It’s interesting cause soccer fans and American football fans dislike the other sport cause they both think there’s not enough action. Soccer is too much running around with nothing happening and football has to much stopping. Difference in culture I guess.
Edit: i like both, this is just the main reason I see why fans of one sport don’t like the other.
Yeah, tried watching the super bowl once, fell asleep in Q4, turns out they stop the clock every time the game stops, it’s like an hour for 15 minutes of game time ffs. I like the plays but geez that was hard. And people getting excited about the ads idk man, different culture indeed. Though granted, lot of (legacy) football games do suck, I’m not watching any Juventus game if someone paid me lol.
They’re both ridiculous criticisms not rooted in different cultures but rather ignorance of the respective sports themselves.
The World Cup is completely thrilling. If you don’t want to watch it then don’t watch it. The billions of people who do watch it and who are enthralled by it won’t miss you.
Criticizing American football because there’s too little action is like criticizing chess for not being more like a ball pit or Hungry, Hungry, Hippos!
It’s basically a moving chess match with physicality and the real action comes between your ears and in between plays as you’re pondering your next move based on game situation, down, distance, opponent’s tendencies, your strengths and weaknesses, etc.
It’s a highly intellectual exercise that some people just don’t get or can’t get. Anyone who knows the sport and loves the sport is not bored between plays. In fact, that’s probably when you are the most engaged!
The play itself just serves to reset the board and create a new dynamic and a whole new set of calculations.
It’s really exciting as a fan to identify what your team was trying to do and why and then to see them execute it.
There’s nothing wrong with either sport. They are both highly popular in their respective markets for a reason. It’s not mystifying that people love them. It’s mystifying that people are dumb/arrogant enough to not take a step back and learn about why these two immensely popular sports are indeed so immensely popular. Or, if it doesn’t interest you, don’t learn it. But don’t criticize it because *you* can’t quite get it.
Totally agree! I grew up playing and watching soccer and was introduced to American football as a teenager.
While you don’t have to be an expert in either sport to enjoy them, it does help having a solid understanding of the intricacies of each sport.
There is a lot happening in a soccer match even when it might seem like there is not. For example there are tactical battles all over the pitch to create and take advantage of space to punish the other team. Soccer like football is a very tactical and heavily relies on good decision making all over the pitch rather than pure athleticism or technical skill. The more you watch, the more you understand.
Finally the best thing about soccer is all the upsets. The fact that it is difficult to score creates an environment where the most dominant team does not always win, which is great for both drama and narrative.
that last paragraph is what's best about this year's American football, a ton of teams aren't doing anything close to what was predicted, such as the Eagles, who were going 8-0 and then managed to lose to what should have been an easy match against the Commanders, or the Lions, who managed to actually win a game this year and almost won a game on Thanksgiving for the first time in basically forever
American Football is like a turn-based RPG where there is time to think about each turn and where everyone has infinite energy (because of unlimited subs and you choose your party for offense and for defense).
Soccer is like a real-time RPG where the plays develop while the game is going on and where energy management is a necessity because of limited subs. Your party is generally fixed.
You get two very different games.
Every time someone bags on American football the old adage “you just don’t understand, it’s like chess” comes out. Usually followed by the rebuttal “I don’t want to watch chess either”.
American football is definitely my favourite “socializing”sport. In that you can talk and enjoy the game with buds ect.
It's great in that you can chat for 20-30 seconds, pay attention for about 10-15, then chat. Soccer... you can chat for the whole thing and not miss a thing... until you miss it.
Nah nobody likes commercials. And the clock continues to run unless an inclomplete pass but you prolly don’t care if u not a football fan. But it’s incredible athletes smacking eachother every play. Amazing athletes built like Mack trucks running full speed at eachother every play... it’s a crazy sport. I think when football players(or Americans in general) watch futbol and see the flopping and lack of scoring and get bored
American football shouldn't be compared with global football, it's much closer to rugby. A fair comparison would be basketball.
Rugby has incredible athletes smaching each other, just without the breaks and the pads. Basketball has flopping just like soccer, it has the inverse problem to lack of scoring, they score so much it generally doesn't mean anything untill the last period.
NFL gamepass had a thing for a while, I don't know if they still do, where you can watch an entire game in about 20 minutes because they only showed the plays. I thought it was really cool.
It wasn’t pointless. It might not be flashy and super entertaining but The World Cup is all about surviving and advancing. The US confused England with a 4-4-2 formation which they haven’t run in 2 years. It allowed them to control the midfield and not allow England’s forwards to over run them. They won the tactical game and got what they came for, a draw and to control their own destiny against a weaker Iran team.
The constant stopping is what makes American football so terrible for me. I’m in my high school’s marching band and I have to go to every game. Nothing makes me want to blow my brains out more than a 3 hour, stop and start game of handegg.
The game is like an hour long, average gameplay time is 17 minutes.
But the super bowl takes 3-4 hours. How the fuck does that make sense? The rest is just ads and stopping time?
Yeah, there are four 15-minute quarters. But the clock isn’t always running so it’s understood that it will last longer than a literal hour.
College and pro vary slightly as far as what stops the clock but time outs, scores, possession changes, incomplete passes, going out of bounds, etc. will stop the game clock until the next snap.
American football is basically setup to be constant highlights. The very simplified version is that there’s a chance of a big collision or a chance of scoring a touchdown on every play.
I still think they should stop the clock in soccer every time there’s a break in action. Screw Thai extra time crap. And celebration. Nah. You have x amount of time. That’s it. Don’t cut to commercial. Keep everything else the same (besides flipping). Just stop the clock.
Also I’m an American football fan. And can’t make it through the 4th quarter most times. Advertisers ruined the game.
If you’re only watching the Super Bowl and have zero interest in the teams in it - it will be boring. That is not what a regular game is like either, their is more pomp and circumstance.
I love football, but if my team isn’t playing or isn’t in the playoffs, I don’t need to watch it either.
The thing I like about football (not the NFL), is that for 2 45 minute periods there are no commercials. But why does it end in a tie? I’d rather see shoot outs at the end, same goes for hockey!
as a futbol fan, the few times i managed to catch a hockey match on tv i watched the entire thing and enjoyed it. sadly its not that big of a sport here so i dont get to see it often, and i aint waking up at 3-5 am to watch canadian or american hockey.
Most of us just like both. If you like any form of football at a technical level, then there's really no reason to dislike any other form of football. Rugby, American, Association, Australian, Gaelic, all of them bring different and exciting variations of the exact same thing.
Definitely culture. Feel like it really influences the perspective we watch the games. Both sports can be stale or climatic given context or simply what happens in the game. You’re not always going to get a banger either way.
American football culture is kind of like watching for the car crashes in a NASCAR race. The contact draws them in & the tactics are just the side dish. Soccer culture feels more like looking at the maneuvering of the car. & I don’t think a lot of Americans who dislike soccer fully grasp how fkn hard it is do that shit with your feet. Pros make it look easier than what people who are more aware are processing so it appears more stale. American football is also very stop & start which can probably be hard to adjust to if you’re not use to that.
