By: Chris Cournan
In regards to last week's PowerPoint slides giving opinions from students on whether it's more acceptable for girls or for guys to play soccer, Blake's opinions seemed very unreasonable. He stated that, "I think it's a girls' sport...because I think it's really stupid and girls play stupid sports." As a soccer player, I take offense to this because soccer is hands down one of the hardest sports to play. Unlike big name sports like football or baseball, soccer requires an incredible amount of endurance. It requires 45 minutes of straight running (in one half.) Also, most professionals remain in games for 75-90 minutes of most games in their season. Although the game of football is 60 minutes long, it's broken up into quarters instead of halves and the average play is only four seconds long. In between each play then, players can receive up to a forty-second rest period. Therefore, to say that only girls should play soccer because it's "stupid" is ridiculous. Although it may not require as much weight training as a sport as "manly" as football, it requires much more endurance and therefore it's just as difficult.
Blake's second answer of, "well, that's cause like...Brazil and Europe...all those countries that are really stupid, they don't know anything about basketball," in response to Dr. Spencer's statement that soccer is the most popular sport in the world, is obviously a crazy one. There are youth soccer leagues in nearly every nation around the world mainly because of the inexpensiveness of the sport and of how easy it is to learn. These leagues cause soccer to be the most popular sport in the world. Also, when David Beckham, a soccer player, was in his prime playing for Manchester United and Team England, he was considered the most popular athlete in the world. Although he may not be the most popular athlete anymore, men and women looked up to him all around the world and viewed him as an outstanding athlete, no matter the sport.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI would definitely have to agree with you on all that you said. I am not a huge soccer fan, but most of the reasoning for that is because I don't understand the rules. However I can feel your pain on that because I am a huge hockey fan, and I get very irritated when people say hockey is boring to watch; which usually is compared to soccer, and it always comes back to people not knowing the basics. Overall this was a great blog entry and it really raised some good points on to why soccer is a tough sport to play. The point on how football gets breaks as does basketball is a very good thing to bring up. Even Coach Meyer (OSU) says it, "I want 4-6 seconds of relentless effort." Where if you only gave 4-6 seconds in soccer you would not be very successful. I am impressed by the endurance of soccer players and I hope by reading more of the classes blogs, I can learn more about the game.
Derek Zyski
Good Morning Chris,
ReplyDeleteI love people who have passion for what they do and take up for whatever it is whenever. I know nothing about soccer but that doesn't give me the right to bash the sport because of my ignorance of the it. Anyone who can run back and forth on a field for 75 to 90 minutes is complete greatness and I commend them for it. I'm positive that soccer is probably one of the hardest sports played and you keep working at it to become better and better. At least you know you have a skill that many other athletes don't. I beat any football players or basketball players couldn't play soccer if they tried."BUT ITS A STUPID SPORT THAT GIRLS PLAY" I don't agree with that one bit and I'm glad you don't either. Maybe one day you could be the man who convince everyone that it should be broadcast on TV regularly or that is a interesting sport once we get to know what its about.
-Sparkle Robinson
Chris,
ReplyDeleteAs everyone has already said, I also agree with you. For someone to say soccer is a stupid sport or girls to play is outrageous, especially considering how much press and media attention the US Women's National team receives during the World Cup every four years along with their success. It takes a good athlete to play any sport including soccer, and the physical exertion required for soccer whether male or female is high. I think you stated well how tough of a sport soccer can be and I am still shocked that someone would truly think that the world's most popular sport is stupid and that girls play stupid sports.
-Joey D'Agostino
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI agree that soccer is one of the most demanding sports there is. Players have to play 90 minutes of almost non-stop soccer. Unlike other sports, players sometimes have to run the length of the field instead of running 10 yards like in football. The reason I think Blake made those comments were two reasons. One, Dr. Spencer I believed mentioned he was a young boy, so someone probably told him that soccer is not a manly sport. And two, I think it is just the way soccer is portrayed in the United States. Unlike in most countries soccer is not the main sport in the US and takes a lot of heat from people. One thing people really complain about is the flopping in soccer. Now I know people complain about this in other sports, basketball for example but I feel like they do not go to the length some soccer players do. Soccer players will roll around on the field and sometimes need a stretcher to get helped off the field then once they get to the sidelines they are fine. Just a few reasons why I think Blake made the comments he did and why some people in the US feel the way they do about soccer. In the end though I think soccer players are some of the best athletes.
Josiah Blevins
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteI played soccer for 12 years and I too know how much endurance soccer players need to not only play in a single game, but an entire season. I agree that the fact that Blake said he thinks it is a girls sport because it is stupid and girls play stupid sports is beyond ridiculous. Girls play basketball, and basketball is not a stupid sport. Blake might think soccer is boring to watch, but that does not make the sport stupid. The Olympic girls soccer team sold out all of the tickets at the Giants stadium when they played a couple years ago, so obviously there are a lot of people that do not think that girls soccer is stupid, let alone soccer in general. When there is a really good team to watch, the sport can be very entertaining. Soccer takes practice, dedication, hard work, teamwork, and more practice, just like every other sport. I agree with you Chris that there are a lot of youth soccer leagues all around the United States. It is a great way for kids to meet new friends and to play a competitive sport. Even though MLS is not the most popular sport in the United States, it is a popular sport all around the world. There are people that still view athletes such as David Beckham as one of the best soccer players and Mia Hamm was one of the best female athletes. Overall, I think soccer is underrated and players have to work just as hard to play soccer as football and basketball players work.
