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WFAA Sports BLOG |
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November 2008
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The Champions League tournament will resume the quarter finals and semi finals following Friday's drawing in Switzerland to decide the pairings for the eight remaining teams. Four of the eight are of English side. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United all hail from England, and two (Chelsea and Arsenal) are based in London, England. The other non-English teams are FC Barcelona(Spain), AS Roma(Italy), FC Schalke 04(Germany), and Fenerbahçe SK (Turkey). The winners of last years Champions League, AC Milan of Italy were knocked out by Arsenal in an outstanding historic match last week that saw Milan lose to an English side at home for the first time ever! AC Milan were founded in 1899!! It begs the question I pose to any soccer fan... Which country or style is more effective in a tournament involving so many professional teams from so many different countries? It is the same debate that goes on during the World Cup when National pride becomes priority number one and overall production in every country slows to a pace to match the American dollar. haha! Think of last year when AS Roma was throttled by Manchester United 7 - 1. Now that is a score for a soccer match! Does that outcome mean the tough English style is more dominant against an Italian team that relies on swift and accurate passing? Or does it mean Roma had a bad match that day and will be back this year for revenge? Any comments or feedback is welcome and will be responded to asap! UPDATE: Chelsea will play Fenerbahçe SK on April 2 and April 8. I don't know anything about Turkish soccer. Sorry. Barcelona will play Schalke 04 on APril 1 and April 9. If I was a betting man, I would take Chelsea and Barcelona to move through and I will wait and see for the first two. Liverpool play Arsenal in a league game in between so they will be playing them three times in a week. Look for a brawl in that one! The games on April 1 (at least one of them) will be aired on ESPN2 and later rebroadcast on ESPN Classic. I assume the same schedule for the rest of the games and April 2nd, 8th, and 9th.
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I am not huge fan of soccer like some people are and I don't know which country is better at soccer England or Italy. I would probably get more interested in soccer if it became bigger in the U.S.. I pose this question to you and for anyone else for that matter. Will soccer ever become a popular sport in the U.S.? If so, would soccer become more popular than any of our sports in America? When I mean sports I am talking about the four major ones football, basketball, hockey, and baseball.
I was never a big soccer fan until my brother moved to London, England. I went to visit during the Euro Cup in 2004 and every city we went to were in a frenzy over the cup. It rubbed off on me for sure. To answer your question in a word...no. (maybe Hockey)
Although TV ratings for the World Cup in 2006 were fantastic, and a huge number of women were watching worldwide. Outside of the USA, it is "the" biggest sporting event.
Most coverage of European soccer is limited to Europeans living abroad in the U.S.
There is one statistic that still rings true. More kids play soccer than any other youth sport in America. It is most likely that it is so much safer than American football. That leads me to believe that there would be an effect on future coverage since many of those kids may continue to enjoy soccer as they get older and watch the pros play.
David Beckham does not hurt a bit. His influence is global and as way too much hype followed him around in the past MLS season, there are many eyes paying close attention to his career all over the world.
Consider the problems we have had with our pro sports (Baseball and Hockey in particular) and I think it is only a matter of time before more people become interested in what they are doing across the pond.
In my opinion, the talent level is so great that it is bound to get more coverage. However, I know first hand how ridiculously slow and boring it can be to watch an entire game. It is a beating to sit through a 0-0 tie and end with no penalty shootout, but how boring is baseball to sit through for an entire game? I enjoyed that 7-1 Man U game that is for sure. More games like that and U.S. fans would really come around. Make no mistake soccer won't be sharing any time with the top of Dale's sportscast or any other for that matter. Thanks for the comment "Sportsguy."
Go, AC Milan! Go KaKa...
oops...they are not in the tournament.