A goaltender: Diving for the ball.
I play soccer. I can frequently run and kick the ball without falling on my face, so I enjoy it. In fact, it is my most favorite sport to play. However, I think that watching soccer on TV is like watching paint dry — I find it to be very dull.
However, researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have found that soccer is the most unpredictable sport, as it more likely that a team with a worse record can defeat a team with a better record. The researchers looked at the results of over 300,000 soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey and football games, and found that the likelihood for an upset was greatest in soccer.
So, it should be more exciting to watch a soccer game because the results are not as predicated on the records of the two teams as other sports.
This research is an interesting way to combine an interest in sports and an interest in math!
Huh. I guess this brings up another question. Does a sport being unpredictable actually make it exciting to watch?
I am sure there has been some research into what makes people excited (in a good way). You could probably look at what makes people feel good and then pick a sport that elicits the most of that feeling. I mean soccer being unpredictable could just make it the most nerve-wracking sport to watch, not the most fun.
all sports are unpredictabe smarty. you dont know what is going to happen until after it happens. football is exciting rough and unpredictabewhich makes it the funnest to watch over any sport. soccer is prolly about 5 most exciting behind football, basketball, lacrosse and hockey.
People who dont like soccer have clearly never given it a chance. As someone who pretty much loves all sports, i know what makes a player good and what makes a team good. When people say soccer is boring and dull, there is a good chance that they are just upset that there isnt much scoring going on. This is not what makes soccer great. Soccer requires more thought and control of your body than you can even imagine. Everyone uses your hands every day and for the most part people can throw something. I love watching someone who has never played soccer try and kick a soccer ball. it makes me laugh to no end. what im saying is that if you dont know anything about a sport dont hate.
I think soccer is fun because it is a fun sport to play and you can meet new people and have lots of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yeah soccer sucks big time hockey is the best sport in the state of minnesota
SOCCER IS THE GREATEST SPORT IN THE WORLD
Too much randomness would actually make a game UN-exciting. If the outcome were completely random, then the players' skills would have no effect on the outcome of the game. It would be like flipping a coin -- no talent necessary.
I am reminded of some early research done on computer-generated music. Engineers and composers identified three types of artificial music:
I would venture that the same holds true in sports. A game that is completely unpredictable -- any team can beat any other team -- is meaningless as a test of skill. A game that is completely predictable -- the stronger team always beats the weaker team -- gets pretty boring pretty fast. The key, I think, is to find a game that is moderately predictable -- one that depends on skill, so the players have some control over the outcome, but also has some luck thrown in the mix, so the outcome is not a foregone conclusion.
Another continuum runs between action and strategy. Games with a lot of strategy -- baseball in particular, and to some extent football -- tend to have slower action, with pauses between each play. Games with lots of action -- soccer, basketball, hockey -- tend to have simpler strategies, and fewer pivotal, strategic moments. Which end of the spectrum you find exciting is probably a matter of personal preference.
absolutly not i still think that football is the alltime sport and will never be put down so don't think that
soccer is one of the main sports being played at high schools!
Our pals over at the Ontario Science Center have a poll up on their website where you can vote your opinion on soccer. They ask "Do you find soccer more exciting to watch than other sports?"
I have Exhibit A to completely disprove the findings of these alleged scientists: USC vs. Texas at the Rose Bowl. It was an exciting game, and an upset happened. BTW nice to see our tax dollars are being put to good use for research on soccer. How's that a cure for cancer and AIDS coming along?
There are several errors of logic in your argument. First, you have what is known as the fallacy of insufficient sample. Your "Exhibit A" can be boiled down to:
The fallacy lies in generalizing from a single event. The fact that one football game was exciting does not mean all football games will be exciting.
When this is then applied to soccer, you commit a syllogistic fallacy (specifically, the illicit major.) In brief:
Even if we accept the premise that football is exciting (which, as noted, cannot be supported by the example of a single game), it does not mean that other games can't also be exciting, or even more exciting. The conclusion makes a statement about another game (soccer) based on a premise that only applied to football.
You are also misreading the scientists' findings. They do not claim that soccer is the only exciting sport; merely that, on average, it is less predictable (their definition of "exciting," one which I think is subject to debate). Other sports also have some unpredictability, just not as much as soccer. Individual football games can be very exciting, but not enough to raise the average for the sport as a whole.
The last statement commits a similar fallacy:
Here, no one can deny the premise: AIDS and cancer research are important. But, it does not follow that everything else is therefore unimportant and unworthy of support. For example, farming is also not AIDS or cancer research. But nobody who eats would claim that farming is unimportant.
If you want to claim that soccer research is unimportant, you must do so on its own terms -- show how it provides no benefit to society. Arguing that it only has less benefit than something else is irrelevant. Each program needs to be judged on its own merits.
