You know why I hate soccer?

[pellegrino]

My bad, the character on that show refers to Kickity-Kick Ball frequently.

now I have to watch it!

[SteelBlue]

I love soccer.

What almost makes me want to hate soccer is that Americans think we need to completely ditch American culture and adopt Euro vocabulary, phrases, practices, etc when we engage in soccer. Drives me nuts.

Amen jay. That's always been a peeve of mine. I lived in Boston when MLS started up and was there for the beginnings of some of the Revolution traditions like "the fort" behind the goal. Everybody went Euro from the get go. They wanted scarves, they printed a book of songs and chants straight out of the Euro leagues. It was very lame.

[falafel]

No kidding. Stop the clock for injuries and penalties. Have a clock guy up in the booth. Why can't you be like every other sport in the universe?

Oh but if you bring this stuff up to a soccer pussy, they will tell you you don't understand the game.

I understand the game. I understand basketball and football also, and it's OK to complain about aspects of those games as well.

I assume you've got no problem with the trapezoidal key in FIBA basketball games.

I don't see what you could do to "americanize" soccer that would increase viewers without fundamentally changing the game. I'm okay with a few time outs (but I don't know how you'd implement them) and with changing the clock and getting rid of injury time, but what else could really be done? How can you make scoring more plentiful (I assume this is what most Americans want to see) without totally changing the game?

If you (meaning anyone) don't like soccer how it is, that's fine--don't watch it. Soccer's doing just fine without Americans' support.

[hostile]

I don't mind the terms "pitch" or "match". I also like the term "Euro Kicky-Kicky ball." I don't like what I think is the over-exaggeration of injuries. Just keep playing until the whistle blows; stop flopping around like a carp on the ground.

[Indy Coug]

I don't mind the terms "pitch" or "match". I also like the term "Euro Kicky-Kicky ball." I don't like what I think is the over-exaggeration of injuries. Just keep playing until the whistle blows; stop flopping around like a carp on the ground.

The penalty for flopping around the ground like you've been shot from the grassy knoll should be that someone stomps on your groin while you're on the ground.

[hostile]

The penalty for flopping around the ground like you've been shot from the grassy knoll should be that someone stomps on your groin while you're on the ground.

Exactly

[MarkGrace]

I assume you've got no problem with the trapezoidal key in FIBA basketball games.

I hate that damn trapezoidal key. And their stupid 3pt line. International hoop sucks.

[Coach McGuirk]

I don't mind the terms "pitch" or "match". I also like the term "Euro Kicky-Kicky ball." I don't like what I think is the over-exaggeration of injuries. Just keep playing until the whistle blows; stop flopping around like a carp on the ground.

all better.

That can of magic spray has healed more injuries than any of you doctors.

[falafel]

all better.

That can of magic spray has healed more injuries than any of you doctors.

I agree that the flopping is ridiculous in proportion to the actual injury. However, I think it serves a valid purpose in the game (sometimes, anyway). It's almost to the point that if you don't make a spectacle out of it, you won't get the call--even if there was legitimate illegal contact. If the player just keeps on running, odds are the ref is going to allow them to play on. This creates an incentive for players to do push the line as far as they can. The only way to counter act that incentive is to really sell the foul.

Yes, its super annoying, and certainly some players flop where there's no contact at all. That is a joke. But in a game like soccer that's played on such a huge "pitch" () and where the refs are not in the same shape as the players, its very likely that illegal contact will not be noticed or called at all unless it is brought to the attention of the ref by a flop.

[hostile]

I agree that the flopping is ridiculous in proportion to the actual injury. However, I think it serves a valid purpose in the game (sometimes, anyway). It's almost to the point that if you don't make a spectacle out of it, you won't get the call--even if there was legitimate illegal contact. If the player just keeps on running, odds are the ref is going to allow them to play on. This creates an incentive for players to do push the line as far as they can. The only way to counter act that incentive is to really sell the foul.

Yes, its super annoying, and certainly some players flop where there's no contact at all. That is a joke. But in a game like soccer that's played on such a huge "pitch" () and where the refs are not in the same shape as the players, its very likely that illegal contact will not be noticed or called at all unless it is brought to the attention of the ref by a flop.

Can the assistant ref's, the ones who call offsides, also call penalties, or at least bring them to the ref's attention? I know in international rugby, the touch judges do this because the pitch is so large and there is contact that the on-field ref can't see.

[jay santos]

I assume you've got no problem with the trapezoidal key in FIBA basketball games.

I don't see what you could do to "americanize" soccer that would increase viewers without fundamentally changing the game. I'm okay with a few time outs (but I don't know how you'd implement them) and with changing the clock and getting rid of injury time, but what else could really be done? How can you make scoring more plentiful (I assume this is what most Americans want to see) without totally changing the game?

