re: Serious question for the serious soccer fans

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I think the highest rated MLS game on ESPN was last year's semifinals, with 675,000 people.

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MLS Cup 2009 drew from a .9 to a 1.1 last year on ESPN (about a millionish people) up against a Bears/Steelers Sunday night game. Spanish language viewership usually adds about 30% to that. (Too lazy to look that up.)

ESPN was drawing .4 and .5s (400-500K viewers) for the 6.30 AM Premier League games for most of the year. Considering that's pre-dawn for half of our country, that's pretty damn strong, IMO.

To answer the OP, I don't think changing scoring will make soccer "popular" to the masses. It already has a pretty large following in the US, and one that has grown year over year since 1994.

Will it ever be as big as the NFL is now, baseball was in the 1960s, or basketball in the 1990s? Probably not, but I'm not sure I foresee soccer vanishing from the sporting landscape like it did in the 60s and 80s.

I think at some point, it will go from the Big 3 + NHL + Nascar, to those + "soccer", though not necessarily just MLS.

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If the rules to soccer were tweaked such that 10-8 and 9-7 type scores were commonplace, but it greatly improved the popularity of the sport in the US, would you be in favor of it?

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I am a new soccer fan, and I think it is fine as is...the game is great as it is.

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Why should the game be changed to please Americans? It is the most popular sport in the world, and most of the world likes it as it is.

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It's the most popular sport in the world because most of the world is too poor to support/follow/play other sports.

In countries where they can follow other sports, they do. baseball in Japan and Korea, basketball in China, Cricket in India, hockey in Russia, hockey, football, and basketball in Canada, the list goes on...

There is nothing wrong with soccer, it is entertaining and there a lot of good athletes who play it but you people that idolize it need to chill out. In the scheme of major world sports, it, in and of itself, is nothing special at all.

Its worldwide popularity is due more to its simplicity than anything remarkable about the game or its players.

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BS.
I did the math.

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LINK

Sure, you can count field goals if you want, but if you want an apples to apples comparison, count goals vs. touchdowns.

The numbers, unlike you, don't lie.

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Basically, the summary of the soccer haters' "reasons" for their hatred of soccer boils down to this:

They don't understand it, thus they hate it.

Here's the thing: I don't want you to like soccer. If you don't like it, then there is no need to comment on it. But at least take the time to actually LEARN about it.

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I disagree. There's no need to force it upon someone if they don't want to learn about it. No big deal.

People like different sports for different reasons. I don't like to watch golf or Nascar or lacrosse for more than about three minutes. So I just change the channel.

And maybe the regular posters in those threads can answer... do people come into a golf thread and say "it's just a bunch of people walking around a country club" or "they should let the golfers hit each other with the clubs?"



I really DON'T understand what seems like an irrational hatred for soccer. If something is on that I don't like, I change the channel.

If something that I don't care about (take the recruiting board here, for example) is on a message board, I don't go there to tell people how much of a waste of time I think it is, I just don't go over there.

That part I actually don't understand.

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I disagree. There's no need to force it upon someone if they don't want to learn about it. No big deal.

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I didn't say to force anything on anyone. In fact, I straight up said I DON'T WANT YOU TO LIKE SOCCER.

If they want to like it, cool. But if they don't, that's fine, too. If they want to criticize it, at least know what the frick they're talking about.

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I really DON'T understand what seems like an irrational hatred for soccer. If something is on that I don't like, I change the channel.

If something that I don't care about (take the recruiting board here, for example) is on a message board, I don't go there to tell people how much of a waste of time I think it is, I just don't go over there.

That part I actually don't understand.

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And that's what pisses me off the most. If they don't like it, don't watch it. Don't talk about it. I totally agree with you.

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Sure, you can count field goals if you want, but if you want an apples to apples comparison, count goals vs. touchdowns.

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See my post above.

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I really DON'T understand what seems like an irrational hatred for soccer.

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I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it again. I don't hate soccer. I don't think it should be banned. I would never bother to watch a soccer game or pay for a game because I think it's a ill conceived sport.

My problem with soccer is simple. YOU LIE!!!!!

"Soccer will be the most popular sport in the US in 10 years."

I started hearing that in the 60s. When are you going to stop that shite? You don't hear golfers say "Golf will be the most popular sport in America in 10 years?"

You don't hear bowlers say "Bowling will be the most popular sport in America in 10 years."

That's why I compared it to the metric system. I started hearing "Everyone in America will be on the Metric system by 1970." It was a lie.

That's why I hate home town newspapers that talk about "reviving downtown." "Everyone will move from the burbs to downtown by 1980."

It's a crock.

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I didn't think you'd understand the math so let me explain again. We are comparing scoring in two sports. Soccer and American Football. You can't throw out FG and extra points because you don't like them. They are part of the game.
Soph's analysis was TDs v. scores so I translated it honestly instead of the dishonest way that he did. The numbers are real whether or not you like them.

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In soccer, you're trying to score goals.

In football, you're trying to score touchdowns. Football (and perhaps, rightly so) gives you a chance to score a couple points when you fail at a primary objective, and a free point when you succeed.

The primary objective for each is accomplished once more, per team, per game than football than in soccer.

So, if soccer had some "gimme" points, like a point every time a goalkeeper made a save, and another point every time you attempted 4 shots and didn't score, everyone would love it.

Brilliant.

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gives you a chance to score a couple points when you fail at a primary objective,

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Nope. A couple of points is called safety. Very rare. Very exciting. And it penalizes the offensive team by making them kick the ball off.
FG are often the main objective, not a TD. If you're losing by 2 in the final minute you are driving down the field with a play selection designed to get you within FG range.