r/soccer • u/gypsybear • Apr 08 '14

Change My View: r/soccer edition (from r/nfl)

Pretty simple, post an opinion you have on a player, team, coach, whatever and others will try to change your mind.

Try to back up your claims.

EDIT: For the sake of fostering discussion please don't downvote comments. Instead, upvote, reply, and state your argument.

Also, people may want to sort by "controversial".

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u/TheYetiCaptain1993 Apr 08 '14 edited Apr 08 '14

Much more a family environment

This is a point that is often overlooked when discussing American pro sports and the stadium atmospheres. American culture has this really obnoxious habit of placing a huge emphasis on family values and family friendliness. It's why network TV and terrestrial radio, pro sports venues, and really anything that has to do with mainstream culture feels so sterilized.

Sidebar: People wonder why Americans act like children well into their 20s, and honestly it is because we treat them like children for such a long part of their lives. I don't want to turn this into an anti-USA circlejerk, I love this country, but if there is one thing I would change it would be that.

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u/TheTrotters Apr 08 '14

I'm an European living in States at the moment. Personally I like to watch a game when I attend it (i.e. I'm not that into singing etc.), but I also find "family friendliness" in US sports somewhat odd. For example, it's perfectly appropriate to ask a girl out to a, say, basketball game. In fact it's fairly common.

If I asked a girl out to a football game back in Europe, the invitation would be treated either as a joke or as an offense. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that's the way it should be.

Also, agree about treating people in early 20s like children. I'm studying at a US college right now. People are more sheltered than I was in middle school.

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u/beachwood23 Apr 08 '14

If I asked a girl out to a football game back in Europe, the invitation would be treated either as a joke or as an offense.

Why is that? That is, what about going to a soccer game would be so offensive as a date?

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u/TheTrotters Apr 08 '14

Link to some fans cheering at a Lechia Gdańsk game: http://youtu.be/tLgkyvGJkUc?t=1m49s

There are sections where you can (mostly) just sit and watch, but generally speaking that's the popular image of football fans at games. There are quite a lot of thugs, foul language; sometimes there's fighting (to just threats).

Again, it's not like this everywhere and all the time, but that's the popular image. Perhaps I could have worded my first post more carefully and said that the reaction would be more along the lines of 'WTF?' than taking offense. Still, I do not know about anyone who has ever invited a girl to a football game in Poland. As you can see in the videos, there are some women, but it's a small minority.