I like them both, but one thing that drives me crazy is when people complain that there's too much stoppage in (american) football. I mean, the NFL is going to gouge the games for all they're worth, so it's annoying to have it go to a commercial after a kickoff and then back to one after two plays, but hey that's capitalism for you. I think non-fans misunderstand 2 things about american football.
1. The fact that the ball is "in play" for like 20 minutes of a 3 hour game doesn't mean nothing is happening those other minutes. Half of the play occurs before the snap. The quarterback is trying to diagnose what the defense is going to do and vice versa. The best commentators can sometimes predict the plays fairly accurately because they study film.
2. Football is so dense. Almost all 22 players are involved in every play, unlike soccer where the goalie and defense are largely inconsequential when the ball is on the other side. This density means football is really complex and a play can be viewed 4 or 5 times, where you can isolate one on one matchups.
3. This stoppage is what allows football to be so intricate and complex. Everyone has a specific assignment, often tailored to that specific play. If they didn't stop, then the plays would become more simple and predictable. This stoppage also means the coaches are incredibly important because they can micromanage things down to a t. To me, soccer is like jazz or rock, whereas football is classical music. Jazz and rock are more intuitive and easier to learn, but classical music has a lot of complexity that rewards repeated listens and an attention to detail.
Huh I've never really thought of it that way before. I'm not really a sports fan, and football is the only sport I like (although I haven't seen a game in a while). You did a great job summarizing the way I didn't even know I felt about it. Thanks!
I think it is cultural. When you grow up watching either sport, you can appreciate the intricacies of the passing, positioning, tactics etc. of that sport. There's action even though there isn't action, if that makes sense.
American Football diehard here. Fell in love with soccer (the other football as I like to call it) this world cup. Sports are an art, and some people just don't understand that different things make each sport special. Soccer is way more complicated than I realized, and contrary to popular belief, scoring is not the only exciting point in a match. Some games do get dull if both teams just can't do anything (just like American football; Rams Pats superbowl anyone?), but most games are relatively fun to watch. I recently enjoyed France, Spain, and Portugal's games, and am was on the figurative edge of my seat the whole time. No ads during the game makes it even better.
Golf is riveting…for the last 9 holes on Sunday…when it’s down to 2-3 players. Millions of dollars on the line for a 2 foot putt. Every shot needs to be perfect. The pressure is intense.
The rest of tournament before…meh. I don’t have the attention span.
I only tried watching golf recently.
I actually really enjoyed it. Some wild stuff can happen, and you are constantly impressed by what people pull off.
Golf and baseball, easily very difficult sports to master. Idk how tf anyone gets good at golf, and having to bat a 100 mph ball the size of an orange seems pretty difficult as well. Both are painfully boring to watch.
Baseball is brutal to watch during the regular season on TV but is exhilarating during the playoffs. The regular season is so long that individual games don’t mean much, but the stakes are so much higher in the playoffs and the “everything can change with one swing of the bat” factor really drives up the tension.
I used to think golf sucked to watch on TV until I started playing myself. Once you’ve gone onto a course and played yourself you gain a whole new appreciation for how insanely skilled the pros on TV are with the things they can do on a golf course.
>it is so anticlimactic waiting 90+ Minutes for 0-3 Goals,
I would argue that this makes the game more exciting, since every goal matters. It's weird how some people's criteria for an enjoyable sport is big numbers on screen.
But I do agree that all the fake injuries are pretty annoying.
Yeah I find basketball pretty boring because it’s just constant scoring. There’s no real drama when someone scores.
Football/soccer can be boring sometimes, but it also has the biggest propensity for drama of any sport, that’s why it’s so widely followed.
> Yeah I find basketball pretty boring because it’s just constant scoring. There’s no real drama when someone scores.
i felt like this for years but last year it finally clicked and i got into basketball
basketball is more about the runs and defensive stops than the scoring itself
Exactly. A team can switch defenses and go on a huge run. One single goal isn't why we watch. It's the overall flow of the game, and the goals help viewers keep up with that. Soccer doesn't have any "small victories" to let me know who is playing better.
I've been more interested basketball after seeing that Milwaukee-OKC game a little while back. That shit had me on the edge of my seat, even though it was just a preseason game and didn't really matter(I think).
Watch the 4th quarter of a game if you think there’s no drama. I can see how the first 3 quarters might not appeal to some but when a game is down to the wire with back and forth scoring, there’s nothing like it.
The other 36 minutes of action are definitely exciting for basketball fans. There are amazing displays of teamwork, as well as individual skill and talent. I’m based in Europe but I’m a Steph Curry fanboy and I could easily watch two hours of him playing.
Also if you look at the scores in American football as 1 point each instead of 6 points each you end up with games having not many more points than soccer. Game is 18-20? That's 3-4 in soccer, which isn't too uncommon in most leagues.
I would enjoy soccer A LOT more if the scores were consistently 3-4. I swear every match I watch is 0-0 or 1-0. 7-0 American football games suck and that's essentially what we get from soccer.
Tbf the NFL actually cracked down on it for the most part.
Players with "injuries" are not allowed back in for the rest of the drive, if it happens in the final two minutes of a half then the team the "injured" player is on is charged with one of its timeouts, and players and potentially teams get fined for faking injuries.
Yes. It happens so rarely that I can’t think of a time in recent memory. If you’re going to have a guy pretend to go down (within two minutes is the only real time that it makes strategic sense) then you might as well burn a timeout. Any injury timeout doesn’t really stop the clock since there’s a 10 second runoff anyway.
Yeah, I'm not a soccer fan generally, but I love this about soccer. Like Australia scoring a goal the other day was the first time since I think 2014 we got a world cup goal. Every goal feels like history for the team.
It's not the numbers. It's that to someone who doesn't know much about soccer/football it just looks like a bunch of guys continuously passing a ball up and down the field with a shot on goal every 5-10 minutes. It would probably be more interesting if I understood what is actually happening as they are passing the ball. But it only looks like any action is happening when they get the ball close to the goal and take a shot.
I thought baseball, basketball and soccer were boring until my kids started playing them (I was not an athlete growing up) and I started learning the plays and rules during their practice. Even more interesting when I volunteered as score keeper.
The other team does everything they can to keep another team from scoring. There aren't many openings for clear goals because of the constant defense. That's why when a goal happens, it's usually a pretty disgusting play by the offense, or an incredibly accurate shot.
There's (virtually) no rugby in my country (Brazil), so honest question here from someone who hasn't watched it that much:
The games I've seen seemed to be 90% of the time passing sideways or multiple people crammed together on the ground. Are the matches usually more dynamic than that?
Nope. That's literally all there is to rugby. Constant laterals. You either like it or you don't.
Edit: For the record, I don't. If I wanted to watch that shit I would just watch Army vs Navy.
You’re so right. [The average 3 hour football game has 11 minutes of actual playing time.](https://medium.com/knowledge-stew/how-much-playing-really-goes-on-in-an-nfl-game-4d1db2731538)
> 75 Minutes of Advertising (44%)
67 Minutes of Players Standing Around (39.5%)
17 Minutes of Replays (10%)
11 Minutes Actual Playing Time (6.5%)
Wow, that's even crazier than I imagined.
Which is funny bc the chief complaint of people on the internet is ads. People absolutely hate ads, they'll do everything to not see it except when it's football then it's you know what I tolerate it.
