Soccer/Sports Etiquette

[BlueMerle]

I don't watch a lot of soccer. If the US has a team in the world cup I'll watch. Men or women. So I'm not fully aware of soccer etiquette, though I would assume it's similar to pretty much every other sport.

Yesterday, the US women's team beat Thailand 13-0 and set several records in the process. Over here they're being both praised and roasted. Praised for the win and roasted for, what many consider to be very poor sportsmanship, celebrating so much after each goal.

The unwritten rule here in the States, for pro or college or beer league, is this: Play hard until the game is over, don't ever let up, put your foot on their throat! That said, the other part of that rule is don't ever rub your opponents nose it. IOW, keep scoring but stop the over-the-top celebrations.

I have no problem with them continuing to score. If the other team doesn't like it all they have to do is stop them. But, I do have a problem with the excessive celebrations after the 5-0 point in the game. By then it was clear that Thailand was way out of their league.

 

[BlueMerle]

It depends entirely on the game and the history behind it.

If my local team was to beat their rivals 13-0 they would be celebrating each goal longer and longer and they have done so when they battered them last year and put 5's and 6's past them.

However if an international against san marino or the likes. You should really stop celebrating after 2 or 3. I think they were wrong to celebrate over the top against Thailand because no rivalry there and it was pretty much a non sporting event.

That's a good point about the local rivalry, and I agree. Should the Cowboys beat the Redskins 77-0 they'd cheer every TD and so would I.

 

[BlueMerle]

Generally speaking if a team is getting spanked then the team doing the spanking will ease off as the fifth+ goal goes in, to the point of just general patting on the back and the odd hand up in the air.

Yeah, that lines up with how I see things and how most athletes in any sport see things.

The US Women's team are probably just happy they aren't being beaten by an U15 boys team, so all power to them.

Truth be told, you could say the same for any Women's team, not just the US.

 

[BlueMerle]

I don't see an issue with it, some of the goals were the 1st some of the players had scored in their 1st World Cup and also what happens if they 'let up' after 5 and then someone else went and stuffed Thailand for 10+ and the US then missed out on goal difference.

This is a competitive game and it's Thailand's job to stop US from scoring, obviously they were well out of their depth but come on you can only beat what's put in front of you. I do agree celebrating the 9+ goals like you've just won the Cup is a bit OTT but they didn't do that they congratulated the scorer and each other rather than run down the touchline windmilling their shirts and giving the Thai players the finger.

But that's just it. No one is suggesting that they let up after X goals. Just that they stop the excessive celebrations, nothing more.

 

[BlueMerle]

They were though, pundits and commentators alike were saying they shouldn't have scored so many as to not embarrass the Thai's, also I don't see the celebrations as excessive, if they hadn't celebrated people would be saying it's disrespectful because by not celebrating it's as though they were expecting to score so many goals, way I see it to score any goal for your country nevermind it being at the World Cup is worth celebrating.

Interesting. I've honestly not heard that on this side of the pond.

 

[BlueMerle]

The thing that bothered me more than anything was Abby Wambach's moronic tweet claiming that the criticism was all coming from men who were being sexist, and that no men's football team would be criticised for celebrating goals.

Agreed. She's a radical feminist that, a'hem, plays for the other team. NTTAWWT, jus' sayin'.