Americans World Cup?

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Originally Posted by bigragu

Yeah that is the downside of soccer, the players are all a bit gay and will fall over when a gentle breeze starts, but that is still less gay than wearing a full suit of armour. Seriously American Footballers are better protected than the US soldiers in Iraq. I mean, having to wear a helmet and face guard just to throw a little ball around. Now THAT is gay!

For a real manly sport watch rugby, like American Football without the f

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I would say the same things...I would be on the field and get a cheap shot from some dude and I would just snap..I would take the pads off and challenge dude to step up and be a man but they would always b*tch out..most of them are pussys without all that padding on...which explains why most don't get into boxing or rugby for that matter.....When I played semi-pro football we had a rugby team the next field over....I wen't over there after practice one day and they asked if I wanted in...I said "sure" like a dumba**...we I watched how they were playing and when I got the ball I ran like hell...and waited....when the guys got close I pitched the ball back and let my guard down...big mistake!!....they friggin took my head off....I got up and kept playing and then the scrum came...(is that what it's called?) anyway..one dude is ramming his head into mine while raking his friggin cleats down my shin!!!!!!! we it didn't take me long to figure out the way to play rugby was to be like an animal...in the next scrum I raked my cleats down one guys shin and then STOMPED on another guys ankle.....at the end of it all they wanted me to join...but I said "no way" "this sport makes me want to punch people in the friggin face constantly".....I don't think I could control my temper long enough to make it through a rugby game....that's my rugby story....
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You definitely get a CC for that ragu. I play both American Football and Rugby (Defensive End and second row respectively) and there is no question Rugby is the harder sport. Whenever someone on my Football team tells me Football is more of a mans sport or for tougher guys. I go through three things. 1) does your sport have legal forms of stamping? 2) Do you get the crap smacked out of you whilst wearing no padding and 3) You ever lost a kidney in a game? (happened to a kid on my team in a babaric game in Italy).


Now to address everyone saying the U.S.A would be great at soccer if they cared and would be in a World cup final like that.

You guys are seriously underestimating the sport. Look at your team. Look at Brazil, look at England, Look at Argentina. Hell look at the african teams that are outplaying your asses on no money whatsoever. The arguement about your guys not having experience because they dont have the experience as players "go where the money goes" is false. Brian Mcbride, Claudio Reyna, Tim Howard, Marcus Hanneman among other all play in the English Premiership, considered the or one of the best leagues in the world without a doubt.

The U.S have a long way to go to catch up to the rest of the world.

Oh and by the way, you didnt do better than us last world cup, we both got knocked out in the quarters. Cept we only got knocked out by the eventual champs who didnt lose a single game (and havent lost in the World Cup since 1998, in fact they havent drawn since 1998 :o).

Just for the record it's two CENTS tuck....cents as in money, change, etc.

You don't HAVE to care about the World Cup, if you don't just don't watch it and don't bitch about it...there are a lot of commercials out there I care to avoid, mainly the ones about feminine products which as a man I a) have no use for and b) get a little grossed out by. Also the genital herpes ads...don't have it, don't want to know anything about it.

As for how the US did, Bruce Arena had us play conservative the entire World Cup...oh we'll let our defense win for us....yeah let's not try to score any goals at all.

The 4-5-1 = LOSING

The way I think we should have lined up is the basic 4-4-2....or maybe even a 3-4-3 with Donovan, McBride, and Johnson up top. Our soccer players are used to scoring goals, playing in college, MLS, or Premier league(not that the Premier League is THAT bad it's just an offensive minded league). So why try to change their style in the fucking World Cup, I can bet you 5 million dollars we didn't play a 4-5-1 when we were qualifying. Apparently our coach was scared by our draw and was aiming for the 2nd spot to begin with.

Bigragu, we have argued many times and this will be another. Football is tougher than rugby...yeah Rugby players don't have pads...well they don't hit hard enough to warrent wearing pads....would you rather go one on one with the best fullback in the world or try to catch a ball over the middle where Ray Lewis is? Yeah rugby is a dirty sport and I doubt I'd last very long before I would smash someone in the face with a forearm shiver (this is why football players wear helmets)

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Originally Posted by Lyle

Just for the record it's two CENTS tuck....cents as in money, change, etc.