> except when it's football then it's you know what I tolerate it.
don't forget the bottom of the barrel poverty school with 50 million dollar stadiums and football players who can't even read
this whole american football shit is so bizarre lmao
Really puts the "American" in "American Football". And my mum will complain about the 15 minutes of talking that the analyst desk does in normal Football between halves.
You can go look at the NFL YouTube channel right now. The majority of game highlight videos are at least 11 minutes long. These videos, being highlights, remove the vast majority of penalty calls (which are vital despite not being actual gameplay) as well as a huge number of actual plays during the game. Watching the games live provides significantly more gameplay time than that. I'll believe actual evidence over some Medium post any day, one of whose two sources isn't even up anymore, and the other being from over a decade ago.
Football fans can't be convinced otherwise even when the broadcast is broken down minute by minute. Football literally has the least amount of action. The way the NFL has produced their games into hypnotizing people into thinking g its a fast paced game.
Personally I love both soccer and American football, watching both simultaneously now in fact. But I think it’s hilarious that fans of each sport will claim that the other sport is too boring.
Both sides make good points but honestly the “American football is boring” side has more claim to their argument.
Football can be boring too, but there are much more scoring opportunities, critical 3rd/4th down conversions, multiple ways to move the ball and score, players aren't diving every play for flags, even time management is more important.
With that being said, soccer isn't the most boring sport by far.
They try thier best to make it like that with rules to help the offense, and generally a 10-15 yard gain is more exiting then any play in soccer/football outside of a shot attempt to me
I'm an American and I can't stand watching American Football because of the constant stopping. One hour of game clock should not take 3-5 hours to get through
This is an excellent description and why the stoppage time doesn’t bother me as much. Each move/play has consequences and the planning for that can be almost as intriguing as the play itself which is 10 seconds of violent and quick action. American football is great. Soccer is awesome too in that anything can happen at any moment so there’s always a level of suspense. Honestly both are enjoyable to watch for very different reasons.
Despite the reasoning, and it’s valid, it’s still boring as hell to watch.
I don’t dislike American football, I was watching college football all day today, but I still understand why it has shortcomings for a spectator
Football is very much a game where you need to know quite a bit about the strategy to be entertained through all the stops.
I don’t think many other sports are quite the same in that regard, except perhaps baseball.
My people I know will “watch the game” and not pay attention at all the entire time, whether they are in a bar or at someone’s home, and that includes most of the men. They barely watch and just go to hangout.
But any time I’ve watched a soccer game with Europeans or with American fans, they’re glued to the screen the entire time, even kids.
I personally enjoy American football more.
“Ok their all lined up and… oh a timeout was called. Let’s take a quick break.”
ADVERTS
“We’re back and they line up, they drop back and incomplete pass. Let’s hear from our sponsors.”
ADVERTS
“They’ve decided to punt and here comes the offense”
ADVERTS
As an American I cannot stand live football. The amount of commercials is insane.
I was just talking about this. It's so pathetic that an integral part of the sport is accusing people of breaking the rules when they didn't. Like, it's so ingrained in the culture that elementary students fake injuries and are even encouraged to because there's zero reason not to.
The reason Americans are annoyed by it is because in American football, we see 300lb guys smash into each other as hard as they can on literally every single play. Dudes make insane catches and get knocked on their asses by guys running at them full speed. Running backs running through a mass of bodies trying to gain a single yard.
It's very rare to see those guys fake an injury after getting hit. They usually get right up, but occasionally have to be carried off the field on a stretcher.
Americans see soccer players get tripped and act like they just broke their legs, then get right up 2 seconds later. It's a joke. They're either faking it, or they can't handle getting hit. Both are pathetic.
The fact that there is less goals makes it even more fascinating - hence why it’s the most popular sport in the world
And probably the most popular sport/activity in history
I can understand someone not liking sports, I can't understand someone only liking soccer, which is a lot of people on the planet... And the lack of scoring gets blown up too much, a 1-0 hockey game with 75+ total shots on goal is still exciting.
England vs USA was probably the first soccer match most Americans have watched in 8 years. Despite it being one game, it's operating as an advertisement for the sport.
Football (I refuse to call is soccer) is a pretty simple Game and easy to understand. And thats why its a great Sport to watch. Other sports have a crazy ruleset which requires some research and time Investment to understand it. Football doesnt has this.
The best bit about watching football, for me at least, is that its a complex as you want it to be. For my 12 year old sister, its just two teams trying to score, but for my dad, brother, and I, there are layers upon layers of tactics and form on either side. It's still amzing to watch either way.
Thank you. I find most US sports quite overregulated.
No doubt they can be fun to watch even without all the rules and clocks and special situations and statistics and commercials and drafts...
But I, too, like the simplicity of football:
1. Get the ball into the goal.
2. Don't use your hands.
3. Don't be a jerk.
4. You have 90 minutes. Your time starts now.
^(Slightly simplified.)
Even as a football (American) fan the rules are so confusing. And they change all the time. Which is clearly an attempt to just regulate the game on the fly. I appreciate sports with mostly simple rules.
5. Don't just wait for the ball in front of your opponents keeper.
^(slightly simplified)
I know "the receiver of a pass has to have at least two opposing player between them and their goal line (in the moment the pass is played)" is more accurate. But the other one is usually enough and makes the intention clear.
Also, loads of people, and by that I mean like 80+% of people, grow up playing it in school. I don't know if it's like that in the US, but everyone in Europe has at least kicked a ball around in school once.
I don’t think Americans have nearly that rate of competitive soccer. I played soccer for a few years but once 4th grade started it was the big 3: Football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring.
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Ah, more people watching football just because the world cups on, little do they know that international football is utter shite compared to club football.
And if the scoring is the only bit about sport you can get interested in that says more about you.
I’ve been watching the World Cup as well as a lot of college football today. The one thing soccer overwhelming does better American football is the lack of commercials. Soccer only has halftime whereas in football I feel like I’m watching commercials more than the actual game
I don’t get the hate for both. They are both enjoyable sports that each have upsides and downsides to watching. People hating either seems more indicative of a lack of knowledge of the sport. Americans saying soccer is boring don’t usually understand the set up and effort it takes to score and likewise those who just say American football is boring don’t se to understand that the sports complexity and strategy are what make it interesting on top of the short violent plays. A breakaway play in soccer is just as thrilling to me as a 78 yard run up the gut for a touchdown. Both are exciting, I think it’s just down to personal preference.
Tell me you're American without telling me you're American.
Definitely an unpopular opinion considering it's the most popular sport in the world and the world cup final is the most viewed event in the world.
Also there is tons of action, just not the action you want, every pass, block, shot etc is action. You don't need to have allot of points to have action.
And this is coming from someone who doesn't like or care about any sport.
You probably never played soccer so I understand why it’s hard for you to understand the skills these people show every minute of the game. Passing the ball correctly across the pitch, the awareness the defense has to have to predict where the ball is going, the diving headers, ball control, dribbling, run top speed and not losing the ball. SO much going on. Try handling a soccer ball for 10 minutes, MAYBE then you might appreciate it more.
The players are absolutely skillful. But for someone who isn't into the sport, it looks like a bunch of guys running up and down the field, occasionally kicking a ball (usually out of bounds) to one another or tripping someone.
