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[HRK69]

I wanted to share this absolute gem that's been circulating on YouTube for years and still gives me chills every time

It's just a tiny slice of the endless beauty in football, but damn if it doesn't capture it perfectly



What do you think? Let's talk about the beautiful side of the game

Spoiler

This is also an invitation to the community thread around the subject

|OT| Community Sports  Thread 'Football: A Game Of Two Halves & A Round Ball, It's A Funny Old Game'

Aug 5, 2025

Welcome To The Football OT

This topic will encompass all of the football seasons going forward, across all leagues and the various cup competitions.

This includes, but is not limited to:

English Premier League, League Cup & FA Cup
La Liga & Copa del Rey
Serie A & Coppa Italia
Bundesliga & DFB-Pokal
UEFA Champions League
UEFA Europa League
UEFA Conference League
UEFA European Championship
Copa America
Copa Libertadores
Africa Cup of Nations
FIFA Club World Cup
FIFA World Cup...​

• T8SC
• Replies: 578
• Forum: Communities

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[HeisenbergFX4]

Oh you mean soccer, came in here expecting actual football

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

Football is dead.

It is a business now.

 

[Trunx81]

Oh you mean soccer, came in here expecting actual football

You're not getting the FIFA Peace Prize for that stupid, provocative, and unnecessary comment

 

[Windle Poons]

Edit: fuck my life.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

You're not getting the FIFA Peace Prize for that stupid, provocative, and unnecessary comment

The UK coined the term soccer, don't be hatin on us Americans for using it

 

[Windle Poons]

EDIT 2: who gives a shit what its called.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Oh you mean soccer, came in here expecting actual football

Seeing the footage shows a game played with feet .

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Seeing the footage shows a game played with feet .

I will admit I have tried getting into watching this game and it just doesn't do it for me

I did attend one Inter Miami game and it was for sure more fun being there over watching on TV

I think a part of it here in the US is just not being competitive enough on the world stage and to that I blame back to the High School level where area athletic directors I have spoken with push the best athletes to Basketball and Football because that makes the schools the most money

Had one AD tell me "Soccer is for the kids not athletic enough to play Football or Basketball"

I don't believe this but that is the mindset of so many schools

 

[spookyfish]

I will admit I have tried getting into watching this game and it just doesn't do it for me

I did attend one Inter Miami game and it was for sure more fun being there over watching on TV

I think a part of it here in the US is just not being competitive enough on the world stage and to that I blame back to the High School level where area athletic directors I have spoken with push the best athletes to Basketball and Football because that makes the schools the most money

Had one AD tell me "Soccer is for the kids not athletic enough to play Football or Basketball"

I don't believe this but that is the mindset of so many schools

Huh. In my experience, GOOD soccer players are extremely fit, can probably run longer and farther (further?) than most football players (burst runners) and faster than some. I was a pretty fast sprinter when I was young (LOL not so much now) and I remember a foot race with about five of us. I smoked three of em -- the soccer player left me like I was standing still. It was a bit humiliating. BUT -- YMMV.

EDIT: I think football players would DEFINITELY have the strength edge, tho.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Huh. In my experience, GOOD soccer players are extremely fit, can probably run longer and farther (further?) than most football players (burst runners) and faster than some. I was a pretty fast sprinter when I was young (LOL not so much now) and I remember a foot race with about five of us. I smoked three of em -- the soccer player left me like I was standing still. It was a bit humiliating. BUT -- YMMV.

100% agree with you, soccer players are extremely fit and likely have the best endurance of all athletes in the top 4 sports (in the US)

Just saying as of right now soccer isn't taken as seriously as other sports at the Jr High/High School level because it doesn't make money for the school

Kids are told by people they should trust something like "Oh you are too athletic to waste that on soccer, play basketball or football to showcase what you can do" which is very impressionable to young kids

 

[AJUMP23]

It is a beautiful game at times. My son is a good little goalie and winger for 11.

 

[spookyfish]

100% agree with you, soccer players are extremely fit and likely have the best endurance of all athletes in the top 4 sports (in the US)

Just saying as of right now soccer isn't taken as seriously as other sports at the Jr High/High School level because it doesn't make money for the school

Kids are told by people they should trust something like "Oh you are too athletic to waste that on soccer, play basketball or football to showcase what you can do" which is very impressionable to young kids

Oh for sure. You're not wrong.

