Is soccer the greatest sport?

Is soccer the greatest sport?

  • Yes

  • No


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The World Cup was limited to amateur players until 1998. Olympics take place during the season. WBC is before season, but a lot of pitchers aren’t interested in doing it because they’re trying to prepare for the season
That's a shame.
A world tournament with all the best players would do wonders for the sport, surely?
Consider how many extremely casual fans ONLY watch soccer at the world cup.
 
It is if you like seeing players throw themselves on the ground and acting like they’ve been shot at the slightest touch.
 
It's the most popular... But popularity is a terrible way to measure greatness. By that measure, Snow and Bud Light are the two best beers in the world (they both suck). Drake is the greatest rapper, McDonald's has the greatest burgers, etc. Mass appeal <> Greatness
Nevertheless, popularity is more strongly correlated to greatness than just about any other metric.

I am the opposite of a populist, btw. If I had grown up in the early 20th century I would have been one of those assholes with a Transatlantic accent even if my parents were pig farmers.
 
You're watching the World Cup, which is the best from one country going against the best of another country...which is exciting in any sport.
I don't know the numbers, but the World Cup is probably on par (or even bigger) than the Olympics in viewership. Its a huge event.

If you compare league play against sports then thats more of an even playing field than comparing one of the biggest events in the world against league play.

I live in Canada, so we have MLS, which in quality is not as good as the leagues in Europe or South America.
And before that gremlin Gary Betttman banned NHL players from taking part in Olympic hockey...it was my favourite world event. Afterwards the quality went down in my opinion...not pitting the best players from each country against each other ruined the quality of the event.
 
What makes soccer the greatest sport is how accessible it is. Just needs a ball, it allows creativity, physical contact is moderate.
 
While there are some aspects of it I don't like the main selling points for me are the fact that the participants at the highest level largely mimic how most humans are built unlike sports like the NBA where you are a genetic accident just to be considered to play at the highest levels.

This for me is a big part of why it's the best sport overall. If you're good, you're good. For all, we know there's a Messi sized basketball or football player with equivalent skills in his sport that we'll never know of because he couldn't show those skills against guys 6' 8 or 200+ lbs.

That, the simple rules, the league set-ups, the creativity that's involved, skills/tricks used, various types of shots and everyone is playing with the same disadvantage.
 
It's not even compelling as performance art. Men don't cry over skinned knees and tangled feet.
 
Why do people keep saying that you only need a ball to play?
that is the equivalent of saying you only need a ball to play basketball,so why isnt basketball as popular?
 
You only need an eggball to play american football,its for backwards countries:
 
From Wikipedia on American stereotypes:

Americans may be stereotyped as ignorant of all countries and cultures beyond their own. This stereotype shows them as lacking intellectual curiosity, thus making them ignorant of other cultures, places, or lifestyles outside of their own.
Americans may be seen as arrogant people. They are frequently depicted in foreign media as obsessively nationalistic and obnoxiously patriotic, referring to the U.S. as "the greatest country in the world" and patronising people from other countries.


^ I think the evidence of these stereotypes being largely true is there for all to see, and sherdog forums being no exception.

Not trying to slam them too much or call them Americans stupid but even intelligent Americans are comparatively ignorant to anything outside their borders that doesn't directly affect them. It's arrogance more than anything.

That's been my general experience having lived in middle America and the coast. The middle is just too far from other cultures to be influenced. I love being American, but American exceptionalism is odd.

This has much more to do with Cable (regional) contracts and broadcast exclusivity than it does with growing popularity of the sport, here.

I really thought it would have taken off, by now, after the success of our women, and our increasingly diverse demographic evolution, especially with the brain trauma discoveries and growing awareness afflicting the NFL and Pop Warner, but it just isn't the reality here.

In time, I think. The CTE issue is fairly new, and I've seen interviews where even former players say they wouldn't let their sons play.

Bold prediction: Between the CTE, politics, it's slow/stop-and-go pace, and the general "softening" of society, I could see the NFL rapidly declining in popularity in the next decade or so.
 
Nope. No sport than can end 0-0 is the greatest sport on Earth.
Silly.

In a sport that can end zero, zero every single play and rush matters. Each rush that could put in a single goal can be the decider.

You can say basketball for instance is the sport of the ADD fan. I love it and grew up watching it and it feeds ADD fans non stop scoring but literally in most games non of that scoring matters outside the last 15 minutes of the game. You don't even have to watch. It's meaningless highlights.
 
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Its called football but otherwise yeap.
 
It's amazing a site that focuses on another sport has majority of the votes saying that soccer/football is the greatest sport. Says a lot about the sport and how legendary it is especially in the World Cup.
 
I understand the fascination of American football. It is highly specialized, militarized kind of sport similar to Battleship or Chess or classic RPGs.

The football the rest of the world knows is more spontaneous. You have to think on the fly.

But if you want pace and speed, you would enjoy ice hockey the most.
 
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