I don’t know if it’s been mentioned anywhere in the sports world, but soccer is a popular sport in every country but here. I like soccer, as long as it’s European or International soccer, because American Soccer is esentially what Latvian basketball is to the NBA: a facsimile of the same game, but not nearly as good.
The thing I like so much is the passion. Imagine huge stadiums across this country for one sport where all the fans were as passionate as Browns fans in the NFL, or Red Sox fans in baseball. A sport where people wager body parts on victories. Loyalty in European soccer is assumed. There is always something to play for in the matches, whether it’s a championship or to avoid relegation, so the fans never stray from their team.
Then, of course, there is the athleticism. In every sport in the United States, there are pauses. Soccer matches have to be aired commercial free, since there is so little stoppage. It’s just constant, dogged work. And the matches are so important to the fans and the countries in which they air that forty five minutes of commercial free television doesn’t sound unreasonable.
Soccer is coming to the forefront, with the UEFA Championns League finals, and then, next month, the beginning of the month, The World Cup begins, and I feel like I know far too little. If the game was more easy for me to understand or track, I would certainly love to do so in not World Cup years. Assuming I don’t make any European or South American friends any time in the next year or so, I don’t think I’ll have to many more soccer posts for a while. But there will be some, because this is my blog, dammit. – Ryan
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