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I tried watching a soccer game today between US and England, I was told it would be a big match for the US and I wanted to support our team, even if its just a non-major sport like soccer. I was shocked and appaled how little action there was and how little scoring. Over 2 hours of game and only 2 points were scored! Even worse there was no statistics/action to get excited over, just what seemed like random passing around and failure to score points. I can't believe that any person in the world would find this exciting. I can think of 50 things on how to improve the game and make it more exciting to watch just off the top of my head, primarily increasing the scoring.
Why doesn't the rest of the world get this? Why do they get excited about a boring 1-0 game? Why doesn't England or Italy or Brazil or Korea or anybody else want to change this sport to make it higher scoring and therefore more exciting?
I tried watching a soccer game today between US and England, I was told it would be a big match for the US and I wanted to support our team, even if its just a non-major sport like soccer. I was shocked and appaled how little action there was and how little scoring. Over 2 hours of game and only 2 points were scored! Even worse there was no statistics/action to get excited over, just what seemed like random passing around and failure to score points. I can't believe that any person in the world would find this exciting. I can think of 50 things on how to improve the game and make it more exciting to watch just off the top of my head, primarily increasing the scoring.
Why doesn't the rest of the world get this? Why do they get excited about a boring 1-0 game? Why doesn't England or Italy or Brazil or Korea or anybody else want to change this sport to make it higher scoring and therefore more exciting?
Because they grew up with the sport, find it very exciting, and love it the way it is.
Because the rest of the world is quite happy with it the way it is and don't see why they should change the game to appeal to a fickle American public.
Because the rest of the world is quite happy with it the way it is and don't see why they should change the game to appeal to a fickle American public.
Exactly. The same way Americans would (and should) scoff any suggestion to change, say American football to appease international fans. Both are ludicrous.
The scoring itself is sort of a red herring. If you compare to football in a game which finishes 21-14, really thats just 3-2. You could give 7 points for each goal in soccer and yesterday would have finished 7-7. Neither of the two games would become more or less exciting by doing this
I've read before people saying they couldn't get into a sport in which scoring goals is so unimportant. This struck me as an unusual thing to say, the fewer goals there are in a game the more importance each one has!
In general I'm not really in favour of changing one sport to be more like another sport. The great thing about different sports is the way they are different. Golf, Baseball and Soccer are all great because they work in different ways and I wouldn't really want to change any of them to be more like the others.
also I think the thing about whether a 1-0 game can be exciting or not (and there are dull 1-0 games, and exciting 1-0 games)...is this thing about tension, pressure building up, and then cathartic release. A high scoring game has a relatively even level of excitement, and hey if you concede its not so bad! In soccer the excitement and emotion level is really quite variable, and a single goal changes the entire dynamic
That said, I've seen many a 4-3 game (which I still don't really think is much different from a 28-21 game in football)
I tried watching a soccer game today between US and England, I was told it would be a big match for the US and I wanted to support our team, even if its just a non-major sport like soccer. I was shocked and appaled how little action there was and how little scoring. Over 2 hours of game and only 2 points were scored! Even worse there was no statistics/action to get excited over, just what seemed like random passing around and failure to score points. I can't believe that any person in the world would find this exciting. I can think of 50 things on how to improve the game and make it more exciting to watch just off the top of my head, primarily increasing the scoring.
Why doesn't the rest of the world get this? Why do they get excited about a boring 1-0 game? Why doesn't England or Italy or Brazil or Korea or anybody else want to change this sport to make it higher scoring and therefore more exciting?
Because we, the billions of die hard soccer fans here in the States and around the globe are happy with the way our sport is. We don't need to "change" the sport to please folks like you... we don't need you or other soccer bashers on the bandwagon! Change the channel, watch something else!
Because we, the billions of die hard soccer fans here in the States and around the globe are happy with the way our sport is. We don't need to "change" the sport to please folks like you... we don't need you or other soccer bashers on the bandwagon! Change the channel, watch something else!
Sick of all the soccer trolling.. REALLY!
Love US football and love world football. No need to change anything in either. It is ok to like both. If you don't, then as XGR just said, feel free to change the channel. I can't stand baseball, so I don't watch it, however, I won't be found on the baseball board asking why MLB does not just change things to make it more watchable. I'm sure die-hard baseball fans like it just the way it is, and that's fine. I'm will watch every World Cup match I can catch. It's a great time to be a world football fan.
I tried watching a soccer game today between US and England, I was told it would be a big match for the US and I wanted to support our team, even if its just a non-major sport like soccer. I was shocked and appaled how little action there was and how little scoring. Over 2 hours of game and only 2 points were scored! Even worse there was no statistics/action to get excited over, just what seemed like random passing around and failure to score points. I can't believe that any person in the world would find this exciting. I can think of 50 things on how to improve the game and make it more exciting to watch just off the top of my head, primarily increasing the scoring.
Why doesn't the rest of the world get this? Why do they get excited about a boring 1-0 game? Why doesn't England or Italy or Brazil or Korea or anybody else want to change this sport to make it higher scoring and therefore more exciting?
Thanks for taking the effort to follow a sport you don't know well and support the American team.
As a long-time fan of soccer, I feel the exact opposite of what you do. In my opinion, there is non-stop action for 45 minutes at a time. But I think that is helped because I have watched the sport enough to understand all the strategies and how successful/unsuccessful they are and am honestly fascinated every single minute of every game my teams (U.S., Sounders) play.
As for the low-scoring aspect, on the one hand I enjoy the action so much that I am not lost in how few scores there are compared to other sports. On the other, it is awesome that every score actually means something. And that you have to be ready to play from the first minute. The U.S. was a little out of it the first few minutes and that cost them a goal and - assuming the rest of the game would have played out the same way - a win. Another benefit of a low-scoring sport is that nearly all the time, there will be tension the entire game from start to finish, as one team will rarely be more than a goal behind the other.
As for stats, you're right there really are not that many in soccer. It is more of a fluid sport than a measurable sport (other than goals, of course). That's just the nature of the sport and something that is tough for many of us Americans to get over.
I have been enthralled by 0-0 games before. Honestly, some of the best soccer games I have ever seen ended 0-0. There's more to a sport than the scoreline.
As for "improving" the sport, obviously enough people around the world like it as it is for it to be - without a doubt - the world's most popular sport. It's obviously 100 percent fine if you - or many Americans - don't care for it, but the sport as it currently is works great for many, many people. Including me.
Germany beat Australia 28-0 today. It was a very exciting match.
BTW, the American soccer league, know as Major League Soccer, did change the rules by not allowing tie games, having a backwards running clock, and other things like that. What they found is that the new rules did not attract new fans, but made life-long fans turn away from the sport. The league has since went back to the original rules.
The only rule that I dont like is offsides.
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