Quickfire Poll: America wins World Cup vs. Your favorite American sports team wins its championship (ps americans only duh)

I think in baseball it is called the World Bowl or something.

Hockey Super Bowl is called the Stanley Cup and is older than the WC fyi

So is the World Series, by nearly a quarter of a century.

yeah well the olympics is older than everything, so clearly that's better than hockey and baseball

1) NFL
2) COllege Football wins National Championship
3) Stanley Cup
4) World Cup
5) World Series

all the rest tied for last

where is the mls cup option???????????

i voted

1. college football team wins
2. world cup

where is the mls cup option???????????

― mizzell, Thursday, June 24, 2010 2:49 PM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Tied for last with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Phil Mickelson

Stanley Cup is the only thing that can compare imo, tho MLS Cup would be nice too. Can't be bothered w/ the other sports.

xp go fuck a whore, bill

Gee, thanks.

I'm not gonna vote obviously but can I say as a Britishes that I wd vote for my favourite football team winning its championship over England winning the World Cup, so I don't think this is just about how much you guys care about the soccer.

yeah but what if you had a likeable national team

Lamar Hunt U.S Open Cup

The National Challenge Cup was the first truly national cup competition in the United States, as previous cups had been effectively relegated to regional status by the difficulties in coordination and travel caused by the size of the United States in the early 1900s.

xpost

Nah I'll always care a million times more about my club than the national side. Wd guess England fandom breaks down about half and half club v. country.

can I say as a Britishes that I wd vote for my favourite football team winning its championship over England winning the World Cup

As another Britishes, I can thoroughly endorse this sentiment :-)

okay sure, but outside of england how many countries could you say that about?

Why is that, because the main tourney is only every four years, so you invest more time into your club team? That seems to make sense.

xpost

At one time it was true of Spain, not so sure now but probably still is - partly cos Spain is not a comfortably united nation anyway. Off the top of my head that's the only other obvious example tbf

And the reason I put MLS last, dan m, is that of all the other sports listed, the league in the US is the top league in the sport with the best talent. Granted, only hockey and basketball really have established leagues overseas. Even the biggest MLS fan would agree that MLS is nowhere near the top soccer league, possibly not even in the top 10.

xpost

There's a bunch of stuff Bill. It's easy to see the England team as being Londoncentric even tho the make-up of the team at any point doesn't bear this out, it's a prejudice people from the Midlands and the North still can't help having, really. Plus a lot of us aren't especially patriotic I guess so don't have a special feeling for the national side. Plus, as ailsa hinted, the UK ain't just England.

MLB>>>>NBA>>>>>>>>NFL, don't give two shits about the rest.

I've tried valiantly to get into soccer, but it's only slightly more exciting than watching paint dry for 88 minutes of each match.

Makes sense.

xpost

yeah but then the paint EXPLODES INTO THE CRAZIEST THING EVER at the 91st minute

I think most pro sports can be boring if you're not into them. You learn to enjoy the boredom of your own particular favourites.

yeah I mean I love baseball but it's almost objectively boring

American heavyweight unifies the title is the obvious correct answer

only listed things that could happen i think

I support a Britishes club team but do not give one holy flying fuck about England.

I'd take a Scotland Word Cup win over a Celtic league title any time you like (there'll be another league along in a year or so), but make it the Champions League for Celtic, and it'd be a harder proposition to call (assuming that this hell-frozen-over universe allows the playing of football)

shoulda added 'people punching super bowl' I guess

Yeah, Landon and the boys have a better chance of bringing home the Cup (which really isnt a cup if you look at it) than that happening.

xxpost

Things happen constantly in baseball - every pitch has an outcome that plays into the result.

Compare to bouncing the ball back and forth midfield for 60 minutes of every 90.

Soccer is not as boring as hockey, at least.

every kick has an outcome that plays into the result

every sport can be described in those terms

"everything that happens in the game affects the game on some level"

ok that was harsh Bill but really MLS cup is so much more interesting than base- or basket-

See, there's no way most pitches matter in the slightest. I bet you still think cricket is boring.

"ok that was harsh Bill but really MLS cup is so much more interesting than base- or basket-"

My local team, red bulls or metro stars or monster energy cocaine drink or whatever they are calling themselves, has sucked since the league started so there's no buzz about the league around here. Plus they played in the meadowlands until this year which was a distaster for them. And they are not shown on tv. Maybe they will get a bump from the WC.

HEY NOT TRUE AT ALL.

which part, the fact that they have been the worst team in the league since inception, or the fact that their fan base is miniscule? both are true.

