Re: I'll watch soccer when....
I have played all of the "4 major" sports at an organized, read competitive teen/adult level, and to be honest I can't stand to watch "football" anymore. Having played, it is the most boring sport to watch on tv. When you're in the huddle or on the field beteween plays, the anticipation is awesome, but on TV it just announcers rambling about nothing. Thats not to say they couldn't be better, at least to me, but the game is televised for the masses that have little if any undestanding of the small things happening on each play. With that said, I'm not a "soccer" fan by any stretch but have found myself watching a few games and being entertained. The sport is very comparable to my personal favourite, Queens English inentional out of respect for the creators of the game, hockey. For those that don't believe it is strategy 100% I will personally attest that you have not played the game at a high level. Every posession of the puck/ball is with players going to certain areas and working unchoreographed from there. That meaning certain players go to areas with a purpose and move to new areas in an adjustment to devensive schemes. On defense you are constantly counteracting your oppositions movements while paying attention to defensive assignments. The number one reason, IMHO, soccer and hockey don't translate well to US viewers is the fact that there is no IMMEDIATE measure as to who is gaining ground on the other. Football has its yard lines, baseball its bases, basketball points scored at a furious pace, golf constant ups and downs of scores, NASCAR has its splits and so on down the sports. In both soccer and hockey a 0-0 game is not proof positive as to how the actual game was played. One team can be entirely dominate and not win. With all that said I do not expect the masses to go to these sports. My opinion is they should play to there niche markets and add to them slowly, as football and basketball did, and steadly grow the game to a much more visible level instead of trying to rapidly become a "national pastime" of sorts.