A sign that Americans still have a ways to go
in [World Football]
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From: Jack Hollis on 9 Jun 2010 17:06 On Thu, 6 May 2010 02:20:28 -0700 (PDT), Insane Ranter <logwyn(a)gmail.com> wrote: >If the US national team didn't tank it so often maybe Americans would >care more. The US dominates Track & Field and your average US sports fan doesn't care. Two factors that hurt soccer in the US: 1. US already had a national sport when soccer was spreading around the world in the late 19th Century. 2. In 1875, Ivy League schools, much like their upper crust counterparts in England, chose to play with Rugby rules in favor of soccer. Thus evolved American Football. Had the Ivy League choose to keep playing soccer, American Football never would have existed and soccer would have been a major sport in the US long ago.
From: Insane Ranter on 9 Jun 2010 17:45 On Jun 9, 5:06 pm, Jack Hollis <xslee...(a)aol.com> wrote: > On Thu, 6 May 2010 02:20:28 -0700 (PDT), Insane Ranter > > <log...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >If the US national team didn't tank it so often maybe Americans would > >care more. > > The US dominates Track & Field and your average US sports fan doesn't > care. > > Two factors that hurt soccer in the US: > > 1. US already had a national sport when soccer was spreading around > the world in the late 19th Century. > > 2. In 1875, Ivy League schools, much like their upper crust > counterparts in England, chose to play with Rugby rules in favor of > soccer. Thus evolved American Football. Had the Ivy League choose to > keep playing soccer, American Football never would have existed and > soccer would have been a major sport in the US long ago. 3. We just arent "good". Americans want to win and support a winner. If we won the thing then it would be a nice boost. Another thing is the nation leage aka MSL isn't really that good as far as talent goes compared to Europe or even S. American maybe even Mexico. I feel like I'm watching college soccer or even high school games
From: Dwight Beers on 10 Jun 2010 08:45 On 06/09/2010 02:06 PM, Jack Hollis wrote: > On Thu, 6 May 2010 02:20:28 -0700 (PDT), Insane Ranter > <logwyn(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> If the US national team didn't tank it so often maybe Americans would >> care more. > > The US dominates Track& Field and your average US sports fan doesn't > care. > > Two factors that hurt soccer in the US: > > 1. US already had a national sport when soccer was spreading around > the world in the late 19th Century. > Fact #1: The Oneida Football Club was organized in Boston, Massachusetts in 1860. > 2. In 1875, Ivy League schools, much like their upper crust > counterparts in England, chose to play with Rugby rules in favor of > soccer. Thus evolved American Football. Had the Ivy League choose to > keep playing soccer, American Football never would have existed and > soccer would have been a major sport in the US long ago. > Fact #2: The first Harvard-Yale football game was in 1820.
From: Jack Hollis on 10 Jun 2010 11:37 On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:45:17 -0700, Dwight Beers <hdbeers(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> 2. In 1875, Ivy League schools, much like their upper crust >> counterparts in England, chose to play with Rugby rules in favor of >> soccer. Thus evolved American Football. Had the Ivy League choose to >> keep playing soccer, American Football never would have existed and >> soccer would have been a major sport in the US long ago. >> > >Fact #2: The first Harvard-Yale football game was in 1820. I think you might want to check on that. The first Harvard - Yale game in 1875 was what led to the Ivy League to adopt Rugby Football Union rules. "History: 1875-The First Game In 1875 came an event that contributed greatly to the shape of football as it developed in the United States. Harvard challenged Yale to a game under "Concessionary Rules" and thus inaugurated one of the most celebrated of all U.S. football rivalries. The game was played in November 1875 at New Haven, Connecticut, and was part rugby and part soccer. The two teams played with 15 players on a side instead of 11 as Yale would have preferred, and Harvard won by 4 goals and 4 tries, or touchdowns, to none. Despite its decisive defeat, Yale was so taken with rugby that it became a convert and adopted the rules. Observers from Princeton who saw the game also were won over to rugby, and in 1876 representatives of Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia organized the Intercollegiate Football Association. They adopted the code of the Rugby Football Union with a change in the scoring rule--instead of a match being decided by a majority of goals alone, it was decided by a majority of touchdowns. The egg-shaped leather ball replaced the round rubber ball of soccer. Rugby thus became the American college football game and the rest, as they say, is history." http://www.the-game.org/history-1875.htm
From: Jack Hollis on 10 Jun 2010 11:42
On Wed, 9 Jun 2010 14:45:41 -0700 (PDT), Insane Ranter <logwyn(a)gmail.com> wrote: >3. We just arent "good". Americans want to win and support a winner. >If we won the thing then it would be a nice boost. Another thing is >the nation leage aka MSL isn't really that good as far as talent goes >compared to Europe or even S. American maybe even Mexico. I feel like >I'm watching college soccer or even high school games All things considered, the US does pretty well in international soccer, but certainly not up to the standards that most Americans expect. If the US could become one of the world elite teams it would help. If the US could even produce one world class player who would be a big star in Europe, that would also help. |