First the tongue ring, then the Armstrong bracelet, now soccer.....CT's going to kick your ass when he comes home! :P [/b][/quote]
Well, dont say we didn't warn ya if he shows up at home with a guy.

When we first moved to San Diego my parents were in property management at an upscale complex near the beach. We had two residents that were in professional sports - one was on the San Diego Chargers - the other was on the San Diego Sockers. Can you guess which guy got mobbed by the kids more? And he wasn't even a popular player - they just knew he was on the team.

Soccer in the US is great for kids - maybe up through high school and a little college (I hear the scholarships for this are great for girls - but my daughter lost interest at 10, about the time she started playing catcher in fast pitch softball - now THERE'S a sport!). However, beyond that it's just never really taken the nation "by storm" like football, baseball - and hell, I'm shocked - even NASCAR has reached beyond its redneck roots in the past few years.

There was that bit of time when Mia Hamm got all the girls wanting to play soccer... and I remember the Pele games on Atari back in the day... but America has had a "fleeting" romance with soccer over the years and that's about it...

:unsure:

Are you serious? whenever i see soccer highlights i always see empty stadiums. And whats the second soccer league? [/b][/quote]
well there is the MLS league... im not sure what the other league is named... then there are the national indoor leagues


And the stadiums seem empty because a lot of teams play in football stadiums, they section off about 20-30 thousand seats in a 80-100K stadium, and it looks empty:)

The Columbus crew have i believe a 26,000 seat stadium that sells out consistantly.

Its not as big in the US as football or baseball, but is as big as your average NBA game (not saying much). But amongst youth in america, it is the largest youth program sport. bigger than pop warner and LL USA.

ESPN covers it

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/index?cc=5901

I dont particularly watch it. Internationally it is the largest sport in the world, hundreds of thousands attend matches..

actaully kath.. if you look at the numbers, attendance only, Major LEague Soccer is competing with the NBA.

Nascar simply has the numbers. I cant stand the "sport", but if you can pack 500 thousand fans into anything, the marketing must be incredible.

Its amazing the world difference.. a soccer player making a mil a year in the US, can go to Europe or South America and make 20 per.

sure mike;) this coming from a man who never did a two-a-day in his life:)

Soccer is one of the hardest sports to be in condition for. Much harder than basketball or football. have you seen the size of a soccer field at that level, and they dont get to break between plays:)

I would compare the conditioning for soccer much like that for tour cycling, except harder. I knew a bunch of collegiate soccer players, and their conditioning was a lot harder than my collegiate football conditioning. No way i could have competed in soccer.

Im a football guy myself. with baseball and college basketball a close second.

I prefer college over pro sports any day. Professional atheletes are only respectable in the NFL, and the NHL. The NBA is soft.

I gotta agree with ya there Grimm... if you'll notice, more than half the time those NBA players are just standing there WATCHING one or two guys make the shot. lol And if they get hurt - they are down on the court milking it for all its worth... in football they get hit HARD and then are right back up, getting into it again... plus I can't stand the squeaky shoes... like fingernails on a chalkboard - lol

As far as soccer goes though, I do have to admit that there's an endurance factor - all that back and forth, back and forth on the field... when my daughter played I used to feel like was watching a tennis match seeing all these little ankle biters running back and forth across the field. lol Peaches is dead on - it's a great sport for hyper kids!

:awinky:

Wow, one picture? I have bled more then that from basketball - getting elbowed from a billionaire!!

The guy is standing up.... have you see the collisions in the NFL? Watch the Patriots - Steelers game Sunday and you tell me if soccer is more violent, or has more injuries.

Concusions, broken bones, major contusions are COMMON in football. Ronnie Lot had doctors cut a piece of his finger off so he could play in a game.

Soccer is a great sport for girls, and guys who have over protective mothers!

:lol: :yowsa: [/b][/quote]
well its a good thing you never played, wouldnt want my friend and partner to have experienced concussions:) they arent that bad, really:)

I gotta agree with ya there Grimm... if you'll notice, more than half the time those NBA players are just standing there WATCHING one or two guys make the shot. lol And if they get hurt - they are down on the court milking it for all its worth... in football they get hit HARD and then are right back up, getting into it again... plus I can't stand the squeaky shoes... like fingernails on a chalkboard - lol

As far as soccer goes though, I do have to admit that there's an endurance factor - all that back and forth, back and forth on the field... when my daughter played I used to feel like was watching a tennis match seeing all these little ankle biters running back and forth across the field. lol Peaches is dead on - it's a great sport for hyper kids!

