Any REAL football fans here?

GUNNERS!!!!

Soccer brings to mind the Simpsons episode where they are watching a game and it's obviously pretty boring until someone starts a fight in the stands and then things liven up!

Sorry....soccer = "snooze-a-thon".

Lifelong Leeds United fan - cant help where you are born.....admirer of the "Gooners" because of the way they play - Alumni of Bradford City.....look them up....lower leagues now but used to be in the EPL!

Hopefully to "snooze a thon" folks will leave our thread alone

We cant help it if the subtle nuances of Football are beyond them!

The season should be close - a lot and I mean A LOT of foreign investment so the gap between the haves ( Manure, Chelski et al ) and the have nots has closed money wise.

"Andrews passes to Smith.  Smith passes to Jones.  Back to Andrews...to Jones...to Andrews...to Smith.  Oh here comes Killer, he makes an illegal tackle...and gets a yellow card.  Referee's time out while Smith rolls in agony, faking it in the attempt at a red card..."

Yeah, I'm all over this excitement! 

See, there's your problem right there.  One of the so-called "haves" is named Manure.

I'm a REAL football fan,   Aussie Rules footy is the REAL game

Grand Final weekend this weekend!  Recovery week in my Ironman program,  long weekend awwww it just can't get any better.

1. (soccer football)... go liverpool!!!
   
2. (aussie football)... go eagles!!!

I only wish there is more coverage here in the US (without needing to pay extra). 

I remember how excited I was during the 2006 World Cup.  That few weeks were the most TV I ever watched in several years combine. 

I knew the "NFL" boys would show up.....;-)

An interesting note - Cricket is more popular than the NFL......what does that tell you?

One World Cup final viewers > all the viewing audiences of the Super Bowl combined!

That the NFL is played in the U.S. and cricket is played throughout the world?  That said, I think its dumb how they always refer to the superbowl champs as "world" champions...

I was overjoyed when I found out that ESPN was covering ALL of the Euro 2008 tournament earlier this year.  

I knew about the WC coverage but figured, without a horse in the race, they wouldn't give such a mass of airtime to the sport.

Let me preface this by saying that my experience playing soccer/football is limited to intramurals and AYSO when I was a kid, and American football is about the same, with a few pick up games here & there. 

 I've tried to get into soccer, in fact I make an effort every time the world cup rolls around.  I enjoy watching soccer highlights as much as any sport, its just for the casual fan to be a lot of down time for a few minutes of intense action.  Plus the flopping doesn't help my view. of it.  Am. Football may take a lot of breaks, but every time the ball is snapped, there is potential for a game-changing event to occur.

One question I do have for the folks who know soccer well, what's up with the offside rule?  I'm faster than you on a break-away (sorry for the hockey term), but if I beat the last defender the play is whistled dead? 

You know what I miss about soccer after I came to the U.S.?  It's the enthusiasm of the fans, The joy of watching the game and the excitement. 

1990 World Cup, I was in high school.  School was out and I was working a summer job.  Due to the time difference, TV broadcast the game live at 3am.  The whole city of Hong Kong stayed up to watch the live coverage, then showed up at work half asleep, only to wake when there was discussion about last night's action among coworkers. 

In 2002, WC was co-hosted by Japan and Korea.  I was in HK during the last week of the game, and all games were played at local prime time.  The whole city practically halted for actions in the game.  Imagine a street full of New Yorkers in Time Sq, everyone stopped walking and stared at the big screen and cheered when there was a goal.  And HK does not even qualify to play. 

Yeah, HK (and the Chinese for that mattter) soccer sucks.  But we are big fans of international teams.  There are detail coverage and analysis of all the Major league games in Europe.  Once Man. United took a tour to Asia and played a game with the HK team.  Granted we knew they're going to beat the hell out of HK, and everyone in the stadium was cheering for Man U. All you could hear was "Owen! Owen!".  Then for some crazy reason HK scored a goal.  The crowd went nuts.  The cheering shoke the nearby buildings. 

Oh the good times. 

Not the person - it's the ball that is faster.  If you run with the ball passing all the defenders, you're ok.  But when you are running toward a ball that is being passed by someone else, and that ball flew past the defenders, you are "offside". 

The idea is that you can't have someone to just stand close to the net and wait for others to pass you the ball.