"Except that here in the Northeast we care about lacrosse"

Lacrosse is cared about in the mid-Atlantic and South too, and is rapidly becoming popular in the West.

It's a little hard to tell what's more predictable: the scores (0-0, 1-0, 1-1) or the coverage (futbol/soccer, indifference, kids play it).

"a life-and-death psychosis that can breed hooliganism, suicide and occasional murder". A psychosis most probably caused by unhelmeted heads butting an oncoming couple hundred miles per hour ball. That also explains why we are different and "exceptional".

He left out the abortive war between El Salvador and Honduras over a soccer game sometime around 1978.

As for "elite party" Huh? Pre-Katrina Mardi Gras in New Orleans was an elite party by this guy's standards.

Denver now has TWO professional Lacrosse teams, along with an up-and-coming DU college team. Even if the pro teams are playing for beer money, I'm amazed at how the sport has caught on here.

What's "Sudoku"? Competitive suicide?

"a minute or two of cumulative excitement"

Ha! Do they even have this much excitement?

And as for the "huge" ratings increase (from CBS Sports):

"The network's broadcast of three matches from the opening weekend, none of which included the U.S. team, drew an average overnight rating of 2.8, a 65 percent increase over the network's average from two matches during the opening weekend of the 2002 World Cup.

Of course, those games were played in Asia, meaning they were on in the early morning in the United States. The average rating for two games ABC broadcast during the opening weekend of the 1998 World Cup in France was 2.5, 12 percent less than this year."

So, 2002 was abnormaly low. A 12 percent increase for live to live comparison from 1998. What was the population increase from 1998 to 2006 in the US?

Soccer, the sport of the future.......and it always will be.

Twn - close. Japanese number puzzles.

mike:

I like watching lacrosse live (I was introduced to it by a couple of former Dartmouth varsity players). It is getting much more popular here in the West, particularly at the high school level. I'd even watch rugby (in person) if I had a reason (like friends playing in the game). Soccer? I'd meet those same friends at a bar afterward for beers, but I'd pass on the game.

This is easy to understand.

The professional sports nitche is fully occupied in the U.S. by Baseball, Basketball and North American Football.

OUr soccer players in other sports get chump change compared to what the top players pull down in other countries.

It should be no surprise that our professional Soccer is really, really poor, and that the glamor is reserved for the aforementioned big three. Given the economuc interests in presering the status quo it is remarkable that Soccer has done as well as it has.

I found this post on Volokh.com in response to a World Cup post:

I have to paraphrase Jim Rome here: i'm not a big soccer fan, but i have to say i was very excited going into this world cup series and now i have already come away pretty bitter and disapointed. Mainly its the terrible television coverage. One of the great traditions in all of sport seems to keep getting cut away from: when the game is done and all the moms pull up their Astrovans to distribute Capris Sun and orange slices before packing the players in for the trip to Chucky Cheese.

Ouch. That hurts a lot.

Following up my last post: The United States plays Italy this Saturday. The really important question is:

Is it is Italy's turn to bring snack or it is the United States' turn?

Stopped by my favorite watering hole yesterday and the boys were actually watching the game between Germany and Poland. Pretty good finish, but then there were no baseball games to watch, either. Or football. Or NASCAR.

Yeah bob, but what were the ratings on the Spanish language channel?

pchuck -- you can have Jim Rome on your side. It's like having O'Reilly supporting your position. An almost sure sign to reconsider your stance.

I do agree tho that the coverage by ESPN and ABC isn't very good. In fact it's terrible. Tho of course so is ESPN's mlb coverage.

I'd rather watch Sentanta's German coverage of the Cup or the Spanish language coverage, tho I understand no German and only a bit of the Spanish.

Several good games today tho. England and Sweden both snatching it at the death.

Jim in Chi: I don't like Jim Rome but you have to admit that is very funny. If you don't think so then you really need to learn how to take a joke. A lot of the soccer fans on this site sound like a bunch of bitter MacIntosh users.

Why would you expect soccer fans to have a sense of humor?

Rome's a t**l and always has been. And that's quite apart from anything he might say about soccer.

Jim Everett should've taken him apart when he had the chance way back when.

Jeez Jim, so was the crack funny?