Kody Burlingame
By Ollie Goss
ReplyDeleteChris,
I completely agree with you that soccer is one of the most challenging sports in the world and to play at the professional level, one has to be a super athlete. I also agree that football is not as trying on one's stamina as soccer is, considering that the games are only 60 minutes and the players either play offense or defense. In some extreme cases the offense is only on the field for 20 minutes of the game. Football is also a very trying physical sport because one is constantly getting hit and tackled and that would consume a player's energy very quickly. I think Blake stated that soccer is a dumb sport because he was influenced by his parents and coaches. When I was in elementary school, our gym teacher made it seem like if you didn't play little league football, you were a big wimp. The amount of pressure to play football in elementary school was far more prevalent than in high school. I think Blake said his comments because of this constant pressure to play little league football and that all other sports weren't "tough guy" sports.
I am a big soccer fan, but I far more interested in the English Premier league than the MLS. The Premier league is more entertaining to watch because all the world's best soccer players flock to the European league in comparison to international basketball players coming to the NBA. Would you rather watch an NBA game or a spanish league basketball game? I think this is why soccer in America isn't very relevant and the only way to change its relevance would be for our national team to become dominant, host a world cup, and win the world cup that it hosts. Its very unlikely that this feat will ever happen, but if it did, I believe it would explode the popularity of soccer in America and Blake wouldn't think its a dumb sport anymore.
Hello Chris.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I am from South Korea. Koreans love to play and watch soccer games. In Korea, we do not say that soccer is the sport only for men or women because all people play soccer. After I came to America, I made some American frieds. I asked them about why American guys love football much more than soccer. they said that soccer game is bored because soccer has less scoring enteraining. However, I could not understand when they said that because it is interesting sport I think. Oneday, I went to watch football game with American friends in Bowling Green. I could understand the reason why American people love football game becasue people like to cheer for their home town's team in hopes. However, soocer is most popular sport in the world. Many countries people are playing soccer, it is not women's sport.
-Junho Song
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with most everything you said in your blog post. It is absolutely ridiculous to claim soccer as a women's sport or a men's sport. When in all actuality it is just a challenging sport to play. The amount of conditioning involved to be able to run for as long as these athletes do is nothing short of remarkable. Now soccer may not be as physical as other sports but thats what makes sports unique; different arenas for testing different skills of an athlete. Some football players couldn't last a half on the soccer field and visa-versa. The argument that something is "stupid" is a ridiculous claim that shouldn't be taken seriously. Be proud you play soccer, i could never do it.
-Aaron Mehling
I also agree that soccer is a very difficult sport and should not be considered a sport for just women. It is very physically demanding and requires the players to be very skilled in what they do. I like the point Aaron makes that just because it isn't as physical as football it doesn't mean it isn't as demanding. It tests a completely different skill set of an athlete compared to football. I know the kid was very young that said soccer is stupid and only for girls, but he said it because that is what he has been brought up being told. A lot of people in our society don't respect soccer because they have never played and are biased toward football and the other popular sports we have in America.
ReplyDelete-Jacob Beverly
Chris,
ReplyDeleteFirst off the break time and game speed is something that is not accurate in your post. Soccer gets breaks and are able to lightly jog on clearances, out of bounds and in many passing situations. Also football is constantly repeated as hard as you can go for those 6 seconds. Not to mention, a jog back to where you just ran to and by then you get 10 to 15 seconds to listen and think about the play, and then sprint back to the line and line up for the next all you got effort. Any sport can be debated by each teams style of play so its hard to summarize a pattern for the entire sport. However, good points about soccer and how demanding it is. I feel like a lot of the critiques that soccer gets are from people that haven’t even tried to play soccer. I always dissed on soccer up until my sophomore year of high school because I played football and a few good football players decided to play soccer over football my freshman year. The summer between my sophomore and junior year I played in an indoor soccer league and realized how hard the footwork is for soccer. It takes a lot to be coordinated with your feet if you have never done it before. Mind you that it was indoor soccer so the field was tiny compared to an outdoor field, so luckily endurance was not too much of a factor in this case. After I played outdoors in a couple of pick-up games with my soccer friends I really started to respect the sport. however there are some forwards and defenders that are lazy and don’t really move much so I can see where there can be arguments against those positions but not really if you are talking college and professional sports. All in all there should be a change in perception of people about soccer because it deserves more notice than it receives.
By: RJ Hefflinger
I definitely agree with you that soccer is a difficult sport. I know you talked about the endurance level one has to have to succeed but there is also a lot of skill that comes with soccer. I once had a friend who said anyone could play football because it was just a lot of conditioning and hitting people. I actually think this is something that happens with a lot of sports though. It would be interesting to take someone and put them through a variety of sports and see which ones they say were hardest.
ReplyDeleteSam Melchor
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ReplyDeleteBeing a soccer player for more then half of my life forces me to agree with you that soccer is not only a woman's sport. To say that soccer is a stupid sport is naive, but everyone has their own opinion. I don't get why Blake said the countries are stupid just because they "don't know about other sports." A lot of other countries aren't as gifted as us, so they resort to soccer for entertainment/exercise because it the cheapest to play. While endurance is the main argument as to why soccer is so tough, many people forget how hard it is to play a sport mainly with your feet. Pretty much every soccer game that is televised looks "easy" because those athletes are some of the best at the sport. Next time someone says soccer is easy, invite them to play in a pick-up game and they will find out how hard it actually is.
ReplyDelete-Michael Discipio