 

[Putonahappyface]

I miss the good old days.

 

[DKehoe]

I will admit I have tried getting into watching this game and it just doesn't do it for me

I did attend one Inter Miami game and it was for sure more fun being there over watching on TV

I think a part of it here in the US is just not being competitive enough on the world stage and to that I blame back to the High School level where area athletic directors I have spoken with push the best athletes to Basketball and Football because that makes the schools the most money

Had one AD tell me "Soccer is for the kids not athletic enough to play Football or Basketball"

I don't believe this but that is the mindset of so many schools

Similarly, I've tried getting into US sports but it's never really clicked with me. I absolutely respect the skill, tactics and athleticism involved in an NFL game but I've just never really connected with it that much. Although I have been wondering recently about trying to watch more basketball.

I think with sport, a big part of getting invested is the culture. Growing up with your family following the sport and a particular team imprints on you. So does playing it as a kid. Then there's stuff like is it getting covered a lot in the media, so it's all around you and seems important. As a guy "did you watch the game last night?" is a standard go-to topic of conversation whether it's someone you've known for years or someone you've just met and so, consciously or not, being into a popular sport is a good way to connect with people. So if it's not got those footholds then it's harder for people to get into.

Also even the best American players are, to be blunt, not that great. Which is understandable because, like you said, kids get directed to other sports. But it naturally makes it less relatable to an American watching it. Whereas a European or South American kid can watch someone who grew up near where they did who is now getting treated like a god and think "that could be me." So it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation where you kind of need one to make the other happen.

I miss the good old days.

Hail to the king.

 

[HAYA8U5A]

 

[Froggo]

It has its moments but every game is so filled with bad sportsmanship it puts me off. All the players are petty, cheating little twats.

 

[AJUMP23]

Now give me a compilation of Flops and Suarez biting people.

 

[Putonahappyface]

 

[Trunx81]

 

[Gp1]

Huh. In my experience, GOOD soccer players are extremely fit, can probably run longer and farther (further?) than most football players (burst runners) and faster than some. I was a pretty fast sprinter when I was young (LOL not so much now) and I remember a foot race with about five of us. I smoked three of em -- the soccer player left me like I was standing still. It was a bit humiliating. BUT -- YMMV.

EDIT: I think football players would DEFINITELY have the strength edge, tho.

Let me show you the real Ronaldo (not the Portuguese copycat), 120 kg, exhaling visceral fat, 30 plus years old, after two of the worst knee surgeries in the history of the sport, chain smoker...

...Accelerating like a 100m sprinter and scoring afterwards.



And they say that today's Mbappé with 20 years old 38km/h is fast... Those Europeans...

 

[DKehoe]

It is mad that headbutt was basically Zidane's last act as a professional player. He was incredible in that tournament too, still at the very top of the game.

 

[willothedog]

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

 

[winjer]

The UK coined the term soccer, don't be hatin on us Americans for using it

7.65 Billion people call it Football. Only Americans call it soccer.

 

[AJUMP23]

That Germany Brazil Drubbing in the World Cup in Brazil was very memorable.

 

[AJUMP23]

7.65 Billion people call it Football. Only Americans call it soccer.

I think you mean Billion.

Can those other billions Fly into a country in the dead of night and capture a dictator and not lose a man? We call it what we want.

 

[GymWolf]

As an italian, i'm glad zidane did what he did, materazzi was famous for being a piece of shit.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

7.65 Million people call it Football. Only Americans call it soccer.

Maybe but England coined the term then got mad at us for calling it that now we are the idiots for using a term they coined

 

[winjer]

Maybe but England coined the term then got mad at us for calling it that now we are the idiots for using a term they coined

We can blame for English for a lot of things...
Still, why persist on their error.

