Alex Massie does a capable job of smacking down this nonsensical critique of soccer. I’d only add that the structure of European football is one of the most inegalitarian in sport (see here and here for details), with big clubs absolutely dominating their smaller competitors in terms of both talent acquisition and revenue. The triumph of unbridled capitalism in Europe? Maybe they’ll fit this into to another one of those bogus trend stories on the EU’s rightward drift.
Will
Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.
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Seriously? Yes, I realize that it’s pretty common to win 1-0, which gives an underdog a good shot at winning just from a lucky shot. Then again, the same or similar thing could be said about baseball or hockey. The difference is that those truly flukish goals against the run of play are a rarity in soccer – the long ball strategy is about the only way for a vastly inferior opponent to get off a decent shot at goal without playing completely above its usual level (as the US did yesterday).
Massie does well to compare the Nats to West Brom, but he should have pointed out that the Nats are also on pace to be one of the worst teams in major league history. Last year, the Nats were more representative of the usual worst team in baseball and managed to win 37% of their games.
Meanwhile, he would have also done well to mention that West Brom isn’t even unusually bad by EPL standards, since the year before, Derby only won 1 game out of 38, tying 8, and losing 29, a winning percentage of .131 (counting ties as 1/2 a win).Report
Sports take on the qualities of modern epics myths. Instead of Beowulf, Arthur or the Iliad, we, in America, have football, baseball, etc. Countries just don’t pick up and become fanatical about a sport until it becomes tied into our myths and legends. The soccer haters are mostly part of the nativist America which can’t handle a “foreign” sport being played here.Report