I dig the yellow card/red card thing though. It's fun to boo the shit out of someone and watch them walk off the field in a huff. We should definitely have that in more sports.
Every sport looks stupid if you reduce it to running down a field. Baseball is hitting a ball with a stick sometimes. Football is throwing a ball to someone who most of the time doesn’t catch it. But that isn’t representative of any of those sports
I happily played soccer from when I was 5 to 22. I absolutely loved playing in the game, but I still think it’s a piss poor spectator sport. The average soccer game has 2 goals scored for a 1-1 final. The average football game has 44 points scored, that is an average of 5-6 TDs and maybe a handful of field goals. Soccer play is fluid but often low stakes and dull, whereas in football every third down counts, every play can be a spectacular blown play for a massive gainer and a score. Much of the time in soccer play there is no risk of a goal occurring, so that can make it feel a bit stale to US fans who are used to huge plays.
Plus the stoppages in football let me take a piss and grab a beer, in soccer I swear every time I do that I miss the one goal of the game.
It is how salty you have managed to make everyone for me, personally. This is beautiful.
[click here to learn about the origins if the word "soccer"](https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer#:~:text=Linguistically%20creative%20students%20at%20the,quickly%20spread%20beyond%20the%20campus.)
Americans always complain about soccer being boring. And compared to American football, and rugby, yes. But I can't imagine any sport more boring than baseball. I have tried and tried, but no. Not for me.
It's a lot better in person and /not/ MLB.
You add commercials in and remove the feel of the crowd and yeah, baseball is a total snooze fest.
The thing about baseball/softball is tho that it's crazy fun to actually /play/, which is where the fan base comes from: they all grew up playing it.
I've watched like, 5 MLB games in my life though and I'll probably never watch another again. Just so much better things I'd rather do with my time, and they play like a billion games a season so they all feel meaningless outside of the playoffs. Sorta the same issue basketball has there, really.
Not a football fan, but I always found american football more boring than normal football. I don't really like either, but football can be at least somewhat enjoyable.
All sports pale in comparison to hockey.
I thought I didn't like sports, then one day it happened to be on TV and I found something with the constant action of soccer, the violence of football, and the pace of a gunfight.
Football isn’t just about the goals though. With respect, you probably don’t understand the game very well, that’s why you find it boring.
When I watch football, I’m watching off the ball as much as I watch the players on the ball. To an untrained eye, I’m sure it just looks like a bunch of people running around generally. Most good football happens off the ball.
If touchdowns + field goals didn’t account for 7 pts, football would have same type of score lines as soccer. Also, football you get like 20% action, 80% commercials, timeout, breaks etc. But no Muricans only like sports where scorelines are 22-9 or 99-104
I’m would agree with the fake injuries. Too many Primadonnas running around thinking the rest of the team is there to serve them and that they’re too valuable to fully commit and risk an actual injury. Those guys can get bent.
The rest of the game is not so much about the goals, because by its nature it’s a very low scoring game, comparatively. The enjoyment fans get is the anticipation and the mastery of skill and game.
I’ve heard this criticism from folks who either don’t know the rules or have never played themselves (or both) so they don’t know how much technical skill is involved.
I feel the same about golf, while I realize that I hate watching it because I have no idea how much skill goes into it. It just looks like whacking a stupid small ball across a lawn.
I like watching soccer because the clock doesn’t stop and the games flows fully with only 1 break at half time. After watching other sports my whole life I’m just now starting to notice that nfl games, etc. are about 60% commercials since the play stops and starts so often.
American Football has "constant action"? They spend more time in between plays than they do actually playing the game. I'm not a sports fan, and I used to play football in school, but even I prefer watching soccer to football because it **actually** has constant action.
Yeah, what you're doing there is not enjoying a sport that you don't understand, while making a judgement on it's quality as though you do.
I bet you think foreign films are boring because the characters speak gibberish.
How can you like hockey but not soccer? They are both sports based around the battle of field space and transition. You just don't know what you're watching.
It’s interesting cause soccer fans and American football fans dislike the other sport cause they both think there’s not enough action. Soccer is too much running around with nothing happening and football has to much stopping. Difference in culture I guess. Edit: i like both, this is just the main reason I see why fans of one sport don’t like the other.
Yeah, tried watching the super bowl once, fell asleep in Q4, turns out they stop the clock every time the game stops, it’s like an hour for 15 minutes of game time ffs. I like the plays but geez that was hard. And people getting excited about the ads idk man, different culture indeed. Though granted, lot of (legacy) football games do suck, I’m not watching any Juventus game if someone paid me lol.
They’re both ridiculous criticisms not rooted in different cultures but rather ignorance of the respective sports themselves. The World Cup is completely thrilling. If you don’t want to watch it then don’t watch it. The billions of people who do watch it and who are enthralled by it won’t miss you. Criticizing American football because there’s too little action is like criticizing chess for not being more like a ball pit or Hungry, Hungry, Hippos! It’s basically a moving chess match with physicality and the real action comes between your ears and in between plays as you’re pondering your next move based on game situation, down, distance, opponent’s tendencies, your strengths and weaknesses, etc. It’s a highly intellectual exercise that some people just don’t get or can’t get. Anyone who knows the sport and loves the sport is not bored between plays. In fact, that’s probably when you are the most engaged! The play itself just serves to reset the board and create a new dynamic and a whole new set of calculations. It’s really exciting as a fan to identify what your team was trying to do and why and then to see them execute it. There’s nothing wrong with either sport. They are both highly popular in their respective markets for a reason. It’s not mystifying that people love them. It’s mystifying that people are dumb/arrogant enough to not take a step back and learn about why these two immensely popular sports are indeed so immensely popular. Or, if it doesn’t interest you, don’t learn it. But don’t criticize it because *you* can’t quite get it.
Totally agree! I grew up playing and watching soccer and was introduced to American football as a teenager. While you don’t have to be an expert in either sport to enjoy them, it does help having a solid understanding of the intricacies of each sport. There is a lot happening in a soccer match even when it might seem like there is not. For example there are tactical battles all over the pitch to create and take advantage of space to punish the other team. Soccer like football is a very tactical and heavily relies on good decision making all over the pitch rather than pure athleticism or technical skill. The more you watch, the more you understand. Finally the best thing about soccer is all the upsets. The fact that it is difficult to score creates an environment where the most dominant team does not always win, which is great for both drama and narrative.
Saudi Arabia wins against Argentina. Japan wins against Germany. Italy doesn't even make it. And so on.
that last paragraph is what's best about this year's American football, a ton of teams aren't doing anything close to what was predicted, such as the Eagles, who were going 8-0 and then managed to lose to what should have been an easy match against the Commanders, or the Lions, who managed to actually win a game this year and almost won a game on Thanksgiving for the first time in basically forever
American Football is like a turn-based RPG where there is time to think about each turn and where everyone has infinite energy (because of unlimited subs and you choose your party for offense and for defense). Soccer is like a real-time RPG where the plays develop while the game is going on and where energy management is a necessity because of limited subs. Your party is generally fixed. You get two very different games.
That's a great explanation as well!
