In the UK we taught the world soccer hooliganism, so we're hardly stupid are we?
People fink we're fick but we're not.

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change some of the rules so Americans will get more interested? Come on now, that would be silly.

So Fender Forum members do not like soccer. You realize this forum is a very miniscule sample of the world right?

No offense taken, you don't like soccer and that is fine, neither do most forum members. But you have to expect that if you post in a topic about the World Cup and state how much you dislike it, those who enjoy it and the sport are going to take issue with it.

Either way, thanks for your input. Nothing wrong with a good debate of differing opinions.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

The American public is generally ADHD about their sports. If a game is not high scoring they think it's boring. Hockey, Soccer, and Baseball are usually low scoring games so the viewing public is bored.

In hockey, soccer and baseball, it's not about a high score, it's more about the skill of the players and the technical (and psychological) aspects of the game that keep it interesting.

Basketball has huge scores and folks love it, but the game bores me because it's just too darned easy for those 7 foot tall behemoths to put the ball in the hoop. Back when the game was invented a tall player was 6'0 so the hoop was set at an appropriate height to make it difficult. Now that the players are a foot taller (on average) I think the net should be raised accordingly to make the sport challenging again.

The US has MLS soccer now and it will gain steadily in popularity.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

id like to see Spain Germany or Brasil Spain...they are the 4 teams that are the most interesting to watch because they have such nice styles of play.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

I was never a soccer fan, but I'm loving watching the World Cup. I guess I'll root for USA, but I don't really mind who wins. It's just nice to watch something that all these countries can come together for.

And the acting, don't forget the acting. The performances some of these guys put on to convince a Ref that they were viciously and hienously fouled. Some should get Oscar nominations.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

You're right, and Kobe Bryant never acts like he gets fould every time he drives to the hole. Ron Artest got a tech called on the player who barely touched him other night for flopping when he was barely touched. Reggie Miller made a living on the flop.

Quarterbacks never act like they were creamed by a linebacker late in order to get a penalty and wide receivers never act like they interfered with to get 15 yards.

A batter never acts like he was beaned with a pitch to get on first base when the replay shows it didnt touch him.

In hockey a guy never gets lightly checked and the flops like he got hit by a missle from the crowd.

Face it, sports are entertainment and there are actors in every sport and it is a part of every sport. Not being a soccer fan a lot of the things you see as flops genuinely are not, while some are...but it is not the majority of the time when a guy hits the ground that he is faking. Running full speed then having someone stomp your ankle of take your legs out tends to make you fall down.

You're grasping at straws, you'd be better off just saying you don't like soccer and leaving it at that.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Amazingly talented players out there. What moves! The thing I like about watching it is, there are (almost) no timeouts or commercial breaks. That is something that is really killing American football IMO.

Another thing that I have noticed is the good sportsmanship displayed. Part of that may be a fear of being carded, but it's still nice to see a player take someone out and then give him a hand up. Nice! You don't see that in many sports these days.

Gridlok

Yes, I was surprised Switzerland won that one, not expecting that. A good game going on now, Uruguay-S.Africa. I have been very impressed with Uruguay so far, this world cup.
The second set of matches now, so, I think it hots up a bit, everyone knows what they have to do. Interesting.

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Spain's coach made the mistake of playing a one striker formation. David Villa alone up front is not going to produce much in terms of scoring. He needs another striker up there with him to play off of.

The biggest issue Spain had was that their best Striker and arguably best player Fernando Torres is coming off his second knee surgery in a year and looked very rusty, but when he was subbed in you could immediately tell they became more attack minded.

Suissland played a very good game though, Spain did their usual control the ball and possession plan of attack, but using only 1 striker was the big mistake in my opinion.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Uruguay has a very very very solid defense. They really impressed me in the qualifying coming out of S. America. Their defenders will lock you up and stone wall you.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

I have been to and going to see the US again tomorrow. great atmosphere at the games however some of the favourites been given a bit of stick... germany looking very good as is argentina ...

Didn't expect much from Spain and I was right, at least for that first game. Though I didn't think they would lose. Looked like a Rugby match at times.
Didn't expect much from Argentina either, but they won by 4x1 over South Korea today, what's a great deed.

Expected much more from Brazil (not only me probably ). The team was too slow and lost many many chances to score - next game against Ivory Coast will be much harder, and I expect much more action - they will be desperate to score, but I believe some problems will be fixed by then (it's "traditional" that we never win by a large margin in the first game). What feels more strange is that since the access to the Brazilian players is very strict and hardly give any interview now, Maradonna's (who can't stop boasting how great they are, as usual ) team is getting a lot of attention from many of the sport channels and shows - they are veeeery confident.

What as happened to the Italians? They usually have a very strong national team, their top players seem to have got too old. Maybe their younger players will step up to the mark in the next game. I am accustomed to seeing them as one of the strongest european sides.
I expect England to be much better tomorrow. Time to start playing.

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I think age has caught up with Italy and they don't have as many youth players coming through right now. Plus their style of play always seemed really anti_football to me. They seem to play not to lose rather than playing to win. hat to me always seemed to benefit strong attacking teams when they play italy.

But I think the lack of good youth players coming through and having to use the same old players has caught up with them.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!