Hi, my name is Andrea Aguilera. I’m 14 years old. I’d like to say a few things in regards to Barry Farber’s column, “Football vs. soccer? Not even close.”
As it says in the headline, you’re right. You can’t compare these two sports. American football is a great sport, but it has nothing to do with soccer, although soccer is an astounding sport. Not to mention, I enjoy watching both sports and play both flag football and soccer.
As you noted in your column, “If a soccer player kicks the ball 50 yards toward the goal, you all yell like you’re insane. Which, in fact, you are! That 50-yard kick, or that bedazzling short kick after short kick after short kick all the way down the field, does not affect the outcome of the game as much as that un-advanced ball at the bottom of a 22-man pile-up.”
This clearly shows you have never watched a soccer game in your life, or you must have watched two very strange teams playing. In soccer, you need to be very smart and attentive to all other positions other than your own. You must be able to react quickly and have good timing. In that case, there may be two teams who are equally skilled, which makes the game very interesting and very tense.
In other words, there is plenty of “action,” as you love to say. Now I’m not saying there isn’t action in football. Football is fun to watch and thrilling to play as well.
You also stated: “Soccer does not deserve to be the front-running sport worldwide. And yet it is, while American football can’t seem to export much beyond Canada, pre-season exhibition games in Britain and Sweden and some ‘experiments’ in Austria, Italy and Finland. Hear me and heed me, World! Football’s a winner. Soccer’s a loser.”
Yes, everyone may have their own opinion on it, and I completely respect yours, but what I do not respect is the fact that you wrote an entire column on a sport when you barely know how it’s played. You wrote it just to say that the sport you favor deserves to be the “front-running sport worldwide.”
Soccer must be the most popular sport for a reason, and this isn’t me speaking for myself only, but for others with the same opinion and the sport in general. You should not be throwing soccer under the bus, so instead of using power or authority without considering the feelings of others, or as you like to call us soccer fans “high-handed,” you should consider the fact that some young men and women just like me consider soccer as a future career.
Many football fans may have changed their perspective on soccer due to your column, but that still doesn’t change where soccer stands worldwide.
Andrea Aguilera
