Head for the hills, soccer-haters!

[brianhos]

This perfectly summarizes soccer to me:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhT4oACS7ec"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

[bigredqb7]

watch this then
Video Manchester United V Roma - All the goals - manchester, united, roma, all, goals - Dailymotion Share Your Videos

[mapnerd]

Ignorant how? I understand the rule, I played organized soccer until high school so I get it. It is a ridiculous rule. It should be more like hockey with a dedicated line for offsides instead of a fluid moving line drawn between the two deepest defensemen. It just makes the game silly when the defense can see an attack starting and then move forward to draw an offsides, it takes a lot of the offense out of the game and significantly reduces the scoring chances. Because of this soccer/football is just plain boring. There is too much neutral zone time. Contrast it with hockey where there are scoring chances every minute, which keeps you interested and into the game.

If you're going to have a blue line in soccer, than you should have a bigger net in hockey, just to make it fair. Also, you should make the rink bigger. I think that both sports are just fine with their individual rules. I've seen plenty of hockey games where there are not scoring chances every minute.

Too much neutral zone time? How many hours of football have you watched where no one scores? Remember that a score of 14-7 is really 2-1.

[alaskaguy]

[quote=cyclone#1;148017]I was talking about the OLYMPICS...which is really the only "international" basketball we have ever cared at all about.

If you reviewed the rosters of the USA teams competing for the world championship you would see that there has been a major effort to put together the "best" NBA talent. And the results have been downright embarrasing. It may have been the case that the USA was dominant twenty plus years ago in basketball, but it is no longer the case.

Football is the only sport that I am aware of where the talent level is that much better in the USA than it is for the rest of the world. And of course that is because football is worshipped in this country where it gets much less attention world wide. But the table is turned for those sports that are worshipped else where (for example cross country skiing gets 50,000 plus crowds in Europe) where there is scant attention in the USA. Similarly, the countries that pay attention to certain sports dominate those sports.

It would be interesting to see how the USA baseball all-star team would compare for example to a Cuba all-star team.

[brianhos]

[quote=alaskaguy;148130]

I was talking about the OLYMPICS...which is really the only "international" basketball we have ever cared at all about.

If you reviewed the rosters of the USA teams competing for the world championship you would see that there has been a major effort to put together the "best" NBA talent. And the results have been downright embarrasing. It may have been the case that the USA was dominant twenty plus years ago in basketball, but it is no longer the case.

The big problem with olympic sports in the US is the teams are not playing together for months/years before the games like other countries. The US could dominate in basketball easily, but the players do not have the time to play together before the games. Other countries have that team together for years before hand.

[BryceC]

watch this then
Video Manchester United V Roma - All the goals - manchester, united, roma, all, goals - Dailymotion Share Your Videos

This was all the goals in the last 10 years right? Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, I was joking of course.

[alaskaguy]

[quote=brianhos;148133]

The big problem with olympic sports in the US is the teams are not playing together for months/years before the games like other countries. The US could dominate in basketball easily, but the players do not have the time to play together before the games. Other countries have that team together for years before hand.

Many of the best national teams are not unlike the US. They select players from various teams rather than playing together for "years". The US team is currently asking players for a three-year commitment, which is a longer commitment than most other countries require. Superstars Kobe Bryand, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Shawn Marion have publicly announced their commitment for the team.

In the 2006 World Championships, this team easily went through the group stage and went to the semi-finals, winning their games by an average of 25 points. However, against defending European Championship winner Greece, the US suffered a 101-95 defeat, putting in a dismal defensive effort (the Greeks scored 101 points and shot .625 for the game and resulting in the third consecutive failure of an US team to reach a final in international basketball. The team rallied for a win over defending Olympic champion Argentina (who had previously earned a win over the U.S in both the 2002 Worlds and the 2004 Olympics) to take home the bronze medal.

The bottom line is that the US is no longer the dominant force that they used to be in basketball.

[BryceC]

I agree they haven't had the success on the international stage in basketball, but the players flat out don't care. That's why they still can't get guys like Garnett to play on the team. They play basketball 8 months a year they don't want to play anymore for free.

Personally I wish they'd just scrap the pros thing and just get a bunch of good college players who couldn't quite make it in the NBA and are wanting to make a name for themselves somehow. That would be just as effective if not more when you consider just how little these guys care about international basketball.

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."