Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
Da Boss wrote:I always found Aussies to be very patriotic. like, more patriotic than the average american. But alright other than that.
Man, if you got the downgraded version of ireland it must be pretty grim.
We only have like one poisonous animal though. It's a tiny freshwater fish.
Should have worded that better... I mean that, in terms of geographics, Tas is very similar to Ireland. It's also very empty. I mean, once you leave the capital, you can drive for three hours through the midlands and not see a sign of humanity.
And we aren't as safe as Ireland from the environment. I guess you guys have terriorists though, so we're even.
People are like dice, a certain Frenchman said that. You throw yourself in the direction of your own choosing. People are free because they can do that. Everyone's circumstances are different, but no matter how small the choice, at the very least, you can throw yourself. It's not chance or fate. It's the choice you made.
Voodoo Boyz wrote:Awesome, awesome thread. I'm just sad I'm so late to the party.
reds8n wrote:Or do you think that your own homegrown sports ( stolen as they might be.. mutter grumble) will always be more popular ?
Probably, I honestly can't begin to understand why Soccer is so popular everywhere except the US. I know I couldn't stand playing it in gym while I was in high school. Football/Basketball/Baseball are imminently more entertaining to me, but then again that's what I grew up with.
Football isn't called 'the beautiful game' for nothing, watching a great game of football is almost balletic, amazing skills and tricks, deft flicks and blistering shots. You can't beat the feeling of being part of 30,000 fans singing 'Marching on together' (my club's anthem) on the stands. I LOVE FOOTBALL. I think the reason it's not popular in the US is because it's not immediate, or always action packed. It's a game of subtleties not big knocks (disregarding the thunderous shots of Matt Le Tissier of course!). Also, the MLS has about the same quality of football as the English third tier, which doesn't help get people all that excited. If you were watching your local teams play Premier League quality games every week it might be different. As for football being elitist...I'm supposing you haven't been to many league 1/2/conference/ryman league/Johnstone's paint trophy games?
Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone's got one and they all stink.
You forget to mention temper tantrums, strops, faces like slapped arses and appaling behaviour in our top flight games.
Yes Rooney, your vicious, thick little thug, I'm looking at you. And no Wayne, you were not sent off in the World Cup because someone winked. You got the Red Card because you stamped on someones Pods....
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:That and your far too delicate to play Rugby.
I think one thing hurting soccer here is the sight of players taking dives in order to draw penalties. That's pretty distasteful stuff in American football or hockey. Especially hockey. Good lord, in hockey, players that wear face protection (from sticks, skates and 90 mph pucks) are considered to be wusses...
reds8n wrote:Anyone who gets a Doom Patrol reference is alright in my book !
Next you'll be telling me you bought one of those muscle books and kicked sand back in that guys face !
And those hostess fruit pies were as good they looked right ?
Is it also true that no one really understands all the rules of Baseball ?
And could I get some explanation of the "Draft system" (? I think ..? ) that determines the way football teams get new players. Seems very... unamerican from what I think I know.
1) Likewise. Grant's run on DP might represent my favorite comic of all time.
2) Nope. Those X-ray glasses, though? They WORK.
3) Tastycake (a competing brand) are kind of the big thing around here, to tell you the truth. But most of those fruit pies are delicious as far as non-homemade, factory-produced pastries made god knows how long ago go. Erm.
4) If you've ever seen our umpires at work...you'd know this to be true.
5) Each of our leagues does it a little differently, but the basic idea is that the worst team gets the first pick of all the new professional players. After their rookie contract expires, they can become free agents. Yeah, it's kind of un-American, but it helps keep our leagues from being dominated by the teams with the deepest pockets. Which means it's kind of capitalistic in the end because that (in theory) means more teams are competitive and therefore attractive to watch.
So do you Brits find American accents to be lovely, just kind of quaint or simply grating (note this could be multipart considering the different American accents)?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2008/10/10 18:17:01
I can't watch more then thirty seconds of soccer without wishing I was dead. I would become a huge fan, however, if they implemented any or all of the following changes:
1) Multi-Ball. For the first five minutes of the game, there is no limit to the number of balls you can have on the field.
2) Foul Free. Each team can, once per game, call a five minute free-for-all in which no fouls may be called by the referees.
3) Multi-Player. For the last five minutes of the game, there is no limit to the number of players you can have on the field.
Man, that's the joy of Anime! To revel in the complete and utter wastefullness of making an unstoppable nuclear-powered combat andriod in the shape of a cute little girl, who has the ability to fall in love and wears an enormous bow in her hair.
Doctor Thunder wrote:I can't watch more then thirty seconds of soccer without wishing I was dead. I would become a huge fan, however, if they implemented any or all of the following changes:
1) Multi-Ball. For the first five minutes of the game, there is no limit to the number of balls you can have on the field.
