Day 103, Game 103 - FIFA Soccer 12

Real talk Saturday, here. I am not a fan of soccer. I want to be,  but never can seem to ever enjoy it more than whatever match I am watching. I have no problems watching a match, but finding the motivation to actually do it and then being able to invest in the "sport" past that is almost impossible.

Oh, and yes, I did put the word sport in quotation marks again, in reference to a previous post where I talked about the late, great George Carlin's view on what actually constitutes a sport. What did he think about soccer, you might be wondering? Well...

"Soccer. Soccer is not a sport because you can't use your arms. Anything where you can't use your arms can't be a sport. Tap dancing isn't a sport. I rest my case." - George Carlin

Anyway, I will watch World Cup matches, especially if the USA is playing, and same goes for the Olympics, but I don't go out of my way to watch them. Occasionally I will turn on an MLS game, mainly to catch the local team, the Portland Timbers, playing. Mostly that happens when my cousin wants to watch with me, as I will happily oblige to hang out with him. I usually just watch out of sheer interest, not super fandom where I am invested on who wins.

Speaking of my cousin, I was hanging out at his place today, and out of boredom, popped in FIFA Soccer 12. You see, he loves soccer, and is all about every aspect of it. He even invited me to go with him to the Timbers game tomorrow, which I am still mulling over, because of how rowdy and raucous the Timbers Army is. Anyway, back to the game.

I didn't hate it. The game itself is fun, and the challenge to score a goal seems as difficult as it probably should be. I understand the rules of soccer and the basic overall strategy enough to not feel like I am just freestyling it while I play, but there is a true to art to setting up the perfect scoring plays, both in real soccer and in the game. Clearly that's best left to the soccer guys.

My overall impression of the game, though, was what I normally feel about soccer. I didn't mind it, but I didn't actively make the effort to play this game before I stumbled upon it, and after I was done, I wasn't thinking about when the next time I will play will be.

To some it up, really, is that soccer is quite boring. The goal scoring is incredibly exciting, but they are so few and far between that I feel like I'm wasting so much time watching a full match when I can just watch the highlights and get everything out of it that I need to know. It was a good game to combat my boredom and also clear my mind a little bit after the BioShock Infinite hurricane of insanity that I suffered from last night.

Good old soccer. The most beautiful game in the world, as they say.

See - not even they will call it a sport, but rather a game instead.

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