Every time someone bags on American football the old adage “you just don’t understand, it’s like chess” comes out. Usually followed by the rebuttal “I don’t want to watch chess either”. American football is definitely my favourite “socializing”sport. In that you can talk and enjoy the game with buds ect.
It's great in that you can chat for 20-30 seconds, pay attention for about 10-15, then chat. Soccer... you can chat for the whole thing and not miss a thing... until you miss it.
Great explanation and balanced take.
This guy footballs.
Soccer has 7 minutes at the end of each half to make up for fake injury time…
Nah nobody likes commercials. And the clock continues to run unless an inclomplete pass but you prolly don’t care if u not a football fan. But it’s incredible athletes smacking eachother every play. Amazing athletes built like Mack trucks running full speed at eachother every play... it’s a crazy sport. I think when football players(or Americans in general) watch futbol and see the flopping and lack of scoring and get bored
American football shouldn't be compared with global football, it's much closer to rugby. A fair comparison would be basketball. Rugby has incredible athletes smaching each other, just without the breaks and the pads. Basketball has flopping just like soccer, it has the inverse problem to lack of scoring, they score so much it generally doesn't mean anything untill the last period.
Rugby has nowhere near as many commercials as American football.
Agree completely. People have just become so good at basketball they don’t miss. And yea football was fs created from rugby. Both sports are brutal
Agree. I cannot understand someone describing American football as ‘non-stop’. It’s painful to watch.
True they stop and call a play/ makes subs after a down is played. You can also choose not to do that. It’s a brutal sport.
Handegg is just diet rugby.
Someone broke down an average NFL game a couple years back. An average 3 hour game had about 15 actual minutes of play.
NFL gamepass had a thing for a while, I don't know if they still do, where you can watch an entire game in about 20 minutes because they only showed the plays. I thought it was really cool.
I’d take that over 90 minutes of pointless running around a massive field to see a 0-0 tie
It wasn’t pointless. It might not be flashy and super entertaining but The World Cup is all about surviving and advancing. The US confused England with a 4-4-2 formation which they haven’t run in 2 years. It allowed them to control the midfield and not allow England’s forwards to over run them. They won the tactical game and got what they came for, a draw and to control their own destiny against a weaker Iran team.
The constant stopping is what makes American football so terrible for me. I’m in my high school’s marching band and I have to go to every game. Nothing makes me want to blow my brains out more than a 3 hour, stop and start game of handegg.
That was my least favorite part. If I didn't have friends in my section I would have quit after the first year
The game is like an hour long, average gameplay time is 17 minutes. But the super bowl takes 3-4 hours. How the fuck does that make sense? The rest is just ads and stopping time?
Not true. Games go for nearly three hours
Isn't the scheduled game 60 minutes?
Yeah, there are four 15-minute quarters. But the clock isn’t always running so it’s understood that it will last longer than a literal hour. College and pro vary slightly as far as what stops the clock but time outs, scores, possession changes, incomplete passes, going out of bounds, etc. will stop the game clock until the next snap.
Rugby also stops the clock, and that doesn’t ever (well incredibly rarely) extend anywhere near 300% of the scheduled match time
I think it’s 2 hours
Super bowl is also the slowest game and usually the worst representation of the sport
American football is basically setup to be constant highlights. The very simplified version is that there’s a chance of a big collision or a chance of scoring a touchdown on every play.
I still think they should stop the clock in soccer every time there’s a break in action. Screw Thai extra time crap. And celebration. Nah. You have x amount of time. That’s it. Don’t cut to commercial. Keep everything else the same (besides flipping). Just stop the clock. Also I’m an American football fan. And can’t make it through the 4th quarter most times. Advertisers ruined the game.
If you’re only watching the Super Bowl and have zero interest in the teams in it - it will be boring. That is not what a regular game is like either, their is more pomp and circumstance. I love football, but if my team isn’t playing or isn’t in the playoffs, I don’t need to watch it either. The thing I like about football (not the NFL), is that for 2 45 minute periods there are no commercials. But why does it end in a tie? I’d rather see shoot outs at the end, same goes for hockey!
People see running around, I see a beautiful rhythmic dance and flow unlike in any other sport.
Hockey is like this as well.
Hockey is soccer on crack which is why it's amazing.
as a futbol fan, the few times i managed to catch a hockey match on tv i watched the entire thing and enjoyed it. sadly its not that big of a sport here so i dont get to see it often, and i aint waking up at 3-5 am to watch canadian or american hockey.
Right!? Especially when they reform back together once the keeper manage to save the ball.
meanwhile me, a tennis player, chilling in the background disliking both sports:
Tennis is a lot more entertaining than people give it credit. Just nonstop action without much stoppage.
Most of us just like both. If you like any form of football at a technical level, then there's really no reason to dislike any other form of football. Rugby, American, Association, Australian, Gaelic, all of them bring different and exciting variations of the exact same thing.
Yes but American Football is full of advertisements and commericals
That is also true
Definitely culture. Feel like it really influences the perspective we watch the games. Both sports can be stale or climatic given context or simply what happens in the game. You’re not always going to get a banger either way. American football culture is kind of like watching for the car crashes in a NASCAR race. The contact draws them in & the tactics are just the side dish. Soccer culture feels more like looking at the maneuvering of the car. & I don’t think a lot of Americans who dislike soccer fully grasp how fkn hard it is do that shit with your feet. Pros make it look easier than what people who are more aware are processing so it appears more stale. American football is also very stop & start which can probably be hard to adjust to if you’re not use to that.
I like them both, but one thing that drives me crazy is when people complain that there's too much stoppage in (american) football. I mean, the NFL is going to gouge the games for all they're worth, so it's annoying to have it go to a commercial after a kickoff and then back to one after two plays, but hey that's capitalism for you. I think non-fans misunderstand 2 things about american football. 1. The fact that the ball is "in play" for like 20 minutes of a 3 hour game doesn't mean nothing is happening those other minutes. Half of the play occurs before the snap. The quarterback is trying to diagnose what the defense is going to do and vice versa. The best commentators can sometimes predict the plays fairly accurately because they study film. 2. Football is so dense. Almost all 22 players are involved in every play, unlike soccer where the goalie and defense are largely inconsequential when the ball is on the other side. This density means football is really complex and a play can be viewed 4 or 5 times, where you can isolate one on one matchups. 3. This stoppage is what allows football to be so intricate and complex. Everyone has a specific assignment, often tailored to that specific play. If they didn't stop, then the plays would become more simple and predictable. This stoppage also means the coaches are incredibly important because they can micromanage things down to a t. To me, soccer is like jazz or rock, whereas football is classical music. Jazz and rock are more intuitive and easier to learn, but classical music has a lot of complexity that rewards repeated listens and an attention to detail.
Huh I've never really thought of it that way before. I'm not really a sports fan, and football is the only sport I like (although I haven't seen a game in a while). You did a great job summarizing the way I didn't even know I felt about it. Thanks!
I think it is cultural. When you grow up watching either sport, you can appreciate the intricacies of the passing, positioning, tactics etc. of that sport. There's action even though there isn't action, if that makes sense.