2) Foul Free. Each team can, once per game, call a five minute free-for-all in which no fouls may be called by the referees.
3) Multi-Player. For the last five minutes of the game, there is no limit to the number of players you can have on the field.
Add legal high sticking in that five minute period and you would have an awesome game. Yes, I said hockey sticks in a soccer game...
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Doctor Thunder wrote:I can't watch more then thirty seconds of soccer without wishing I was dead. I would become a huge fan, however, if they implemented any or all of the following changes:
1) Multi-Ball. For the first five minutes of the game, there is no limit to the number of balls you can have on the field.
2) Foul Free. Each team can, once per game, call a five minute free-for-all in which no fouls may be called by the referees.
3) Multi-Player. For the last five minutes of the game, there is no limit to the number of players you can have on the field.
Add legal high sticking in that five minute period and you would have an awesome game. Yes, I said hockey sticks in a soccer game...
You guys crack me up.
BTW, every football fan hates diving, it's the worst thing in the game. I'm of the opinion that anyone who dives in a game should get at least a 3 match ban (same as a straight red card) or more, and this should be judged after the games by the FA by looking at videos. Only way to stop this horrible blight. It can be quite funny though, as this downright hillarious video proves. The music is awesome.
Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone's got one and they all stink.
To be fair, the dangerous aussie animals aren't everywhere.
It's mainly crocs and jellyfish up the top end.
It's mainly sharks down south.
It's mainly snakes out in the middle bit.
The rest has a mix of the above + spiders that'll bite your face off.
The "Sydney" Funnel Web can be found from Melbourne up to Townsville (Maybe further. We don't know. The team we sent didn't report back.), but the Melbourne variety is less aggressive (docile is not an adjective applied to any of them), and the warmer the general climate, the more aggressive the little buggers are. Townsville Funnel-webs are complete psychos. Colonies of these were found in mainland china.
We have spiders that look like small, cuter versions of the seppo "Black widow" - don't let this lull you into a false sense of security. Although their fangs be small, they tend to hang around underneath outback toilet seats (where biting through multiple layers of clothing isn't an issue). They can also cross-breed with their yank cousins. The offspring are brown, are sized like their aussie parent, and bite like their yank parent. Oh, we're exporting them now, btw.
We have two kinds of snakes. Dangerous ones and deadly ones. Deadly ones tend to chase you.
The drop bear is mostly a myth. They're extinct in the coastal areas.
All this talk of dangerous aussie animals reminds me of this:
I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.
That is not dead which can eternal lie ...
... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
Kilkrazy wrote:Soccer is popular because it can be played nearly anywhere by nearly any number of people using nearly any equipment.
Two kids can play soccer in the street with a tin can and goalposts chalked up on the wall.
I've heard that argument many times. And it's quite true. I still don't see the appeal of the game, at all.
Still has next to no appeal to me. Oddly enough I grew up in Brooklyn & and then Staten Island NY, where we didn't have a whole lot of space to do stuff, at least where I lived - but we managed to play Baseball in the nearby parking lot.
One thing I did learn about Soccer when I was on business in the EU, is that when your in a bar with a game going on, just cheer for whoever gets a goal, even if you're not watching the game. It's safer that way.
Kilkrazy wrote:I don't really see the appeal of soccer either, however the evidence shows it is hugely popular almost everywhere in the world.
If it ain't popular in America, it doesn't count! /sarcasm
Honestly I think it has more to do with a sports existing momentum in society. Or something along those lines.
My guess is that once a culture has an existing sport gain some semblance of popularity, it grows as a result of that and then continues from there. Which can have an impact on other sports having a hard time to start or catch up.
Soccer is also a game you need relatively little skill to start off with. Take Baseball, Cricket etc. Any 'ball and stick' game requires a certain level of hand to eye coordination to be much cop at. Football does not.
Rugby, American Football etc, require a certain robustness of physique. Football does not.
Essentially, anyone, anywhere, barring those with one or no legs, can have a kick around. Jumpers for goal posts and all that. Hell, at my Primary School, our Football patch used trees as Goals, side by side, sharing a common tree between the two. Did it matter the pitch was too small? Nope. Everyone could join in, as long as you could run and kick. The skills needed to be *good* at Football then eventually come, but certainly aren't needed to start!
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
The only sports I'd consider watching are hurling and gaelic football. Maybe rugby. If the players aren't coated in mud and risking hypothermia by the end, can it really be called a sport?
That diving video was hilarious though, especially the bit at the end.
I reckon most sports get ruined once they become professional. That's what I like about hurling and gaelic- all the lads playing have day jobs.
Well, they're games aren't they? Grown men playing kid's games and getting paid to do it... talk about arrested development. Kind of sucks the fun out of it if you take it too seriously.