Finally, if we've learned anything these last 40 years, it's that throwing money at a problem doesn't make it go away, or necessarily solve it any faster. We could pour the entire Gross National Product into cancer and AIDS research. But, if there aren't enough scientists to work on the problem; if there aren't enough labs to provide equipment; if there aren't enough ideas worth pursuing; then most of that money goes to waste. With many other needs also competing for funding, it is only right that support be distributed among them, according to the benefit they provide. (I imagine that studying unpredictability has benefits in many areas of research.)
SOCCER ROCKS!!!! IT"S FUN AND ENJOYABLE!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!
no its SOCCEROCKS!!!!!LOL!HAHAHA.IT IS SOOOO FUN I PLAY AVERY WEEK!!I LUV SOCCER!!!!
soccer is pretty much the worst sport ever made and i think it should be banned from tv.. hockey is the best sport ever and way more exciting than soccer
Any sport its fun, as soccer player I love soccer, but having fun thats what its all about there for prosports are overpaid and that takes the fun out of it rembere lots of hockey players coming from Europe and most of them grow up playing soccer or should I say footbal the real footbal
well all of you who say that soccer sucks well what would you say id i said hockeys sucks... and you say that there is no point to it well you should try to play it.o yah hockey should be bannd from tv because it stinks and all you do is watch players get smashed into the wall
Well, I guess now all we need is a study to tell us which sport invites the most dislike from people who don't play. Let's try and keep your comments civil and about the science.
yah thats is true some poeple like soccer and some dont but i dont think that we need to tell why we hate that sport. but for me personally i think that soccer is one of the best sports and just like how i dont like to play basketball i love to watch it.:0 ;) \r\n
soccer or should i say football is the best sport, its played all over the world, and in ever country but the states it is the number one sport, i think that speaks for its self, i have tryed watching american football, but it just starts stops starts stops, there is no flow to it, and when it starts getting good it stops, and you have to wait ages for it to start again, ice hockey is good, there is a lot of skill i can watch that, and base ball and basket ball are good too, but footbal (soccer) is by far the best sport that graces the world today, ps i think the american team sould start playing better teams they are really good, that can do better then playing mexico all the time
i used to love watching soccer! not any more though, it gets boring after a while... especially if you don't know how to play.. it's kinda like hockey, right?
I think that your study really did make sense. Since i play soccer and i find that even though we are one of the best teams, some of the worst teams can still beat us. It's a very unpredictable sport. But i enjoy it very much.
its called football not soccer get it right. unpredictability provides excitment for a neutral viewer
"Soccer" is short for "association football," a term used to distinguish the sport from "rugby football." The latter sport gave rise to American football.
why don't women like to attend soccer games at the stadiums. I mean, women have the potential to attend soccer games, most of them have a team that they support some have even soccer shirts but i never seem to see them come in numbers to attend a soccer match.
To me, the most exciting sport has to be the one in which the winner is most often decided close to the end of the game. I'd like to see which sport has the most "nailbiters"?
That's an interesting question, and I don't have the answer. But I can make a couple of guesses.
1) Low-scoring games, like soccer and hockey, probably have more "nail-biters." I haven't done an empirical study, but it seems to me that you get a lot of 1-0 and 2-1 games in those sports, plus a lot of games running in to overtime, indicating that they are pretty close contests.
2) Games without time limits, like baseball and tennis, may also have an edge. You can be losing a baseball game by five runs in the bottom of the ninth, but the game isn't over until the last man is out. We've all seen plenty of late-inning rallies. Compare that to American football, where the last minutes of a blowout are quite boring: the leading team simply "runs out the clock," and sometimes the last minute or so isn't even played at all -- the winner is a foregone conclusion.
(On the other hand, I've heard it said that the last two minutes of a basketball game are the only part you have to watch. Except in the case of a rare blowout, either team can usually pull out a win at the buzzer.)
I injoy playing and wacthing soccer I think that u r right
I Think soccer is a fun sport to me personally. I love it. What other sport could u watch people get beat up it to play it is awesome. If you live in the country you can use things that aren't usualy used in soccer like a ball of duct tape as a soccer ball and 2 ppl as the goal posts. Its awesome.
look the game known as Futball or Fussball or any other form of the word football is what we here in America call soccer so all of you who say "it's football not soccer" are wrong unless you are from another country. football in america is football you know ouarter back, forward pass, ect. soccer is soccer kick the ball into the net. now for those who say soccer is boring and if it is so unpredictable then there must not be very many skills involved, then i have to say that you are sadly mistaken just because you don't understand the game doesn't make it boring and as for skills, having played soccer myself i can and have seen people do things with a soccer ball at their feet that many people couldn't do with their hands. oh and as for the passing back and forth being boring well if you have ever seen or stood on a professional size field then you would see they are much bigger than a football field and to kick a ball that far that accuratly without having the other team intercept the pass is pretty hard.
i think soccer is one of the most boring things to do and to watch personally soccer is not to rough such as hockey or other sports like football but it is not terrible\r\n
first of all i can tell u have never played soccer or u would know that soccer is a very rough sport. And in Hokey and football u r covered with padding from ur head to ur feet. But in soccer the only padding you have on is shin guards that dont even really help when you get kicked in the shins by someone with cleats on. And I dont have anything aganist people that play hokey or football but i hate it when people say soccer is a wimpy sport. And if some people think soccer is boring then thats fine but it is a very rough sport.
