[terry]

[terry]

[Farm93]

[quote]

To your main point, we\'re actually talking about two different things, spectator sports versus participant sports.  Volleyball is usually in the #5 to #7 range in terms of spectator sports, but per the International Association of Sports Federations global survey, volleyball is actually the #1 participant sport in the world.  Here are the numbers of a slightly dated IASF survey, taken by interviewing sports federations in all countries:

Volleyball, 998 Million
Basketball, 400 Million
Table Tennis, 300 Million
Soccer, 242 Million

Incidentally, I agree with you with respect to the IOC.  They can shrivel up and fall in the ocean for all I care.[/color]

In the Olympics Track & Field is called Athletics.  Check it out.  Those that compete in "Athletics" are called athletes.  Easy enough right?  More technically though athlete is a word with Greek origins for those that competed for a prize.  Running was one of those contests.  FWIW volleyball was not.

Cricket has more participants.  I doubt your average child in India is tallied by these fine European based federations.   On that federation list cricket is at the bottom as "pending".  Pending does not equal zero.  I can only guess those Euro-centric federations really don\'t care how many people in South Asia are playing a sport that does not require Adidas equipment.

Though all of these numbers are really suspect.  The numbers are created by claiming that people play a "variations" of the game at least once a week.  The federation claims that almost 50 million play volleyball in the USA once a week!  That\'s 1 in 6 in the USA doing this specific sport once a week?   Hmmm...

And on the list only 242 million playing soccer??  Are we perhaps missing another one, two or even three billion playing futbol?  Was FIFA not consulted in this tally?  Or were they more strict in their definition of playing their game.  There is no way 4 times as many people in the world are playing volleyball than futbol/football/soccer.

Volleyball is a fine sport, but I suspect those tallying these numbers were not all counting the same way.

But let\'s use that loose standard, since almost everyone can run wouldn\'t track top the list?  Doesn\'t everyone run to the tree with their kids, or run to the fence against their friends, or get placed into teams for a relay contest by an out of shape PE teacher, or run from the mall entrance to their car in the parking lot when it is raining.  Bamm!  5.5-6.5 billion just like that.

[Farm93]

[quote]

To your main point, we\'re actually talking about two different things, spectator sports versus participant sports.  Volleyball is usually in the #5 to #7 range in terms of spectator sports, but per the International Association of Sports Federations global survey, volleyball is actually the #1 participant sport in the world.  Here are the numbers of a slightly dated IASF survey, taken by interviewing sports federations in all countries:

Volleyball, 998 Million
Basketball, 400 Million
Table Tennis, 300 Million
Soccer, 242 Million

Incidentally, I agree with you with respect to the IOC.  They can shrivel up and fall in the ocean for all I care.[/color]

In the Olympics Track & Field is called Athletics.  Check it out.  Those that compete in "Athletics" are called athletes.  Easy enough right?  More technically though athlete is a word with Greek origins for those that competed for a prize.  Running was one of those contests.  FWIW volleyball was not.

Cricket has more participants.  I doubt your average child in India is tallied by these fine European based federations.   On that federation list cricket is at the bottom as "pending".  Pending does not equal zero.  I can only guess those Euro-centric federations really don\'t care how many people in South Asia are playing a sport that does not require Adidas equipment.

Though all of these numbers are really suspect.  The numbers are created by claiming that people play a "variations" of the game at least once a week.  The federation claims that almost 50 million play volleyball in the USA once a week!  That\'s 1 in 6 in the USA doing this specific sport once a week?   Hmmm...

And on the list only 242 million playing soccer??  Are we perhaps missing another one, two or even three billion playing futbol?  Was FIFA not consulted in this tally?  Or were they more strict in their definition of playing their game.  There is no way 4 times as many people in the world are playing volleyball than futbol/football/soccer.

Volleyball is a fine sport, but I suspect those tallying these numbers were not all counting the same way.