You don't HAVE to care about the World Cup, if you don't just don't watch it and don't bitch about it...there are a lot of commercials out there I care to avoid, mainly the ones about feminine products which as a man I a) have no use for and b) get a little grossed out by. Also the genital herpes ads...don't have it, don't want to know anything about it.

As for how the US did, Bruce Arena had us play conservative the entire World Cup...oh we'll let our defense win for us....yeah let's not try to score any goals at all.

The 4-5-1 = LOSING

The way I think we should have lined up is the basic 4-4-2....or maybe even a 3-4-3 with Donovan, McBride, and Johnson up top. Our soccer players are used to scoring goals, playing in college, MLS, or Premier league(not that the Premier League is THAT bad it's just an offensive minded league). So why try to change their style in the F****** World Cup, I can bet you 5 million dollars we didn't play a 4-5-1 when we were qualifying. Apparently our coach was scared by our draw and was aiming for the 2nd spot to begin with.

Bigragu, we have argued many times and this will be another. Football is tougher than rugby...yeah Rugby players don't have pads...well they don't hit hard enough to warrent wearing pads....would you rather go one on one with the best fullback in the world or try to catch a ball over the middle where Ray Lewis is? Yeah rugby is a dirty sport and I doubt I'd last very long before I would smash someone in the face with a forearm shiver (this is why football players wear helmets)

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I'm with Lyle on this one average Defensive lineman 6'5 280 linebackers 6'2 230-240 that can run on the 4x100 olympic team, cornerbacks and safety's that could keep up with world class sprinters and weigh about 180-200 of solid muscle and hit you like they got shot out of a cannon....I'll take a helmet if there passing them out..

...see Ronnie Lott, a man who cut off his finger to finish a football game

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Originally Posted by Lyle

...see Ronnie Lott, a man who cut off his finger to finish a football game

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That was a Myth dude he actually injured his pinky in a game and had less than a 1/2 inch surgically removed in the offseason..Good bad ass story but unfortunately a myth

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

For a real hard arse check out Neil Backl when he had the skin off the top of his head stapled back on so he could finish a game!

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Originally Posted by jtrock

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Originally Posted by Lyle

...see Ronnie Lott, a man who cut off his finger to finish a football game

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That was a Myth dude he actually injured his pinky in a game and had less than a 1/2 inch surgically removed in the offseason..Good bad ass story but unfortunately a myth

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9TXb...=ronnie%20lott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyh8l...ch=ray%20lewis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Yuc...lius%20peppers

Honestly Lawrence Taylor and Julius Peppers are better athletes than anyone who has ever or will ever play rugby...and for that matter I think they'd beat the shit out of people if they played rugby too.

Julius is 6'7 280+ pounds and runs the 40 in I'm guessing around 4.4-4.5

not only is Julius good at football but check out what he did with my Tar Heels in basketball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAZhF...s%20basketball

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Originally Posted by VanChilds

I've been playing soccer my whole life. I've coached and reffed. And in my 28 years I've seen soccer grow leaps and bounds. I think what many countries have on us (other than the fact the sport is a national passion for most) is better orginization at the lower levels. This is something that is growing all the time in the US. I'd would be very suprised if the US didn't play in a WC final more than once in my lifetime. We have good players and great atheletes; its only a matter of time before it happens.

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Check your stats. Next to Baseball, soccer has the most organized teams for kids including girls. It even surpasses basketball for numbers of teams.

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Originally Posted by superheavyrhun

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Originally Posted by VanChilds

I've been playing soccer my whole life. I've coached and reffed. And in my 28 years I've seen soccer grow leaps and bounds. I think what many countries have on us (other than the fact the sport is a national passion for most) is better orginization at the lower levels. This is something that is growing all the time in the US. I'd would be very suprised if the US didn't play in a WC final more than once in my lifetime. We have good players and great atheletes; its only a matter of time before it happens.

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Another thing which I think does count against the American side is that you don't have an especially strong domestic league. If all your top players played there, and there was money there to bring in some good foreign players to supplement it, then your side would see a lot more of each other, and develop a better camaraderie. IT really is a problem with all of the smaller nations, where they become a two-tier team, with the base playing domestically, and the stars playing in different leagues, and are seen as incomers by the rest of the side.
At the moment, if a european player goes to the states to play then it tends to be a sort of semi-retirement, where they go in, pass on some expertise, play a few games and get rather bloated and sluggish.

