A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

I'm talking 'bout association football... or futbol and a ton of other foreign spellings... calcio to our Italian tropers... or, to everyone else, soccer.

Now I know I'm not the only troper here with an interest in the sport, and I'm tired of not having a public venue here to talk to anybody about it. We may not yet have a Sports Forum, but this seems as good a place as any to talk soccer.

But enough about that crap; let's get down to business and start expressing ourselves. Champions League tournaments are heating up on all the continents of the world, the better domestic leagues in the world are beginning to enter the home stretch, and the Major League Soccer season is just beginning in the States (but we're not gonna give a damn about that one).

And, as always, there are countless teams and players out there for us to bitch about and praise wildly.

So, soccer fans, what's on your mind?

edited 24th Jul '15 9:47:10 PM by SeanMurrayI

Yeah! Football! The Oakland Raiders are pretty awesome. I didn't get to catch the Superbowl though, since I was hanging out with friends and playing a tabletop RPG.

Oh there's no way that wasn't deliberate.

^^Welp, that's your loss. Soccer is the more entertaining sport of the two, and this past Super Bowl actually managed to have a mildly interesting second half.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:14:54 PM by SeanMurrayI

Actually, both "football"s are pretty damn stupid. One's kicking a ball back and forth up and down a field, the other's tossing a bizarre thingie called a ball back and forth up and down a field.

That said, I prefer NFL-style football only because it's so lolwut. Also go Ravens.

Where's the sense of poetry in those descriptions?

On the whole, both sports are "wars fought without the guns," only one of them has an actual flow and creativity to it and far fewer commercial interruptions... and a much deeper sense of nationalism—far truer to the real nature of sport.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:30:11 PM by SeanMurrayI

Oh hush.

It's a game.

People taking soccer as seriously as they do is mind-boggling to me. I don't even take music that seriously, and that's more or less the thing I take the most seriously. I can understand being fans, but rioting over a sport as has happened many times? You people are some special kind of crazy. I don't remember if I made up the term "cultural disease" or if I read it somewhere, but soccer fever is a prime example. No, there is no good reason for you to act that way cuz your team lost.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:34:47 PM by SpainSun

All sports have a history of fan violence—even American football. Hell, LA Lakers fans riot when their team wins.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:37:48 PM by SeanMurrayI

Shows how much I know about us, then, yeah?

I should note I really don't like sports in general. I find American Football watchable only because it's delightfully confusing to me. I only like the Ravens because

1. They're from Maryland, and
2. their color is purple, which I ADORE purple.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:38:59 PM by SpainSun

I'm pretty sure I'd riot over hockey. And that would be over a win. Just sayin'.

On-topic: I actually like soccer. The only thing I dislike about it is how much emphasis is put on playing defensively. The fact that it's quick-paced running up and down, with very few breaks, is lost somewhat when no one ever scores. When people are willing to actually push some offense, though, it's pretty entertaining.

My buddy has season tickets to the local MLS team, the Philadelphia Union. My husband was going to go to the game this weekend but it looks like he's SOL as we have no money. Ah well, we'll probably watch the game on the interweb, then.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:39:35 PM by Verdandi

Well, I prefer soccer because it actually feels like it has a narrative to it. Games are a two act play characterized by a creative, flowing plot line that gets as convoluted as any anime anyone may want to ever describe in words. But overall, it's very, very beautiful.

I can't get into any of the more popular sports in America anymore (save baseball) because of the constant commercial breaks that interrupt any opportunity to develop an interesting flow, and American football is by far the worst offender for that.

^I can't bear myself to follow much of an MLS season. On the whole, the league is suffering from the same reputation of the old NASL (read: "The home for aging stars from Europe looking for a paid semi-vacation"). Also, I can't stand the New York team having such over-pronounced ties to its corporate sponsor. At least if a revived New York Cosmos enters the league at some future time, I might show some interest because at least Cosmos is a name with a semi-good history behind it.

Landon Donovan should leave LA and play in Europe full time.

edited 24th Mar '11 7:32:03 PM by SeanMurrayI

I don't notice a flow in soccer.

Not that I notice one in Football either, but comparing sports to narratives seems silly to me.

Why not? You got a stage, 22 performers, a director, three assistants for the director, and two acts for the performers to express themselves.

Naturally, some performances are better than others.

edited 24th Mar '11 6:56:17 PM by SeanMurrayI

Well, said friend was a huge supporter of the local football club that got a team here in Philly in the first place. It's sort of a point of pride for him. Me, I don't know enough about it to know "good" soccer from everything else, I just think it's fun to watch.

I dunno, Spain Sun, football seems to stop and start every twenty seconds to me. I can kinda see what Sean Murray I means, soccer kinda has a flow, with how rarely the actual 'action' stops.

I enjoy things that are start and stop anyway, so maybe I just don't notice.

^^ The general rule of thumb for identifying "good" soccer is the same general measure used to identify any other "good" sporting clubs in any other sport: It's where the cash is to afford the best players who can put on the best show. A club with money is a club that can afford players who can play well.

In a way, it helps explain why the US national soccer team is the strongest in all of North America, even compared to a country like Mexico which we would assume to be more of a soccer-loving nation... but has much less money to afford to sign the best Mexican players for the national squad.

On that note, the USA shows a lot of promise to grow a solid soccer-loving base. It's just gonna take time.

edited 24th Mar '11 7:21:28 PM by SeanMurrayI

I should watch more soccer. I watched the World Cup in a theater, and listened to it in spanish with a friend translating, but that's about it.

^Do you remember which game it was? There were quite a few interesting matches this past Cup (And a few real stinkers. Anyone remember Spain v. Chile? I sure hope not!)

I like playing soccer (which I'm shit at), but as a Brit, I really oughta watch it more often.

The last one. Spain Vs. Germany If I recall.

^The last one was Spain v. Netherlands. Though I do remember being at a New York City bar for the Spain v. Germany semi-final match. Apparently, I was the only one who wanted to pull for a Germany-Netherlands final in a room rooting for tourney favorites Spain. Puyol got the goal in that one, right? Yeah, everyone else at the bar loved that one.

edited 24th Mar '11 8:49:40 PM by SeanMurrayI

I do enjoy watching it.

Of course, where I am we have one of the most rabid fanbases in North America so I'm mighty biased. We as a community enjoy it almost as much as our American football team which is saying something.

^I'm assuming you're from Seattle then, right?

Honestly, Seattle Sounders supporters are the high standard from which all other soccer team supporters in the US are held to (and the ones most often compared to fans at big European clubs), and yet I can't figure out why in the world they've adopted "No One Likes Us, We Don't Care" as a terrace chant. Who is showing hatred for Seattle Sounders FC and for what reason?

edited 24th Mar '11 9:18:19 PM by SeanMurrayI

I thought that this was a thread about The Game, which I just lost btw...

Nah, I really meant The Beautiful Game. Though, to be fair, The Game can be incredibly creative and crafty.