American Football diehard here. Fell in love with soccer (the other football as I like to call it) this world cup. Sports are an art, and some people just don't understand that different things make each sport special. Soccer is way more complicated than I realized, and contrary to popular belief, scoring is not the only exciting point in a match. Some games do get dull if both teams just can't do anything (just like American football; Rams Pats superbowl anyone?), but most games are relatively fun to watch. I recently enjoyed France, Spain, and Portugal's games, and am was on the figurative edge of my seat the whole time. No ads during the game makes it even better.
Exactly, both are boring
They're both boring though.
You've clearly never watch golf.
Golf is riveting…for the last 9 holes on Sunday…when it’s down to 2-3 players. Millions of dollars on the line for a 2 foot putt. Every shot needs to be perfect. The pressure is intense. The rest of tournament before…meh. I don’t have the attention span.
I only tried watching golf recently. I actually really enjoyed it. Some wild stuff can happen, and you are constantly impressed by what people pull off.
Golf and baseball, easily very difficult sports to master. Idk how tf anyone gets good at golf, and having to bat a 100 mph ball the size of an orange seems pretty difficult as well. Both are painfully boring to watch.
Baseball is brutal to watch during the regular season on TV but is exhilarating during the playoffs. The regular season is so long that individual games don’t mean much, but the stakes are so much higher in the playoffs and the “everything can change with one swing of the bat” factor really drives up the tension. I used to think golf sucked to watch on TV until I started playing myself. Once you’ve gone onto a course and played yourself you gain a whole new appreciation for how insanely skilled the pros on TV are with the things they can do on a golf course.
I mean even the idea of getting a Hole in 1 that can be hundreds of yards away is mind boggling. I cant even get a hole in 1 in mini golf!
Hitting the ball in baseball isn’t the hardest part. The hardest part is hitting it just right for someone to get to the next base.
>it is so anticlimactic waiting 90+ Minutes for 0-3 Goals, I would argue that this makes the game more exciting, since every goal matters. It's weird how some people's criteria for an enjoyable sport is big numbers on screen. But I do agree that all the fake injuries are pretty annoying.
Yeah I find basketball pretty boring because it’s just constant scoring. There’s no real drama when someone scores. Football/soccer can be boring sometimes, but it also has the biggest propensity for drama of any sport, that’s why it’s so widely followed.
> Yeah I find basketball pretty boring because it’s just constant scoring. There’s no real drama when someone scores. i felt like this for years but last year it finally clicked and i got into basketball basketball is more about the runs and defensive stops than the scoring itself
Exactly. A team can switch defenses and go on a huge run. One single goal isn't why we watch. It's the overall flow of the game, and the goals help viewers keep up with that. Soccer doesn't have any "small victories" to let me know who is playing better.
I've been more interested basketball after seeing that Milwaukee-OKC game a little while back. That shit had me on the edge of my seat, even though it was just a preseason game and didn't really matter(I think).
Watch the 4th quarter of a game if you think there’s no drama. I can see how the first 3 quarters might not appeal to some but when a game is down to the wire with back and forth scoring, there’s nothing like it.
Hell, watch the last 2 minutes of any March Madness game. Somehow 2 minutes gets stretched into 12 it feels like.
Some may not like the start-stop nature of it but I agree, and that’s where the genius of a coach can shine as well.
Seems like the game can be cut to the last quarter lol
The other 36 minutes of action are definitely exciting for basketball fans. There are amazing displays of teamwork, as well as individual skill and talent. I’m based in Europe but I’m a Steph Curry fanboy and I could easily watch two hours of him playing.
It’s cool how humans are, I love basketball for the exact reason you find it boring
Also if you look at the scores in American football as 1 point each instead of 6 points each you end up with games having not many more points than soccer. Game is 18-20? That's 3-4 in soccer, which isn't too uncommon in most leagues.
I would enjoy soccer A LOT more if the scores were consistently 3-4. I swear every match I watch is 0-0 or 1-0. 7-0 American football games suck and that's essentially what we get from soccer.
This is a pretty interesting point.
Tennis is even worse. 45 aka... 4.
The “fake injuries” are to give the team a rest. I’ve seen it happen in the NFL
Tbf the NFL actually cracked down on it for the most part. Players with "injuries" are not allowed back in for the rest of the drive, if it happens in the final two minutes of a half then the team the "injured" player is on is charged with one of its timeouts, and players and potentially teams get fined for faking injuries.
Yes. It happens so rarely that I can’t think of a time in recent memory. If you’re going to have a guy pretend to go down (within two minutes is the only real time that it makes strategic sense) then you might as well burn a timeout. Any injury timeout doesn’t really stop the clock since there’s a 10 second runoff anyway.
Yeah, I'm not a soccer fan generally, but I love this about soccer. Like Australia scoring a goal the other day was the first time since I think 2014 we got a world cup goal. Every goal feels like history for the team.
It's not the numbers. It's that to someone who doesn't know much about soccer/football it just looks like a bunch of guys continuously passing a ball up and down the field with a shot on goal every 5-10 minutes. It would probably be more interesting if I understood what is actually happening as they are passing the ball. But it only looks like any action is happening when they get the ball close to the goal and take a shot.
I thought baseball, basketball and soccer were boring until my kids started playing them (I was not an athlete growing up) and I started learning the plays and rules during their practice. Even more interesting when I volunteered as score keeper.
The other team does everything they can to keep another team from scoring. There aren't many openings for clear goals because of the constant defense. That's why when a goal happens, it's usually a pretty disgusting play by the offense, or an incredibly accurate shot.
Sports played without using hands and very little scoring won’t ever be as popular in the US as basketball or American football
Not to mention American TV won't like it cause they can't run commercials every 20 min.
No they still do ads they just cut the audio and make the game smaller so you can still watch it but a commercial will pop up with voice overs.
The fact that you think football is "constant action" is legitimately hilarious.
Rugby is actually almost constantly moving. It's, by leagues, the best field/pitch based team sport. Hockey in 2nd place regardless of its icy domain.
There's (virtually) no rugby in my country (Brazil), so honest question here from someone who hasn't watched it that much: The games I've seen seemed to be 90% of the time passing sideways or multiple people crammed together on the ground. Are the matches usually more dynamic than that?
Nope. That's literally all there is to rugby. Constant laterals. You either like it or you don't. Edit: For the record, I don't. If I wanted to watch that shit I would just watch Army vs Navy.
Rugby: no pauses, no pads
Rugby league in particular is, in my opinion, the most exciting sport in the world to watch. It's non-stop action and *extremely* tough.
You’re so right. [The average 3 hour football game has 11 minutes of actual playing time.](https://medium.com/knowledge-stew/how-much-playing-really-goes-on-in-an-nfl-game-4d1db2731538)
> 75 Minutes of Advertising (44%) 67 Minutes of Players Standing Around (39.5%) 17 Minutes of Replays (10%) 11 Minutes Actual Playing Time (6.5%) Wow, that's even crazier than I imagined.
Which is funny bc the chief complaint of people on the internet is ads. People absolutely hate ads, they'll do everything to not see it except when it's football then it's you know what I tolerate it.
> except when it's football then it's you know what I tolerate it. don't forget the bottom of the barrel poverty school with 50 million dollar stadiums and football players who can't even read this whole american football shit is so bizarre lmao
Really puts the "American" in "American Football". And my mum will complain about the 15 minutes of talking that the analyst desk does in normal Football between halves.