Personally, I'd love to see the Ukraine really turn it on in the later stages and get quite far, especially to see Shevchenko get fitter and fitter and start banging the goals in!

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The average American soccer player makes about 90,000 a year which is plenty of incentive—very few jobs in the U.S. can match that so I don’t think it is a money thing so much.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbi...ope_spr_soccer


There are some Americans making millions of dollars playing soccer but there could be a whole lot more if Europe was not so discriminatory against them.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slu...ters&type=lgns

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Originally Posted by maracho

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Originally Posted by VanChilds

I've been playing soccer my whole life. I've coached and reffed. And in my 28 years I've seen soccer grow leaps and bounds. I think what many countries have on us (other than the fact the sport is a national passion for most) is better orginization at the lower levels. This is something that is growing all the time in the US. I'd would be very suprised if the US didn't play in a WC final more than once in my lifetime. We have good players and great atheletes; its only a matter of time before it happens.

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Check your stats. Next to Baseball, soccer has the most organized teams for kids including girls. It even surpasses basketball for numbers of teams.

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I'm pretty sure I didn't state any stats. And thanks for reiterating my point about the huge growth in soccer, but what I was getting at was better orginization from taking the millions of kids playing on saturday mornings and turning them into the best possible national team.

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Originally Posted by Lyle

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Originally Posted by jtrock

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Originally Posted by Lyle

...see Ronnie Lott, a man who cut off his finger to finish a football game

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That was a Myth dude he actually injured his pinky in a game and had less than a 1/2 inch surgically removed in the offseason..Good bad ass story but unfortunately a myth

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9TXb...=ronnie%20lott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyh8l...ch=ray%20lewis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Yuc...lius%20peppers

Honestly Lawrence Taylor and Julius Peppers are better athletes than anyone who has ever or will ever play rugby...and for that matter I think they'd beat the shit out of people if they played rugby too.

Julius is 6'7 280+ pounds and runs the 40 in I'm guessing around 4.4-4.5

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Two Words

TANA UMAGA

The former New Zealand captain was a beast, Id be more scared of him than a starved Great White.

And as for the arguement on strength etc here it goes (remember I PLAY BOTH and love watching both so am not biased here)

"Rugby players dont hit hard enough to warrant padding" That is complete and utter tripe Lyle, either watch some world class rugby or get on a field and youll feel it.

Arguing about size aint gonna work either boys. Rugby players can be just as big as American Football players (except Defensive tackles and O-line). Not only this, they have to continue playing for 80 minutes (supreme fitness required there) and their playing the entire game themselves, covering whoevers there for their job and doing what needs to be done. In other words, theres 15 players on the pitch, and they have to attack, defend, track back, and kick. Whilst every player has a slightly different job, they all have to be all rounders rather than complete and utter specialist in such a tiny field of skills.

Heres another one for you. Ever tried taking a crunchin open field hit and then having to get straight back up, sprint, hit back or ruck out the man? In American Football you wont see this, nor you will see anyone having to make one tackle, get up in a flash cos someone passed out the tackle and make another desperation tackle to save a score.

I will never deny that American Football is a great sport I love it. And some of the athletes they produce are immense (Julius Pepper's as someone mentioned before, is a freak of nature). But if you took a bunch of world class Football and Rugby players, trained them in the other discipline for say a month and then had the two face each other in games of each. I GUARANTEE the Rugby players would not only easily win their own game, but would give a much better account of themselves in Football than the Football players would at Rugby.

In essence, its just the nature of the two sports. Doesnt make one better than the other. You may prefer the razzmatazz, big hits, big plays and drama of an NFL game. On the other hand you may prefer the tense, bruising, warrior sport of Rugby with the similar intensity which comes with being in such a high octane sport.

Tana did what now?

Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theisman's leg and the bone was popping out of the skin.

Hell Chuck Bednarik hit Frank Grifford so hard he knocked him out of football for 2 years

USA don't like soccer....it's as simple as that. They think it's for grass fairies and wimps.
I don't really like the sport either, boring imo

A couple of rule changes to promote a little more scoring would do wonders for its popularity in the States, IMO. Not that that actually matters to the rest of the world.

;)

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Originally Posted by AC-Cobra

Honestly Lawrence Taylor and Julius Peppers are better athletes than anyone who has ever or will ever play rugby...and for that matter I think they'd beat the S*** out of people if they played rugby too.