:awinky: [/b][/quote]
Indeed, the average career for a tailback in the NFL is 2.3 years. Thats why the up front money is so coveted. In the NBA and MLB they have guaranteed contracts, so they can afford to dog it up and down the court.

I think the bias is between a contact and finess sport, international soccer is damn deadly.

Football is a very physical contact sport. I suffered more than a few concussions, dislocated bones and bruises and breaks.

man all that trolling and nothing, Mike must be out having a good time, or have the good sense to be in bed!


:nyanya:

Don't get me started on the joys of rugby...less than 5 weeks till the Super 12 season kicks off...trial games start next Saturday. Sign on for my boys is next weekend too. :D

As for soccer...I'm a Gunners fan. ;)

"Never take cultural differences too seriously" - Tupac. 12/9/04.

Grimm, I played my share of football, and basketball. Baseball was a sport that I was not able to play beyon 14... Once kids started throwing curve balls, I was lost.

I did play organized soccer for intramurals in college. I was friends with a bunch of guys on my floor in the dorm - they were very good - I was more of a body to spell people, or when others could not make it due to class. It was fun, especialy since the guys on my team were like you soccer fags.... so we actually got to the championship team.

Ironicly, the best player on our team was a girl. We had toget special permission to have her on the team - of course all the other teams said no problem, because they thought she was just a girl.

Turns out that she was olympic team and had blew our her knee, she was rehabbing at school. So she was awesome.... and the main reason we did so well.

But lets face it.... Soccer is NOT as violent as football, anyone who questions this shoudl watch the games today.

Is contact permitted in soccer?

Only if its homosexual in nature.

:lol:

Only if its homosexual in nature.

:lol: [/b][/quote]
So basically you get hurt in soccer if someone breaks the rules but in football you get hurt because of the rules.

Ok - now I understand... her male team mates and opponents must have sucked - just the pure physical difference between females and males is a huge difference in the way you play the game - atleast it is in the rest of world. This must be the reason behind you thinking soccer is a "tame" game ;-)))

No doubt that rugby is more violent than football, and no doubt that football has more physical contact than soccer.... but soccer is the only one of the games, where you need ball mastery with your entire body - including your head. Soccer requires alot more skill than the others.

From a spectator point of view, then Football is like short sex (quikies) for a few minutes, and then relex have a drink etc., while Soccer is more like 90 mins of kama sutra, where there are few, but major orgasms :awinky:

So basically you get hurt in soccer if someone breaks the rules but in football you get hurt because of the rules. [/b][/quote]
Contact is allowed as is "tackling", just no hands :)

CT's arm was broken in a perfectly legal manuver. If he'd been loaded up with pads like the wusses wear in football, he'd probably have gotten a bruise :P

Ok - now I understand... her male team mates and opponents must have sucked - just the pure physical difference between females and males is a huge difference in the way you play the game - atleast it is in the rest of world. This must be the reason behind you thinking soccer is a "tame" game ;-)))

No doubt that rugby is more violent than football, and no doubt that football has more physical contact than soccer.... but soccer is the only one of the games, where you need ball mastery with your entire body - including your head. Soccer requires alot more skill than the others.

From a spectator point of view, then Football is like short sex (quikies) for a few minutes, and then relex have a drink etc., while Soccer is more like 90 mins of kama sutra, where there are few, but major orgasms :awinky: [/b][/quote]


It was intramural soccer at Southern Mississippi.... so I doubt competition was that fierce. South is still home to football.


Peaches, football players do not wear many pads on their arms. You keep tryin to make a point, but just continue to show your ignorance about football.

Hope you did not embarass your son too much....

Michael, as you will find out when you have kids, embarrassing them is part of the process :)

Michael, as you will find out when you have kids, embarrassing them is part of the process :) [/b][/quote]


:lol: :lol:


Good point!!! My parents certainly did this to me....

I will be waiting for my kids so I can delight in it!!

