2. It’s always cold in Soccer. You’ll need a scarf.
4. Soccer players often seem to have severe and immediate medical reactions to scoring goals. They rip their shirts off in distress. They fall down and writhe on the ground. They run in circles, apparently very dizzy. This is perhaps why they are all so loath to score goals. Goals and points are not required for soccer. Entire games can go by without anyone on either team scoring a goal and people will find it acceptable. People on TV will even talk about how inspired was the play of all those guys who didn’t score any soccer goals. Also, soccer people don’t seem to mind if no one wins the game. They are even willing to accept a scenario in which points are not scored AND no one wins. In a sport.
6. If you leave the room to go to the bathroom or get something to eat, you will miss the thing that happens that soccer game. It’s probably going to be the only thing that happens the whole game, and you will have missed it.
7. No one knows when soccer games end, not even the people playing them. It is one of life’s great mysteries. The Voynich Manuscript. Where the missing socks go in the dryer. The Holy Trinity. When soccer games end. I think maybe it’s just not something we’re supposed to understand.
Happy soccer everyone.
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Hi-Lair-Ee-Us. Another great one, Kendra.
Oh, and one note: I think it actually IS winter in Brazil? Not that scarves are probably necessary at any point during the year there. But technically.
Darn Southern Hemisphere, messing with my jokes.
Troublemakers, all of them.
Love the American perspective, makes me feel like football is not as inescapable as it looks from our side of the pond.
#3 : That's why they created rugby – "Is that your ear I see dangling?" "No worries, that's nothing, I can totally play!"
(also, I have been told that the US team doesn't dive with enough Am Dram when there's a foul, so the referee doesn't award them half the penalties they are owed)
Aaaaand, that's officially way too much about football in one comment!
Just for an extra helping of British humour, rugby players make me think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5-JJuQJQZY
It's just a scratch!
Another European here 😀
Never understood why Americans call "our" football soccer, which takes 100% feet, while "your" American football is also called football, when you can use your hands and all, right?
Anyway, football is a sacred matter over here in Germany and hope we win this year, enough is enough! :0)
P.S. lol "just" realised after reading Isabelle's comment that football scoring rules and everything is such a cultural thing, meaning that's why football/soccer isn't as popular in the states as it is overhere. The national values are very different. This is one more reason I love reading American blogs, because diversity rocks! 🙂
Sophie, I totally agree about the football/soccer thing. Maybe if we start a hashtag campaign? #soccerisfootball #footballissoccer
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-americans-call-it-soccer-2014-6
Hah. I sent this to my brother (a total soccer nut), and he actually snorted. This is hilarious.
Country Girl's Daybook: Jesus, Photography, Fashion, & Food
This cracked me up! I read some of it to my husband and it cracked him up and let me tell you… he's the guy that is usually cracking people up, so that's a huge compliment! He asked me to send it to him in email so he can show the guys at work who are huge soccer fans. Get ready for this to go viral, darlin'!
So funny, Kendra! I have to share!
AHHH hahaha! The art of the flop! This is too good. But technically it is winter in Brazil, no? The scarves are seasonally appropriate 😉
This is fantastic. I will share. When I get home. If I remember. I hope I do, because this is gold.
I think we are secretly humor soul mates. I shared a similar sentiment on my blog yesterday.
And yes. It is winter in Brazil. But the 10 day forecast ranges from mid 60s-low 80s. So… scarves are still irrelevant to the weather.
This made me literally laugh out loud (and wake the sleeping baby on my chest, oops).
I'm very sorry.
The only thing redeeming about soccer is when it's played by 4 & 5 year old who are so cute out there you actually enjoy the game. Anita's team actually scored some goals this year something the pros don't seem able to do and one of them was hers. . Luckily no clothing was removed in the scoring of that goal but she did run around the field and to the fans with arms outstretched and a huge smile on her face. That's soccer and that's fun. You can have all of those magic stretcher pros and those nil nil ties. Boring is all I can say.
yes, yes to all of this 🙂 My son is a soccer player but I am making it my personal mission in life to raise him to be a tough, not-wussy soccer player.