ok soccer in spanish is called futbol thats why you people are calling it football\r\n\r\njeez
soccer is a sport that is played around the world; though many people like it i personally refur to watch football or even tennis and volleyball; i play volleyball so u can see why i watch it! thank youfor understanding\\r\n\r\n katers
Joe you are right soccer is awesome to watch. Upsets are commen so it is exciting to watch even with the slowness of it.like the time we creamed south saint paul last seaaon \r\n\r\nRyan From your team at sibly
Guy kick ball to other guy. Other guy kicks ball back to guy. Guy kick ball back to other guy. Other guy kicks ball out of bounds. Opponent tosses ball to guy. Other opponent guy kicks ball back to opponent guy. Opponent guy kicks ball out of bounds near a guys who doesn't wear the same shirt as anyone else on the field. Ond so on... Sounds pretty predictable. That may be high intelligence talking, or the game is predictable.
Yes they run alot. Yes they are in good shape. So are joggers. They just don't use a ball. I wouldn't watch a marathon on TV- why would I watch a marathon with the runners confined in a rectangle with a ball to kick around until a tie game is ruled and "everybody wins"?
I am 12 and have been playing siince i was five. i play almost every day and it is really enjoying. Anyone who thinks that it is boring is out of their minds. It can be boring to watch but if your on the feild there is nothing that feels better.
Playing and watching the sport is two completely different things. Depending on who you watch too will decide if it's an exciting game. I am a soccer player and have been all my life but I can't stand watching USA games outside the world cup. They are boring and focus on the basics. Thats why I watch European and Mexican teams. More tricks for the razzle and dazzle and provides stuff for the players to learn and the viewers to enjoy. For the hockey players, I'm just gonna say I played it as a freshman and made varsity. All you need to be is a good hitter, decent on skates, and can swing a stick while skating. Therefore Hockey will NEVER be the best sport.
Soccer is the best sport unlike the joke one called basketball where the last 2 minutes is stretch to span 30 minutes. Players resting 5 minutes after every slam dunk! What a joke!
Soccer is for the strong hearted; players only rest at half time- after 45 mins. Soccer Players play outdoors on tough pitches unlike the joke basketball - indoors and plain wood surfaces. What a luxury. Why call it the best sport?
Isn't basketball just like a joke sport? Lots of match fixing!
There is more to soccer. I'll just end here
SOCCER IS THE BEST!!!
Soccer has to be the most boring sport God put on earth. The game can go for an hour and a half withoutanyonen scoring a goal and when they do riots occur and people are killed. PEOPLE ARE KILLED WHEN A GOAL IS MADE. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT. I prefer games where I can survive after a point is made. This would be basketball--the most exciting sport put on earth. The only people who like soccer are asaians and europeans GOD BLESS AMERICA HOME OF BASKETBALL....and football.
I can guess you have never watched or even tried to play soccer. It is very exciting and hard to play takes way more skill than basketball and all the other sports combined, it also takes the best physique.
It is just funny that we have all this people saying how boring it is just because it is unpopular to some Americans. Go to the rest of the world, yes there is a world out there and everyone loves football (not soccer), you know the game they actually play with there feet. World cup the biggest game on earth do you really need to go back and fourth.
This is why is the most loved sport around the globe. The reasons are social, not scientific. Because most people have kicked a ball, or a can when no ball is available, they can connect with the sport and appreciate what they are seeing.
The most amazing thing about it is that a match can end with no score. Just think about it, all this effort for nothing !?
yes i am going to have to say, even though i am one of the legends of soccer, that it truly sucks. my god...i have played my whole life and i realized that i wasted my whole entire life. man i cant belive that people actually play soccer. basketball is the best sport on the world. go kobe bryant.
soccer has no point. its not exciting for it is only exciting for the people who play it. the only exciting soccer game ever was czeck republick when they lost to ghana. 1st grade curling is more exciting than soccer. soccer is for girls and men who cant get girls. the only soccer player that could get a girl was david beckham and he lost her.
"Soccer is for girls"? What the heck does that mean? Some girls have great stamina and incredible athletic skills, no matter what the game. Girls are just as tough as boys.
i would rather watch kindergarden polo than soccer
Ya soccer would be a pretty cool sport if anyone in america actually gave a darn about it.
i am a girl and soccer is my favorite sport and FYI i heart soccer and i do 'give a darn' about it and america has won a few world cups u know
hey i am a girl and i play soccer and it is my fav sport and i do care about it
Ok, its Germany 2006. And I definitely think this is the best World Cup so far, if not the most exciting.
But can anyone tell me what the probability of scoring in a shoot-out is? I am not sure if its 50-50 but one of my mates is pretty sure that it is. I think the chance for scoring is more than 50-50.Maybe 70%? Anyone who can help prove me right?
hockey rules!!!soccer is for annoying people who eat cheese!!lol jk but hockey is hefty hefty hefyt and soccer is wimpy wimpy wimpy!!!go hockey!!!