 

[LordCBH]

The greatest feeling in football is winning an SEC championship, something the European mind can't even comprehend.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I will admit I have tried getting into watching this game and it just doesn't do it for me

I did attend one Inter Miami game and it was for sure more fun being there over watching on TV

I think a part of it here in the US is just not being competitive enough on the world stage and to that I blame back to the High School level where area athletic directors I have spoken with push the best athletes to Basketball and Football because that makes the schools the most money

Had one AD tell me "Soccer is for the kids not athletic enough to play Football or Basketball"

I don't believe this but that is the mindset of so many schools

Most football (soccer) matches are played incredibly defensively and can be super boring to watch, it was painful to see the Italian team, when it won its latest World Cup, when they would score a goal and then fly back in defense and slow the game down to a crawl… .

There are some matches with some teams where player are actually trying to compete and enjoy the game (and try not to cheat) and those are a step up above the rest and by a lot.

In a lot of cases, like volleyball before the rule that allowed to score a point even when it was not your serve was introduced (before it was gain control when the opposing team serves, serve, score a point… which could mean that in some cases you could play for a long while without anyone scoring points), football could often be much more entertaining to play than to watch .
A lot of modern football (soccer) is quite slow, full of pauses, no fair play anymore, and rampant cheating attempts.

There is a reason why I kind of switched off of it and turned to Rugby and sometimes Kabaddi (did not know Italy had a national Kabaddi team ). Rugby feels a lot lot closer as how football used to be 40-50 years ago.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Maybe but England coined the term then got mad at us for calling it that now we are the idiots for using a term they coined

It was a trap to punish Americans for the independence war, the U.S. was meant to fall for it .

 

[Panajev2001a]

As an italian, i'm glad zidane did what he did, materazzi was famous for being a piece of shit.

Yeah, but to the eyes of most Italians Materazzi's behaviour earned us the World Cup so it was the "Furbo" thing to do… sigh…

 

[Panajev2001a]

It is mad that headbutt was basically Zidane's last act as a professional player. He was incredible in that tournament too, still at the very top of the game.

The game against Brazil had him outshine them through and through.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

It was a trap to punish Americans for the independence war, the U.S. was meant to fall for it .

I just find it amusing because the term aggravates the very people who's culture came up with it

 

[kanjobazooie]

 

[Panajev2001a]

I just find it amusing because the term aggravates the very people who's culture came up with it

History of the continent 101 .

 

[Catphish]

 

[Catphish]

I tried to like soccer. I truly did. I gave it a real shot for a few years. But I can't take any sport seriously where flopping and gaming the ref is an accepted part of the strategy.

 

[BigDeadFreak]

You'll have to excuse the low resolution, it's an old video.

 

[IDKFA]

Football is dead.

It is a business now.

This.

Football used to be the sport fot the working class, but it's now just a mega corporate money making machine.

Top flight football in England is dead to me. Players on 500K a week. Ridiculous ticket prices. Replica shirts costing a three figure sum. Foreign owners buying clubs and using them as an investment (especially the Yanks). "Clubs" (can they still be called clubs now?) trying to reduce season tickets to increase corporate and tourist tickets, which they can charge more for with dynamic pricing...........

That's just England. Look at what FIFA is doing with the insane WC ticket prices. Corrupted as fuck.

 

[DKehoe]

This.

Football used to be the sport fot the working class, but it's now just a mega corporate money making machine.

Top flight football in England is dead to me. Players on 500K a week. Ridiculous ticket prices. Replica shirts costing a three figure sum. Foreign owners buying clubs and using them as an investment (especially the Yanks). "Clubs" (can they still be called clubs now?) trying to reduce season tickets to increase corporate and tourist tickets, which they can charge more for with dynamic pricing...........

That's just England. Look at what FIFA is doing with the insane WC ticket prices. Corrupted as fuck.

It's horrible when you see all these stories about pensioners who've had season tickets for decades but are now being priced out after price hikes. Like you say, it's meant to be a pastime of the working class and a club should be part of the community.

 

[GymWolf]

Are you telling me that football\baseball\basket players don't waste any time when they have an advantage and don't exagerate fouls to get a free shot or some shit? Hard to believe...

 

[Catphish]

This.

Football used to be the sport fot the working class, but it's now just a mega corporate money making machine.

