right-track

What is Football to an Englishman?

Bill Shankly famously once said, that..."football isn't a matter of life or death...it's much more important than that".

To an Englishman, football is everything.
At club level, it's a fierce sense of regional belonging.
At international level, those tribalistic tendancies are forgotten and regional differences are put aside.

Football unifies England in a way nothing else can.
A substitute for war, a crusade for past national glories?

A Frenchman once commented on what our national game meant to the English.
"The English treat Football as war and war as sport".
Never a truer word said.

If the average Englishman had a choice of winning a war against Argentina (as in the Falklands War of 1982), or beating Maradonna and co. in the 1986 World Cup Finals (which England lost 2-1), then the Falkland Islanders would be speaking Spanish today.

What's the point of this thread?
To explain why the word "soccer" is an obscenity to our ears, a chance for the Americans here to ask questions about, "the beautiful game" and an opportunity for fellow Englishmen to add there thoughts on what football means to them and it's effects on English society.

[MERIT]

yeah maybe its just an american thing, but i dont understand what all the hooplah is about soccer. ooh, after an hour of play the final score was 1-0. what an amazing game!

right-track

See! That's it right there. ^
It's not so much the spectacle of the game, but the result.
To win 1-0 v. Liverpool, for a United fan, (or visa versa for that matter) would be enough to keep a man happy for months. I don't think Americans understand the passion and the effects on an entire city or nation that this game produces.

[MERIT]

if my favorite american football team beat their arch rivals(for instance KC chiefs vs. oakland raiders) in a 1-0 game i would be happy. but i just think soccer is boring.

swim

I wish I got european football games on tv american league looks like a complete damn joke compared.

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[MERIT]

^thats b/c americans dont give two $hits abt soccer

Urban Hat€monger ?

And what about the anticipation of it , you`ve obviously never experienced the joy of seeing your team win in the last few seconds of the game when it looks like the game is heading for a 0 : 0 draw , or had your heart in your mouth when it looks like the other team will snatch it only to pull a shot wide.

I mean lets face it you wouldn`t get that suspence in something like basketball where teams seem to score every 20 or so seconds.

And it`s 90 minutes of play

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[MERIT]

have you ever seen an american football game? when the score is tied in the fourth quarter with 5 seconds left and your quarterback throws a 70 yard hail mary that connects with the receiver for a touchdown? or when your team is inches from the goal line and they bum rush the offense and they have to bring out the chains to see whether or not they scored a touchdown to win the game? experience that and then talk to me about "anticipation."

Merkaba

^ Thats true, much is the same over here for League and Union. Although we probably aren't half as passionate anymore.

The only thing that I dislike about Football is the theatrics of some of the players. Do you guys not get at least a little bit fustrated with the drama-queens? The slightest bit of contact and the opposition rolls on the floor in tears and draws a penalty.

Exaggeration I know, but I've seen some events pretty close to that and it just begs the statement "how pathetic".

Other than that some of the talent is insane, something you don't see as obviously in most other sports.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

Yeah in rugby league.

But it doesn`t match the joy of seeing someone do something really skillful & knock one in from 30 yards out when it looks like nothing is on.

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