Fixing soccer

[ERCougar]

Except for the additional scoring, not deciding championships with a guessing game, hitting, not having 2 players staying in the middle of the field passing it back and forth without making any move to the goal, fighting, speed, greatest championship trophy in all of sports, players that don't roll around on the ice for 20 minutes if someone comes within 2 feet of them, etc., it really is just soccer on ice.

So sports without a lot of scoring or contact and where the action is predominated by two guys passing back and forth are lame?

How do you feel about baseball?

[calicoug]

Starting a new thread for this. It's that important.

What's wrong with soccer?

1. Lack of scoring. The complaint of lack of scoring is not to say that ONLY goals are exciting. Goals are exciting, but great defensive plays, great runs, great saves, near misses, etc are also exciting. The lack of scoring causes other problems for the sport. It results in too many ties. Ties are not always bad, but the high number of ties and games decided by PK's are bad. Also because scoring is so low, playing for a 0-0 tie is a real possibility for many outmatched teams. Also, because scoring is so low, one bad officiating call in the box will likely decide the outcome of a game. All this is bad for the sport.

Possible solutions: Right now the average goals per game is around 2. I would try to move that up to closer to 5 by experimenting with the following, with the goal of changing the nature of the game as little as possible.
--penalize the goalies: make them take off those ridiculously thick gloves, maybe make the goalie box smaller, allow the goalie to touch a ball with his hands but not catch it or hold on to it
--make the goals slightly bigger
--open things up by making it 10 vs 10 or even 9 vs 9 instead of 11 vs 11


2. Poor officiating and bad rules related to yellow cards and red cards.
--put more ref's on the field and/or allow linesmen authority to make all calls
--instant replay for important calls
--make it three yellows = red, not two. too often two questionable yellow cards results in a team losing a great player and going down 10 vs 11
--make a red card a 5-10 minute timeout like hockey, not off for the rest of the game
--toss the rule about accumulating yellow cards over multiple games = red card in tournaments. It's absolutely ridiculous to lose star players in big tournaments because of accumulating ticky tack yellow cards

3. PK's are terrible way to end games. And because of the 50-50 nature, bad teams play for a tie on purpose. Starting with the first overtime, tweak the rules to ensure there will be a goal scored in a reasonable amount of time. ie drop from 11 to 9 to 7 to 5 players after certain time periods. Or eliminate the goalies altogether. Anything to make sure you'll have a goal.

I love soccer, but I would make one change. Stop the clock from running when someone falls due to an "injury." Even though the ref is supposed to keep track of the time when someone is down, they never add back what is lost which keeps encouraging bad behavior through flopping. If they stopped the clock, you would see far fewer flops and the game would be that much better.

[TripletDaddy]

I don't understand this. Why do you feel so compelled to post about soccer. I think Radiohead sucks. I mean they are absolute shit. Only an idiot would listen to that crap. And yet somehow I refrain from posting about Radiohead's immense crappiness in the Radiohead thread.

I agree with you if you limit your observations to The King of Limbs.

[MartyFunkhouser]

So sports without a lot of scoring or contact and where the action is predominated by two guys passing back and forth are lame?

How do you feel about baseball?

That doesn't describe baseball at all. I'm love America, so obviously I'm a baseball fan.

[Donuthole]

That doesn't describe baseball at all. I'm love America, so obviously I'm a baseball fan.

Borat is also love America!

[jay santos]

I love soccer, but I would make one change. Stop the clock from running when someone falls due to an "injury." Even though the ref is supposed to keep track of the time when someone is down, they never add back what is lost which keeps encouraging bad behavior through flopping. If they stopped the clock, you would see far fewer flops and the game would be that much better.

This is another thing. Put the clock on the f***ing scoreboard and stop it and start it during injury and stalling time.

[falafel]

This is another thing. Put the clock on the f***ing scoreboard and stop it and start it during injury and stalling time.

I disagree. I think it would take too much away from the end of games, when you don't know exactly how much time is left so you have to play hard until the end.

[calicoug]

I disagree. I think it would take too much away from the end of games, when you don't know exactly how much time is left so you have to play hard until the end.

How do you play hard until the end when one team is lying on the ground with play stopped or a player is walking off the field for a substitution (and just happens to be at the furthest point from the sideline when the sub occurs) or the goalkeeper keeps spinning the ball on the grass to get it in just the right place before finally kicking?

In a 1-0 game, the entire second half can be excruciating.

[jay santos]

I disagree. I think it would take too much away from the end of games, when you don't know exactly how much time is left so you have to play hard until the end.

So if you couldn't improve soccer by implementing a game clock, likewise could you improve other team sports by taking away the clock, and let everyone just guess how much time is left?

[EuropeanFootballMale]

Goal line technology approved for use. I'm sure getting rid of offside will be next.

[Eddie]

So if you couldn't improve soccer by implementing a game clock, likewise could you improve other team sports by taking away the clock, and let everyone just guess how much time is left?

Wouldn't it be awesome if in football and basketball the players couldn't see the play/shot clock? So if they don't get their play off or shoot the ball quick enough they just suddenly get a penalty or lose possession?

That could be fun.

[Solon]

My suggestions for fixing soccer:

1. Cheerleaders.
2. Fix the time-keeping so that we know how much time is actually left.
3. Stop calling mamby-pamby fouls. This should reduce the flopping. I want to see a compound fracture, or at least some blood, before they start flashing colorful cards.
4. Instead of PK shotouts to end ties, settle ties with gladiatorial matches.

[Mormon Red Death]

My suggestions for fixing soccer:

1. Cheerleaders.
2. Fix the time-keeping so that we know how much time is actually left.
3. Stop calling mamby-pamby fouls. This should reduce the flopping. I want to see a compound fracture, or at least some blood, before they start flashing colorful cards.
4. Instead of PK shotouts to end ties, settle ties with gladiatorial matches.

5. Make the ball oblong like a football.
6. Give them a helmet and other football pads
7. Institute football rules.

Sent from my SGH-T839 using Tapatalk 2

[Devildog]

Soccer around the world is really worried and will likely change its rules to appease Americans.

Who cares... seriously, who cares?

Some things just cannot be fixed, soccer is one of them. The game is just bad.

Yep.

http://www.theonion.com/video/soccer...gay,17603/?utm

Yep.

I don't understand this. Why do you feel so compelled to post about soccer. I think Radiohead sucks. I mean they are absolute shit. Only an idiot would listen to that crap. And yet somehow I refrain from posting about Radiohead's immense crappiness in the Radiohead thread.

Yep. This is different though.

Its odd that you think the NHL is so great, when its basically soccer on ice.

OH HELL NO!

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