I think you can easily swap "U.S." with "Canada" on most of these tidbits and it would still be very relevant:
http://deadspin.com/keith-olbermann-...ium=socialflow
Seven Ways To Grow Soccer In The U.S.
I think you can easily swap "U.S." with "Canada" on most of these tidbits and it would still be very relevant:
http://deadspin.com/keith-olbermann-...ium=socialflow
I read "timbits".Originally Posted by jabbronies
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
Stupid points, but it may work for Americans though.
Canadians don't mind supporting soccer while have foreign announcers and have traditional soccer names. I am assuming imitating European fandom means chanting and tifos which is stupid since it's part of supporters culture.
So I don't think this article applies to Canadians that much.
I agree with the "imitating European fandom" comment, but I would extend that to South American fandom as well. You read a lot of discussions on this board on how things are done in this country and that. At the end of the day we do need to come up with our own way of supporting our club and it will and should be unique to our city.
I think coming up with our own chants and songs that relate to us as Canadians is important as well. Right now we take a lot of traditional song from other countries. At what point will we look at our own cultural history and start pulling songs and chants from that?
I wouldn't change it now, but the name Toronto FC is a farce. Most references in our Canadian society to the sport use the word "Soccer". We have a National Soccer Stadium; A Canadian Soccer Association; All broadcasters refer to it as Soccer. You sign your kids up for Soccer camps. Even Toronto FC can't use the word in their marketing.
IMO - The "Stop being a shit head" comment can be used for a lot of supporters in this city. Don't even get me started on that one.
FIFA is a corrupt shit show who would have us play from August to April if they had their way.
Canadian Association Football Association. Love it.
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
Major League Soccer Soccer dot com
those 7 points were terrible. and a poor attempt at humour.
The guy basically makes it out as passionate fans and a more vocal fan environment is what is hurting soccer's popularity. Excuse me? That's one of the things that's making soccer more popular. Doing it the north american/soccer mom way in the past and even in the earlier years of the MLS wasn't exactly setting the world on fire.
An american announcer? LOL
Soccer needs a popluar video game? Well i guess that part is true.... I can't think of any soccer video games that anyone plays. There's one i heard of, but the name escapes me.
the biggest way for soccer to grow in this country (and in North America) is for media to get behind it and treat it as if it was one of the 'big leagues'. By that i mean television + radio coverage and analysis beyond that of gol TV.
As I said in the original post. These are tidbits of things, not really deal breakers.
I do agree with getting better announcers. Some of those guys doing MLS broadcasts are horrible to listen to.
This is the most obvious. You know how many games I have to stream in order to watch TFC play. Not everyone has Sportsnet1 and GolTV. Games should be on main stations only. Otherwise people won't make the effort to watch it.
Don't really care for his list and I suspect this part "Have as little to do with FIFA as possible" is more to do with that anti-UN political isolation bent that the American's always seem to be on. As for the whole self image thing (stop trying to be European, "mystical experiences" and the need for local announcers) sounds more like they're pissed off at being late to the party, therefore it sucks. Personally I don't think any of this will help, but it makes good buzzfeedesq fodder.
I am not sure if you have notice, but the term "football" is often being used a lot lately in the media especially during World Cup (especially by former professional players like Craig Forest).
Chants? Most chants are usually copied, but however, we do have chants that are different from Europe and South America even though it might be consider corny (Example: Let's Go *insert team*).
I agree 100% - especially the bolded part. In the past especially (and to a certain extent now) there has been too much preoccupation on what "authentic support is and isn't" vs letting things grow organically. There has been a resistance in a lot of quarters to letting North American style of support in because "that's not what you do at a football match". To me, that's all a bit silly and contrived. Especially when it was targeted at stuff like the wave (which was started in Mexico '86, has been done at every world cup I have watched, including this years).
Which is funny because he co-hosts a show called "Soccer Central"
He did play in England for a number of years so I can see how it became a part of his vocabulary.
Ya North american chants are lame. That's not what I'm talking about. Not ripping other chants from North american sports. I'm talking about coming up with Canadian chants using Canadian songs.
This is a great Canadian chant:
http://forums.redpatchboys.ca/showth...ct-(alhouette)
This is a really bad example, but this song was a part of my childhood:
But the idea of taking something Canadian like this or a Stompin Tom Connors Song or the fucking Polka Dot Door song or some fun shit like that and making a chant from it would be considered unique and Canadian:
Last edited by jabbronies; 07-03-2014 at 01:07 PM.
He isn't only one though. Even some of people who never played soccer professionally call it football and use other football terms like "pitch". Point is that these terms are used in media openly and isn't a big deal to viewers.
That will only happen if we have more pro soccer teams in the country where that type of chanting is encourage. I don't see it happening with other sports in this country.Ya North american chants are lame. That's not what I'm talking about. Not ripping other chants from North american sports. I'm talking about coming up with Canadian chants using Canadian songs.
Anything you chant at MLS games that isn't "Go Team Go" or "Lets Go *** clap clap clap" can be directed at following European culture because singing and chanting just hasn't seemed to really be part of the game experience in NBA, NFL, CFL, NHL or MLB. The singing and chanting to me has actually gown as far as Ultras/ Barra Bravas / and supporters culture. You see it in places like Australia, Japan, Indonessia, Egypt, all corners of the world really, much like the sport soccer, the supporting culture has become very much a World culture rather then just a European culture.
