I am not sure why so many soccer fans come in here (a San Diego, California, USA based forum) and will refer to a game that is know in North America as soccer, using the term football. I assume you know it's irritating. Do you not want soccer to succeed in the North America? Soccer has a number of things going against it in North America. It doesn't have the history and tradition that baseball does. It doesn't the athleticism that basketball has that appeals to most of us who can't do what we see them doing. It doesn't have the speed, physicalness and precision of hockey. And football here is played by much bigger, stronger and faster men using much more complex tactics and they battle at a level of intensity well above soccer. North America has more people participating in soccer than anywhere in the world. It is the top sport for girls and you have seen what our ladies have done in the World Cup. Most boys start out in soccer and baseball and move on to football, hockey, baseball, and basketball especially if they have height, speed, and strength. I wonder if consciously or sub consciously footie fans don't want soccer to succeed over here. If so, I suspect part of the reason is a fear that the game may be embraced in the US and if that happened, the EPL would eventually lose the financial competition for players. So calling soccer football may be a way to sabotage North American soccer so it won't eclipse the EPL and others. BTW, I spend thousands per year on youth soccer and watch Fox Soccer Channel quite often (I am ready to jump on the Man City bandwagon soon ) despite the dives, the lame offsides calls, and the 90 or so failed offensive attacks per (beautiful) game. If you care about the game, why not help it by calling it soccer? Hey, I am nice enough to say fish and chips, not fish and french fries.
If I want to watch big sweaty men with muscles I'd switch to Ultimate Fight. American Football sucks big time. I watched a few games and every time I fell asleep after half an hour. What the hell is so exciting about a 10s long actions? It's so stupid it can't get any stupider. This is what average AF game looks like: 1. action planning (10mins) 2. take positions (5mins) 3. play footbal (10s) 4. repeat three those steps for the next two hours If you don't die of boredom you're one tough mofo! People probably call "soccer" football because that's how it's called around the world.
Looking at dp's alexa, although not 100% reliable but still it will give you a good sign that there are MORE foreigners on DP than Americans.. Why should we say it how you North Americans want to hear it when there is less of you than other nationalities? Football is the biggest sport in the world, was around before American football, is played with your feet and has no relevance to the word "soccer" so why should we call it that? As soon as you start calling American Football "handball" i will call football soccer. Yes they love their steroids in American sports, American football, baseball they cant get enough. Shame these big strong men have to wear inches of padding and helmets though, the sport would come across more hardcore if they didn't, like rugby.
Those were some predictable responses and reminded me a few I forgot. Boredom - Football has a 30 second time limit to start a play and there is about 10s of action but they actually suceed at what they are trying to do maybe 5 to 10 times per game. Ninety minutes of nil-nil is not boring? Well let's sing songs to entertain ourselves. Steroids - Yes there are some, not as many as you like to think, there are less sent home than in your bicycle races. But there are naturally occuring 6'6" 375 pound men, I had one as a teammate in high school when steriods were rare (later popularized by bodybuilders from Austria and other places). The diversity of the races may help produce some of those bigger stronger athletes like say Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, or Hines Ward. I am sure some of those 5'8" 155 lbs men use roids too. Foot vs. Hand - Well let's see, in soccer the ball goes out of bounds and it is thrown back in by hand or it goes out passed the end line and it is kicked it but is struck by a head or grabbed by a hand. If an offensive player is being covered to well, he dives and holds (with his hands) his shin. In football the games starts with a foot kicking the ball, the ball is caught and transported by foot. Scoring occurs when the ball is moved over the goal line followed by an extra point kicked by foot or they don't move the ball over the goal line, the ball is kicked by foot through the goal post for a field goal. Oh and the game is controlled primarily by the 22 men throwing, kicking and running the ball not two little men that are dieing to throw a little flag up in the air and another guy who can't tell a dive and fake crying when the thousands watching know what's going on. Population and language - Of the 508 million English speakers in the world, at least 335 million are in nations where soccer is the common term. Origin - The origin of the word soccer comes from England. It's a shortening of the term association football. Protective gear - Having the protective gear allows the players to play with more intensity than if they didn't. Kind of like driving a car with protective gear, you can safely go faster. It's funny to watch the English blokes on Fox Soccer Channel, call the game football constantly slip up constantly call it soccer and then try to correct themselves to say football.
