This is such a complete no brainer. I’m a non sports person and even I like soccer. Hockey mystifies me. Not that I don’t understand it… I just don’t understand why anyone would bother liking it. hee hee!
Both of you are mental. Both are awesome, only hockey is faster and is a contact sport!
I’m a huge hockey fan. And if you think you want to get into it, but are too macho to admit that you don’t know the rules to a sport (as most men are), then go buy a hockey video game and learn the rules that way in solitude. That’s what I did in 1995 and I’ve been hooked ever since.
This is a little like asking “Curling or Horseshoes?â€
Except that virtually every nation on earth loves one and one nation on earth loves the other. But here in America nobody cares about either.
But I’m personally in Meems’ camp. Hockey is fun to go to but boooooooring on TV. And soccer is awesome. I hate the fact that ESPN covers the stool sample of a sport as NASCAR but don’t cover soccer. Sad.
Plus, American pro sports (and college football) should take a cue from the Premiership and institute relegation into the league rules. Light a bit of a fire under these bottom teams’ asses. Not that that would EVER happen, but it should.
Thomas, since my team, the Sharks, aren’t in the finals, I go for the team that’s playing the Red Wings. No offense to you squid-lovers, of course. Same thing with the Patriots, Lakers, and the Yankees for me. I hate them all!
A highlight reel is exactly what won’t get you to understand soccer, Susan.
I never really got it either until the 1994 world cup, and I spent some time watching matches and especially see the various styles of the competitors. Soccer is all about the flow. Once I figured out how the flow works, I found that I really, really enjoyed it. Much more than baseball, actually.
Few things in sports are better than a counterattack. Soccer is better than hockey, mainly, because of the larger field of play. I think the NHL should bump up its regulation ice size.
Of course, one of the few things better than the counterattack is the interception. My number one sports love is still American football.
Bill,
You’re right. Though every one of those countries (except maybe Finland) also has a pretty decent soccer tradition as well.
Susan,
Soccer is brilliant in its simplicity and difficulty. Every kid on earth can learn the basics of soccer as long as they have access to more than 15 square feet of space and a somewhat-round ball-like object that they can kick. And the fact that everyone in the world (except Americans) is interested in it, can talk about it and on some level relate. When I get more time I’ll find some YouTube clips like your Gretzky one. (but for now a fun incident is recorded ghere with the video here.)
Basketball and American Football also have similar rules to the offsides rule, for similar reasons. In basketball, an offensive player is not allowed to be in the lane without the ball for more than three seconds. In football, of course, no offensive player is allowed across the line of scrimmage before the snap and only certain offensive players (called “elligible receivers”) are allowed to go downfield without the ball at any time. As David said, all of these rules are designed to accomplish the same thing: no cherry picking, which means no offensive players are allowed to stand near the goal and wait for a long pass and an easy score.
No cable in the Morris household = no soccer on TV — unless it’s on the Spanish language channel. But the Univision affiliate in the Twin Cities doesn’t seem to show many matches.
So who is your premiere league team, Ronan? My boss is a major Newcastle fan.
I get the no cherry-picking concept – but again – Why? It’s not like hockey and soccer have a problem with an overabundance of scoring. IMO, If someone is cherry-picking, it should be addressed with defense, not rules.
Some of basketball’s most exciting plays come when a lead pass is thrown out in front of everybody on a fast break. Same with football – quarterbacks throw ahead of streaking receivers that have to run under the ball.
Soccer doesn’t bother me so much as it’s American fans and their massive inferiority complex do. In their eyes, it is impossible to understand the game and not think of it as the greatest sport in the world. There are no non-fans of soccer, just people who don’t get it. I mean, only a Neanderthal could fail to appreciate the game’s subtle flow and how it’s simplicity brings out the sublime elegance of mankind’s master athletes (that is, when they aren’t obnoxiously faking injuries, or head-butting each other, or desperately running for their lives as the stadium around them collapses into a 100,000 person riot).
William Morris:Soccer is all about the flow. Once I figured out how the flow works, I found that I really, really enjoyed it. Much more than baseball, actually.
Talk about damning with faint praise…
Bill: This is a little like asking “Curling or Horseshoes?â€
Rusty:Except that virtually every nation on earth loves one and one nation on earth loves the other. But here in America nobody cares about either.
Are we talking about curling and horseshoes still? I didn’t know horseshoes was so popular outside of Canada.
Being an citizen of the USA who was raised on a very traditional sports diet, I consider both to be foreign.
I favor hockey slightly more because the scores tend to be higher and because you can actually see how much time is left. Other than that, it’s a wash. I have no gripe with either sport.
For the record, despite the ever increasing popularity of curling in Canada and their attempts to proselytize the sport to the world in 2002 with the Olympics I think Hockey is still number one up in the Great White North. Horseshoes I don’t know. It’s usually just too dang cold to be holding on to metal out in the cold. Gives you frost bite, eh? And there’s just not enough body checking.