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I'm sure they are great athletes, but I think US sports tend to produce specialists? Baseball, US football etc seem (to me, who does not know everything there is to know about them) to produce real specialist physical specimens.

Two more words:

JONAH LOMU

would have gobbled up US Football and was being pursued by them for more money that the GDP of New Zealand !!!!

Take a look at Julius and Lawrence they were FAR from "specialists" granted LT couldn't box worth a damn but he was extremely athletic. Julius could be playing in the NBA if he wanted.

Bob Gibson, Mickey Mantle and Jim Brown are other examples of great American athletes. Bob played with the Harlem Globetrotters and was one of the most intimidating pitchers (hurlers for you cricket fans) ever to play.

Mickey ran from the batter's box to first base in 3.9 seconds and was "the greatest football player Oklahoma ever produced".

Jim Brown, all american in football and lacrosse, greatest running back in NFL history and was offered tons of money to fight Ali

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Originally Posted by Lyle

Jim Brown, all american in football and lacrosse, greatest running back in NFL history

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I dont know about Jim Brown being the greatest running back of all time....Maybe in your opinion he is

I would pick Walter Payton over Jim Brown if were a captain in Gym class choosing players..LOL!!

I know Jim only played 8 years but the guy has a lifetime avg yards per carry of over 5yds. The guy could trip and fall for a firstdown. I'd take Barry over Sweetness anyway. Played on an average team and still put up great numbers.

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Originally Posted by Lyle

Tana did what now?

Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theisman's leg and the bone was popping out of the skin.

Hell Chuck Bednarik hit Frank Grifford so hard he knocked him out of football for 2 years

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Djibril Cisse managed to break his leg so bone was popping out of the skin twice, all by himself, not much of an acheivement.

Lawrence Taylor is a beastly strong man, but put him on a Rugby pitch with Umaga, Lomu, Robinson, Johnson or any of that ilk for 80 minutes and he would be torched. THE ONLY PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE at the moment who I think cold cope with Rugby is Peppers and thats simply because hes a freak of nature, that man could be a better multisport player than Bo Jackson if he wanted to be.

Soccer is the sport of choice for yuppie families all across America. It seems that the wealthier familes start their children playing soccer.

I for one have no interest in Soccer. I also think baseball is shit. I will watch basketball, but only if it's college ball.

Boxing and NFL football.

I only watch boxing really.

Although I would watch bull fighting and Sumo if they ever showed the damn stuff ;)
































ps Only joking about the Sumo, force feeding humans to ultra obese levels is cruel , ;D

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Originally Posted by jtrock

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Originally Posted by Lyle

Jim Brown, all american in football and lacrosse, greatest running back in NFL history

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I dont know about Jim Brown being the greatest running back of all time....Maybe in your opinion he is

I would pick Walter Payton over Jim Brown if were a captain in Gym class choosing players..LOL!!

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Sure you'd pick Sweetness, good choice but JB = 6'3 230 pounds of get the hell out of my way!!!

http://www.artletics.com/football_vp...00_016_8_7.htm

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Originally Posted by bilbo

I only watch boxing really.

Although I would watch bull fighting and Sumo if they ever showed the damn stuff ;)
































ps Only joking about the Sumo, force feeding humans to ultra obese levels is cruel , ;D

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cc......good one. ;D

at least the americans know the world cup is on this time. i remember back in 94 when they hosted it someone asked a member of the public about maradona. he thought it was a popstar!!!!

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Originally Posted by bilbo

Typical of all you sad yanks. A game that everyone else in the world plays but that you are not very good at has to be a rubbish sport.

Thats why you all have your own sports, American Footbal and Baseball so that the other countries can't beat you.

The Americans are like the spoilt kid at school. Someone is better at him at something so he kicks the ball onto the school roof so nobody can play. Then he goes and plays swingball on his own.



Just kidding, love you Americans really :P

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any game where scores are 2-1 and 0-0 can not be regarded as entertaining. Oh im sorry did i say zero? I meant mil. ;D

If our country really gave a crap about soccer then our best athletes would play and we would dominate like we do everything else. But we just send our mediocore athletes who couldnt make the football teams or baskeball teams cuz thats all that care to play.

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Originally Posted by BigLuke

If our country really gave a crap about soccer then our best athletes would play and we would dominate like we do everything else. But we just send our mediocore athletes who couldnt make the football teams or baskeball teams cuz thats all that care to play.

