The Count to Infinity V7.0 (Over a year old and counting!)

[donavannj]

198387. Well, what we call it is a Brit's fault, as that's what he used to describe the differences between it and rugby. SO THE BRITISH ARE AT FAULT.

Plus, our football actually used to use feet intensively because "field goals" were actually worth more points than "touchdowns". Then they changed the rules around because watching people punt the ball from midfield into the upright goal posts was apparently pretty boring, even as far back as 1905. It's an amazing feat, but still kinda boring when compared to players breaking through tackles for a touchdown of 20 yards or more, in my opinion. Soccer is fascinating to watch in its own right, though, for different reasons from American football.

 

[Riku]

198388


Very interesting. I have heard it, as one of my friends is from Sweden, buuuuut.... never seen the spelling. I was expecting it to be a "u" instead of the first "o"......


Also, ninja Don is ninja. And taught me something as well. I knew it came from GB as a means to differentiate between it and rugby, but never knew it was more feet-intense a thing :x

 

[Pokestick good times.]

198389

Well, or vowels are pronounced a bit differently I guess :3

 

[Gabri]

198385


Because Pokey calls it "football" or "futball" or something to that effect, no? Different spellings, same meaning, 'cept for here where in the good ol' US of A, we idiotically refer to it as soccer.

Finally someone from the USA admits that.

Oh, okay then Pokey. I thought you knew what I meant by soccer xD

198390

 

[donavannj]

198391. They just didn't bother changing the name of the game because the teams and players were the same. And back then the protection was almost as light as the protection for rugby.

 

[Iris]

198390.

I have a cup of tea to dip some biscuits in. :3

 

[donavannj]

198393. SHARESHARESHARESHARESHARE THOSE BISCUITS!

Finally someone from the USA admits that.

We have our reasons like I posted above. The way it was played really did involve feet initially. Back then they didn't see a point in changing. Europe's sports didn't really start coming overseas until 30 years later, and even then it was a slow trickle. By then American football was established as "football" because most of the universities here had teams. So, yeah, there's some history to it.

 

[A Pixy]

198394

This post is wasting Rukario's money.

 

[Gabri]

BISCUITS
I WANT BISCUITS! 8D

Yeah Don, but it always causes confusion when someone (especially us Europeans) refers to the real Football when talking to an American, because they all think we're refering to your Handegg.

198395

 

[donavannj]

198396. Well, that is true. I haven't met many people who have an interest in more than 4 sports.

 

[Gabri]

I only show interest in one :3
Okay one and a half. That half is tennis; I enjoy playing it, but I don't watch it at all.

198397

 

[Iris]

198398.

I'd happily share my biscuits with all of you! C:

 

[Pokestick good times.]

198399

Oh, I understand what you meant with soccer, I just questioned you using it xD;

GIVE ME BISCUITS.

 

[Gabri]

/me hungrily takes one biscuit from Christina's hand and swallows it 8D

...is "hungrily" even a word? XD

And Pokey, it's exactly so that Americans don't get confused that I refer to it as soccer. :D

198400

Hah, I got two zeros!

 

[Pokestick good times.]

198401

According to FireFox' British dictionary, hungrily is a word O_O

..."FireFox" isn't a word, though.

 

[donavannj]

198402. YAY BISCUITS! :D

Meanwhile, I'm over here enjoying 6 sports, following 4 with ease, and not the 5th because the local NLL (National Lacrosse League) team doesn't get much TV and not the 6th because there's no local MLS team and the European leagues already conflict with 3 of my sports.

And above all, TV time is hard to get in this house for even half an hour, let alone 3 hours.

Hungrily is indeed a word. (b'-')b

 

[Pokestick good times.]

198403

Don, you're not quick enough! :U

 

[donavannj]

198404. I was sidetracked there, okay? :V

 

[Gabri]

You Americans should expand the MLS to a wider range of states.

The USA have some good soccer players (look at the national team and what they've done in the last Confederations' Cup), but the problem is that they play in a country where soccer isn't the "king sport", if you know what I mean.

198405

 

[donavannj]

198406. I think they made a mistake with keeping Bradley instead of going after a marquee foreign manager. The USA team is ready to take the next step, and I don't see that happening with Bradley at the helm.

Most of our best players play overseas still. But we do have some of the better USA players playing in the MLS. The main problem of the MLS is expanding into markets which are oversaturated for sports teams as it is. The 4 major leagues for American football (NFL), baseball (MLB), basketball (NBA), and hockey (NHL) have 32, 30, 30, and 30 teams apiece, respectively, while the MLS has around... 16 with 3 more on the way. Each of those leagues has... in order, 0, 1, 1, 6, and 3 Canadian-based teams, though 2 of the MLS teams in Canada are the expansion teams.

Problem with soccer teams succeeding in my market is that they'd have to use an American football field or some low-capacity college/high school fields in order to be in the middle of everything and be easy to get to. The National Sports Center, the only field in my area truly designed for the sport with a large seating capacity, is quite far away from everything, so teams have issues succeeding long term at it because it's an afterthought and it's hard to get to. And we're more of a hockey town anyways.

The king sport in the USA is always in flux because, well, even having 10% of Americans as fans of your sporting league means you have 31 million fans.