Now if you played soccer out in the snow that might be more interesting.
My point was that for the first question, you have a bunch of people moving around trying to get something in the net, and in the second, people standing around trying to place some object close to a goal (perhaps I should have said shuffleboard instead of horseshoes). In both questions, the only significant difference is the ice.
To me it is hockey by far. I’ve tried, soccer, I really have. I was actually quite good at it growing up. Even though I played it well, I couldn’t watch it. If I’m not playing in the game it puts me to sleep. Hockey is basically soccer but with hitting instead of flopping, a set time constraint, and a smaller field of play to allow a greater number of scoring chances to break up the monotony of the pointless back and forth.
And soccer players just have such a high slime ball rating for me. They are always faking injuries and falling down to get help from officials – something that the European influx into the NBA has sadly brought us also.
England vs. USA tonight. Only a friendly, but a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and the sight of all those buff Yankee footballers with their hands over their hearts, is enough to bring a lump to the throat.
David “LA Galaxy” Beckham wins his 101st England cap tonight.
Imagine if they used that logic in basketball. Cherry picking gives us some of our best hoops moments. But teams pay a price defensively if they cherry pick so it all works out. I suspect that if they added a no offsides rule in hoops( to prevent cherry-picking of course) it would make hoops as boring as soccer.
Maybe if they dumped the offside rule soccer would be as fun as hoops to watch… (scores like 23-26 could be much more fun to see than a 1-0 match)
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This is such a complete no brainer. I’m a non sports person and even I like soccer. Hockey mystifies me. Not that I don’t understand it… I just don’t understand why anyone would bother liking it. hee hee!
This is a little like asking “Curling or Horseshoes?”
It’s a little like asking, “awesome or fantastic?”
Both of you are mental. Both are awesome, only hockey is faster and is a contact sport!
I’m a huge hockey fan. And if you think you want to get into it, but are too macho to admit that you don’t know the rules to a sport (as most men are), then go buy a hockey video game and learn the rules that way in solitude. That’s what I did in 1995 and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Go Penguins!
This is a little like asking “Curling or Horseshoes?â€
Except that virtually every nation on earth loves one and one nation on earth loves the other. But here in America nobody cares about either.
But I’m personally in Meems’ camp. Hockey is fun to go to but boooooooring on TV. And soccer is awesome. I hate the fact that ESPN covers the stool sample of a sport as NASCAR but don’t cover soccer. Sad.
Plus, American pro sports (and college football) should take a cue from the Premiership and institute relegation into the league rules. Light a bit of a fire under these bottom teams’ asses. Not that that would EVER happen, but it should.
Indeed NASCAR is lame, but did anybody watch the Indy 500? I loved it. Open-wheel racing is where it’s at. So fast!
I finally came to understand hockey this year.
And I love it.
And there is even an evil empire, the Red Wings, for me to hate.
~
Thomas, since my team, the Sharks, aren’t in the finals, I go for the team that’s playing the Red Wings. No offense to you squid-lovers, of course. Same thing with the Patriots, Lakers, and the Yankees for me. I hate them all!
Abstain. Do not want.
Question, though. A big part of what bugs me about these two sports are the offside rules. What’s the point?
“one nation on earth loves the other”
Besides Canada, I think we could at least include Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Probably some others as well.
I saw a Gretzky highlight reel that made me understand the appeal of hockey. Here’s one:
Sorry for the cheesy music.
But I’ve never understood the appeal of soccer. Someone want to explain it to me? Maybe I need a Pele highlight reel?
Offsides is to avoid cherry-picking, my friend.
A highlight reel is exactly what won’t get you to understand soccer, Susan.
I never really got it either until the 1994 world cup, and I spent some time watching matches and especially see the various styles of the competitors. Soccer is all about the flow. Once I figured out how the flow works, I found that I really, really enjoyed it. Much more than baseball, actually.
Few things in sports are better than a counterattack. Soccer is better than hockey, mainly, because of the larger field of play. I think the NHL should bump up its regulation ice size.
Of course, one of the few things better than the counterattack is the interception. My number one sports love is still American football.
Bill,
You’re right. Though every one of those countries (except maybe Finland) also has a pretty decent soccer tradition as well.
Susan,
Soccer is brilliant in its simplicity and difficulty. Every kid on earth can learn the basics of soccer as long as they have access to more than 15 square feet of space and a somewhat-round ball-like object that they can kick. And the fact that everyone in the world (except Americans) is interested in it, can talk about it and on some level relate. When I get more time I’ll find some YouTube clips like your Gretzky one. (but for now a fun incident is recorded ghere with the video here.)
