16 thoughts on “Soccer”

  2. We watched Spain versus Germany last night. Just my casual viewer’s opinion, but the game has a pacing problem. The game is just a bigger version of ice hockey, but running will ever beat the pure speed of skating on ice. The players spend too much time just running around chasing the potential of where the ball may end up. And the excretable accuracy of close-in shots on goal is maddening. For god’s sake kick it at the goal mouth. Not sailing up like it might escape Earth’s gravity.

    One more problem is the exaggerated reaction to incidental contact (and sometimes no contact at all). Flopping, grabbing knees, etc. Then the miraculous recovery after the yellow card is handed out. They need a replay official to call out the BS and punish the fakers.

    2. Make the goal …larger so it is harder for the carefully chosen modern 6+ foot (2+ meter) goalies to make it a scoreless game. Have you ever watched Australian Rules Football IMO a much more interesting sport than ‘football’ (AKA Soccer).

  3. One more idea. I think the teams rely too much on the goalkeeper as an extra player on the field. They should outlaw deliberately passing to them. Letting them receive passes just makes the defense stronger than it would be otherwise.

    1. I think the biggest problem with soccer is the lack of proper time-keeping. They haven’t even got out of the 19th century in terms of accuracy, with the ref deciding when and if to end the game. If you time the game by stopping the clock for all stoppages, it’s really only roughly 40 minutes long, the same as NCAA basketball. So they should institute a real clock and have two 20 minute halves. To your point, if they also added an “over and back” loss of possession if you cross the center line and then pass back, it would make for more aggressive play and speed up the game.

      The situation with fouls is completely asymmetric. For example, if you commit an offensive foul in the opponent’s 18 yard box, you get a slap on the wrist. However, a defensive foul results in capital punishment. They could learn from hockey in a lot of areas, like penalty boxes, subs on the fly, an easier to officiate offside rule based on a line and not a constantly moving target, and even penalty shots. A one-on-one between a player and a goalie free to move would be infinitely fairer and more exciting.

      But traditionalists whine about any changes. At least the extra subs have made the second halves of games a bit more interesting as not all the players are gassed out zombies. And video review has improved the ludicrously poor rulings on the ridiculous offside rule.

  4. The good thing about our country is that people are free to pursue their interests and we have a population with lots of interests. No matter the sport, we are generally competitive if not always one of the best.

    What the linked rant didn’t say anything about was ratings. It is one thing to say you dislike something and another to say no one likes something. Soccer isn’t as popular as our main sports but still enjoys a loyal fan base.

    https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/world-cup-viewership-for-usa-england-breaks-record-20221127-WST-410179.html

  5. Well to be grammatically correct is should say Americans but to be technically correct it should say …sports fans in the United States. As metric rugby is wildly popular in Mexico, Central and South America.

    There is one simple and overriding reason why Soccer will never be a popular spectator sport (unless you are a Soccer Mom or Dad) in the United States and it has nothing to do with it being boring as hell to watch (which it is).

    The clock runs the wrong way.

    1. Oh and Rand congrats on the outcome of The Game.

      Even though Illinois should have won the week before.

      1. You win championships by coming back from games that you should have won, and winning. As the old saying goes, offense wins games, defense wins championships. Recall they are a second-half team, and they had to play the second half without Corum. They adjusted during the week to make up the deficit. This does seem like Michigan’s year.

  6. I do enjoy that FIFA World Cup is one of the few sporting events in which routing for your country is not automatically called Fascism.

  7. Commie football is a cancer that must be burned, cut, poisoned out….

    Soccer is evil

    Consider this:
    • No one understands the rules.
    • Workers are prohibited from using the tools that would let them be more productive (hands).
    • From time to time petty bureaucrats (officials) interfere with play in such a way as to limit production.
    • Players, coaches, officials and fans are all fully involved (employed) and yet output is miniscule.
    • Any production is met by celebration all out of proportion to its objective value.
    • The referees wear red
    • Followers are slavishly (religiously?) devoted to the system and their own brand of it and resort to violence at any criticism of either.
    • There are destroyers (hooligans) that disrupt the crowds

    Clearly, Soccer is Communist football.  It must be stopped.

    2. Yes, but American Footbal represents whatever-the-heck-our-economic-system-is-that-isn’t-exactly-capitalism.

      You have the working class, who are the offensive line, and you have the quarterback and some of the other “backs” who are the managerial class.

      Whenever the quarterback is successful, this is all credited to the skill of the quarterback. When the quarterback just stands mouth agape looking downfield and gets “sacked”, this is of course, the fault of the workers, the offensive line players who failed to offer enough protection.

      And when the quarterback and receivers advance the team only partway downfield, the coach enlists the aid of an immigrant with a specialized technical skill — a former soccer player to kick a long field goal.

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