Robin Williams: "For the rest of the world, it's football. For us, it's "A strange sport, played by damaged people."
Why not change the name of American Football? How often does a foot touch the ball in that game? Less than a hand touches the ball in 'soccer' I bet.
Gee, that wouldn't work for the CFL would it? Besides soccer is known as footie, association football, and where English is spoken the term most commonly used is soccer. With your hand logic why not call soccer foot-leg-chest-head-hand-arm-if-directly-in-front-of-the-body-ball?
Thats because it is football. We invented it and thats what its called. American football is eactly what it says.....an American version of football. Get your own names in future and stop stealing ours!!!!!!! I'm only this happy cos' we thrashed Spurs today in our first match back in the Premiership
It was called association football and shortened to soccer. The Chinese invented it. Congrats to Sunderland on the 1-0 "thrashing" of Tottenham.
Screw that. I'm calling it football. You mainly use your FEET so I'm sticking with football. It is an ENGLISH game and we call it football so the people who call it soccer should be hated for ruining the name of the beautiful game. ARSENAL ARSENAL STAND UP, IF YOU HATE TOTTENHAM
I started the thread suggesting you could aid your sport by having it grow in popularity by refering to it with an English produced name that is used by most of the English speaking world. Hey how about this? If England wins another World Cup before the US, I will start calling soccer football in this forum and you will call it soccer (or association football) if the US wins one before England does. Do we have a deal?
Why does it matter if in 90 minutes there may not be a gazillion goals? Thats the beauty of the game, you like your sports fast paced yet half the crowd are sitting there with a jumbo bag of popcorn and a few hotdogs on the way. Dont kid yourself steroids arent everywhere in NFL and baseball, even your own pundits admit they are. Im sure ALOT more of American football is played in the hand, probably 80% of the game the egg thing is being carried. It doesnt matter what the majority population call it, we invented it as football, by your logic there shouldnt be American English since most people speak normal English. And where did you get 508million from? Wikipedia says there are over 900million English speakers. Ive never heard of fox soccer channel, but if the only gig these commentators can get is on that channel then they probably have no idea what there talking about anyway, so who cares.
Football = soccer in the US...Football is the Real name of soccer...the only reason they call it Soccer in the US is because the name Football was already taken by American Football.... personally American Football is boring to me...every play takes 10 years...if you talk about Strong men then Rugby is the best...if you are tough you don't need to protection...do you see Fans around the world sitting down relaxing while watching a game? I think not...Fights are always involved between team fans...Fox Soccer Channel is an American Channel which is why sometimes they make mistakes... btw, Football is the best Sport in the World (I am not talking about American Football)
World Football is physical. It just varies according to position. Ok not as physical as Rugby but that is a different story. The difference between soccer and other sports is that 1) Only 3 substitutions per game which means that players must be fit for 90 minutes, not like basketball where there are unlimited substitutions and time-outs, breaks, etc. 2) Strikers have the speed and agility, look at Martins. 3) Soccer is mainly a tactical game, Players must also use their mind and think.
Campare the shapes of the balls, (no, silly not the players ones but the ones the players play with - keep out of this Vinny Jones!!). A football is a round because it is kicked by the foot most of the time, an American Football is prolate spheroid shape (good old Wiki, I knew I could rely on you!!) because it is mainly carried in the hands or arms the same as a rugby ball. The shape makes this easier to handle.
I should be around for another ten world cups, I expect a few of them won't go to Brazil, France, Germany and Italy so why not the US or England??
Worth a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_football_(soccer) Its a little narrow-minded to suggest that the success and popularity of a sport is dependant on its success and popularity in North America. If you guys haven't embraced it fully, then frankly it doesn't matter, its already a hugely popular sport throughout the world; unlike many "American Sports" which are only majorly popular in America itself. Blaming nomenclature for a lack of this sports popularity in America is a bit of a cop out; and just because you guys and a few other countries chose to use the term 'soccer' instead of football because other sports were more important to you is not a reason for us to follow suit just to keep things simple for you. This debate lies in the same area as "American English v British English".