But let\'s use that loose standard, since almost everyone can run wouldn\'t track top the list?  Doesn\'t everyone run to the tree with their kids, or run to the fence against their friends, or get placed into teams for a relay contest by an out of shape PE teacher, or run from the mall entrance to their car in the parking lot when it is raining.  Bamm!  5.5-6.5 billion just like that.

[jacketree]

as we roll on to Page 4.

Sure, there is an element of waiting for Godot (a scintillating Uruguayan striker) in watching futbol. (What on earth does "soccer" even mean?* - football makes complete sense; more so here than in the American version, which is bastardized rugby. Why were those who named the American version so enamored with punting and kicking anyway?)  

I think some of you have this all wrong.  The rest of the world could not care less whether North Americans (north of Mexico that is) embrace the sport with the statistical fervor (either TV sets or the weird obsession with stats) reserved for something like baseball.  Stay home and watch something else; and ignore those you think are trying to push soccer down your throat. This is still one of the greatest sporting events on earth, whether we get it or not.

Meanwhile, futbol fans can gather in stadiums, pubs or the couch and actually enjoy the run of play in low scoring affairs, much like my early forays into the romantic arts.  (OK, who are we kidding, much like all my forays into the romantic arts.)  This past Saturday, my son and I had several options after a late night Always Sunny in Philly marathon. Some even involved hard manual labor outside.  So it was a pretty easy decision to crash on the couch and watched Spain – Paraguay.  We always root for the plucky landlocked third-world South American nation over the Seafaring Former Overlord and that penalty kick save-a-thon drained us.  (Ditto for Ghana-Uruguay.) Scoreless most of the match, but way more exciting than watching a triple-digit NBA game, for example. I wouldn’t even call watching the smoldering ruin of Maradonna’s Argentina boring, exactly. To say that “nothing” happens is sort of silly.

I see Uruguay is getting a Dutch rub. I hope Spain beats Germany so we can have a first-timer. Part of me wanted a third title for "way to throw out the hand" Uruguay, the last southerners alive.  Or Alive! if you will.  Any national team which has in its history players that ate other players to survive a plane crash in the Andes deserved it.

I’m really not a soccer honk (refereed some AYSO games until my kids quit the sport); but I can appreciate those who are. If you want to get into it, fine.  If not, fine.


*according to Mom’s 1961 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (which is as far as my working knowledge of the English language will ever go), soccer is a noun corrupted from the French and means “Association football”.  “Football” means one of three things: 1) rugby in which the ball may be carried, kicked, or thrown, provided it is not thrown forward and which a player in possession of the ball may be tackled bodily; 2) association (soccer) in which all use of the arms or hands is prohibited except to the goalkeeper and the ball may be propelled by kicking or striking it with the head, shoulder or other parts of the body (:o) except the arms; or 3) American, in which one side is allowed undisputed possession of the ball at the moment when it is put into play…(stuff you know)…and in general, the play is more systematized and formal.

[jacketree]

as we roll on to Page 4.

Sure, there is an element of waiting for Godot (a scintillating Uruguayan striker) in watching futbol. (What on earth does "soccer" even mean?* - football makes complete sense; more so here than in the American version, which is bastardized rugby. Why were those who named the American version so enamored with punting and kicking anyway?)  

I think some of you have this all wrong.  The rest of the world could not care less whether North Americans (north of Mexico that is) embrace the sport with the statistical fervor (either TV sets or the weird obsession with stats) reserved for something like baseball.  Stay home and watch something else; and ignore those you think are trying to push soccer down your throat. This is still one of the greatest sporting events on earth, whether we get it or not.

Meanwhile, futbol fans can gather in stadiums, pubs or the couch and actually enjoy the run of play in low scoring affairs, much like my early forays into the romantic arts.  (OK, who are we kidding, much like all my forays into the romantic arts.)  This past Saturday, my son and I had several options after a late night Always Sunny in Philly marathon. Some even involved hard manual labor outside.  So it was a pretty easy decision to crash on the couch and watched Spain – Paraguay.  We always root for the plucky landlocked third-world South American nation over the Seafaring Former Overlord and that penalty kick save-a-thon drained us.  (Ditto for Ghana-Uruguay.) Scoreless most of the match, but way more exciting than watching a triple-digit NBA game, for example. I wouldn’t even call watching the smoldering ruin of Maradonna’s Argentina boring, exactly. To say that “nothing” happens is sort of silly.