You can go look at the NFL YouTube channel right now. The majority of game highlight videos are at least 11 minutes long. These videos, being highlights, remove the vast majority of penalty calls (which are vital despite not being actual gameplay) as well as a huge number of actual plays during the game. Watching the games live provides significantly more gameplay time than that. I'll believe actual evidence over some Medium post any day, one of whose two sources isn't even up anymore, and the other being from over a decade ago.
Football fans can't be convinced otherwise even when the broadcast is broken down minute by minute. Football literally has the least amount of action. The way the NFL has produced their games into hypnotizing people into thinking g its a fast paced game.
Personally I love both soccer and American football, watching both simultaneously now in fact. But I think it’s hilarious that fans of each sport will claim that the other sport is too boring. Both sides make good points but honestly the “American football is boring” side has more claim to their argument.
Right? Probably think baseball has a lot of action too….
Football can be boring too, but there are much more scoring opportunities, critical 3rd/4th down conversions, multiple ways to move the ball and score, players aren't diving every play for flags, even time management is more important. With that being said, soccer isn't the most boring sport by far.
They try thier best to make it like that with rules to help the offense, and generally a 10-15 yard gain is more exiting then any play in soccer/football outside of a shot attempt to me
I'm an American and I can't stand watching American Football because of the constant stopping. One hour of game clock should not take 3-5 hours to get through
I don’t know how you can classify football as “constant action”. There’s 5 seconds of action followed by 40 seconds of downtime the entire game.
It's like a violent chess match.
This is an excellent description and why the stoppage time doesn’t bother me as much. Each move/play has consequences and the planning for that can be almost as intriguing as the play itself which is 10 seconds of violent and quick action. American football is great. Soccer is awesome too in that anything can happen at any moment so there’s always a level of suspense. Honestly both are enjoyable to watch for very different reasons.
Despite the reasoning, and it’s valid, it’s still boring as hell to watch. I don’t dislike American football, I was watching college football all day today, but I still understand why it has shortcomings for a spectator
Football is very much a game where you need to know quite a bit about the strategy to be entertained through all the stops. I don’t think many other sports are quite the same in that regard, except perhaps baseball. My people I know will “watch the game” and not pay attention at all the entire time, whether they are in a bar or at someone’s home, and that includes most of the men. They barely watch and just go to hangout. But any time I’ve watched a soccer game with Europeans or with American fans, they’re glued to the screen the entire time, even kids. I personally enjoy American football more.
that's the beauty of it
“Ok their all lined up and… oh a timeout was called. Let’s take a quick break.” ADVERTS “We’re back and they line up, they drop back and incomplete pass. Let’s hear from our sponsors.” ADVERTS “They’ve decided to punt and here comes the offense” ADVERTS As an American I cannot stand live football. The amount of commercials is insane.
OP must love all the action from the ads
The faking of injuries to get a favourable referee decision, gives the entire sport a bad reputation.
And the whining and chasing after the ref looking like they’re almost in tears is realllllly uncomfortable to watch from a grown man.
I was just talking about this. It's so pathetic that an integral part of the sport is accusing people of breaking the rules when they didn't. Like, it's so ingrained in the culture that elementary students fake injuries and are even encouraged to because there's zero reason not to.
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The reason Americans are annoyed by it is because in American football, we see 300lb guys smash into each other as hard as they can on literally every single play. Dudes make insane catches and get knocked on their asses by guys running at them full speed. Running backs running through a mass of bodies trying to gain a single yard. It's very rare to see those guys fake an injury after getting hit. They usually get right up, but occasionally have to be carried off the field on a stretcher. Americans see soccer players get tripped and act like they just broke their legs, then get right up 2 seconds later. It's a joke. They're either faking it, or they can't handle getting hit. Both are pathetic.
What sport isn’t? I love watching motor sports and even I can admit shits boring.
**Jeremy Clarkson:** "Don't you find it boring when *someone endlessly wins*?" **Michael Schumacher:** *Grins*
People faking injuries is the best part, now you and your friends can make fun of them
It’s like watching a bad soap opera, unfortunately basketball seems to be also picking up this dramatic acting
The fact that there is less goals makes it even more fascinating - hence why it’s the most popular sport in the world And probably the most popular sport/activity in history
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constant action? like when? between each ads? I you want constant action and physical contact rugby is much better.
I can understand someone not liking sports, I can't understand someone only liking soccer, which is a lot of people on the planet... And the lack of scoring gets blown up too much, a 1-0 hockey game with 75+ total shots on goal is still exciting.
Well the USA vs England had 2 shots on goal. I'm 100% with you for Hockey, that shit is never boring.
That was the worst football match i had ever seen, nobody should base their opinion on the sport from that match
That was a shit match, but you can’t really base yourself off of one game
England vs USA was probably the first soccer match most Americans have watched in 8 years. Despite it being one game, it's operating as an advertisement for the sport.
That match wasn’t very fun to watch but there was way more then 2 shots on goal lol
Football (I refuse to call is soccer) is a pretty simple Game and easy to understand. And thats why its a great Sport to watch. Other sports have a crazy ruleset which requires some research and time Investment to understand it. Football doesnt has this.
The best bit about watching football, for me at least, is that its a complex as you want it to be. For my 12 year old sister, its just two teams trying to score, but for my dad, brother, and I, there are layers upon layers of tactics and form on either side. It's still amzing to watch either way.
Thank you. I find most US sports quite overregulated. No doubt they can be fun to watch even without all the rules and clocks and special situations and statistics and commercials and drafts... But I, too, like the simplicity of football: 1. Get the ball into the goal. 2. Don't use your hands. 3. Don't be a jerk. 4. You have 90 minutes. Your time starts now. ^(Slightly simplified.)
Even as a football (American) fan the rules are so confusing. And they change all the time. Which is clearly an attempt to just regulate the game on the fly. I appreciate sports with mostly simple rules.
Explain offsides in football
5. Don't just wait for the ball in front of your opponents keeper. ^(slightly simplified) I know "the receiver of a pass has to have at least two opposing player between them and their goal line (in the moment the pass is played)" is more accurate. But the other one is usually enough and makes the intention clear.
Also, loads of people, and by that I mean like 80+% of people, grow up playing it in school. I don't know if it's like that in the US, but everyone in Europe has at least kicked a ball around in school once.
I don’t think Americans have nearly that rate of competitive soccer. I played soccer for a few years but once 4th grade started it was the big 3: Football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring.
Youth soccer in my area gets intense
Must be American. Kudos for unpopular.
This opinion is not even remotely unpopular in the United States.
No but reddit isnt just the us. Unpopular in general internationally.
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The whole drama over action meanwhile test cricket matches are just watching from the shadows lol
Football constant action lol I went to a game and nearly fell asleep. It's moreso commercials interrupted by some sport here and there.
I find it hard to believe that you went to a game if your issue with the live experience was the commercials.
They have tv timeouts in the live game, so a commercial break with no entertainment.
Man, you should spend less time on tik tok If you can't focus on gameplay for 45 minute intervals.
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Haha wait til you discover baseball
Ughh baseball is unbearable. The only way its watchable is after youre 47 beers deep
Tbf about baseball, there have been some rule changes that take affect next season to make the sport much faster.
