Gaz wrote:NFL IS more skilled than soccer (football)
More athleticism is needed
Soccer is more precise. Requires more out of each individual athlete. More out of the team as a whole.
Soccer is the most physically demanding, requires the most creativity, agility, overall skill and total athletic ability, more than any other sport by far.
soccer is the most democratic sport on earth. Everyone on the playing field is equal. Everyone gets to touch the ball. Everyone can score, at any given time. Other American sports have a certain hierarchy where certain players are limited to certain tasks that restrict not only their function in the game but their overall playing time. So during the course of an entire game, which may last 3 hours or more, you have some players that may never touch the ball for the entire game. As a matter of fact, they may never touch the ball for a number of games. They may never touch the ball the whole season. This is what has always irked me about certain American sports – there is no equality of functions. Everyone is limited to his specialty task which swallows any creativity and joy of the game and reduces players’ positions to the functions of an automated machine rather than a creative individual playing within the confines of a team unit.
American media always complains about the lack of contact in soccer. If they would actually watch a game, especially a live game, they would see and understand that there are far more injuries, brutal, horrific injuries, and even deaths, in soccer, than any other sport. Soccer players don’t where helmets or pads. They only wear protection on their shins to keep from breaking their legs (which happens quite frequently anyway, even with the guards.). In soccer, you can kick, punch, elbow, trip, head-butt, tackle, push, hold, stomp, the opposing player and often not get called for it. This is just part of the standard flow of the game. Yes, often players overreact to falls or injuries, but this is only to generate a penalty against the opposing team and gain favor toward the win.
Thats why Soccer have more than 3 billion of fans. More people in the world watch soccer by far more than any other sport. To compare it with other sports, NFL has about 400 million fans worldwide.