Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 428361)

In Brussels, IIRC, which isn't even part of the Netherlands anymore. I mean, rilly.

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan (Post 428358)

.

As for suffering stinging pain due to some sort of blow and then jumping up and continuing on with the game after that initial wave wore off, I've done it, and I'm pretty sure that anyone else who played some sort of contact sport did too. My middle left toe right now is currently black and blue* and probably broken due to some stupid running around after the final ended yesterday. I did the silly hop of pain that everyone who has ever bashed a toe does, and then continued on with my celebration.

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 428362)

Right. The sport is "bullshit," "stupid" and will never catch on here, because Americans are superior and watch superior sports.

Alternately, Americans are uncultured boors who are incapable of appreciating the beauty and subtlety of this clearly superior sport, even with its flaws.

The argument always ends up boiling down to this. The soccer haters end up looking like xeonophobic cretins (Hi Hank!) and the soccer lovers end up looking like faux-elitist Euro-wannabes. Is flopping a problem in soccer? Yes. Is cheating and drama a problem in other sports? Yes. Soccer, like any sport, is flawed. But more importantly, like any sport, it takes a while to appreciate it it even close to fully. The fact that most Americans have not had sufficient exposure to it to decide one way or another whether they like it or not leads neither to the conclusion that it is an inferior sport that is not good enough for genius Americans, nor to the conclusion that Americans are too genetically or culturally inferior to appreciate it. The continuing argument that it is a better or worse sport than typical American sports is too moronic for even me to bear, and if it continues, I will bring back my ppnyc sock with a vengeance and will talk with her incessantly all day, every day. About soccer.

If you don't like soccer, don't watch it. On behalf of soccer fans everywhere, I apologize to Hank that every four years, he has to hear way more than he wants to about a sport he does not want to bother to understand or appreciate. It's over now and you will be untroubled for the most part four more years unless you look deep to the nether regions of your cable.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 428364)

i was with you up to here. an injury serious enough to knock one down in the middle of the World Cup finals wouldnot be something you jump up from in a minute- sorry- but no. plus it happened a dozen times yesterday. even if it did go that way once no way it happens a dozen times.

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 428362)

Right. The sport is "bullshit," "stupid" and will never catch on here, because Americans are superior and watch superior sports.

Alternately, Americans are uncultured boors who are incapable of appreciating the beauty and subtlety of this clearly superior sport, even with its flaws.

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy (Post 428367)

I don't see what all of this has to do with the dandified europeans who get upset at the wittle boo-boos they get out on the field. The problem is not the sport, it's all those unAmerican wimps playing it.

I say we field an American football team for the next FIFA world cup. They play by their rules, we play by ours, and I'll bet at the end of the day we win with four touchdowns and most of their players are flopping about on the sidelines. Booo-Yaah!! 28-zip!

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0 (Post 428369)

No pad or helmets, right?

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 428351)

I still don't see the problem. If it doesn't have the same effect on the defense, why would the other team be harmed if they too left someone back to contest any long passes to the cherry picker?

TM

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 428339)

2

Webb didn't want to change the balance in a World Cup final.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 428350)

bad analog- soccer has the guys who are supposed to score and the ones who only play defense. it's like 1950s women's b-ball.

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan (Post 428358)

What matters is what the official saw.

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 428383)

It's just what men do.

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 428383)

You do your best to not show it. And you certainly don't get taken off on a stretcher.

I left the field during an (American) football game. Once I had broken equipment, and once I got hit in the head, tried to get up, fell down and stumbled off the field. At no point would anyone have exaggerated the level of injury. It just isn't done.

Or when you land on another guy and break your foot, only to finish the game and walk to the hospital. It's just what men do.

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch (Post 428388)

Men do a number of things that men don't do. They do these things especially often when their sport, which comes with a rich tradition of manly honor and integrity, begins to be played for the benefit of more spectators than participants -- millions more. For one thing, they start caring about their hair.

Seriously, can we stop talking about this as if it's a problem with soccer? It's not a problem with soccer. It's a problem with televised professional international soccer. As Flower said, there's a bunch of bullshit in every sport, but it's a special kind of bullshit that comes about when a sport is played for millions of dollars at the highest level, and it's bullshit that doesn't happen in pickup games or in high schools or colleges.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 428387)

Best post-game interview: Iker Casillas.