Peter Culley has an excellent point re: soccer. re: this video...

his Facebook update says simply "why I no longer watch soccer...."



in my comment to the post i basically asked if maybe this was one of the reason's America hasn't fully flown the soccer banner (obviously not the only reason, i've been told that this a somewhat new phenomenon, like 20 years or something right?) i mean, the theatrics on display in this video are pretty pathetic (and not uncommon). i think it's fairly safe to say that the US sports attitude is all about sucking it up, grinning and baring it, not cheating, being a good sport and hustling as hard as you can (and whatever other little league cliche you can think of)...i mean i LOVELOVE watching and playing soccer but i have a definite aversion to men whimpering/ crying/ whining/ pouting in sports...and then when it's exaggerated or downright fake like it mostly is in soccer it's a complete turnoff...i feel like shouting at these turds "act like men you fucking pussies!!!," and yeah that's a hyper-masculine reaction, but then i like my sports hyper-masculine (unless we're talking about Olympics gymnastics where the girls are infinitely more fun to watch)...and i get how this behavior plays into strategy, but now i'm circling back to what Peter originally posted, why he no longer enjoys watching soccer, and maybe this plays into why the majority (??) of Americans aren't very excited about soccer...cause at the surface i can totally see not getting excited about a sport that promotes (by not actively punishing) a strategy where men act like babies to tweak the clock or mess with defensive or offensive flow (or to just catch a breather)...but as Peter implies, it didn't used to be like this. so what happened? does anybody know when things turned for the worse? when things got so wussy? i'm sure there have been articles written etc. if you could explain this to me or point me towards some writing that's been done on this subject i'd be obliged...

also, i don't watch MLS, i'd like to but i don't get cable, and i definitely don't go to San Jose...but i'm curious, do American players act the same way in that league?

and finally, maybe this is all moot and the real reason American's don't like soccer is "because it was invented by Karl Marx, in Mexico, and the French are good at it..." -Gawker article this morning