No! Figure skating is the the most sexciting sport to watch!
it's beautiful and athletic and very different from other sports.
No! Soccer is the best sport ever! It takes so much skill and endurance. And something is always happening unlike football when a play last only 3 seconds.
Soccer rocks!!! It's so much more fun to watch!!!!!! it's the best workout too!!
I have played soccer before and I was in like 2nd grade...I HATED it then but now that I am older and im gonna be in 7th grade this year I have gotten to liked it better and better each year...so yeah.
soccer is better than all the other sports combined...
soccer is the funnest sport to play but is still kinda boring to watch
Soccer is the greatest sport out there!!
soccer is not the best sport but is not the worst either!
i think that soccer is fun to watch and to play you never know who is going to win and how is going to lose in football and hockey and other sports like tha tyou know is going to win or who is expected to win. everyone thought that italy wasnt gonna win the world cup and they did so i agree soccer rules!!!!!
i think soccer is like the worst sport ever. personaly i dont see the point in playing/watching it because it becomes so violent during and after the match!! all i hear about soccer is riots riots and more riots!!! i think lamb racing is 100XXXXXX better thank soccer!!!
Soccer, basketball and hockey are good and fun to watch. They are fluid sports with constant action.
Football and baseball are lame, to both play and watch. They are static with few moments of action and many pauses and breaks.
Alternately, once could argue that football and baseball are games of strategy -- the breaks in the action, far from being dead time, are spent planning the next move and trying to out-think the opponent. Soccer, basketball and hockey, with their continuous action, are mere endurance contests, hinging on luck and stamina.
IT IS CALLED FOOTBALL & YES IT IS THE BEST SPORT ON THE PLANET!! NOTHING COMPARES TO THE ATTENTION AND EXCITEMENT SURROUNDING (FOR EXAMPLE) WATCHING A WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT,.. MAKES EVERY OTHER PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TOURNAMENT LOOK "MICKEY MOUSE" IN COMPARISON..
ICE HOCKEY IS A CLOSE SECOND PLACE FOR ME... STANLEY CUP FINAL IS EXCITING TO WATCH 4 SURE,.. BUT DOESN'T MATCH THE EXCITEMENT OF A WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT,... IT'S ON IT's OWN LEVEL ALL TOGETHER APART FROM ALL OTHER SPORTING EVENTS WITH THE ENTIRE PLANET WATCHING.... INSTEAD OF JUST A FEW MILLION PEOPLE IN NORTH AMERICA.
PEOPLE WHO SAY FOOTBALL(SOCCER) SUCKS,.. ARE REALLY JUST IGNORANT TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.. AND ARE ISOLATED IN THEIR OWN LITTLE BUBBLE THAT IS NORTH AMERICA... EVER GO SEE A LIVE MATCH IN A PREMIERSHIP LEAGUE STATIUM in THE UK or IN LA LIGA IN SPAIN... OR EVEN A WORLD CUP MATCH? ... YEAH,.. I DIDN'T THINK SO.
3rd FOR ME WOULD BE BASKETBALL,..(THE ONLY GOOD SPORT COMING OUT OF THE US... ACTUALLY WAS INVENTED BY A CANADIAN)
AND AMERICAN FOOTBALL AND BASEBALL: REALLY THE FLOW TO THESE SPORTS IS SOOOO SLOW.. THERE IS NO FLOW IN THE PLAY... I'VE BEEN TO LIVE GAMES,.. AND ALL I WANNA DO IS GO TO SLEEP...
I don't know if we can really claim a sport is better or more exciting by the number of people who attend the games. After all, a lot of people go to Britney Spears concerts, and they have a great time doing so, but I don't think you could seriously consider it great music. ;-)
The question is, can there be an objective description of what makes a sport great? So far, most of the comments on this thread have been of the variety "X sport is great because I like it." And while both of those statements may be true, I doubt there's much of a causal link.
As noted before, some sports emphasize continuous action (soccer, basketball, hockey) while others emphasize strategy (baseball, american football). And while I have a personal preference for the latter, I can't think of any way to objectively prove that one is better than the other.
Though I will say, anyone who falls asleep at a baseball game simply isn't paying attention. There's a lot going on -- in fact, probably more going on at a baseball game than at a soccer game. The thing is, most of it is going on inside the players' heads, as they try to out-think their opponents.
Soccer is a very competitive sport and fun to watch because how people can move their feet in different directions and make goals. It is fun to see how they react to their team and scores.
I think that soccer is pretty fun but AMERICAN FOOTBALL IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
both of you are wrong. baseball is the best sport in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO, baseball and american football is better, sorry :)
I like football and baseball and golf and tennis and hockey and ping pong and badminton and squash and racketball and frisbee and tiddlywinks and basketball and swimming and track and field and stuff.
baseball and american football and rugby and hockey and basketball and golf and bowling and poker and ping pong and badminton and tennis and archery and hunting and fishing and every thing else exept soccer, even stayiing in the car for 4 years staight are better than watching soccer.
