Is it called soccer or football? Oh hell!

And so, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as FIFA, came to an end this past Sunday, with España reigning victorious. This being España’s very first title, I can understand the glory and honor that winning the world cup brings to the country because hey let’s face it, what country wouldn’t like to say that their better than everyone else in the world (even if it just comes to one specific sport)??

As FIFA ended, so did my ritual of being glued in front of the television with my father, as the sound hundreds of Vuvuzelas filled my living room, giving off the appearance of technical difficulties occurring with my television. Another thing that ended was being glued to a radio station online, listening to the matches, and wishing that I could actually see the action live (Brasil 2014, maybe?). On the other hand, what didn’t end was the criticism from Americans about their hate for soccer, which is called football, to the rest of the world.

While reading articles on CNN, MSN, Fox Sports, I came upon a plethora of articles in which the writer complained about: A. soccer not being a real sport like football, American football that is (and why is it called “football” when it’s played with your hands?), B. how annoying the fans were along with the Vuvuzelas, C. how soccer was full of theatrics and the players were better suited for Broadway than being called athletes, D. how the scores are so low (even though a 2-1 score in soccer is comparable to a 14-7 score in football, as pointed out by one of the Fox sports writers) and E. how the game can go on for 90 minutes and still result in a draw.

As I sat reading these articles, I asked myself why the articles were published in the first place. It just sounded to me as though the writers were just bashing and trashing something they clearly didn’t under and giving off the air of being arrogant and of lacking appreciation. It’s fine to have your favorite sport and all and to like American “true” sports such as football and baseball but to actually sit down and completely criticize a sport and the players of that sport and not give them the credit they deserve for training for so long and making it to the world cup, is utterly ridiculous and classless. Does it really hurt to put with a big sporting event that occurs once every FOUR years? And even if it does hurt you to put up with it, guess what, CHANGE THE CHANNEL for Pete’s sake! I feel as though some of these writers should be ashamed of their articles and the companies that published the writers should also be ashamed of this absurdity. I could also sit here and write about why x, y, or z sport is my favorite and why all other sports suck but in the end, who really cares? People are going to like the sport they like and not like others but completely discrediting the hard work of athletes just because you don’t like nor understand the sport is absolutely disgusting.