I see Uruguay is getting a Dutch rub. I hope Spain beats Germany so we can have a first-timer. Part of me wanted a third title for "way to throw out the hand" Uruguay, the last southerners alive.  Or Alive! if you will.  Any national team which has in its history players that ate other players to survive a plane crash in the Andes deserved it.

I’m really not a soccer honk (refereed some AYSO games until my kids quit the sport); but I can appreciate those who are. If you want to get into it, fine.  If not, fine.


*according to Mom’s 1961 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (which is as far as my working knowledge of the English language will ever go), soccer is a noun corrupted from the French and means “Association football”.  “Football” means one of three things: 1) rugby in which the ball may be carried, kicked, or thrown, provided it is not thrown forward and which a player in possession of the ball may be tackled bodily; 2) association (soccer) in which all use of the arms or hands is prohibited except to the goalkeeper and the ball may be propelled by kicking or striking it with the head, shoulder or other parts of the body (:o) except the arms; or 3) American, in which one side is allowed undisputed possession of the ball at the moment when it is put into play…(stuff you know)…and in general, the play is more systematized and formal.

[jacketree]

I find myself somewhat puzzled by the argument that "the rest of the world doesn\'t care what we think." That could as easily be applied to our opinions on Stanford quarterbacks, Obama\'s fiscal policy, or the Civil War. (Even more easily to the Civil War, since everybody who had a hand in it is dead and hence completely beyond persuasion.) If we can only discuss those matters on which the world values our opinion, the CardBoard will be a lonely place.

Point well taken.  I don\'t suppose anyone was arguing that, were they?

The need for any sort of majority within the States to embrace the sport for it to have meaning may not be an explicit argument in this thread, but it sure seems to be an implicit undercurrent to the "I hate soccer" positions put forth herein.

I do recommend watching "The Two Escobars" on ESPN, as part of their 30 for 30 series.  Pretty compelling, whether you like soccer or not.

[jacketree]

I find myself somewhat puzzled by the argument that "the rest of the world doesn\'t care what we think." That could as easily be applied to our opinions on Stanford quarterbacks, Obama\'s fiscal policy, or the Civil War. (Even more easily to the Civil War, since everybody who had a hand in it is dead and hence completely beyond persuasion.) If we can only discuss those matters on which the world values our opinion, the CardBoard will be a lonely place.

Point well taken.  I don\'t suppose anyone was arguing that, were they?

The need for any sort of majority within the States to embrace the sport for it to have meaning may not be an explicit argument in this thread, but it sure seems to be an implicit undercurrent to the "I hate soccer" positions put forth herein.

I do recommend watching "The Two Escobars" on ESPN, as part of their 30 for 30 series.  Pretty compelling, whether you like soccer or not.

[Farm93]

Yes, back to the actual World Cup...

The Netherlands is back in the final.  And this time they will not have to play in the final against the host country.

They could play Germany.  That would create all kinds of WWII and previous World Cup final references for everyone around the world.  Or they could play Spain.  If they play Spain, an eighth country will join the list of World Cup winners.

Although the Holland/Germany thing sounds like great fun for the historians, I would like to see Holland/Spain.  That way there will be a first time winner for the first African World Cup.

[Farm93]

Yes, back to the actual World Cup...

The Netherlands is back in the final.  And this time they will not have to play in the final against the host country.

They could play Germany.  That would create all kinds of WWII and previous World Cup final references for everyone around the world.  Or they could play Spain.  If they play Spain, an eighth country will join the list of World Cup winners.

Although the Holland/Germany thing sounds like great fun for the historians, I would like to see Holland/Spain.  That way there will be a first time winner for the first African World Cup.