Aces Full of Links

Regarding the fake injuries - I see that in basketball all the time. Player A fouls Player B and Player B plays it up, flying through the air, falling to the ground, etc... Who says that "drama" is a women's ploy? LOL

I haven't watched basketball since the Celtics and the Lakers were going at it back in the 80's. If they have similar theatrics, then I'm glad I don't.

I don't find that behavior entertaining at all. And soccer has it in spades.

Yes, they've been doing that in basketball for at least 11 years. It's unbelievably lame and childish. Nobody in the NBA is going to be handed an acting gig on the basis of their foul-related theatrics.

As for "I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is" - I don't know how to respond to that. And I didn't know name-calling was limited to "cultured" people.

Sounds like they're both hotheads. Zidane's head-butt was still idiotic from a game perspective, however. He reduced the French team's chances of winning at the exact moment they needed him the most.

It has nothing to do with whining or attempting to get a penalty. It has everything to do with trying to get them to call time for two minutes while you "recover" so that you and your teammates can catch your breath. You don't have tons of time-outs and foul shots and on-and-off the field stuff like you do in other sports so you just try to get a break any way you can.

I distinctly remember my father shouting at the TV, "Alcinder, stop being such a cry-baby." I think he thought that Abdul-Jabbar was trying to get fouls called that weren't deserved. Perhaps this was limited to the one player, however. And yes, I'm going back to Lakers/Celtics, which is the last time I ever watched basketball as well.

If they have a strategic reason, good for them. Not good to watch. Whiny.

Excessive bad acting in soccer/football would be minimized by having more referees on the field. Don't cry for me, Argentina, because four other red shirts saw what you did.

After watching for a couple of weeks I remembered why I'm not a fan. It's fun to watch the actual game but al the acting and the fact that any important game seems to be settled with penalty kicks really turns me off. Seems to me they need some major changes in the sport including:

more refs so they can see when someone's acting and when someone's really been intentionally taken down.

video replay and penalties to players for intentions fouls as well as aggregious faking of fouls

more subs so that if it comes to overtime the players aren't falling over with fatigue.

Some kind of rule change that allows for games to be decided with actual play (pull the goaltender in the second OT, add/subtract players from the field)

There how B.O.B. fixes soccer so americans don't go "this is stupid, I'm a gonna watch NASCAR instead"

LOL, Bob. Perhaps other parts of the world enjoy the theatrics of the sport.

Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle, clearly Americans love wrestling... so why shouldn't play-acting on the soccer field resonate with American viewers.

Maggie- from what I've read recently even soccer fans are getting sick of the play acting

Chuck- because everyone know wrestling is fake and it doesn't take itself seriously (it pretends to but in reality we all know it doesn't). Soccer takes itself al too seriously ("the world's game") and then looks down it's nose at you if you don't agree that it's the greatest sport in the universe.

I wasn't aware soccer even had a nose. See I am completely out of touch with the whole world of sports.

Next thing you'll be telling me that tennis has an elbow.

OK chuck that was an extremely poorly constructed sentence. I tend to type faster than I think then not want to go back and fix errors unless they're eggregious. Try this reconstruction though:

Soccer fans take their sport all too seriously ("the world's game") and then look down their noses at you if you don't agree with their opinion that soccer is the greatest sport in the universe.

I was actually thinking much along the same lines as Chuck, but not exactly the same -- that every culture needs their silly drama sport. For us it's wrestling, and are you sure, Bob, that everybody knows it's fake? Maybe for Europeans it's soccer. But maybe not.

In my high school, soccer was the sport that the... upper class, I guess... boys played, and the other guys played football. It definitely has a snob element to it. It's very athletic and elegant compared with football, which is a lot of smashing. But I was appalled by the head-butt. That was pathetic. It goes to prove, as if we needed proof, that athletic prowess does not guarantee good sportsmanship or any high-quality character traits whatsoever.

Of course, in American football they wear a lot of padding to protect from all the smashing.

Soccer will likely become more popular in this country, if only because it's a game that so many kids play now. It wasn't nearly as widespread when we were kids.

The athletic skills of good soccer/football players can be astounding to watch whether they are on the pitch or a beach volleyball court in Rio de Janeiro. However, at its best I'm afraid the sport is too slow and subtle for casual American sports fans like me who are accustomed to rapid fire highlight reels on ESPN. Aside from the past two years of Red Sox playoffs I don't remember the last time I watched a complete game of anything. So I doubt soccer will ever spark widespread interest here until regular season games appear on television as often as, say, golf (which I enjoy watching, unlike most people).

I think both Bob and Maggie are right. I agree with most of his suggestions to make the game more exciting but as Maggie said the rest of the world make prefer the game just the way it is. The overacting adds to the drama and feeds the regional and national rivalries that clearly seem to be the largest part of football's global appeal.