Soccer Futbol Football
David Beckham is back in the US.
And with him comes a lot of talk on the sports stations about whether or not soccer will ever become popular in the US.
It won't.
Why? Two reasons.
A lot of people say soccer is boring. I don't think that's true. Soccer tends to be very exciting in spots. The problem is it's not compelling. Games end in ties too often. And when they don't, there are penalty kicks to decide the games. This was a problem hockey had. Penalty kicks are boring when they happen all the time. You want to decide a game with penalty kicks in the regular season? Fine. But not in the playoffs.
In the playoffs let them play. I don't care how big the field is (I'm not calling it a pitch... that's another problem all together... but one easily solved. Call it a field.). I don't care how tired the players are. Let them keep going. Because that's what makes the game compelling. Every movement has to matter. And too often in soccer it doesn't. Look what hockey does in the playoffs. They keep playing. Each slide of the skate becomes important. That's what soccer needs.
The other problem is injuries. Actually, allow me to put that in quotations so you can note my sarcasm. The other problem is "injuries." Get rid of injury time. That'll stop all that flopping. I was actually watching a few minutes of a game a few weeks ago. A team was down by a goal, time was running out and the ball was near the trailing team's goaltender. A defender was on the ground rolling in the grass like he'd been shot. The announcers start flipping out about the pain he must be in. The trainers run out and help him off the field.
And then the instant replay comes on.
No one was near this guy. You're lucky an offensive player was in the frame. Nothing happened to him, he just fell. The best part? The announcers are raving about how he got clipped, and must soooooo hurt.
NO HE WASN'T!
I immediately turned the game off.
Fix these two problems, soccer. And the rest will follow. People are willing to learn the rules. People will be willing to follow your stars.
But you need to make the games compelling. You need to clean up the fakeness to it.
Will soccer ever compare to baseball or football (real football, no soccer futbol) in the US?
No.
But it might start getting a hockey-like following.
A network deal.
Some buzz.
Thoughts?
And with him comes a lot of talk on the sports stations about whether or not soccer will ever become popular in the US.
It won't.
Why? Two reasons.
A lot of people say soccer is boring. I don't think that's true. Soccer tends to be very exciting in spots. The problem is it's not compelling. Games end in ties too often. And when they don't, there are penalty kicks to decide the games. This was a problem hockey had. Penalty kicks are boring when they happen all the time. You want to decide a game with penalty kicks in the regular season? Fine. But not in the playoffs.
In the playoffs let them play. I don't care how big the field is (I'm not calling it a pitch... that's another problem all together... but one easily solved. Call it a field.). I don't care how tired the players are. Let them keep going. Because that's what makes the game compelling. Every movement has to matter. And too often in soccer it doesn't. Look what hockey does in the playoffs. They keep playing. Each slide of the skate becomes important. That's what soccer needs.
The other problem is injuries. Actually, allow me to put that in quotations so you can note my sarcasm. The other problem is "injuries." Get rid of injury time. That'll stop all that flopping. I was actually watching a few minutes of a game a few weeks ago. A team was down by a goal, time was running out and the ball was near the trailing team's goaltender. A defender was on the ground rolling in the grass like he'd been shot. The announcers start flipping out about the pain he must be in. The trainers run out and help him off the field.
And then the instant replay comes on.
No one was near this guy. You're lucky an offensive player was in the frame. Nothing happened to him, he just fell. The best part? The announcers are raving about how he got clipped, and must soooooo hurt.
NO HE WASN'T!
I immediately turned the game off.
Fix these two problems, soccer. And the rest will follow. People are willing to learn the rules. People will be willing to follow your stars.
But you need to make the games compelling. You need to clean up the fakeness to it.
Will soccer ever compare to baseball or football (real football, no soccer futbol) in the US?
No.
But it might start getting a hockey-like following.
A network deal.
Some buzz.
Thoughts?
Labels: Baseball, Fixing a problem, Football, hockey, Soccer, Sports, USA
posted by Dave White at 10:08 AM
2 Comments:
so you're saying that there aren't enough real injuries?
I agree Penalties are a tricky issue, but i wonder if they're used differentley in the US?
League games over here NEVER end in penalties. It's only cup games. Draws, well i can see how for a US audience a game ending in a draw might be a problem. It's ingrained over here though, and can be just as dramatic as a win or a defeat in the right circumstances, such as when goal difference comes into play.
Penalty shoot outs are annoying as hell, because they have so little to do with whats happened in the preceding 120 minutes. It doesn matter of one team has been gung ho and the other had been hanging on; a penalty shoot out is all down to confidence and luck. And can be reeeeeeally compelling...unless you end up on the losing side.
That said though, i do agree that the teams should be made to keep playing, maybe to change ends every 20 minutes so they both get to play in front of their fans. This has been tried though, and it hasnt been a perfect solution. With penalties, its clear that once a game gets to a certain stage in the game, they start playing defensivley and waiting for the penalty shoot out. At the same time, games that have 'golden goal' in extra time become just as dull, because both teams sit back and play safe, waiting to counter attack.
But many of these problems are, i think, what ads to the game. Some sports are about the instant impact, things that can happen at any moment and change the game. Other sports are about the tactics and mind games; the suspence of chess and politics played out on
the pitch. Football combines both.
Players feigning injury is a huge problem, and seems to be more and more so. There does need to be something done about it, but i think taking away injury time causes a lot of problems. Firstly, shit happens during a game. Its unpredictable and the ref needs to be able to add time on to cater for this. Also, in the span of a strict 90 minute game, the ball is only in play for around 60 minutes, so stoppage time allows the balance to be redressed a bit.
i'm more infavour of doing something to crack down on the players who are doing the diving, and the team they play for.
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