:ph34r:

No dude, I'm straight. [/b][/quote]
:biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :nyanya:


World of difference in Football in the USA and Football in the rest of the world
I'll admit global football fans can get pretty rabid but nothing compares to Football in the USA

Welcome to the NFL

and I concur about soccer moms and kids playing in the USA

However Lacrosse can be a different story as far as playing (it was few sports longhairs were allowed to play in my High School, you had to have a men's regular haricut to even try out for the baseball team ah ha ha the good old 70's)

Greatest Soccer player of all time??? Been an Arsenal fan since a small lad but I'll show no Bias - yeah many will say Zinedine Zidane (not sure how many of our US colleagues will though) but Pele does it for me - something like 1200 goals out of 1600 apperances. 70 yard goal in back in the 70's was stunning. He could do it all. He coined the phrase 'The Beautiful Game'

What about US superstars?.I once saw Michael Jordan dunk a ball in full air flight and then pull it back out of the net with his other hand to complete the dunk with the same hand - all within the space of a second. Damn damn slick.....but hey the Olympic 'Dream Team' was just unfair.

no not nearly as violent. never was my argument. my argument =is conditioning. Those guys out there holding their hips and sucking wind in the second half are in nowhere near the condition of a soccer player.

:biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :nyanya:


World of difference in Football in the USA and Football in the rest of the world
I'll admit global football fans can get pretty rabid but nothing compares to Football in the USA

Welcome to the NFL

and I concur about soccer moms and kids playing in the USA

However Lacrosse can be a different story as far as playing (it was few sports longhairs were allowed to play in my High School, you had to have a men's regular haricut to even try out for the baseball team ah ha ha the good old 70's) [/b][/quote]
LAcross and Rugby are just fucking brutal, awesome. Lacrosse is the roughest of them all. here you have to have the hand eye coordination of a shortstop, wearing next to no pads, while you are getting drilled like a tight end over the middle.

gotta be a special kind of athelete to play lacrosse.

My son loved it. His grades were slipping so I made him quit, but again, he loved the action of the game - like soccer.

Too much hurry up and wait for him in football and baseball.

It was intramural soccer at Southern Mississippi.... so I doubt competition was that fierce. South is still home to football.

---i beg to differ... the midwest is. cradle of coaches and all.. Lombardi, Paul Brown, Parsagean, joepa, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembeckler, lou holtz.. too many good coaches came from the Miami Valley... all the way up to the latest hotshots.. Jim Tressel, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer.. all started in the Miami Valley (thats right, MAC land:)

The single most infuential area in the history of football as a game;)

that and they play real football no matter what the elements;)

Most dangerous sport I ever took part in ,and I used to box , was without a doubt field hockey.

Not when playing against men!

There used to be a college hockey festival at Easter where teams from schools and colleges would play.

We had the living snot beat out of us by a Girls team from a catholic college!!!

Vicious fucking bitches!!!

I literaly still have the scars.

;-)))

And most talented soccer star ever , even Pele believed so , was George Best.

However in his mid-late twenties he took to dating Miss Worlds , drinking and partying. ( I can sorta relate) ;-))

I loved playing Cricket in my youth and once bowled out The England Captain first ball when I was 17 :) I can remember it like a video clip LOL

But explainig cricket to an American would be as easy as trying to get an American to undestand "diplomacy".

It was intramural soccer at Southern Mississippi.... so I doubt competition was that fierce. South is still home to football.

---i beg to differ... the midwest is. cradle of coaches and all.. Lombardi, Paul Brown, Parsagean, joepa, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembeckler, lou holtz.. too many good coaches came from the Miami Valley... all the way up to the latest hotshots.. Jim Tressel, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer.. all started in the Miami Valley (thats right, MAC land:)

The single most infuential area in the history of football as a game;)

that and they play real football no matter what the elements;) [/b][/quote]


And it was 10 years ago.....

Did win intramural championship twice at USM, in Basketball!!

I know, you are a good basketball player. I have seen you play, you play the 4 in the post like you should, rough:).

DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.

Ambrose Bierce, the Devil's Dictionary (again)

Best soccer player in history have to Diego Maradona... maybe there will be one of his kind every 150-200 years, because I have not seen anyone reach his skills.

Pele might have been the king of soccer, but Diego was God! :okthumb:

yeah the HAND of God!!!!

;-)))

what about david Beckham? a soccer whore?