Olbermann is a known "I hate soccer" guy.
This is the ideas of a football guy. An old white one at that.
He doesn't like what he sees and complains about it - its his schtick.
Sport is passing him by.
Completely true. For some people (but not the sole reason) the reason MLS is growing is actually because it is different from the traditional USA type of sporting atmosphere.
To think that only 30 years ago in the mid 1980s, North American broadcasting marketing types were predicting that the future of soccer in North America was the indoor game when the MISL was at it peak. Soccer/football has come along way but still has some steps to take.
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
You have to admit, Toronto FC is a heck of a lot better than "Inter Toronto" or some of the other crappy names that were being bandied about in 2006.
Totally agreed on FIFA though.
There was a cringe-worthy article in the Wall Street Journal the other day (still not sure if it was in jest or not) giving soccer moms all the credit for the growing popularity of the USMNT. Uggghhh.
That notion makes me laugh, nothing against anyone's mother but supporters involvement has played the biggest part, the growth of the American Outlaws and the events they put on around games has played a huge part in making it what it is today.
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
There was a tree planters song based on the log drivers waltz a few years ago that was pretty awesome. The McMichael had the video playing on a loop and it was one of the more popular art pieces at the time, would love to see some cheesy cool Canadiana down at BMO
hahaha. To many people in USA/Canada write articles about soccer without knowing enough about the sport, they often only ever herd of the World Cup or Euro Cup and don't even know there are pro leagues world wide, its actually shocking. From my experience Premiership on TV probably had one of the biggest growth in getting people involved in USA/Canada , fan culture is also up there for me. I played soccer as a kid, but I didn't actually follow it as a fan until I was about 18, NHL was on strike in 2004 and I went to visit family in England. Went to a game, and wow, the atmosphere was something I never seen before. Watching premiership back home in Canada was how I followed and got involved, and after going to a Leafs game in 2006 and almost got thrown out for standing up to much and being to loud to those around me I then realized as a fan Leafs games weren't for me any more. I went to 3 more games in England that year, and then was so happy when TFC arrived in 2007. Nothing to do with soccer moms. Not to say soccer moms had no role in some kids getting involved competitively in soccer in many cases most soccer moms and dad's probably don't take the sport to serious, its often treated as a thing to do in the summer.
Last edited by james; 07-04-2014 at 01:30 AM.
Same here, the NHL strike killed it for me, then I could afford to attend a few games and was completely thrown off.
Same with baseball, that strike left a lasting scar on me.
Olympic size rink hockey still gets my motor going though, I appreciate the strategy more with the larger ice surface
North america should bring in a futsol league.
Its important for ball control development and great for inner city lack of space for the outdoor game
Point #3 is only point I agree with in his post. Point #7 maybe but I think active participation fuels more than video games ever will and it also can develop talent.
The rest is classic American elitism. Game was invented elsewhere so why must it be changed to suit Americanism? Baseball is played overseas and they stick to the conventional terms and names of the sport as do European hockey clubs for ice hockey. This is an older, Pro-American, conservative type guy with the typical "if it ain't 'Murican it's crap" refrain. Besides, I recall they did try to make a league in the U.S all American and stuff and it didn't work out too well. Even MLS was floundering until that damn Euro-style support and such became prevalent.
point number 7 shows how clueless the guy actually is. there's already a massive popular soccer video game which has been around for decades. I'm no video game expert, but to me it seems like one of the more popular sports video games out there. I'm talking about FIFA by the way.
The Canadian football team that won us Olympic gold in 1904 was called the Galt Football Club: http://www.canadiansoccerhistory.com...Galt%20FC.html
The Western Football Association was this country's first soccer association formed in 1880.
This quote was from the linked website that I pasted above. So the Dominion of Canada Football Association, gave out an FA Trophy from 1926 to 1940.The early teams that became National Champions competed for a trophy known as The Connaught Cup—which had been donated to the Dominion of Canada Football Association by the Duke Of Connaught in 1913—who at that time was Governor General of Canada. Teams competed for this trophy through to 1925. In that year, the Football Association of England gave the DCFA a new trophy known as the F.A. Trophy. This trophy became the one awarded to the National Champions beginning in 1926 and details on the teams who won this trophy are shown on this page. The first names of the players are listed where known, however, the newspapers in the years before 1940 often didn’t print first names.
To say "football" doesn't have deep historical roots in Canada is just wrong.
Last edited by Alonso; 07-04-2014 at 11:13 AM.
Good information!
Olbermann does sports now? Didn't mind him on Countdown but he's just coming off as a douche in this video.
Maybe I'm experiencing what Republicans went through all these years.
I never said anything about historical roots - but to bring that up doesn't do much for the argument to continue using it.
You are talking about references from almost 80 years ago that no longer exists.
We no longer use the term Dominion of Canada - it was essentially removed from official use in 1982
Our national association is called the CSA - not CFA
I don't get the point of bringing all this up considering none of it is relevant today's Canadian Society.
Last edited by jabbronies; 07-04-2014 at 01:25 PM.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote