And why am I annoyed that #$%^ing ESPN doesn’t carry limited overs cricket? (although a week after I beefed at them with email about it they broadcast a 5 minute ‘highlight’) I mean gimme a break they show an hour of sumo at a time, for god’s sake.

“I am pleased to report that the World Cup governing body, FIFA, has finally offered an official explanation of the controversial call in the U.S.-Slovenia game by referee Koman “Ray Charles” Coulibaly of Mars. According to FIFA’s statement, the call — which cost the U.S. a win — was made because the referee, quote, “observed a traveling violation by U.S. player Joe Maca.”

Some Americans questioned this explanation, pointing out that (1) there is no such infraction as “traveling” in soccer; (2) Joe Maca has not played on the U.S. national team since 1950; and (3) he died in 1982. But soccer purists argue that this nitpicking is one more example of how Americans do not grasp the free-flowing beauty and subtlety of international soccer, and need to get over their anal-compulsive need to know exactly what the rules are, how much time is left in the match, why the players are constantly falling down and making the “Y” sign from “YMCA,” etc.”

And baseball isn’t the same as cricket. Cricket games really are three days long. Baseball just seems to take three days.

What are we talking about again?

RAB is just ticked over the continuation of utter sporting failure by British (technically English in this case) sportsmen and teams.

I’m looking forward to seeing Andy Murray get beaten at Wimbledon.

Does this mean that you wont be picking me up at Ben Gurien this weekend, and I’ll have to get a taxi again?

Good grief. There are no sociological, political or anthropological reasons that soccer isn’t as big as baseball, football and basketball in the United States. It’s simply a matter of happenstance and circumstance.

Nope, sorry Tom it isn’t. America was, and in many ways still is, a separatist country, and the country they seperated from is Britain.

Now Britain has invented pretty much every game there is on this planet and gave them to the world.

This was a cunning ploy of course. We take over your countries but we give you a sport to be fanatical about (Soccer, Cricket, Rugby) then we allow you to beat us at these sports, which makes you feel good, while we still control your countries. Simples!

But of course with America, well you just dont like to get beat at anything do ya? So your games are semi self invented, although Baseball is mentioned in Jane Austin and American football is a kind of armour plated rugby.

So you are allowed to win in your own little pool arn’t you? I mean calling the ultimate Baseball games, the World Series is a laugh and a half isn’t it?

Only Basketball and Lacrosse are truly indigenous American Sports, and look how well Lacrosse took off worldwide!

Besides you had a lot of Irish influence in America and they hate British sports for the same reason you do. No Irishman has been any good at Soccer apart from George Best (Who never got to strut his stuff in a World Cup cos the rest of his nation were crap at soccer) and he was Northern Irish anyway.

But I do hope you take this in the spirit it was offered Tom

Oh, is this it now? This the one we’re going to spotlight for a while, now that the “nobody cares about soccer” and “there’s no scoring” memes seem to be taking a hit?

Good grief. There are no sociological, political or anthropological reasons that soccer isn’t as big as baseball, football and basketball in the United States. It’s simply a matter of happenstance and circumstance. It’s about what happened to get solidified during the age of television and mass media in the 20th century.

Moreover, the idea that soccer “isn’t that big” here is wrong in the first place. The World Cup’s television ratings will rival or even best those of the World Series and NBA Finals; MLS average attendance is on par with the NBA and NHL; the visiting European powerhouse teams and international sides pack 70,000-capacity stadiums every summer; and it’s a massive participation sport. There are three networks devoted to 24/7 soccer, ESPN clearly sees a big future (and $$ signs) in the sport, and Fox bid big money to secure Champions League rights.

So your little post is a big mess. It’s a dose of metaphorical hooey applied to a premise that’s false out of the gate.