Susan, Try this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8472810289387265445&q=soccer+football+portugese&ei=glM8SJarG6TeqwPdre3XAw&hl=en
Basketball and American Football also have similar rules to the offsides rule, for similar reasons. In basketball, an offensive player is not allowed to be in the lane without the ball for more than three seconds. In football, of course, no offensive player is allowed across the line of scrimmage before the snap and only certain offensive players (called “elligible receivers”) are allowed to go downfield without the ball at any time. As David said, all of these rules are designed to accomplish the same thing: no cherry picking, which means no offensive players are allowed to stand near the goal and wait for a long pass and an easy score.
HOWEVER, it is one of the little joys in life to play hockey on a PC/console and disable offsides to allow for cherry-picking once in a while!
Or this:
I just have to say that if you can watch those clips and not become a soccer fan, you just aren’t paying attention.
Field hockey. Now that’s a game!
Or just rent the movie “Victory.”
Hey, did any of you Yanks watch the Champions League final? Wow.
I’m going to have to vote based solely upon the “hotness” of the players – so soccer wins. Hockey players have a tendency to be missing a few teeth.
No cable in the Morris household = no soccer on TV — unless it’s on the Spanish language channel. But the Univision affiliate in the Twin Cities doesn’t seem to show many matches.
So who is your premiere league team, Ronan? My boss is a major Newcastle fan.
Ronan,
Yeah, I watched it. Simply incredible. I can’t believe Terry slipped on that last kick. Amazing game and a crazy finish.
I get the no cherry-picking concept – but again – Why? It’s not like hockey and soccer have a problem with an overabundance of scoring. IMO, If someone is cherry-picking, it should be addressed with defense, not rules.
Some of basketball’s most exciting plays come when a lead pass is thrown out in front of everybody on a fast break. Same with football – quarterbacks throw ahead of streaking receivers that have to run under the ball.
Soccer doesn’t bother me so much as it’s American fans and their massive inferiority complex do. In their eyes, it is impossible to understand the game and not think of it as the greatest sport in the world. There are no non-fans of soccer, just people who don’t get it. I mean, only a Neanderthal could fail to appreciate the game’s subtle flow and how it’s simplicity brings out the sublime elegance of mankind’s master athletes (that is, when they aren’t obnoxiously faking injuries, or head-butting each other, or desperately running for their lives as the stadium around them collapses into a 100,000 person riot).
Talk about damning with faint praise…
Are we talking about curling and horseshoes still? I didn’t know horseshoes was so popular outside of Canada.
Wm,
Everton FC, the best of the rest.
Being an citizen of the USA who was raised on a very traditional sports diet, I consider both to be foreign.
I favor hockey slightly more because the scores tend to be higher and because you can actually see how much time is left. Other than that, it’s a wash. I have no gripe with either sport.
Looks like the poll is a wash too.
For the record, despite the ever increasing popularity of curling in Canada and their attempts to proselytize the sport to the world in 2002 with the Olympics I think Hockey is still number one up in the Great White North. Horseshoes I don’t know. It’s usually just too dang cold to be holding on to metal out in the cold. Gives you frost bite, eh? And there’s just not enough body checking.
Now if you played soccer out in the snow that might be more interesting.
My point was that for the first question, you have a bunch of people moving around trying to get something in the net, and in the second, people standing around trying to place some object close to a goal (perhaps I should have said shuffleboard instead of horseshoes). In both questions, the only significant difference is the ice.
To me it is hockey by far. I’ve tried, soccer, I really have. I was actually quite good at it growing up. Even though I played it well, I couldn’t watch it. If I’m not playing in the game it puts me to sleep. Hockey is basically soccer but with hitting instead of flopping, a set time constraint, and a smaller field of play to allow a greater number of scoring chances to break up the monotony of the pointless back and forth.
And soccer players just have such a high slime ball rating for me. They are always faking injuries and falling down to get help from officials – something that the European influx into the NBA has sadly brought us also.
England vs. USA tonight. Only a friendly, but a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and the sight of all those buff Yankee footballers with their hands over their hearts, is enough to bring a lump to the throat.
David “LA Galaxy” Beckham wins his 101st England cap tonight.
Offsides is to avoid cherry-picking, my friend.
Imagine if they used that logic in basketball. Cherry picking gives us some of our best hoops moments. But teams pay a price defensively if they cherry pick so it all works out. I suspect that if they added a no offsides rule in hoops( to prevent cherry-picking of course) it would make hoops as boring as soccer.
Maybe if they dumped the offside rule soccer would be as fun as hoops to watch… (scores like 23-26 could be much more fun to see than a 1-0 match)
Attending the Brasil v. Canada friendly this Saturday!!! With my wife!!!!
Ole!
Great post ! I want to know when you update your blog, where can i subscribe to your blog?
