English football would not be accurate as most of the dominant teams over the last 40 years have been those speaking the Latin based languages. We could call it Latin Futbol. I learned the term soccer from my grandfather who played professionally in the UK. Soccer is short for Association Football and is an English term. I do believe the shift away from the term soccer in England is somewhat a reaction to the growth of the NFL. Addidas (a German company) thinks the American market matters, they're spending millions on Beckham to try to popularize the game at the professional level. Soccer already is very popular in America. It's the number one sport for girls (check recent World Cup history to see the result of our youth program) and played by many boys that are not tall enough, strong enough or fast enough for football, basketball, or baseball.
Doesnt matter who is dominate matters who created the sport. Addidas, Nike and all the rest have always spent millions beckham and have done since over 10 years, sponsorship doesnt have to have anything to do with globalizing the sport.
If you knew anything about football (you call it soccer) you wouldn't ever, EVER, compare it to any of these sports. I've played basketball for years and I personally like it more BUT football is much more complicated and needs much more tactics knowledge than any of these sports especially baseball. What is so cool about baseball? To sit on stadium for 4 hours and pray to see one single home run? Sorry, I really think you know nothing about football...
I think they like these games so much because they last so damn long and they have longer to sit and eat hot dogs, pop corn etc.
Best wishes for beckhame .. His wife Victoria arrived in LA on saturday .. She will be looking for a suitable home and school for her family .
With all due respect, a National Football League playbook has hundreds of set plays (with 11 players roles defined within the play) with several variations for each play depending on what the defense presents before and during the play. Of the four major sports played in the US, baseball is my least favorite but I believe the scoring per hour is slightly above {This space for rent} English Premier League.
I think you can get two baseball games in before the first tea break at one of those short cricket matches at least that's what I remember from watching the Kiwis beat the Aussie at Adelaide in 86.
The main problem is that isn't all about scoring, check out basketball! Cricket Worse than baseball... NFL is too slow, I think there's so little brain you should use to play it... I find football (soccer) much more intelligent sport...
Here's a great post about soccer that was done when the world cup was happening. I think it coincides with many americans' views about the game: http://www.leanleft.com/archives/2006/06/21/5556
He's never gonna play a meaningful game of football ever again......Shame cos i thought he had a bit left in him...
imo, he has been useless since before the 2006 world cup. It wouldn't surprise me if he went to the US for the money despite what he says.
That guy's voice makes me cringe, and his pathetic attempts at displying intelectual prowess when he is doing an interview. He aleways seems to get stuck in trying to use words that do not come naturally to him. This is the same guy that said he was not able to do his 5/6 year old son'ds homework because he found the math too difficult. And the team in LA is paying him $1 million a week for a palyer long past his best, even his best assets: crosses and penalties have now faded to the history books. Why on earth they pay this much is beyond belief.
A year or two ago Mr. and Mrs. Beckham visited L.A. and went shopping for some shoes. They asked the store to close down so they could shop in private. The store manager basically said "who are you?". The celebrity teams in southern California are the Lakers (by far), the Dodgers, USC football, UCLA basketball, and some other pro and college basketball, hockey and baseball trail those four. Beckham will put the Galaxy up in the also ran group for a while. I guess the question is, what sort of actor do Europeans think he will be?