I've played both sports (football for 2 years, soccer for 10 years on and off) at a high school level in a city where both soccer and football are taken pretty seriously. I've played every position in soccer, and I was the right defensive end for my football team, as well as kicker/punter. My brother is a top national pick for some of the big football universities across Canada and has received half a dozen invitation letters already (he's not even half way through his first senior year). So, I've been around and played both sports for a decently long time, and BOTH sports take a ridiculous amount of skill at any higher level of play.
I (personally) prefer soccer because it requires a good bit more finesse and athleticism compared to football, although there's some ridiculously atheletic people playing football. Only difference between the fitness levels of players in soccer vs. football is that everyone in a professional soccer game is fit, while a lot of football players are simply there because they're big enough that someone isn't just going to tear through them. I'm definitely not saying there's no skill involved in being an offensive tackle, just that the level of fitness required to be effective in the position is nowhere near what any position in soccer would require.
I'm not going to search through this thread to find who said it (I'll assume it was supernova), but someone keeps saying that soccer players just "boot the ball back and forth across the field". Have you ever even watched a professional soccer game? These people have ridiculous accuracy when passing so when you see them 'booting' the ball across the field, they're probably just making some ridiculous 200 foot pass. That or they're in a bad situation and the logical thing to do is to clear the ball and get it away from your end. It happens in every sport, including football. In hockey, people clear the puck CONSTANTLY. In football, most of the time on a 4th down with more than a few yards to go, the offense will just punt the ball. How is that any different?
Most of the arguments here sound like they're coming from completely biased places and it goes nowhere because of that. How about people just state what their experiences are with the sports before they start bashing people? I don't really care to listen to someone who's watched soccer on TV twice bash the sport, nor do I care to listen to someone bash football for being a meathead sport despite never actually playing it.
All sports can be boring as fuck until you play it. If you've never played something like darts, I couldn't imagine that you'd watch it and enjoy it all that much, but as soon as you play the game semi-seriously you realize how ridiculously good these people are at what they do and it becomes interesting all of a sudden.
Have you PLAYED the sport? If not, go try it and get a clue.
