EA Sports: 'How big can football get?' Us: 'Pretty big, we guess?'

INDIOS DE CIUDAD JUAREZ!!!!!!!!!!!!1

AGUILAS!

Burrito.

OMLE DU FROMAGE

Viva las Chivas!

no one wants to watch your garbage mexican league...its all about La Liga and the Champions League...Chivas would never defeat a Liga team.

@jsocontrer

That's why Chivas tied pinche Barca (yes, that same Barca) 1-1 in their friendly this summer. How weaksauce your memory is.

Barca and Dep Coruna in the Liga, and Arsenal in the EPL!

Yeah, it almost makes SOCCER look exciting.

Secret to soccer's success here:


Have cheerleaders.

cheerleaders NO NO NO NO NO NO NO OH AND NO!!

why does this have anything to do with America?

you don't like football. we know. no one cares. it's not about you.

The question is why do Americans find it boring? Really, football is about 4 seconds of action followed by 36 seconds plus of watching coaches grimace and Jerry Jones pick his nose.

Soccer never had the chance to become part of American culture the way the other sports have. The reasons are many, it's actually very interesting (check out "Soccer In A Football World" or "The Ball is Round"). I think things are gonna change now with HD and excellent worldwide leagues on TV.

Yeah the most popular sport in the world really needs approval from americans.

"It just isn't going to happen, it might become a fad, but Americans find "soccer" boring, speaking in general terms, ofcourse.

I did have a laugh when LA sold a shitload of tickets, cause people just wanted to see Beckham, and then he didn't play cause of a sore ankle or something."

who are you talking to, and what are you talking about?

Soccer is not the most popular sport in the world, cricket is.

I think football has become so popular because it's great for TV. Plenty of time to see multiple replays of the action or to go and get more food. All the downtime allows the commentators to explain exactly what just happened, etc. All three of the most popular US sports (football, baseball, and basketball) have corresponding downtime to their order of downtime (football most, basketball less). Soccer has long stretches of play wherein a replay would mean missing what just happened, and thus the average American cannot become as educated simply by watching. In a lot of other countries, I get the impression that soccer is consumed much more in person, where commented replay is not a possibility, and thus soccer does better. This is my theory, at least.

Additionally, as a huge hockey fan, I agree that the spread of HD will make both soccer and hockey more accessible to the average American, as it will allow people to more easily see what's happening on the screen and maybe decrease the need for replay. Unfortunately, hockey has a rather high barrier to entry (with regard to understanding the game), which also doesn't help.

A great part of the appeal of football is the irrational love for your team. I may be watching a very boring match but if my team is playing I enjoy watching it more than a great match for two teams that mean nothing to me. I still enjoy to see good matches from other teams but I find that for most people the love for the team surpasses the love for the sport.

Talking about boring you guys must really love baseball, now that's a boring sport :)

Does it matter whether you find it boring or not? 2010 will play host to the next world event of football's fifa world cup, where several countries will be competing to take home a 'boring' cup, that of which only one country can win, the winning country will be up in arms with thier win like as if it were the celebration of a new year. It happens every world cup, it may not be the most popular, the most high paying, the most fast paced or what you consider to be the most manly sport in the world, but it's without a doubt one of the biggest sports on this planet, When I can see another sport that fills stadiums across the world like nothing for a big match, make people travel right across the globe to witness it, pay any price to see a match, have the equivalent of a small island worth of fans in tears or even an entire country in tears if they don't win a major match, have one of the most anticipated world events in any sport AND have individual players praised and loved everywhere (Beckham for example), only then will it matter that some individuals find it boring.

And I'm not even going to say American's as a whole, because I known several Americans who have travelled all the way to the UK to watch thier UK team play in a final + its ignorant.

I'm not American, presumptious asshat.

I'd rather be watching a boring soccer game then the commerical-fest that is football.

@ MystileArmor

Who said you were? I was directing my point to both you in particular finding it boring and joshua's comment about American's finding it boring.

please don't take that idiot as representative of all Americans. add cheerleader so soccer will be successful? lol. soccer is so dominant in the rest of the world it's not even funny, i don't think it needs any help. now, i generally prefer watching (american) football, but i can also enjoy watching soccer, mostly due to how dazzled i am by the skills of the players.

bottom line: watch what you want, and don't make fun of other people's sports.

The generalizations about why Americans find soccer/football boring are going to be its cure. The fact that so many people here in the US now know that "Americans dont like it because its low-scoring/no-commercial breaks/no cheerleaders etc" just shows that awareness and knowledge of the game is growing, and quite rapidly. Haters of the game are now few and far between, as they mostly have turned their attitudes towards that of apathy and pessimism.

