Soccer - "The Un- American Activity"

wrestling is a great sport and one of, if not the toughest. but a lot of times the guys who can't take it, can't take
it because of the conditioning.

 

The whole premise that contact in sports builds toughness is asinine on its face -- football, soccer or otherwise.

Some of the most mentally weak people I've known played sports. Some of the strongest-willed people I've known never experienced having their collarbone driven into the ground (I have), as if that's some life-altering experience, or ever played sports at all.

And vice versa.

 

Which is why non-sports writers should maybe stick to what they know about.
Four years ago, most of these same players came within an inch or two of the World Cup final four.
Donovan, Beasley, McBride, Lewis, Pope, Mastroeni, Reyna.
All played huge roles in 2002.
All played huge roles in 2006.
So in the four years between, while they played in the Bundesliga, EPL, Eredivisie, English first division and MLS, they somehow reverted back to a "soft" soccer upbringing they'd had as kids?
Could the magazine possibly have concocted a bigger pile of crap than that?

 

They started having snacks after games (well, probably just the MLS players) and a couple of their wives bought mini-vans.

 

I'm guessing you're in the minority there.

I played both football and soccer, and football was much more taxing on my body. Yes, in soccer, I got the cleats and bruises and the like, but it was more conditioning than anything else. Our high school soccer team had your usual soccer fanatics, but it also had kids who didn't simply want to do cross country, so they chose to do soccer because it was a team sport.

I never broke both collarbones playing soccer, but did in football. I never hurt my knee playing soccer, but did in football. I never felt so sore I didn't want to move the next day playing soccer, but did in football. It took a mental mettle to play soccer with the running, but no doubt, my physical mettle was put to the test playing football every year.

 

So after five pages, we've gotten away from whether what Toobin wrote was crap (I've established that) and onto some ridiculous, childish dialogue about whether football is tougher than soccer.
Oh, goody.
High-minded debate, that.

 

I'll say it (type it) with a straight face: Football has pads, soccer doesn't. I've played both. Soccer is by far more physical. Your opinion is fine. But the reality doesn't bare it out.

Both sports are very physical. However, I have yet to meet a football player that is as tough as the soccer players I've met. It is what it is.

 

It's not even a debate. It's an established truth that needs no defending.

 

Crass you asked the question and said you were truely interested in the answer. I pretty much knew you already had your response prepared for whatever we would say.

When it comes to Soccer its you who are the narrow minded one. Toobin raises a lot of very good questions that your lack of intlectual honest does not allow you to address.

I will admit that I thought of you when I read that MLS survives because  largely because of Phil Anschultz. That fact must pain you to no end.

 

Or as Thomas Jefferson might say " We hold these truths to be self evident"