Hockey and soccer rules, football and baseball suck. Basketball is pretty cool too!
By this criterion for "excitement," flipping a coin would be the most "exciting" game in the world. That's 50-50 odds, as close as you can get to any person with a losing record beating one with a better record.
Sorry Los Alamos, you fail. Your credibility is gone. If a team with a poor record can beat a good-record team with consistency there can be only one conclusion: skill does not matter. Well if that's the case, the game isn't worth watching. And it's not.
True in a way. Basketball was invented by James Naismith a PE teacher from Almonte, Ontario, Canada. He invented the game though in Springfield, Massachusetts at Springfield College.
I LIVE, BREATHE AND EAT SOCCER I WOULD DIE WITH OUT IT!! YEA BASKETBALL IS COOL AND BASEBALL IS THE WORST EVA!! BUT NOBODY GIVES SOCCER A CHANCE BESIDES IT DOESNT MATTER IF AMERICAN PEOPLE DONT WANT TO WATCH IT IS STILL THE ONE AND ONLY!! PLUS I BET A SOCCER PLAYER COULD OUT RUN AND KICK A FOOTBALL PLAYER ANY DAY!! HA HA HA HA
I play soccer, and I love watching Manchester United, but I will say that when you watch soccer for a while you could get into it like you would a real game.
soccer is the most played and watched sport
go look it up losers
and football isn`t international
it`s only the americans who play it
EVERYONE around the WORLD plays, knows, or watches soccer
why is american football called football, you dont kick the ball the whole game, it makes sense when you call soccer futbal because you kick with your FOOT. American football should be cald handball or something
The question isn't why is American football called football; it's why is soccer called soccer? As noted above, "soccer" is short for "association football," a term used in England in the 1880s and 1890s to distinguish the game from "rugby football." The latter sport gave rise to American football.
Football ("Soccer" in America) is by far the greatest sport alive. I've seen football players, most of them are fat and obese. They usually get terrible grades in school. Baseball players are fat too but get good grades....Babe Ruth was overweight and isnt he your greatest player? haha Hockey...too much helmets and too difficult. Association Football is the best because there isn't a lot of rules which means there is endless possibilities on the field. And soccer is not just goals....its passion, religion, and competition here in argentina. Most soccer players get good grades. And i find it fun to slide on the grass and jump 4 feet in the air to make a diving header...try that on a basketball court...haha you'll destroy your knee. When a soccer game starts...the whole world stops for 90 minutes to witness the world's greatest game. Watch a game of Boca Juniors vs. River Plate.
If there is one thing we have learned from this thread, it is that to the fans, every sport is "passion, religion and competition."
American football players are large, but it is mostly muscle. They would not be able to run 100 yards if they were obese.
I don't believe you can make sweeping statements about academic performance relative to athletic performance. And even if you could, I don't see how it would be relevant to a discussion of the quality of the sport.
Babe Ruth was 6'2" and weighed 215 -- not at all unusual for a power hitter. (Barry Bonds is 6'1" and weighs 228, and no one would ever accuse him of being fat.)
If sliding on the grass makes a game great, then Tag would be an Olympic sport.
One might argue that not having a lot of rules makes a game too simple to be interesting. By the same token, one could also argue that too many rules makes a game too complicated. It is, in the end, a matter of taste.
basketball is the most exciting sport in the world... but soccer holds deeper meaning than just a sport... americans dont have that in their sports because there is no tradition and history behind many teams they are simply franchises... heres why soccer is the most POPULAR sport in the world. soccer has great traditions and rivalries.. like in the UK when an english and scottish teams play people go to watch soccer not just beacuse they want to see a soccer game but mainly because ther has been rivalry between scotts and english for thousands of years. like in Turkey and Greece.. when those two play its not always about the soccer... for americans it was the 1998 World Cup when Iran beat US 1 -0.... all these examples i gave had some sort of political and historical aspect to them to make them exciting and worth watching... americans cant understand this beacuse most americans see sports as well... sports. soccer is like religion to the fans of soccer.its not like in the US when a player leaves a team to play for another and its fine and people see it as a career move... in soccer those players are seen as traitors and most loyal fans would love to get their hands on those kinds of players. dont say soccer sux just because soccer takes more skill than brute strenght to play... i know you americans like fights and violence but most of the world is simply different and have traditions. i respect all sports and i understand why americans might not like soccer.. but to me soccer is the best thing in the world. thanks
As an American, I understand your point perfectly. We have our rivalries, too, though I recognize they pale in comparison to England vs. Ireland, or Turkey vs. Greece. (Other sports also have soccer-like rivalries -- England vs. Australia in cricket; the USA vs the old USSR in the Olympics.) The New York Yankees vs the Boston Red Sox perhaps comes closest -- the two cities have been rivals for some 350 years. When a player leaves Boston to play for New York, he is vilified as a traitor. (Witness Johnny Damon.)