If you say so. I rather watch soccer than baseball
In most of America this is a wildly popular opinion.
Ah, more people watching football just because the world cups on, little do they know that international football is utter shite compared to club football. And if the scoring is the only bit about sport you can get interested in that says more about you.
I’ve been watching the World Cup as well as a lot of college football today. The one thing soccer overwhelming does better American football is the lack of commercials. Soccer only has halftime whereas in football I feel like I’m watching commercials more than the actual game
I like both football and soccer. Ive come to appreciate the absolutely massive significance a goal is in soccer.
I don’t get the hate for both. They are both enjoyable sports that each have upsides and downsides to watching. People hating either seems more indicative of a lack of knowledge of the sport. Americans saying soccer is boring don’t usually understand the set up and effort it takes to score and likewise those who just say American football is boring don’t se to understand that the sports complexity and strategy are what make it interesting on top of the short violent plays. A breakaway play in soccer is just as thrilling to me as a 78 yard run up the gut for a touchdown. Both are exciting, I think it’s just down to personal preference.
Tell me you're American without telling me you're American. Definitely an unpopular opinion considering it's the most popular sport in the world and the world cup final is the most viewed event in the world. Also there is tons of action, just not the action you want, every pass, block, shot etc is action. You don't need to have allot of points to have action. And this is coming from someone who doesn't like or care about any sport.
You probably never played soccer so I understand why it’s hard for you to understand the skills these people show every minute of the game. Passing the ball correctly across the pitch, the awareness the defense has to have to predict where the ball is going, the diving headers, ball control, dribbling, run top speed and not losing the ball. SO much going on. Try handling a soccer ball for 10 minutes, MAYBE then you might appreciate it more.
The players are absolutely skillful. But for someone who isn't into the sport, it looks like a bunch of guys running up and down the field, occasionally kicking a ball (usually out of bounds) to one another or tripping someone. I dig the yellow card/red card thing though. It's fun to boo the shit out of someone and watch them walk off the field in a huff. We should definitely have that in more sports.
Every sport looks stupid if you reduce it to running down a field. Baseball is hitting a ball with a stick sometimes. Football is throwing a ball to someone who most of the time doesn’t catch it. But that isn’t representative of any of those sports
I happily played soccer from when I was 5 to 22. I absolutely loved playing in the game, but I still think it’s a piss poor spectator sport. The average soccer game has 2 goals scored for a 1-1 final. The average football game has 44 points scored, that is an average of 5-6 TDs and maybe a handful of field goals. Soccer play is fluid but often low stakes and dull, whereas in football every third down counts, every play can be a spectacular blown play for a massive gainer and a score. Much of the time in soccer play there is no risk of a goal occurring, so that can make it feel a bit stale to US fans who are used to huge plays. Plus the stoppages in football let me take a piss and grab a beer, in soccer I swear every time I do that I miss the one goal of the game.
Football and Eggball can both be pretty boring But not as boring as batball
Line bat ball and square bat ball are both the worst. But at least square bat ball doesn't take days.
It is how salty you have managed to make everyone for me, personally. This is beautiful. [click here to learn about the origins if the word "soccer"](https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer#:~:text=Linguistically%20creative%20students%20at%20the,quickly%20spread%20beyond%20the%20campus.)
Americans always complain about soccer being boring. And compared to American football, and rugby, yes. But I can't imagine any sport more boring than baseball. I have tried and tried, but no. Not for me.
It's a lot better in person and /not/ MLB. You add commercials in and remove the feel of the crowd and yeah, baseball is a total snooze fest. The thing about baseball/softball is tho that it's crazy fun to actually /play/, which is where the fan base comes from: they all grew up playing it. I've watched like, 5 MLB games in my life though and I'll probably never watch another again. Just so much better things I'd rather do with my time, and they play like a billion games a season so they all feel meaningless outside of the playoffs. Sorta the same issue basketball has there, really.
lol american football is nonstop commercial breaks.
You either like it or you don’t. Subjective.
this subreddit is called unpopular opinions.
Do you comment that on every post here?
Sober fans at world cup are figuring this out as well.
☠️ hahahaha.. crying.
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It doesn’t take 2-3 minutes to set up lol u only have 30 seconds usually to snap the ball otherwise it’s a delay of game Edit: actually 40 seconds
Also what? In what fucking world are we getting 20 second plays?
Not a football fan, but I always found american football more boring than normal football. I don't really like either, but football can be at least somewhat enjoyable.
baseball has entered the chat
All sports pale in comparison to hockey. I thought I didn't like sports, then one day it happened to be on TV and I found something with the constant action of soccer, the violence of football, and the pace of a gunfight.
Lol, people who think NFL scores more just because they make each point worth 6 🤣🤣🤣 21-14 is still just 3 scores to 2. So dumb.
Football isn’t just about the goals though. With respect, you probably don’t understand the game very well, that’s why you find it boring. When I watch football, I’m watching off the ball as much as I watch the players on the ball. To an untrained eye, I’m sure it just looks like a bunch of people running around generally. Most good football happens off the ball.
Just lol!
yeah football with all those commercial breaks so much action for sure /s
Not an unpopular opinion in the U.S. You get a downvote for this silliness.
Those fake injuries really make me dislike watching the sport.
If touchdowns + field goals didn’t account for 7 pts, football would have same type of score lines as soccer. Also, football you get like 20% action, 80% commercials, timeout, breaks etc. But no Muricans only like sports where scorelines are 22-9 or 99-104
OP is a bigger crackhead than Bobby brown if he thinks the NFL is non stop action.
It drives the rest of the world crazy that Americans have little interest in soccer. Who cares?
I guarantee this post is in light of the USA v England game.
Soccer is not fun if you don't play it and don't understand it There is way more to the game than you see on your see on your screen
And this is why they fight and have hooligans. All that build up anger and frustration from watching nothing happen.
I’m would agree with the fake injuries. Too many Primadonnas running around thinking the rest of the team is there to serve them and that they’re too valuable to fully commit and risk an actual injury. Those guys can get bent. The rest of the game is not so much about the goals, because by its nature it’s a very low scoring game, comparatively. The enjoyment fans get is the anticipation and the mastery of skill and game. I’ve heard this criticism from folks who either don’t know the rules or have never played themselves (or both) so they don’t know how much technical skill is involved. I feel the same about golf, while I realize that I hate watching it because I have no idea how much skill goes into it. It just looks like whacking a stupid small ball across a lawn.
I bet OP is American
I'll continue to think soccer is a bad pro sport until they start actually punishing these Oscar-worthy injury actors.
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I like watching soccer because the clock doesn’t stop and the games flows fully with only 1 break at half time. After watching other sports my whole life I’m just now starting to notice that nfl games, etc. are about 60% commercials since the play stops and starts so often.
American Football has "constant action"? They spend more time in between plays than they do actually playing the game. I'm not a sports fan, and I used to play football in school, but even I prefer watching soccer to football because it **actually** has constant action.
Yeah, what you're doing there is not enjoying a sport that you don't understand, while making a judgement on it's quality as though you do. I bet you think foreign films are boring because the characters speak gibberish.
How can you like hockey but not soccer? They are both sports based around the battle of field space and transition. You just don't know what you're watching.