Soccer

I love soccer. I played it when I was younger, I still watch it when it is on TV. It is just a fun sport. Hell, it actually is a sport unlike half the crap I see on ESPN these days (though ESPN2 is fun for the really insane shit they air at times, like log-tossing).

A sport where the players actually enjoy getting hit in the head by a ball.
-Soccer advertisement for the MetroStars Major League Soccer team, 1997

If nothing else, it is a fun sport because people are actually constantly fricking doing something. The only people who ever should be standing still are the goalies so the rest of the time it is 20 people in motion on the field chasing after one ball.

In Latin America the border between soccer and politics is vague. There is a long list of governments that have fallen or been overthrown after the defeat of the national team.
-Luis Suarez

I tend to dislike sports that involve a lot of standing around. Especially the two most 'American' sports: baseball and American rules football.

I just don't get baseball. It is a lot of people standing around watching one guy throw a ball at someone else (while trying not to hit them) and the person being thrown at swapping places every few throws. Or, rarely it seems, he hits the ball and for a few seconds people run wildly about before standing still again and it goes back to repeating the standing and throwing ad nauseum. I played baseball when I was much much younger (shortstop) and found it boring even while playing it, I spent long periods of time wishing I was the pitcher so I at least got to throw the ball at someone.

Football I just don't understand the appeal of. It is like playing a giant game of that childhood playground activity 'Red Rover Red Rover Send Someone On Over' but with a ball that someone in the back throws around too while someone else runs to catch it and play 'Keep Away' from the other team. It seems to have more in common with caribou mating rituals of their beating one another with their horns to decide who gets to mount the choice females in the herd then to any other sport. Plus it just looks sort of weenie alongside rugby, I mean rugby players don't get to wear even half that much padding and they use each other for stepping stones to get at the guy with the ball.

To the aesthete (soccer) is an art form, an athletic ballet. To the spiritually inclined it is a religion.
-Paul Gardner

Personally, my favorite trifecta of sports are soccer, hockey and basketball. Because all of them involve a heavy amount of team work, the ball (or puck) tends to constantly be in play and in motion, and they are just exciting and fun to watch. Plus, by and large, the rules are pretty simple. Take the ball/puck and put it in (or through) the net. I need to watch more lacrosse to decide if I'll add lacrosse to the list of 'sports I like to watch' but it has potential.

The rules of soccer are very simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn't move, kick it until it does.
-Phil Woosnam

Anyways, it is the middle of the night, and I am ranting aimlessly while freezing to death in my freakishly cold house as I wait for my email to download before I go try to get some sleep.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and that those of you who have monday off get to enjoy the day and have fun.

Those of you (like me) who are working (damned install taking longer then it should), enjoy spending the day plotting the painful demise of those who get the day off.