Nephilim wrote:heavycola wrote:Nephilim wrote:american footy is probably more exciting in the sense that anything can happen at anytime. someone can take it the distance at a moment's notice. this isn't true in soccer, at least high level soccer, that is.
Nonsense. [urlhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6949569950494158224&ei=8CPZSNWBAZKsiALZ9qHDAg&q=gerrard+marseilles+2008&vt=lf]See Steven Gerrard's first goal against Marseilles last week. [/url]
You could argue that american football, as a set of memes, has done its best to spread the word. There was a european league everyone was trying to get excited about at one point, for example, only nobody did. Proper football has, OTOH, performed much better as a cultural virus. It has attracted and retained billions more acolytes, and continues to do so. Which is the better sport is a meaningless question, unelss you define a sport's 'goodness' as its ability to capture and hold people's imagination and loyalty. Seen from that perspective, proper football wins 1-0. But it's only one way to look at it.
Like you said Iliad, do 2 billion xians make it the best religion? Morally. no of course not, but as a set of successfully replicating ideas, yes.
What a wanky post. My apols.
lol mate, it's unlike you to use such shabby reasoning. one example of a breakdown in defense and a quick goal does not make a very convincing case for you......it is VERY difficult for one person to break down a high level defense in soccer, and still pretty difficult for a whole combination of players to do so......this is incontrovertibly proven simply by the low scores of games, and undeniable except by the insane......
I wasn't really reasoning with the link, merely remembering a goal that gave me a proper semi.
As you say, it's v difficult for one man to score a goal like that. But hey, anything can happen!
that being said, i love the sport, playing and watching, as i said. i'm simply stating that it is much easier to score in american footy--many many players can take it the distance at any time.
this leads to an important point, so all you dumbasses pay attention: pedro stated the purpose of this thread in the original post, "to prove which type of football gives more surprises and ultimately is more interesting than the other." to that end, i made a comment on the "excitement" factor between the 2 games. all you idiots who keep saying there is no way to determine which is "better," f*ck off. we're talking about parity in the respective leagues and keeping interest.
and heavy, the bloke who posted right after you sort of shot a hole in your argument. as far as rating the 2 sports' interesting-ness or influence by gauging worldwide loyalty/popularity, you run into the immediate problem that the playing field is not level.....soccer is soooooo much easier for anyone in the world to pick up. we basically have to throw this whole line of argument out if discussing how interesting/culturally meaningful the 2 sports are.......
Hang on - i didn't equate 'interestingness' with popularity, i was just trying to comapre them in a more meaningful way than 'this sucks'- 'no this sucks'
If more people play soccer, then we can assume that more people find soccer exciting. If that is because it's easier to pick up, then so be it.
Anyway, either we go on from there, or we try and find out whether the average level of excitement experienced by gridiron fans during a game is greater than the av level of excitment experienced by football fans during a game. Which is obviously impossible, although - and I am being an arse here - the 50 per cent of time given over to adverts during a televised american football game must have a negative effect...
is a goal/touchdown more exciting in a game where there are 2 of them or 20 of them?
Does football's world cup raise the sport's average level of excitement vs gridiron's one intranational superbowl?
What makes a game exciting anyway? Scoring? Almost scoring? Level of support for a team? Understanding of the rules and appreciation of skill? proggressing in competitions?
In summary: gridiron is rubbish.