Not sure who has a better chance, really, the US winning the WC or the Giants winning the World Series.

yeah it's hard to take a team named after an energy drink seriously, but OTOH I'm sure that's the future for all american sports so maybe we should get used to it

xp

Weber Cup

Not the part about them sucking, they've been gut-wrenchingly terrible for years, albeit with isolated seasons/half-seasons of borderline-good performance that just pointlessly raise hopes. But there IS buzz these days, especially after the nearly successful cup run in 2008 and now the stadium opening. And they most certainly ARE shown on TV! Either MSG network or Fox Soccer Channel has carried every single game this season.

red bull gives you buzz

"And they most certainly ARE shown on TV! Either MSG network or Fox Soccer Channel has carried every single game this season"

Sorry, I stand corrected. And I actually look forward to going to a game at the new stadium, I definitely want to check that out.

the stadium looks beautiful

I've been, it's nice.

Of course the whole thing is built on a backfill pile of rubble so it'll probably fall into the river in a few years.

every kick has an outcome that plays into the result

Every pitch is one step closer to or further away from ending the game, and at any time a pitch could wind up with a decisive result (ie a HR).

Most movement in hockey/soccer is positioning, hoping to setup the once-every-few-minute runs at a result (the vast majority of which end in nothingness).

Football is boring, but that's mostly because it moves so slow courtesy of TV now. At least every play means something.

Those nothing-y movements in soccer can create a psychological gain in momentum tho. It's true that you don't gain territory like in American football but there's often a war of mental attrition going down amongst all of that midfield to and fro.

i am going to make a valiant effort to be a rabid yankee football fan this year but i dont know if i can really manage it. still find it impossible to find any other sport even watchable tbh

As an American without a real team to follow (I jump on various NBA bandwagons), I voted World Cup.

Soccer and baseball are most often accused of being boring, but they both flow pretty well (like molasses, in the case of baseball.) I love the NBA, but with the amount of time I spend watching commercials and free throws it's hard to argue that it's a quality product.

I honestly have a hard time getting into the NFL anymore because I hate so many of the fans and most of the media covering it. No other sport has quite as many assholes who played JV fullback who think they're qualified to be professional talent evaluators and coaches.

American soccer team wins World Cup -- I can appreciate 'football' as a phenomenon and I think the culture around it is interesting. I watch the game and I don't get it, but I never played it as a kid.

My fav NFL team wins Super Bowl -- I've seen my team win it all and lose the big one. I'm not a diehard, but I have gotten pretty bugged when my team loses a big game a bit. The NFL almost too popular now, I can see the hate of the media around it. Doesn't matter as the whole idiot lot of them are going to strike/lockout in a season and try to kill the golden goose by probably blowing a complete season.

My fav NBA team wins Basketball Super Bowl -- Don't really care. I think it is halfway fixed. I liked watching the Bulls with Jordan, they were really entertaining.

My fav MLB team wins Baseball Super Bowl -- I saw one team I follow win it all and one will never win it all. It's a good sport to follow and can both be really tense and relaxing to watch. I think playoff baseball can be about the best, as there can be a whole lot of tension, which kind of unfolds, which might be a similar part of why 'football' is popular.

My fav NHL team wins Hockey Super Bowl -- I get hockey as a sport more than 'football', but I don't follow it all. It has some pretty neat culture around the game. WTF is with the people and throwing an octopus on the ice after a hat trick? Now that is a fan in the classic fanatic meaning.

My fav college football team wins college football Super Bowl -- I really don't like college football much at all even though I really like pro football. If my college won a national title then up is down and down is up and the world has gone totally weird, as they haven't ever won anything even though they have played the game for hundred years or so.

My fav college basketball team wins college basketball Super Bowl -- My college hasn't been that good for a while, but they used to be really good and those losses are the only ones that really hurt and bug me as fan. I truly hate some college basketball teams in totally irrational unyielding ways.

I haven't watched much, but a team sport I think is a pretty good spectator sport is volleyball. It's really fast and you can actually follow the ball on TV. I guess they have pro-leagues in Brazil.

Where is option for America's Cup?

addendum to my ranking: move NBA down, maybe even below NFL. A couple of years ago the Mavericks winning would have been almost as good as seeing the Giants fire Sabean/win a WS (I consider either of these a major victory) or the Red Sox winning another WS - but I didn't watch one game of playoff basketball this year. The refereeing system is broken (incompetence, star treatment, etc.) and Stern doesn't seem to give half a shit. I became a fan because of Finley/Nash/Nowitzki, who were fun to watch even if they weren't going to win a title. Now local b-ball is the same ugly shit they play elsewhere.

My potential sporting highlights of the next 12 months
1, Manny/Mayweather would be the absolute highlight of my sporting year
2. GSP/Silva title fight, if only because it would be a situation where the UFC puts a couple of their marquee names in danger
3. Red Sox sweep the Yankees in the ALCS
4. Cowboys either go 3-13 after Miles Austin and Romo get syphilis or they miss out on the playoffs on a last-second field goal in the last regular season game.

