Even though I don't watch football (soccer), I think doing away with penalty shoot-outs is a bit extreme.

This is typical Christmas BMJ fare. They always put a "spoof" article in and it seems like the journalists have fallen for it!

Two things about this research:

1) It's a retrospective study, which are just about as reliable as astrology in establishing cause and effect.
2) The results they did find were not statistically significant.
(They measured 9 main outcomes: MI, stroke, self harm measured at three time intervals. Of these, only one showed a statistically significant result (MI within two days of losing on penalty shoot-out). Now, given that there is a 5% chance of any random measurement being found to be statistically significant, I wouldn't call this an important result.)

cheers, and merry xmas!

d.

[Khamûl]

Originally posted by Dunadan
This is typical Christmas BMJ fare. They always put a "spoof" article in and it seems like the journalists have fallen for it!

Oh those crafty British doctors! Leave it to them to pull an April Fool's joke at Christmas.

[eowyngirl14]

In my town, soccer is the big thing! Our football team sucks!, but our soccer team does quite well. I played soccer for 10 years, since I was 4. Now I am switching to feildhockey. Most of my friends, guys and girls, love soccer!

[Millane]

ohhh my god soccer is a sport for the norms but american football is a sport that id send my Grandma off to play

and they went home bruised, bloody, and broken.

to quote the movie chopper "whinge whinge f!@#ing whinge" has anyone here ever heard of Australian footy or maybe seen or even Played it??? it is the most dangerour sport you can play (coz all those yanks were there protective gear in aust. your considered safe if you were a box hehehe)
talk about violent sports this is the one. Collingwood vs Essondon grand final 1990 huge brawl collingwoods darren millane played with a broken thumb and Tony Shaw couldnt feel his leg coz they had drugged it up so much... not to mention the crowds it gets in 100000 for grand final and 90000 Anzac day match (GO PIES!!!!) ohhh the violence everyone prayes that there will be a fight and when there is theres a bunch of pissweak umpires that couldnt break it up eve if they tried