ESPN should push their own product, of course. And they do. That's my point. But if they didn't have that product to push.....


The "complaints"?
What are the complaints"?
I'm confused by that word. I started the thread by saying that Olbermann did a good job of re-affirming to the soccer fanatics that soccer just ain't hit the big time here in the US. Again. Just like 4 years ago. Is that a "complaint"? If anything - it;s the pro-soccer people that are complaining, isn't it?

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Saying soccer is overplayed on ESPN sure seems like a complaint to me. Otherwise, someone saying soccer supremacists are annoying them also seems like a complaint. If responding to people complaining about soccer is complaining, great.

Here's a news flash...Soccer will never "catch on" in the USA.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

It's not trolling. It's my opinion. I'm sorry if you don't think I've brought up any legitimate points. I think I have. It's not trolling just because you don't like what is being said. If that makes you feel better then I guess it makes sense.

Here are some legitimate points that you have yet to argue against.

Soccer gets ratings, even for the EPL, of about 2 million people, and that is for the day of the championship.
The Americans went 1-2-1 this year, and looked awful for a large majority of the tournament, and people are trumpeting it as some big win that we happened to advance because Germany blew out Portugal in a game two week earlier.
People have predicted the rise of soccer every World Cup since 1996.
The increased exposure of soccer has more to do with cable sports television needing content. Even then, most of the bets on soccer by networks have not paid off.
Even the most hardcore fans of soccer say that the MLS is basically AA baseball.

Oh, you mean the 1 page thread that we had on soccer in 2010 that was about the video game?

It was barely mentioned back then. It's more of a topic now because we are supposedly in a great soccer revolution in this country.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

ESPN
Deadspin
Anyone who has ever used the term "worlds most popular sport"
The people who call you a troll for simply pointing out the flaw in thinking that soccer isn't as big as they want to portray it

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

BRick, if you can't see that you're obviously trolling this section, you need a new set of eyes. no one in this section cares about your opinion on soccer. it's the soccer section. it's for soccer fans. just like the cubs section is for cubs fans, and the sox section is for sox fans. do you not see that any kind of intrusion in any of those sections by detractors is called...trolling? i'm pretty sure that both sides are even accused of it on a regular basis (i.e. bigfan "trolling" the sox section).

if you don't like the sport, then don't post in the soccer section. we all know what the sport is, we all like it, that's why we post on it and continue to. i get that you're mad that it's covered. but it is. live with it. get the hell over it, man. jesus.

Said the Soccer Supremacist.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

the soccer fans in this section talked about it; not you.

and it is the world's most popular sport. it's been that way for a long time.

You have responded a lot to my opinions you don't care about.
I have enjoyed the World Cup. Don't worry. I'll be back to ignoring soccer soon. It's pretty much unavoidable right now though.

By the way, I know I'm "trolling" and my opinions are "baseless" but you have once again ignored the actual points that I have made.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I did a search for "World Cup" and all I found was the thread on the video game and a few quick mentions in other threads. Feel free to post the link to the long thread about the 2010 World Cup.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I'm not chiding anyone for liking soccer or thinking it's great or growing in the U.S. or whatever. But is it really the world's most popular sport, however we might define that? It's marginal in the two largest nations in the world. I would think that if "The World" has a game, it might be basketball.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

By the way, I let my thoughts on soccer be known in 2010 also.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

well, if you want to believe that the world revolves around those two large nations, by all means, disagree with the sentiment, mr. baseball. (and yes i realize an argument could be made that baseball could also be listed among most popular sports in the world)

BRick, some of the older threads in this section have possibly been purged because i do remember posting my winners/losers of the 2010 world cup on this board and i don't remember when the soccer section was created. we may have even used the general discussion section back then to post about it because a section hadn't been created yet. i don't remember when it was created. but COF, kd, kissrules, and i started doing get togethers as far back as, i believe, 2008 or 2009...so there was soccer discussion aplenty going back a ways here.



hey don't turn this around on me, troll.

That's fine, but you really shouldn't cite "No one was saying bad things about soccer in 2010 or 2006" then.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

i don't really recall any anti-soccer rants in any of the soccer discussions we were having in the past...and if you look through this section there hasn't been much of that until this world cup.

We have one thread on it that remains, and at least two people said bad things about soccer. Are you saying that the people saying bad things about soccer didn't feel the same in 2010?

Also, soccer basically doesn't exist outside of the World Cup for most people. If you want, we can keep on laughing at the poor MLS ratings, or how NBC pretty much failed to deliver. However, I'm pretty sure you'd just call me a troll.

It's pretty clear there was a full on blitz to use this World Cup as a way to push soccer to the next level. That is why you get so many people talking about how great the clearly outmatched 1-2-1 US team did. This has been the biggest soccer marketing blitz I can remember since the World Cup was here.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

i'm sure they did feel the same way. but there wasn't an onslaught of negative naysaying permeating the discussion...and it looks like this section was created in september of 2010, well after the 2010 world cup. it seemed like the board ignored soccer discussions for the most part until this world cup in general.

but like i said, the negativity doesn't come from the sport itself, but rather the promotion of it. which is fine, but seriously, get over it.

I believe it was hoped, quite loudly, that having the World Cup in a time zone amenable to the United States would be the breakthrough soccer needed. Now it does appear that people got into this World Cup more than the last two. We'll see if it lasts (to the next World Cup, I mean; of course it won't translate to MLS).

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I think most rational soccer fans (and not writers, analysts or columnists who need to be edgy and controversial to keep a job) understand that the growth of soccer is a process and that there won't be one seminal event that is going to push soccer into the stratosphere where baseball or football exist. It seems like people are looking for a 1958 NFL Championship game type of event, but I don't think that is feasible (I think the hype surrounding that particular NFL Championship game is overrated, like the NFL wasn't popular before then). The closest thing would be the US winning the World Cup, but even that happening is at least a generation away.

The next World Cup being help in Russia is not going to help because of the time zones, but there is the special edition of the 2016 Copa America being held in the US so that might help the process.

it's at least received more coverage in the past 8 years or so. you're right about the growth, and i think in 20 years it's more popular than it was back then. it can't just be one thing...but if the US won the world cup with a world class set of strikers/midfielders/goalkeeper, some of whom play in the MLS, that would go a long way to keeping the interest.