Top flight football in England is dead to me. Players on 500K a week. Ridiculous ticket prices. Replica shirts costing a three figure sum. Foreign owners buying clubs and using them as an investment (especially the Yanks). "Clubs" (can they still be called clubs now?) trying to reduce season tickets to increase corporate and tourist tickets, which they can charge more for with dynamic pricing...........

That's just England. Look at what FIFA is doing with the insane WC ticket prices. Corrupted as fuck.

It's the same thing in American sports.

I remember as a kid seeing the cover of Sport magazine, in like 1984, where Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles (baseball) was the highest paid pro-sports athlete at $2M per year. That's about $6.25M in today's money.

Today's top-paid US athlete is Stephen Curry at (holy shit) $156M. The only guy that has that beat is Cristiano Ronaldo at (jfc wtf) $275M.

Meanwhile, tickets for the average Joe are a once-a-year affair, jerseys are, like you say, well into the triple-digits, tv subscription prices are like 3 or 4 times what you would pay without a sports package, and all the while advertisements are jammed into your fucking eyeballs at every opportunity. You literally can't look anywhere in a stadium, or anywhere on the tv screen, without having some corpo bullshit fisted into your hapless brain.

I fucking hate it, and it has a lot to do with why I've given up on pro sports. I might shell out a few bucks to watch a minor league baseball game or something now and then, but God knows they're working their bullshit there, too.

 

[Catphish]

Are you telling me that football\baseball\basket players don't waste any time when they have an advantage and don't exagerate fouls to get a free shot or some shit? Hard to believe...

In the US, when they do it, they're called out for it. Perfect example is Lebron James, who's just fucking shameless with it, and has thus earned the moniker "LeFlop". And usually, instant replay will show the truth of it, but that's nowhere near as prevalent in soccer as it is in American sports.

 

[Trunx81]

It can be life changing and influence a whole country.

 

[DKehoe]

 

[IDKFA]

Today's top-paid US athlete is Stephen Curry at (holy shit) $156M. The only guy that has that beat is Cristiano Ronaldo at (jfc wtf) $275M.

Insane money and the same in Europe. Players on multi year contracts and picking up half a million every week. I love footy as a sport and have grown up with it, but I can't justify someone getting paid 500K per week to kick a ball.

Meanwhile, tickets for the average Joe are a once-a-year affair, jerseys are, like you say, well into the triple-digits, tv subscription prices are like 3 or 4 times what you would pay without a sports package, and all the while advertisements are jammed into your fucking eyeballs at every opportunity. You literally can't look anywhere in a stadium, or anywhere on the tv screen, without having some corpo bullshit fisted into your hapless brain.

And that's why these players can get paid such stupid amounts of money. The clubs (Franchise in the US, right?) squeeze as much money as they can out of the hard working public. The clubs or players don't give a shit about the fans.

Case in point, in Spain the Spanish FA have allowed the The Spanish Super Cup to be held in Saudi Arabia until 2030. How many fans of Spanish teams will be able to attend games in Saudi Arabia? I mean true fans as well. The ones who were born and raised in the cities/towns of their teams, where football is part of the community.

The Spanish FA and Italian FA both want to stage league games abroad as well. Will season ticket holders get a refund if they can't attend a "home" game played in Australia? Will they fuck!

I fucking hate it, and it has a lot to do with why I've given up on pro sports. I might shell out a few bucks to watch a minor league baseball game or something now and then, but God knows they're working their bullshit there, too.

I'm with you.

Done with the modern game and modern sport in general. I'll just watch my local non-league team where a ticket, hot food and a drink is under £15.

 

[Forsete]

I thought this thread was going to be about hand egg.

 

[DKehoe]

Case in point, in Spain the Spanish FA have allowed the The Spanish Super Cup to be held in Saudi Arabia until 2030. How many fans of Spanish teams will be able to attend games in Saudi Arabia? I mean true fans as well. The ones who were born and raised in the cities/towns of their teams, where football is part of the community.

I wonder about the flip side of that too. The Saudis have sunk a shitload of money into their own football league to try and position it as being legitimate. But say you're an average Saudi guy who supports your local team, are you now not clearly being told that the European teams are still the big boys and that's the real football?