This is great, Kendra. I was thinking the same thing about the big crybaby players. I guess their moms didn't have a crying babies go to bed policy like you.
Soooo true and soooo funny!!!! Still laughing!!! :o)
I played soccer in high school (I was terrible, they just needed some extra girls on the team), and I agree with all of this. I went to a game once in college where the final score was 0-0, and I left disappointed. Maybe I should have left and gone to the bathroom just to make something happen.
This is Mike, Abby's lesser half.
1. Flopping in soccer is no worse than flopping in the NBA. It's bad, but not uniquely bad.
2. American football is for statists. Also, you can have a tie in American football.
3. Basketball is for people with a 24 second attention span.
4. Baseball is… I don't know. The most boring human endeavor ever conceived.
5. Hockey is for people that can't do anything for more than 90 seconds at a time.
6. Soccer is beautiful. It requires imagination and creativity. Once the whistle blows, the coach can't do much. The players are left to their own devices, with limited rules. Soccer is for libertarians. We take responsibility for our own actions and determine our own fate.
I have more to say, but Abby told me this is a "lady blog".
6. How do libertarians feel about faking injury for profit?
7. I'm trying. I really am. I've been watching Argentina and Iraq not score any goals just this morning.
6. I know lots of players (mostly foreigners…) who have no (moral) issues with flopping. But simulation/diving and time wasting are both against the rules. Unless he thinks a rule is unnecessary or unjust, I'm guessing a libertarian would be in favor of rule enforcement. If the refs and governing bodies won't enforce the rules, then they are incentivizing bad behavior. But the market can fix that!! Did you see Fred's flop in the box that gave Brazil it's opening goal? As a player, I would have taken care of that myself by showing him a real foul the next time he had the ball. I collected a lot of yellows as a kid…
7. I could see a non-soccer fan not enjoying the Argentina/Iran game, but the context made it exciting. Argentina should have run away with that game. They needed to win and the pressure on the players was incredible as the minutes ticked away. You could see the tension, and the mistakes for Argentina – missed finishes, bad crosses, bad first touches- were mounting. Iran, on the other hand, was playing for one of their greatest international results ever. They pressed forward and had exciting chances in the second half. And then, MESSI IN THE 92nd MINUTE!!! The excitement/relief of that goal was in the build up – the prior 90 minutes of frustration and fear.
But at the end of the day, it was just group play. It's like 1 vs 16 in March Madness. Those games are usually blow outs and boring. Argentina/Iran should have been boring. But this game, because of the lack of scoring, wasn't boring.
I have no idea when soccer games end. But the socks in the dryer are definitely snatched up by borrowers. 🙂 I have it on the highest authority (my 7-year-old) that they are used for sleeping bags.
Well, that's good to know. Now if he could just decipher that manuscript . . .
Goodness, if you think that there is no end in soccer, don't even attempt to try to watch the NHL's games. At least there seems to be a 5-minute cap on the time added at the end of each half.
I love your eye-poking observation. I think every soccer fan can snort in laughter over that one 🙂 We told our son that they're also actors who like making things looks worse than they actually are. He seemed to think that was legit.
Oh, and I came across this handy-dandy chart on how to find a team to cheer for, in case anyone doesn't have a team to cheer for (though it's entertaining to read anyway):
http://www.tickld.com/x/for-any-confused-world-cup-fans-this-is-absolutely-genius
Totally losing cool points on this post…
Lol! This post is so, so great, Kendra. I'm working on warming up to this crazy game though, because my Costa Rican husband somehow thinks it's the best thing since the Holy Spirit!
Sorry for the double comment – I added a picture to my profile for the second one… Trying to be a good commenter here 🙂
So today when Portugal tied the game against the US with 30 seconds left in the game, and therefore my husband was seriously bummed, I tried to console him that it was okay- the game wasn't over yet, and they could still win it in OT. … But apparently there's no overtime in soccer. So a big moment like that and its just over! Nobody won! Couldn't believe it either. (Clearly I have not been paying attention to this whole World Cup…)
This is so great!!!!