Nevertheless, you are correct -- sports in the US is much more of a business. Franchises come and go, and often don't stay in one place long enough to develop the deep roots necessary for European-type rivalries. Teams are often seen as a reflection of their wealthy owners rather than of their cities. (Indeed, the fact that teams represent cities rather than the country as a whole no doubt lowers the passions. People in the Northeast care deeply about the Yankees and Red Sox; the rest of the country, not so much.) The players aren't locals, but hired guns. And changes in contract law now allow players to move from team to team much more easily. All of which greatly reduces team loyalty.
(College athletics, where the teams don't move, the players can't switch teams, and the talent is often local, do develop some great rivalries. But the fact that the players "retire" in four years or less diminishes some of the personal, emotional connection.)
So, your excellent post goes a long way in explaining why soccer is more popular than other sports outside the US. But whether it is objectively better than other sports, as the original item claimed, remains, I believe, a matter of opinion.
basketball is the best sport ever made on the planet, with all the excitement, trill,suspense, drama,passion and team effort. Unlike to soccer where players are just running from one place to another using their foot only, without the use of hands.Compare to basketball all is being use,with acrobatic movements. watching basketball is just like watching a movie,where people are entertain, unlike people watching soccer,they just making violence thru riots.Some people would say that the soccer funs are just making this riot/violence things, in order for them that soccer game could be highlighted in the tv news, so, therefore soccer game is exposed people, it is not actually the soccer game made people to watch but rather because of the violence. As what the sports experts says, the greatest athlete in the world comes from basketball, so truly basketball is the greatest sport in the universe...I LOVE THIS GAME,
Exciting or no, soccer can be dangerous. Soccer players suffer from brain shrinkage. (No jokes about intelligence, please.)
ummm i think that this is not true at all!!!!!!!! i play soccer all the time and it is my favorite sport and i am one of the smartest kids in my class
The study did find brain shrinkage in soccer players. Now, the study was small (10 players); it does not say that the shrinkage happens to everyone who plays soccer; and brain size is not related to intelligence.
i think its all in ones opinion, to me it is the best sport in the world, its the most popular, and for a reason, any one can arguee for what they enjoy to play and watch, ive played footbal, soccer, backetball and baseball, and no other sport brings passion like soccer, its far more tactic than one can imagine, its more athletic, requires more skill and mental ability than one thinks...soccer is the best...to me...
Getting back to the original question, why is it that underdogs are more likely to win in soccer than in other sports? I suspect it might have a lot to do with the scoring. Soccer games are often low-scoring affairs. 1-0 games are very common, as are 1-1 and 0-0 ties. Which means all a team needs to win is one lucky break at some point over the course of 90 minutes.
im a goal tender. so my work isnt the easiest of things to do. it hurts like hell when i dive for the ball...but i have no choice but to get up. i used to play softball and basketball...i quit them for soccer. but at the time i was so much better at the other 2. when i quit them 2 sports is when i DEDICATED my life to soccer. THE ONE THING THAT I LOVE ABOUT GOALTENDING IS THAT WE GET TO LITERALLY TACKLE ANY ONE TO GET THE BALL.. sure it hurts, but its worth it.
soccer is one of the most popular sport in the world.....it isnt like football and basketball were its only popular in united states.......i think that soccer is the best sport to play right now......maybe everyone should give it a try and see it for themself.........
soccer is fun and all bout there are many other popular sports...
I love soccer soooooooo much it is better than anything else out there. The best player however, is Figo, he is on the Portugal soccer team, and he is the best.
Soccer is a lot like life. Many times games are won on a flukey shot or a penalty kick off of a bad call. Unfair. But that's the way it goes and it goes both ways.
Another interesting thing about soccer is you have to watch it carefully for the entire game. The moment of brilliance that is a goal can happen at any time. You should never miss the beginning of the game.
No footballl is the best sport because its coo.l
Socker is a nice sport to play or to watch
It´s not soccer...It´s Football!!! it´s played with your feets and a ball (except the keepers) not with your hands...can anyone see that the real origin of american football is "soccer"?
football is a religion...nothing else matters!
As noted above, in England there are two forms of the game: Association football and rugby football. "Association football" was abbreviated to "assoc," then to "soc," and then in America expanded to "soccer." In America, "rugby football" dropped the first word and developed into what is known in America as "football."
None if which matters, given that baseball is by far the superior sport. ;-)
football, the real name of soccer, is the most famous and played sport in the entire world. period. there is no doubt that it is fun to play and even more exciting watching it. dont think ur gonna get excited in wacthing american soccer, cause they suck. try watching European or Spanish soccer leagues. you'll really love it
soccer rox my socks off . of course soccer is the greatest sport to watch
Americans think that anything violent and lawless is fun , no matter there is no skills involved in amercan football as in wrestling the point is to look bad and fierce and "make war" what a stupid concept for a sport , sport means skills , sportmanship and the building of a person character and life enduring values.
Blanket statements such as this are a sign of sloppy thinking, and easily disproven. After all, the American national pastime is baseball, which is neither violent nor lawless, requires tremendous skill and, except for a few bozos using steroids, does build charachter and values.
