Quote:
Originally Posted by Professor S
Soccer is mind-numbingly boring unless it goes to a shoot-out, and not fan friendly at all. The way international soccer keeps time is absurd. Who cares how long the game has gone on? I want to know how much time is left for someone to break the 0-0 tie!!
I haven't seen MLS games, and I hear that is more exciting with a smaller pitch and more fan-friendly rules. Perhaps I'll give that a try.
|
That's a pretty closed-minded view. The 0-0 tie thing. As if there aren't low-scoring games in other sports, and as if offense is the only credible way to judge a sport. Why can't solid defence be exciting? Why does a game need a combination of 40 points in it to be exciting?
Hell, some of the best
hockey games I watched as a kid ended in a 0-0 tie. Some of the most intense baseball games I've seen have been low-scoring games where only a few runs are scored. Even some of the best football games I've witnessed (both CFL and NFL) have been low scoring. But soccer? Fuck that, right.
The thing about soccer is it may seem as simple as 'pass ball, shoot ball, obtain point'.
But with 11 players on both sides, and a moving offside line (always the last defender), you need to always be aware of what's going on around you. The reason there is a lot of passing back to your own team and playing wide (crossing the ball to the other side of the field) is because you're trying to draw their players away from their net (defensive zone) so you can create an opening to slip a player by. There are so many players back defending that it's almost impossible to simply attack
all of the time. And in professional soccer each team only gets 3 subs - so not only would attacking
all the time leave your team open for counter-attacks, it would completely deplete your players energy, and by the end of the game they'd struggle to make proper plays.
As for the time thing -
really? you find it so hard to subtract a number under 90 from 90 to get how much time is roughly left? I don't really mean that as an attack on you or anything...but...
really? The point of the counting up is simply because you're counting how long you've been playing - not down until the game ends. Since there is extra time, there is no way to set a specific amount of time, since a game may go on for only 90 minutes, or it may go on for 96. The ref is the sole 'keeper of the time'. The only reason the game ends is because
he wants to end it.
And to say soccer isn't fan friendly is also
sort of ignorant. Soccer is one of the only sports that I know of that actually puts the fans first. In interviews (with players/coaches) most of the time a player will say a win is for the fans, or they're upset they couldn't win for the fans, or they're happy to win a championship for the fans. Coaches/Managers have a good friendship with the official supporter groups of the team for the most part. Compare that to another sport. Why do baseball players want to win a World Series? For the fans, or because they grew up wanting to win it for themselves? (Same with every other North American sport). Soccer players understand that they wouldn't be there if not for the fans, and they don't take the fans for granted. They understand they wouldn't be making millions of dollars (depending on league) if not for the fans.
A thing I'll say is that if you want to try get into watching Soccer, start with the English Premier League, and not the MLS (Unless maybe your city has a team, and you plan on going to a game to get into it). Nothing wrong with the MLS, fans are great, buildings are good (The Whitecaps [for example] get about 20,000-21000 fans a game) - but the caliber of skill isn't really
too comparable for the most part.
Anyways, personally I like practically all sports. I like competition, not because I want to win (Winning is obviously nice), but I just like the elements of competing, and the small things about each sport that make that sport different and good. Me and my brother pretty much have played every single sport since we were little. Growing up all we did was play sports right after school every day, and then when it was too dark for sports we'd come inside and play video games.
I do have one bone to pick though. Basketball. I do like basketball, but I don't like dunking. I hate dunking. You just have to be tall to dunk, and being tall is not a skill. Learn to consistently shoot 3-pointers, then get back to me. I'll take on a team of Shaqs with my team of Steve Nashs any day.