Final Blog

1) What kind of mind are you?
I am an ethical mind. In most of my blogs I stated how my opinion would affect the society. I gave details on what the world needs to do in order to promote the support of the World Cup. Exploring the ideals of the American society, I connected the ideals behind the World Cup and soccer in general to make it seem more appealing. I showed how everyone can benefit from a greater supporting of the World Cup

2) Part 2
In my blog I looked through the view points of others. I had to think the way other countries do about soccer in order to understand how our country can better support it. By comparing American ideals to the ideals of other nations, I was able to better understand and back up my opinion.
I did not exhibit respect for other viewpoints. I argued against the typical viewpoint of soccer in America. I felt the treating the opinion of soccer being an inferior sport with respect would hurt my argument against it. To stay away from this I treated the typical American opinion of soccer as an inferior one.
I read with awareness of self and others when responding to comments on my blog. After reading Matt's comment of wanting to see fans in the U.S. act the same way as those in other countries, I added some posts about where that passion came from. I created a post about the history of the World Cup in order to show how big of an event it really is hoping it would affect at least a couple of people's view of the sport.

3) What did I learn?
I learned that my opinion can be stronger than I thought. After seaking aloud through my blog and hearing comments, I feel that my opinion of soccer is now more passionate. My beliefs are now strengthened with facts I did not know before. Upon learning more about my argument, my opinion of it became more pinpoint. I now know how to back up my opinion and can share that opinion with others.

Tradition

The origins of soccer come from every corner of the globe with many different variations. Through time, the modern day soccer developed. In the 1920's, discussions by FIFA began to plan an open tournament to nations. In 1930 the first world cup took place. It quickly became the most popular sporting event in history with 1.5 billion viewers watching the final match in 1994 between Italy and Brazil. Of the 18 world cups that have taken place, Brazil holds the most championships behind Pele's leadership with 5. Italy, Uruguay, Germany, Argentina, England and France are the other six nations to have won this tournament. The winner recieve the Jules Rimet Trophy every year until it was stolen by thieves in 1983. A new trophy was created to replace the stolen one named the FIFA World Cup Trophy. It is made of 18 carot solid gold. The World Cup will remain a tradition until the end of the world.

Hey! Pass Me The Money!

Soccer is a money pit! More so than any sport that has ever been in America. Teams are supported by the world rather than by a single country or, in our case, states or even cities. In foreign countries, jerseys representing their favorite team are seen as commonplace more so than in the U.S. Every person owns at least one jersey. Often times multiple jerseys of the same player. One for each teams he plays on. This adds into the unbelievable money made by soccer teams. The winner of the world cup takes home $31 million which is no small amount. With tournament winnings, ticket sales, advertisements, and memorabilia, soccer clubs make more money than any teams do in the U.S. When it comes down to it, soccer is just an American sport on steroids.

Women Play Too

Another great aspect about the world's game is women also have a world cup. Forget about sexist America where the WNBA is the second most exciting female sport behind the athletes that compete in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. It is hard for us in the U.S. to support a women's sporting event. I will stay out of the debate of male dominance in this area to avoid hate mail, but women's sports in America are given little to no interest by the public. This is not so in world cup soccer. During this magnificent tournament, countries come together to support the team regardless of what sex the players are. Do you remember the World cup performance with star player Mia Ham? OK guys, for a reason other than Brandi Chastain's shirtless celebration. During this world cup, there was a big supporting fan base for the team. The only time in America's history, that I can remember at least, that the nation supported a women's team. All of those crazy femenists out there, start support for the world cup soccer team.

The Legend of Lionel Messi

Greatest Player in the World

One of my favorite aspects of World soccer is the player rankings. No other sport has the ranks of individual players. Teams are given ranks based on league standings but players are not given personal rankings. I think this is an extra incentive to perform well. For all of those selfish players who plaque professional sports, there would finally be something to play for because we all know they don't play for the betterment of the team. And it is just a fun fact to know about a sport. Having the world's best player recognized is something that sets the sport apart from the rest.
Currently the number 1 ranked player in the world is Lionel Messi. The striker from Argentina also plays for Barcelona. His stats do all the speaking for him. At the top of the charts in goals scored, Messi is one of the greatest forwards to ever play the game. Having this rank brings more excitement to his game. Every time the ball comes to his swift left foot, fans prepare to be amazed. To us Americans we can compare this to a former basketball player that wore the number 23 and became the face of basketball. No athletes in the U.S. can compare to this publicity though. To be called number 1 in the world sets that person on a pedestal untouchable to mere mortals. Player rankings is a small factor in why soccer knows how to create excitement.

Past Results

Let me inform you a little bit on why the U.S. is considered a joke in international soccer. Four years ago in the last World Cup, the U.S. did not win a single game. They tied the future champions of the tournament which almost counts as something but the win column still consisted of a goose egg.
The way the World Cup works is 32 teams qualify by winning or placing in other tournaments before the World Cup qualification comes to an end. Any country that can find 11 semi-decent players can get this far so it is nothing to celebrate. From there, 8 groups of 4 are split up. These four teams play the other three teams in their group with the two best records of the group moving on. So essentially, a team just has to be in the top half of their group of four in order to move out of their group. Not a challenging task. From there it becomes a lose and go home elimination style. Winning four games after getting out of your pool wins you the tournament. Now let me tell you how the U.S. did last tournament. We came dead last in our opening group. To some countries this would be a huge disappointment and the citizens would be mad, but not here. In the U.S. we barely even know who we are playing or who is on the team. I see this as a huge lack of country pride. This is a worldwide competition against every country in the world. With that in mind I say, GET INVOLVED AND SUPPORT OUR TEAM!!!