With TV coverage of the game at an all time high (networks were in a bidding war over the Champions League broadcast rights here), the sport will grow each year until a tipping point is reached. Sure, it may never replace the big 3 other sports here but there is plenty of room for another.

Why does everything need cheerleaders and mascots to be good? I don't watch matches to see a parade, I watch them to see my team win! That's possibly the worse excuse not to like a sport I've ever heard, lmao, just say it's not your thing, simple as that :D

I hope its not late to say I wasn't serious about that.


i.e. I was joking.

Good soccer is somewhat hard to follow from the US, and MLS is pretty mediocre. I fell in love with soccer when I studied abroad in Italy and managed to follow the cup afterwards when I was just backpacking around for a cuppla months. Saw Italy play while I was living there, saw France play when I was in France (rioting under the Eiffel Tower afterwards), saw the Netherlands play when I was in Amsterdam, etc. Soccer just has such an incredible energy and devoted fan base just about anywhere outside the US.

Plus I even saw a charity game (Partita del Cuore) while I was in Italy that Rod Stewart played in, and Gorbachev was in attendance for!

I'm curious as to what the dissenting opinions to my balanced statement were, unless you are all angry that cricket is enjoyed by a greater number of people on this planet than soccer (a comment which I threw out there jokingly anyway). Hockey is my favorite sport, and it doesn't matter to me one bit that it's quite ignored by a large percentage of the 6.5 billion people on this planet.

@enrique:

Americans aren't good at soccer because our best athletes pursue other careers. For a country that's very competitive in every sport that we actually have a legitimate professional league in (you can't count the MLS), I think the same could happen for soccer if American kids grew up with pipe dreams of making it big playing the sport. I know they can dream of going to Europe to play, but (as evidenced) that option doesn't compete well with the football dreams, baseball dreams, etc.

@Markez:

I enjoy watching quality soccer a lot, especially UEFA Champions league, but the MLS just makes me sad too. Such sloppy play. That charity game sounds pretty funny (the only parallel I can think of here would be the weird NBA All-Star weekend distraction with rappers and such playing), and I imagine it was pretty sweet to see.

NO!

¡Hala Madrid!¡Hala Madrid!
Noble y bélico adalid caballero del honor!

You're both wrong

Blue is the color, football is the game
We're all together and winning is our aim
So cheer us on through the sun and rain
Cos Chelsea, Chelsea is our name!

Vindaloo
Nah Nah Nah
Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah
Vindaloo
Vindaloo
And we all like Vindaloo!

@ Rudy

Glory Glory Indeed.

@ Crack Fox

you sir are wrong. Its:

Green is the colour, football is the game
We're all together and winning is our aim
So cheer us on through the sun and rain
Saskatchewan Roughriders is our name!!

Fuck you Edmonton.

@Electro Poof

Enjoy Cristiano Ronaldo mate. We won't miss him

@Crack Fox

Hahahaha! You bloody fool, you fail.

Glory glory Man united!

Rooney's face annoys me -_-

Wow you people are deluded if you think PES10 is more accurate simulation of football, considering Konami have themselves said that "Arcade action" is the direction they are taking, add in to the fact that anyone who has ever kicked a ball in his life knows that PES doesn't even come close to what football really is anymore. The good old days of PES4 etc unfortunately are gone, and the only football game that comes to close to encompassing what football is, is FIFA.

The King is dead, Long live the King.

God damn it Joystiq comment system, that's not who I was replying to at all!

MANCHESTER UNITED fan for life here, so this commercial made me that much more amused.

I don't know why I haven't bought this game already.
Oh yeah, I'm *still* trying to get all the silly shaite in TEAM FORTRESS2. x_x

The reds are going down this year. LA LIGA IS TAKING OVER!!! REAL MADRID FOR THE TREBLE!!! KAKA FTW!!

Winning Eleven died as soon as they ditched their cool name and changed it to "Pro Evolution Soccer" gagmewithaspoon.

BS, have you tried the Demos side by side? PES 2010 is the clear winner.

PES has always been the winner. FIFA just does everything else so much better, aside from what matters: the core gameplay.

I downloaded both demos on my PS3 and clearly this years the cup goes for PES, they really fixed all those issues of the previous game.

FIFA still is an arcade game while PES is a pretty great and accurate simulator football game.

Of course I could be a bit biased since I've always love PES / WE games :)

wake me when PES finally ditches the core PS2 engine

It was a good game.. last generation, on current consoles its an insult to technology.