how can you be a fan of this sport?

[ToneLoc]

Soccer is a sport slightly too complex to understand for people used to simpler things like baseball and football, see?

[Voltron87]

Most Americans who don't like soccer have never watched it in the right environment. Go to a crowded bar, have a couple beers, and then watch the game with 200 other fans. Until you've done that I don't think you can judge it. There is so much passion and history, especially in the World Cup, easily the best sporting event in the world.

[jakethebake]

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Number of people in the world - approx 6 billion
Number of people watch/support/play football - approx 5.95 billion

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think this number is quite accurate, but regardless I think it's clear that the majority of people in the world are dumbasses.

[smudgex68]

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the majority of people in the world are dumbasses

[/ QUOTE ]

Ooh, cutting

[Sheriff Fatman]

From FIFA's website:

"A million applicants have requested in excess of ten million 2006 FIFA World Cup™ match tickets in the first sales phase, according to preliminary figures released today. "This impressive total underlines the extraordinary level of interest all over the globe. We've received applications from 195 different countries. I can't remember a World Cup attracting anything like this kind of demand in such a short space of time," commented FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi. More than 80 percent of the applicants live in Europe, with 90 percent of these coming from Germany.
The first of five sales periods ended on 31 March. As expected, the number of requests far exceeded the 812,000 tickets on offer. The tickets will now be allocated by ballot on 15 April."

Accept it US sports fans, you're just wrong on this one!

Sheriff

[AngryCola]

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I know most of the world disagrees but it's a horrible sport.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a reason most of the world disagrees with your statement.

It's wrong.

[jstnrgrs]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3) Don't award penalty kicks in situations where a goal might not have been scored (if not for the infraction).

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I think this is a very bad idea. The penalty kick forces defenders to defend properly, as opposed to many midfielder's version of defense, which is that if the guy gets past you you trip him.

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I think that a penalty kick is disproportionatly harsh (and often called incorrectly). I think a better penalty would be to require the offending play to sit out for 10 or 15 minutes during which time, his team would have to play short-handed.

[jstnrgrs]

I agree that soccer ends in ties to often. That said, I wish football and hockey hadn't decided to play overtime in regular season games (especially in college, but also in the NFL and NHL). I don't think a few ties are to bad.

[jstnrgrs]

[ QUOTE ]

Soccer is a sport slightly too complex to understand for people used to simpler things like baseball and football, see?

[/ QUOTE ]

This makes me laugh. I can understand how one might think baseball is simpler (and one might be right, I don't know). But there is no other sport as complex as football, and it isn't even close.

[jstnrgrs]

Most Europeians who don't like baseball have never watched it in the right environment. link