While I am no fan of American football, the statement that it requires no skill is demonstrably false and can only have been spoken out of ignorance or malice.
We see it.
We know it.
We say it.
SOCCER SUCKS!
Wow, harsh. There are sports out there that I don't enjoy watching either. Figure skating for example. However, I can appreciate that the athletes who are competing have worked hard and are extremely skilled at what they do. I won't say it "sucks" becuase obviously a lot of people would disagree. I just don't care for it personally. Perhaps that is a better way to state your objection. There are more people across the world, and increasingly here in the US, who would disagree with you. So, I would like to think you instead meant to say that while you don't care much for soccer yourself, you can see the value it has for others, and you respect other's opinions.
That was nice of you.
soccer is the best sport in the world and people who play it get discipline and girls
Soccer = discipline + girls. I will never watch the sport the same way again.
Look Soccer is visually slow so if that is all that you can cope with then hey enjoy. If however your a bit faster up top then watch something faster
Soccer is obviously the most exciting sport in the world. This is widely known and is validated by the fact that soccer is the most watched sport in the world.
If there was a more exciting sport than soccer, then it would have a bigger fanbase than soccer. But no sport does. Excitement and entertainment in sport = large fanbase. Soccer wins.
By this reasoning, the greatest living musicians would be Chris Daughtry, Akon, Fergie, Hannah Montana, and Carrie Underwood. It turns out 50 million Frenchmen can be wrong.
no it is one of the most boring to watch after golf
hockey is the best to watch
how come the people that make this web site dont put the reason why soocer relates to scienec?????????????????????? that way we can learn mor love always.
Football/futbol/soccer/calcio is the most exciting sport, no doubt about that one, after all its the most watched sport in the world. It only makes sense that the most exciting sport would be the most watched. Like the most exciting movies and shows are the most watched! I love Arsenal btw!!! GOONERS 4 LIFE!!!
Another exciting sport is basketball, and rugby is pretty cool as well.
Most boring sports: Baseball, cricket, american football/gridiron, sumo wrestling, nascar, curling, bowling.
If you know what to watch for, any sport can be exciting. If you don't, it will likely bore you.
Soccer / Futbol is the best sport and here are the reason:
Unpredictable: who can predict the world cup? no one
True passion: soccer does not stop for commercials, soccer does not have timeouts, no cheerleaders, no mascots, no halftime show. it is purely unadulterated sport and passion
The best rivalries: Real Madrid VS Barcelona, England VS Argentina, Italy VS France, Iran VS USA. And the list goes on, some rivalries go be on the sport.
The best atmosphere and fans: Liverpool fans could possible be the best fans in the world - "you will never walk alone" anthem, the best!
Best plays: in Brazil is call the "beautiful game", take highligts from each sports and catching a football does not even come close to what you can do with a football at your feet.
I could go on but I have to get back to work.
soccer is a great sport but basketball is better
I personally think that Basketball is exteremly fun to play. I think it gets people going.
Surely the research means that skills really don't count in soccer. Since the likelihood of an upset is highest means that normal indicators of a successful skillful team mean little.
I consider soccer the game of mistakes - whichever team makes the fewest mistakes wins the game. Goals temd to be scored because of defensive errors rather than skillful attack. The penalty shootout is the classic case - it is more probable that the kicker will score than the goalkeeper will save. The result occurs only when a kicker makes a mistake. (Good way to determine winners at the Soccer World Cup???) Thus the closer a team becomes a team of robots, the more likely they will win. Risk taking and attack are not encouraged - defence is!
Soccer is a fun game to play (and anyone can play because it needs few skills and equipment) but foolishly people go over the top and claim it the greatest game in the world.
It's the perfect example that most of the people CAN be fooled most of the time.
Any one that claims you don't need skills to win games has never played the game. Just look at euro 2008, the team with most skilled player won.
do you need luck to win games? yes, soccer is the only sport were you need a bit of luck. Soccer is more like real life that way, unpredictable.
Yes any one can play soccer, that is what make soccer the number one sport, simplicity. Unlike the football, were you need a book the size of the bible.
can any one be the best? of course not. Just because the game is simple, you must have the talent or you are nothing. To the guy that says "few skills" are need it, just watch zidane or maradona youtube videos and ask your self can I do that.
No sport can be said to be objectively "the most exciting". Excitement is subjective, and when about sports its entirely cultural. NO sport is exciting by itself, you need some sort of cultural tie to it. Thats why Americans are excited about American football, and no one else in the world is. That's also why most countries are excited about football/soccer but americans aren't. Neither sport is inherently exciting, only when a person forms a emotional bond to the sport does it become relevant and exciting.
The only objective fact is this: Soccer excites more people in this world than any other sport. It is also by a huge margin the most watched sport on the planet. Whether its dominance over other sports as a spectator event qualifies it for the "most exciting" title is up for debate. But the fact that more people consider it "the most exciting sport" than any other speaks for something. The majority's opinion wins.
