Uh, I thought the most famous sports kiss was at a Sun Belt game.
I like soccer, I won't watch it over college football or the NFL but I'll watch Barclay's Premier League or MLS over pretty much anything else except the Final Four or an Arkansas State basketball game.
(07-03-2011 03:57 PM)arkstfan Wrote: Uh, I thought the most famous sports kiss was at a Sun Belt game.
I like soccer, I won't watch it over college football or the NFL but I'll watch Barclay's Premier League or MLS over pretty much anything else except the Final Four or an Arkansas State basketball game.
(07-03-2011 08:55 PM)eh9198 Wrote: +1 soccer is great. Nothing beats the World Cup.
I can stand the sport once every 4 years.
(07-04-2011 01:59 PM)WinstonTheWolf Wrote: As it is - way to much false hope. And a lack of meaningful momentum makes it the least interesting sport ever.
Sit there for 90 min. hoping something happens. If nothing happens in 90 min., you go home. There's a reason you see so few soccer highlights on ESPN. Something worth noting rarely happens.
It's a Golden Age of futbol right now for Barcalona. Their season is over (La Liga), however, there are two Classico's left this year in August between Barca and Real Madrid for the Spanish Super Cup (teams qualify by winning the league and/or the Copa del Rey (King's Cup)).
When Barca plays Real, it's known as El Classico. This year there will be 6 Classico's (2 regular season, 1 Copa del Rey, 1 UEFA semi-final and a home/home Super Cup).
Why the excitement? By index, these are the two best club teams in the world and Barcalona has the top-three best players in the world, by Ballon de Oro voting, on their team (Messi, Ballon winner, Ineista and Xavi). On top of this they have great strikers in David Villa and Pedro, great mid-fielders, the two listed above plus Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano and great defensive backs in Dani Alves, Gerard Pique and (Captain) Carlos Puyol.
Barca has won everything the past two/three years and is a team that's hard to dislike. Started by English, Swiss and Spanish fans, FC Barca has grown into the second wealthiest team in the soccer world and play in the largest stadium in Europe. The team is full the best World Cup Champion Spanish players with some Argentines and Brazilians mixed in for good measure.
They play the game on a level that has not been seen before. If you like the World Cup, Do yourself a favor and set your DVR for these Classicos.
Baseball and soccer are quite alike in that most scoring chances don't result in a score. The batter grounds out, ball curves foul, the long fly is caught in the outfield, the batter strikes out.
The difference is that soccer requires you to pay attention for two spans of roughly 45 minutes or risk missing the play. Baseball has lots of down time in the three hours plus a game is played.
When you really watch the game you can see how rugby and later football evolved from the game with the set pieces that the coaches run.
Soccer just seems to be a different kind of sport. Some sports you watch for the score (ie basketball), others you watch for the game itself. I'd put soccer in that latter category. People who enjoy soccer enjoy the great pass, the cool move with the ball that breaks a defender's ankles, the creativity in a set piece, even if it doesn't result in a goal. Those happen many times throughout each game. And when there finally is a goal, there's usually been such a buildup with close calls, etc., that there's nothing more explosive and spectacular in all of sports, IMO.
(07-07-2011 09:52 AM)eh9198 Wrote: Soccer just seems to be a different kind of sport. Some sports you watch for the score (ie basketball), others you watch for the game itself. I'd put soccer in that latter category. People who enjoy soccer enjoy the great pass, the cool move with the ball that breaks a defender's ankles, the creativity in a set piece, even if it doesn't result in a goal. Those happen many times throughout each game. And when there finally is a goal, there's usually been such a buildup with close calls, etc., that there's nothing more explosive and spectacular in all of sports, IMO.
Agreed.
Did you happen to see the Argentina v. Columbia match last night in the Copa America. There were some nice moments but boy does Argentina seem lost. Even with the likes of Messi, Tevez, Higuien, Mascherano and Milito (all high-priced European stars) they could not build an attack and struggled to keep Columbia off the board and settle for a nil-nil tie. I was expecting so much more from them....and the Copa is being hosted by Argentina.
I was stuck at work so wasn't able to catch it. Looking forward to watching it a bunch this weekend. With Brazil struggling too this could be anyone's tournament to win.
(07-07-2011 09:52 AM)eh9198 Wrote: Soccer just seems to be a different kind of sport. Some sports you watch for the score (ie basketball), others you watch for the game itself. I'd put soccer in that latter category. People who enjoy soccer enjoy the great pass, the cool move with the ball that breaks a defender's ankles, the creativity in a set piece, even if it doesn't result in a goal. Those happen many times throughout each game. And when there finally is a goal, there's usually been such a buildup with close calls, etc., that there's nothing more explosive and spectacular in all of sports, IMO.
I grew up watching triple option rushing football. There was a beauty to it when it was run well. The slow drives up the field that wouldn't result in points but with a good punt left the opponent pinned back and with good defense would set up the short scoring drive when you got the ball back. The amazing QB's who would take the ball out on the edge and you thought he was nailed for a loss and then you'd see the ball floating to the halfback who would turn it into a nice game.
I may be the only person who would happily discard overtime. I like admitting that "on this day and this field" the teams were equal. I've seen Arkansas State settle for a tie twice against SEC teams. On the road with SEC refs with a hostile crowd odds are OT would have produced losses but on those days we were equal. We tied Miss. St. on a very lucky play and almost certainly would have lost that one in overtime. Two weeks later, Mississippi State got a lucky play in Little Rock and escaped with a tie in a game they almost certainly would have lost in OT.