From far too many discussions on message boards, I have determined that there are three types of "anti soccer fans", if it's possible to be an anti fan of anything. Here they are:
1. The Soccer Hater: this is your sports fan who understands the basic rules of soccer, but was most likely humiliated playing it as a kid. They will isolate one negative component of the game (e.g., diving or fan violence) and then extrapolate that to the entire sport. They are most likely to call the sport, “gay” or “unmanly,” which any one who has taken psychology 101 will attest, they are simply manifesting a response to their own ambiguous sexuality. They may also believe soccer to be communist or socialist. They will use the term “Euro trash” to describe all soccer players, not really knowing what they are describing. These are your typical soccer trolls. Semi-mainstream American sports media has a few: Jim Rome, Chuck Klosterman, Frank Deford, basically shock jock types preaching to their own collective choirs with no real thinking or analysis behind anything. They have an irrational fear of the sport as being “un-American,” without realizing that it’s the most popular participatory sport in the US by a couple of orders of magnitude. They are scared of soccer and its popularity so they lash out at it.
2. The Perplexed Soccer Observer: unlike the soccer hater, these fans simply don’t understand the game. Through no fault of their own, they have not been exposed to the game either as a player or observer which means they are most likely American. They look at final scores as an indication of match quality and equate high scores with good games. They don’t understand positions, creating and exploiting space, nuance of movement, omni-directional options, passing skill, trapping skill, vision, strength on the ball, shooting, heading, multi-step thinking, point of attack, and so on; therefore, when they flip the TV channel to a match, all they see is a ball being moved from one person to another with no purpose, when in fact, the purpose is always to create an opportunity. They will eventually grow to love the game like the rest of us.
3. The Soccer Agnostic: sports fans without an opinion. These people are extremely rare. They are probably big fans of cycling or bull riding; meaning they could care less about soccer, football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. They represent .0001% of the sporting world.
1 comment:
Hey nice article. First time I visit this blog
The Perplexed Soccer Observer:"unlike the soccer hater, these fans simply don’t understand the game." I believe thats what happens when they get captivated by the game in the beginning (it happened to me).
"They will eventually grow to love the game like the rest of us." they will develop unreasonable love for the game and will start learning more about it , it happened to me. I think the reason why some people (north America U.S.) don't appreciate the game its because they have never take the time observe the the sport. In some countries football its not very popular but its respected by the people knowing that this is most popular sport in the world. And thats why Throwball (american football/ rugby) doesn't have international buzz (except in movies lol).
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