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Member (Idle past 1024 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
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Author | Topic: It's a World Cup year! | |||||||||||||||||||
Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Chimp.
Jumped Up Chimpanzee writes: I'd be interested to hear how much American kids play soccer both in and out of school. I think I played soccer as a kid more than I played any other sport. I played in city leagues through 3rd or 4th grade, and I played in middle school (I was the defensive star for the season, by the way; we lost in the championship, though). In elementary school (ages 5-11), all the kids played soccer during recesses (we got about 1 hour of recess everyday, broken up into three parts) until it started snowing. Then, we played touch football (American) on the basketball court until the snow thawed. Soccer is more popular here than most people realize; it's just that it's underdeveloped at the professional level. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Taq.
Taq writes: There is almost no coverage of alpine skiing anymore, but it draws big air time during the Olympics because we want to see Americans win in the Olympics. This is the main reason why I almost never root for the USA in international competitions. Nobody in my lab, and only a few people at church, watched any of the Winter Olympics a couple months ago, and those that did watch didn't know anything about most of the events except that there was an American, and some number is assigned at the end of the competition to say who won. Yet, despite that, our athletes somehow still win a lot of Olympic medals. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, JUC.
Jumped Up Chimpanazee writes: It anoys me that sports stars - and especially footballers - get criticised so much for what they earn, when you hardly ever hear any criticism of film stars and pop stars who earn just as much. I don't really criticize either one personally, but I rather dislike art people. -----
Jumped Up Chimpanzee writes: I think it's a class thing - nobody likes to see those uncouth, uneducated working class lads making loads of money, they should know their place, but it's alright for arty-farty middle class actors to do so. It does cause a lot of young kids to think education isn't important. People (like me) who think education is the most important thing for the future should rightly worry about that. Personally, I don't care (and, again, I would prefer athletes to artists anyday), but I do understand why some people would make that distinction. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Onifre.
onifre writes: If they didn't make that much, some suit would be making a lot more. Would that be fair? I think the idealistic scenario being presented involves more than just limits on entertainers' salaries: I think it's more a commentary on the priorities of society than it is a call for some sort of change to the legal or economic system. Edited by Bluejay, : Every once and awhile, my bad English comes back, and I have to subdue it again. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Onifre.
onifre writes: That's why I'm curious as to what you mean by "priorities of socirty;" what do you feel is priority and for what end purpose? It wasn't my argument: I just thought I was helping prevent a misunderstanding. I don't personally have a problem with athletes and rockstars getting lots of money for what they do: I like buying music and watching sports on TV, and so do a lot of other people. Economically, it makes perfect sense for them to make a lot of money. I do kind of wish there was a way for education and science to be as economically successful as sports and entertainment, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect that and I don't know how to make it happen. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Caffeine.
caffeine writes: The problem is that the intense competition for the signatures of world-class players make it very difficult for lower-ranked clubs to move up to the top. The USA doesn't even have a promotion/relegation system, so I usually don't think about this aspect of the game. Lower-ranked teams are only used for promoting players to top-tier teams. -----
caffeine writes: Football is less interesting the more it is dominated by the same teams over and over again... I feel the same way about most sports. Association football especially, I think. In the English Premier league, for example, it seems like there are only ever about 5 teams that have a shot at the top (and they're the same ones every year), and maybe 8 that are always playing to avoid relegation. The other half are generally able to tactfully avoid all the drama that makes the sport interesting. American sports are generally better at that, but the MLB is very unbalanced, as is the NBA. The NFL has a few perpetual cellar dwellers, but the championships have been spread out pretty well among all the teams across its history (there are only 4 out of 30 teams in the league that haven't played in the Super Bowl). -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Caffeine.
caffeine writes: The promotion and relegation is what makes football so special and gripping, to me. I like the system too: it makes the game more interesting, with new teams entering the league all the time. It also makes the teams have to perform to at least some level in order to stay, so you improve the chances that the league or division will have the best teams possible. For that reason alone, I wish USA sports would try the system out (but, since the leagues here are actually run by the franchise owners, this is obviously less likely to happen). I think I like the way Elitserien (Swedish Hockey) does it better though: there's a qualifying tournament instead of automatic promotion/relegation. It makes sure you don't get a crap team in by a fluke. -----
caffeine writes: Whilst annoying, the Premier League isn't the worst in the world. It's dominated by four teams (and this year one of those is currently sitting precariously in 6th place), while there are a depressing number of national leagues dominated by just two. That's true. But even though some leagues are dominated by two or three teams (Eredivisie), the diversity of international competitions and tournaments in European football still keeps it interesting. By the way, can you (or anyone) explain to me a little how the international competitions work? I know UEFA Champions League is the highest European competition, and UEFA Europa League is next, but how do they determine which teams go to which UEFA competition? -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Caffeine.