I love the NBA, but with the amount of time I spend watching commercials and free throws it's hard to argue that it's a quality product.

dvr has nearly ruined me for watching a game 100% live

In terms of enjoyment of the actual event, usually America doing well at something unexpected feels like the biggest thing, which can be really fun to watch as it happens, since more and more people get more and more into it. I am a sucker for feeling like I am part of a Moment, and the USA games always feel the most objectively momentous. But if they don't win, basically it's just "Aww, that sucks, fuck Sidney Crosby" and then I move on.

In terms of personal satisfaction, the only two teams I really truly let myself get so emotionally invested in that it seriously hurts when they lose are the UCLA men's basketball team and the Green Bay Packers. It is less fun to watch the actual games once they start getting serious, but there is a weird sense of, like, accomplishment for putting myself through that and having it be rewarded.

most years itd be the yankees winning the world series but this year i gotta go with USA winning the world cup

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

did this hurt more than your fav team losing in a similar fashion in the playoffs?

Not really, because I didn't really expect us to make it much further anyway.

Giving up the early goal sucks balls but the rest wasn't too bad, they just didn't have what it took to overcome Ghana. At least no referee bullshit was involved.

if we were going to go out, it was the best way--outplayed but not outclassed, took it as far as possible, nothing controversial. i didnt have a bad taste in my mouth, just disappointment.

this stung pretty badly cuz we really should have won and because "next year" is actually four years away

and also it was getting pretty fun to see the WC become a big deal here... if we had won, the game after would've been a huge deal, pretty sure my parents even would've wanted to watch

ah but J0rdan "next year" is Gold Cup, Copa America, friendlies... we play Brazil on August 10th iirc

+MlolS of course

ah but J0rdan "next year" is Gold Cup, Copa America, friendlies... we play Brazil on August 10th iirc

― Mahindra Satyam people (dan m), Monday, June 28, 2010 3:04 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

true -- it will be interesting to see what the anticipation to this kinda stuff is -- i think espn has done a commendable job of giving the US nat'l team matches (as well as a select number of non-US, non-WC int'l games) with an appropriate amount of weight

Most movement in hockey/soccer is positioning, hoping to setup the once-every-few-minute runs at a result (the vast majority of which end in nothingness).

you're aware that in realfootball, although the passes don't seem to be getting you anywhere, the defence can't just stop and re-organise after each one, right?

posting this here so as not to derail any BRA-CHI conversation

curious what dan m and others think about this article, talking about Ajax's youth development with America's: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?scp=1&sq=ajax&st=cse

i think these are key grafs:

Also, dozens of top amateur soccer clubs around the country have been designated by the U.S. Soccer Federation as academies, with the intent that they will offer training on a European-based model — more practices, fewer games, greater emphasis on technical skill. They have, however, already drawn criticism that their coaches can’t break an old habit: trying, first and foremost, to win rather than focusing on the stated goal of developing elite individual talent.

The way we approach youth soccer in the U.S. is no more thoughtless than how we groom talent in baseball or basketball. All the same syndromes apply. Overplay. Too little practice. The courting of injuries — for example, the spate of elbow operations for pitchers in their midteens brought on by coaches who leave them on the mound for too many innings. The difference is that because these are, largely, our sports, we have a head start on the rest of the world and therefore a bigger margin for error.

I honestly think that an Ajax-esque model all by itself won't work here for no real reason other than the country is too damn big. USSF needs to be working all the angles, be it pay-to-play (in reality the only way the game can exist in some areas), academies, college leagues, ethnic-based leagues (remember Dempsey/Torres came out of "Mexican" local leagues in Texas), wherever players of potential are to be found. Since 1990 the emphasis is slowly moving away from solely pay-to-play/college circuits, but I think a lot of people believe it should be a faster transition and I don't really see how that's possible.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

nfl fans only care about their fantasy teams these days, eh

Passion split between college / pro sports the opposite of what I expected.

it's because only people whose favorite US sport is baseball would even open a thread with "World Cup" in the title

1 My fav college basketball team wins college basketball Super Bowl
2 My fav NFL team wins Super Bowl

^^these two are tied, i obv would love the eagles to win a SB but since i go to a school that is expected to make a final four run pretty regularly, it'd be nice if they did before i graduate

3 My fav MLB team wins Baseball Super Bowl
4 i guess im kinda embarrassed to admit i don't watch soccer regularly, but international play is exciting for me and it would be super dope to see the US win

don't have a favorite NBA team really (unless lebron goes to the knicks maybe), but NBA playoffs are my favorite to watch of any sport. could care less about hockey

back on the USA youth development front, this article sums up where MLS is pretty well:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5219888/ce/us/future-us-soccer?cc=5901&ver=us