The second objective fact, as relayed by the original study, is that there are more upsets in soccer than in other sports.
Your final sentence contradicts your first sentence. Opinion never wins anything. Shouting matches, perhaps, but never science.
"A man who is more right than his fellows makes a majority of one." Henry David Thoreau
A wise man once said if given tne choice of being good or being lucky, pick lucky. What makes exciting matches in any sport is evenly matched foes but that also means that luck is more likely to be a decisive factor. But what is often called luck is a defensive mistake or omission.
Doesn't sound particularly wise to me. Being lucky is something you can't control. Being good is something you can use every day. (Also, anything you win by being good you have earned, whereas you would not have earned anything bestowed upon you by luck.)
An evenly-matched game, well-played on both sides, is the best.
And yes, much of what is called "luck" is really just one side being less good (or the other side being slightly more good).
I think that this article is very true and that sometimes in soccer you can tell who the winner is going to be and that is very fun
yes it is cause the finals are so cool to watch
In my opinion soccer is the most intersting sport because there is always something that you do not expect to happen. I used to play soccer and I enjoyed it. It was very fun and we were closed to be in first place in our conference.
I've never been big on soccer, especially all the 1-0 games that come with it. But here's a link to a story about a new strategy on free kicks by an Italian team designed to distract the goalie. They drop their pants.....and that's always be exciting, right? Here's a link to the full details with photos!!!
Every sport played requires skill and to be athletic. There is no clear answer to which game is the best because it all comes down to personal prefrance. Soccer to me is too jumbled and thats probably because i never had a liking for soccer so i never have followed it. I like sports you that involve stratagy and skill then combine the two. Baseball is the best sport to play and racing is awesome to watch and has the fans to back it up
I enjoy playing football (soccer), but watching it is another thing.
I prefer basketball or American football as far as entertainment.
It's not true that soccer is the most unpredictable sport. In most countries, only 2 or 3 teams usually win the championship. The same happens in the World Cup.
Modern baseball is the most unpredictable sport. There is a mathematic prove: look at the standings of MLB. Almost all teams winning percentages are between 40% and 60%. Parity reigns. Flipping a coin would give the same result. Does this make baseball exciting? No. Upsets are exciting, when David beats Goliath. There is no upset when head beats tails (or viceversa).
lol all of dumb americans above try to understand why football is exciting. well It's the most watched sport on earth... It's the most exciting sport easily. american handball(NFL) on the other hand is most boring sport I never seen. IT's so boring to watch.
As noted numerous times above, just because something is popular does not ipso facto make it "better." More people listen to Britney Spears than listen to Beethoven. More people eat hamburger than eat filet mignon. More people watch Star Trek than watch The Seventh Seal. In none of these cases is popularity an adequate metric for quality.
And yes, John, I wrote this post simply because it gave me the opportunity to say "ipso facto."
"Ipso facto." Oh man, I can't wait for the opportunity to misuse that in a conversation.
I don't think we need to worry much longer about what makes something "better." Pretty soon I'll be finishing my definitive, 1000-volume work, "What's Best," and settling all of these debates will be as simple as finding the appropriate index book, and then ordering the relevant volumes from Amazon.
yes... man i totally understand what you are talking about... i mean seriously all my boyfriends wanted me to watch their footbball games and omg you have to be kidding me i didnt want to but i had to.. i swear it was NOT fun!
I enjoy the big soccer matches due to the hype but the English Premier League is so predictable-maybe 4 winners in the last 15 years?(ManU,Chelsea,liverpool,Arsenal).
Also the World cup seems to always be either Brazil,Argentina or Italy with France winning recently (England in the 60's).
I like the droning singing which is useful for an afternoon nap as the match meanders punctuated by a hysterical scream as the one English village scores-quaint!
Soccer is a "normal person" sport unlike rugby or American football which contain power physiques and bigger,faster,more intense athletes-more of a sprint(explosive)than soccer which is more of a marathon(aerobic).
ALL the Maori/Polynesian All Blacks have more muscled physiques than any soccer player plus backline players would outsprint soccer counterparts any day.
It would be scary but very exciting to see a Jonah Lomu-1.95m 120kg ripped (100m in under 11 secs at his peak)running at any soccer player or even worse crash tackling-would be terrifying consequences! The soccer feller would go flying- far! Exciting!
A hand-off would result in senses being seperated
The players also behave very poorly towards the ref and pretend injury very often.
Simplest to understand-yes,most poular-yes-Skillfull-yes,most hyped sport-yes-most exciting-
NEVER.
To each his own
that means you dont like the game at all, just because u play it do not means u like it. I u kidding me? watching man United and Chelsea Play is boring? and U love soccer? man think again.
pele did 100m in 10 secs... and there is no way you can say american football is more explosive have you ever seen a top tier team doing a counter attack? or how about cristiano ronaldo or messi doing break away? if you had than you probably wouldn't say american football is more explosive.
Have you seen a defensive lineman sack a quarterback? Or a walk-off home run? Plenty of explosions in all sports.
I will say this....soccer is more exciting than curling.
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