caffeine writes: The Swedish Elitserien that you're descrbing is, again, just about one competition. There doesn't seem much point in taking part in the playoffs if you don't seriously think you can qualify. The League Pyramid is different. Well, that's not entirely true. It's the same promotion/relegation concept as English football, with a pyramid of leagues and divisions. It's just that promotion/relegation is determined by tournament. There are still championships at the lower levels (granted, not as much as in association football, and not as well publicized or celebrated, but it's still there). It was just the idea of using a tournament, rather than an automated system, to promote or relegate teams, that I liked. It works as much to keep the lower division from being dominated by teams that probably should be in the higher division as it does to keep the crap teams out of the higher division. I do like the idea behind the FA Cup, where the low divisions get to start the tournament, and higher and higher divisions join in as the tournament progresses. -----
caffeine writes: These places are usually decided by finishing positions in the league, so the top four teams in the English Premiership this season will go to the Champions League next season and the next two to the Europa League. Are the rules for who goes determined by UEFA, or by the individual leagues? Edited by Bluejay, : I wrote "think" when I meant "like." -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Straggler.
Go, Greenland! Oh, wait... Greenland can't play soccer in Africa because they can't grow grass at home. That makes perfect sense. Oh well, so much for that dream. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Chimp.
Jumped Up Chimpanzee writes: Good stuff! It's the ones who fall down like they've been shot but then get straight up again and carry on playing that really amuse me. I think the ones where both players tried to dive at the same time were the best. A round of red cards for everybody, I say! -----
Jumped Up Chimpanzee writes: But seriously, it makes my blood boil that the governing bodies don't do anything to stop this. It's ruining a great sport. They could end this nonsense overnight. I'm not a fan of having refereeing by video replay during the game, it would ruin the flow, but these sort of incidents could be looked at after the game. They could also double the refereeing staff: one referee on each side of the field, and one line judge on each side at each end (for 4 in total). That would minimize the chances of referees not seeing real fouls, and the chances of somebody getting away with crap when the referee can't see what's going on. It would also provide a court of appeals: it could provide some level of oversight for referees who disallow goals over bogus fouls (not that I'm insinuating that this has ever happened, or anything like that). Of course, as a court of appeals, it could also backfire, so it may have drawbacks, too. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Jumped Up Chimpanzee.
JUC writes: I'd like to see Holland do well. Personally, I'd actually rather just hear about the Netherlands doing well, unless they decide to liven up their playing style a bit so that it's worth actually seeing. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, JUC.
They're playing well : it's just hideously boring . As an illustration, against Japan, they controlled the ball through most of the first half, but the average position of the ball throughout that half was on the Dutch side of the field. Two-thirds of their passes were from one fullback to another. Apparently, the offense wasn't setting stuff up for them, and they couldn't risk Japan getting any touches, so they just piddled around back there. The statistics in the preceding paragraph may have been made up by myself. Edited by Bluejay, : No reason given. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Huntard.
Huntard writes: ...the Germans weren't drinking. These four words are so seldom strung together that I feel like you must have made a grammatical error somewhere. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Hyroglyphx.
Hyroglyphx writes: If it makes you feel any better, the United States lost to a team that draws its talent from a nation the size of my lower intestine... If it makes you feel any better, at least we didn't invent the sport, then lose badly at it. And, Ghana’s population is 23,000,000: that's not all that small, you know. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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Blue Jay Member (Idle past 2697 days) Posts: 2843 From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts Joined: |
Hi, Huntard.
Huntard writes: Can't believe it, but after a bad first half, we actually did beat Brazil! And, on top of that, the Dutch finally played not-boring football. I'm personally glad Brazil is out: they've won too many already. I feel bad for Felipe Melo, though: an own goal and a red card in a loss that knocked his nation out of the tournament? Everyone in Brazil is going to want to rip his throat out right now. -Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus) Darwin loves you.
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