If you (meaning anyone) don't like soccer how it is, that's fine--don't watch it. Soccer's doing just fine without Americans' support.

Wrong analogy. Me not liking the trapezoidal international key would be akin to a Euro not liking what I might do to Americanize the game. That's the whole point. You don't have to copy it exactly.

The only game changer I would make in addition to the cultural stuff (also how do you implement a time out system, how about giving a time out per half to each team and letting them call time out at any break in the action, is it that complicated?), would be the yellow card/red card system. I think it's a travesty of justice that Man U could lose a player in a game due to a fairly common hard foul that was the player's second yellow resulting in a red resulting in playing the game 10 vs 11 for the remainder of a game, completely changing the game, resulting in a goal for Germany to send Man U home. Travesty. Toss the yellow card completely out of the game. Red card = the player's out for the rest of the game but you can sub him and go 11 on 11. Or maybe he sits for 5 minutes and you go 10 on 11 for 5 minutes. Yellow card cumulation to a red card in a tournament like the World Cup? Absolutely ridiculous!

Also, overtime: take two players off the field every 10 minutes.

That's all immediately. I wouldn't mind tinkering to see more goals. That's the biggest problem in the game. An ideal sport has somewhere between 3 and 10 scores per team per game. BB has too many. Soccer too few. Baseball, hockey, football all good. I don't know how to create more scoring, but they tweak American sports all the time to increase or decrease scoring. It can be done with creative minds.

[Indy Coug]

Wrong analogy. Me not liking the trapezoidal international key would be akin to a Euro not liking what I might do to Americanize the game. That's the whole point. You don't have to copy it exactly.

The only game changer I would make in addition to the cultural stuff (also how do you implement a time out system, how about giving a time out per half to each team and letting them call time out at any break in the action, is it that complicated?), would be the yellow card/red card system. I think it's a travesty of justice that Man U could lose a player in a game due to a fairly common hard foul that was the player's second yellow resulting in a red resulting in playing the game 10 vs 11 for the remainder of a game, completely changing the game, resulting in a goal for Germany to send Man U home. Travesty. Toss the yellow card completely out of the game. Red card = the player's out for the rest of the game but you can sub him and go 11 on 11. Or maybe he sits for 5 minutes and you go 10 on 11 for 5 minutes. Yellow card cumulation to a red card in a tournament like the World Cup? Absolutely ridiculous!

Also, overtime: take two players off the field every 10 minutes.

That's all immediately. I wouldn't mind tinkering to see more goals. That's the biggest problem in the game. An ideal sport has somewhere between 3 and 10 scores per team per game. BB has too many. Soccer too few. Baseball, hockey, football all good. I don't know how to create more scoring, but they tweak American sports all the time to increase or decrease scoring. It can be done with creative minds.

You probably liked the movie BASEketball, didn't you?

[jay santos]

I agree that the flopping is ridiculous in proportion to the actual injury. However, I think it serves a valid purpose in the game (sometimes, anyway). It's almost to the point that if you don't make a spectacle out of it, you won't get the call--even if there was legitimate illegal contact. If the player just keeps on running, odds are the ref is going to allow them to play on. This creates an incentive for players to do push the line as far as they can. The only way to counter act that incentive is to really sell the foul.

Yes, its super annoying, and certainly some players flop where there's no contact at all. That is a joke. But in a game like soccer that's played on such a huge "pitch" () and where the refs are not in the same shape as the players, its very likely that illegal contact will not be noticed or called at all unless it is brought to the attention of the ref by a flop.

Wrong.

Two things cause incentive to flop to draw fouls.

1. It's damn hard to score and goals are rare and flopping in the box is sometimes the best way to score. Solution: tweak the game to get more scoring. Implement instant replay to review big calls.

2. Red cards totally change the game. Drawing a foul to cause your opponent to get a red card is as good as getting a goal because you play 11 on 10. Solution: Eliminate the red card and the 11 on 10 as a rule. Implement instant replay and review serious cases to see how flagrant the play really was. Flagrant fouls have the penalty of: kick the guy out and sub him to maintain 11 on 11 or put him in the box for five minutes for a five minute 11 on 10.

[jay santos]

Can the assistant ref's, the ones who call offsides, also call penalties, or at least bring them to the ref's attention? I know in international rugby, the touch judges do this because the pitch is so large and there is contact that the on-field ref can't see.

Yes, the sideline officials can call fouls. Actually they can bring it to attention to the main ref by raising their flag and main ref has the right to blow whistle to stop the action or ignore the sideline ref.

[jay santos]

You probably liked the movie BASEketball, didn't you?

Haven't seen it.