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:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

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Originally Posted by BigLuke

If our country really gave a crap about soccer then our best athletes would play and we would dominate like we do everything else. But we just send our mediocore athletes who couldnt make the football teams or baskeball teams cuz thats all that care to play.

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slow down man...we haven't exactly performed well as of late on the world stage. Think basketball/baseball/hockey. And to say we only send our mediocre athletes to play soccer is simply ignorant.

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Originally Posted by BigLuke

If our country really gave a crap about soccer then our best athletes would play and we would dominate like we do everything else.

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One word to say to you ........... BALCO

;D

soccer is like the best game ever. I propose a change, we Mexicans prefer that the cards handed out be green instead of red or yellow, it makes us feel better.

we also propose that ye take a hammer and flatten out our hands to be as big as they can be so that we can cover our bawls which are the size of cannon bawls during penalty kicks. all you other facks have small ones so you all just use one hand to cover up, some of ye especially the french just cross their legs. we Mexicans however, have bawls the size of Ireland so we need more protection

hope this helps

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Originally Posted by tuckwopat

I know this post is way off the subject of boxing, but I just had to put my two sense somewhere. (I know somebody might tell me to put it up my a**).

I really hate it that I'm bombarded with stories and commercials about how I'm supposed to care about how the U.S. does in the World Cup. I wasn't raised around soccer (football), I don't know anything about it, and looks rather boring. Honestly, before all the video games came out I always confused the World Cup with that big sailing event.

If anybody ever tells that I'm supposed to care about cricket, they might get punched.

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You're supposed to care about Cricket.

[quote=AdamGB ]

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Originally Posted by tuckwopat

but I just had to put my two sense somewhere.

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So, having put your two sense somewhere...... are you now senseless?

;)

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Originally Posted by bilbo

Typical of all you sad yanks. A game that everyone else in the world plays but that you are not very good at has to be a rubbish sport.

Thats why you all have your own sports, American Footbal and Baseball so that the other countries can't beat you.

The Americans are like the spoilt kid at school. Someone is better at him at something so he kicks the ball onto the school roof so nobody can play. Then he goes and plays swingball on his own.



Just kidding, love you Americans really :P

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I think I know why our friend here is so bitter and racist (no tuckwo it's not his bad teefers)

Come clean bilbo, you had an uncle named Chester Molester and he liked the way you were put together :lickish:

I for one love soccer, its in my blood wether i liked it or not. My parents came to this country from portugal, and yea, its the only sport that matters to them. However, i love all sports (almost) it takes great physical ability to be good at a sport, and i respect anyone who becomes a professional. Alot of people want to call people who play a sport they dont like G@y, or call the sport a pU$$ie sport, however, most of those people havent played that sport. I played football, soccer, and boxed. Boxing is probably the most physically demanding (something about getting punched in the face :P). But soccers 2nd, the stamina you need to play soccer, is way beyond football, hockey and basketball require alot of stamina as well. However, in soccer, you get 3 subs, no line change, no changing players for alittle while because their in foul trouble... Its 3 subs, and thats it.
Soccer isnt big in this country, nor can it be, it has to much to compete with. You cant throw 300 comercials at it, therefor it doesnt get telivised. Also, somepeople dont want to learn something knew, they like the sports they watch now (which is absolutely fine) but, dont knock a sport and call it for Pu$$ies, if you havent played it (NOT TALKIN ABOUT SUNDAY PICK UP GAMES AT THE PARK LOL)
imo the game is difficult, and requires a great athlete to play it.

my only time playing soccer came when I was about 10 years old

the local parks and recs was offering two sports. Little League Baseball which cost at that time about $200 per kid. Soccer which was not that big back then with the kids was about $5 bucks to join. mom being poor could not afford $200 bucks per kid, there was three of us brothas.

so I joined soccer. I was given an over sized blue shirt which went all the way down to my knees. The coach tells me I am the goalie and I was supposed to stop the ball from going in the goal. The coach was black all the kids were Mexican. our team name was cruz azul which the coach pronounced Cruise Ayyzool. All the action for about 20 minutes happened on the opposite side of the field. I just stood there. Noone, even took a shot. The coach took me out of the game after that. I never went back. It was then that I discovered how profitable bank robbing was and the rest is history.