Every four years I find myself in this same position....trying to justify the game in the face of ignorance.

I work in sports television in Canada. During an evening Sportscentre update, one of our talent referred to Australia as Austria. It wasn't a slip of the tongue.....he saw the AUS in the scoreboard and thought it was Austria. When his mistake was pointed out to him off-air he responded by saying "noone cares anyway".

I mixed another show that is a panel discussion concept featuring a bunch of prominent sports reporters from various main circulation newspapers. Their little segment about the World Cup was completely dismissive and ignorant. "Soccer is boring"...."There's not enough goals"...."The vevezulas are distracting".

So I feel the need to get a bunch of shit of my chest.

Firstly...I played competitive sports when I was a kid....soccer and hockey were my best sports. I can say from experience that the physical pain endured in soccer far outweighs that in hockey. Many in North America don't understand this.

In soccer, your shoe has a top layer of leather (no padding) with a bottom full of cleats. Getting stepped on or clipped on your feet (very common) is an extremely painful experience but the pain goes away very quickly. This is why players spend time on the grass after getting tackled. It's not because they're not tough.

Diving/simulation is a problem in soccer....granted. But this kind of gamesmanship is present in many North American sports as well....basketball and hockey are good examples. North American sports analysts call it 'veteran smarts' or 'IQ' when a player flops on a charge. But in soccer, it's used as evidence to invalidate the quality of the game.

And about the lack of goals....why is it that Americans can find pleasure in watching a 'pitcher's duel' in baseball but not find pleasure in watching a 1-0 score in soccer? Imagine if a foreigner, unfamiliar with baseball, were to say 'this game was boring because one team got no hits and the other got one hit'? A baseball fan would be quick to point out that a game such as this would probably be very entertaining for those who KNOW about baseball.

Which leads to me to another point. Why does everyone feel the need to throw in their two cents when they clearly don't understand the game in the first place? Personally, I don't like auto-racing and golf. But when the US Open or the Indy 500 take place...I don't go running my mouth off about how inept those sports are. I realize that the reason I don't appreciate those events is because I don't understand the nuances, strategies and histories of those traditions.

The true meaning of ignorance is 'placing judgement on something you don't understand'. This is the character of North American perspectives on soccer. And because these sports 'journalists' need to disguise their lack of familiarity with a sport they're paid to cover....they resort to commenting on the vevezulas, lack of goals and diving. Every four years....same shit.

Rant over.