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OT: World Cup

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Belgium and Colombia are my dark horses. Feeling pretty good about Colombia after that result.
 
Da_Aisijimo_Gou said:
Recognizing MLS play is experiencing ongoing improvement and the league attracts the 7th or 8th hughest paid attendance of any league globally, and the US has rising TV ratings for international matches, non-US leagues, and MLS games alike (in English and Spanish), facts simply do not support your perspective. Not liking soccer is OK, and exaggerated NBA-ish/ Duke-ish flopping is rubbish, but shrinking the field is simply ridiculous with absolutely no sound reasoning, the offside rules are fine when called appropriately (similar to good versus bad refereeing in other major sports), etc. It's really OK some people who dislike the sport will always find fault, but getting the facts straight really enhances an opinion. Otherwise, it opens opportunities for comparison with the likes of Ken Krayeske.
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Shrinking the field might be the worst soccer 'improvement' I've ever heard.
 
FIFA, much like MLB, is very tradition-driven and is very reluctant to make changes to the rules or to how the matches are officiated. They take pride that a match amongst two teams of teenagers in Africa has the same rules and roster of officiating crew as the World Cup.

I agree that it should change and goal scoring is infrequent enough that instant replay could be incorporated.
I would like to see the yellow card more readily enforced for flopping but IMHO the degree of impact from penalties also needs to change. I would like to see a sendoff similar to hockey, where a player receiving a 2nd yellow or less egregious red is gone from the game but his position is out for an interval of time, say 10 minutes and a more egregious red (deliberate head butt or dangerous foul) would be out for a longer period of time.
It is a beautiful game and the flow is very attractive to spectators. The goals in Italy v. England have been of the highest quality.
 
I want to comment on the "low scoring equals boring" criticism of soccer, since I hear it in so many venues from fellow Americans. It's a ridiculous statement, and the main reason why it's ridiculous is because it's often made by football fans who would rather see scores of 21-7 a lot more than 3-1.

But here's the catch: Let's take a soccer goal, and award the same amount of points as a touchdown (including extra point, which are rarely missed). Today's results would have been:

Colombia 21 - Greece 0
Costa Rica 21 - Uruguay 7
Italy 14 - England 7
Japan 7 - Ivory Coast 0 (first half)

Is soccer any more exciting, now that I've treated it like football? And here's the better experiment. Let's just award 1 point for a touchdown. Is football any more boring if it ends 3 - 1? It's just such a dumb argument...
 
So far there have been an average of 3.5 goals scored per match.
Only 2 teams have failed to score.
Zero draws.
 
Today the Greatest Player in the world takes the pitch
 
Da_Aisijimo_Gou said:
the offside rules are fine when called appropriately
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The offside rule is silly, arbitrary, leads to the defense attempting to form lines in the back row to "catch" the offense offsides rather than simply playing D, is very difficult to call because it requires visualization of two places at once, and takes away from the game.

Better would be to get rid of the offsides rule entirely, or, if offsides is absolutely desired to avoid goal sitting, make it a hockey style line.

Having the offsides line depend on where the defenders are standing takes away from the game.

I recognize that stalwarts will defend it because "that's the way the game is played and I am a purist," but it detracts from the game.
 
Strummer said:
The offside rule is silly, arbitrary, leads to the defense attempting to form lines in the back row to "catch" the offense offsides rather than simply playing D, is very difficult to call because it requires visualization of two places at once, and takes away from the game.

Better would be to get rid of the offsides rule entirely, or, if offsides is absolutely desired to avoid goal sitting, make it a hockey style line.

Having the offsides line depend on where the defenders are standing takes away from the game.

I recognize that stalwarts will defend it because "that's the way the game is played and I am a purist," but it detracts from the game.
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it's strategy, when executed correctly it works very well... it's dangerous because if a defender is slow stepping up then they're screwed... do you realize how stupid, sloppy, and ugly the game would be if there was no offisides? same thing with having lines in hockey... the field is bigger with more players, the offisides moves with the game so instead of having your forwards standing on a line waiting for a ball, they have to move with the defense, make runs, check to the ball etc. offsides can be within the six yard box all the way to a step before half field, it moves with the game
 
Strummer said:
The offside rule is silly, arbitrary, leads to the defense attempting to form lines in the back row to "catch" the offense offsides rather than simply playing D, is very difficult to call because it requires visualization of two places at once, and takes away from the game. Better would be to get rid of the offsides rule entirely, or, if offsides is absolutely desired to avoid goal sitting, make it a hockey style line. Having the offsides line depend on where the defenders are standing takes away from the game. I recognize that stalwarts will defend it because "that's the way the game is played and I am a purist," but it detracts from the game.
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A lot of soccer in-game strategy is territorial. You want to own more of the territory so that you can get more of your players forward, so the idea is to pinch your back line up the field and shorten the yardage that you have to cover defensively. The further up you get the offsides line, the further forward your midfielders can go and get into the offensive attack. If there's automatically 80 yards of space for midfielders to cover, they won't move forward since there will be a huge amount of space for the other team to work with between the midfield and the defense, and their first responsibility would be to defend that area. When teams don't trust their back four to handle the speed of the other team, they don't push forward with their offsides line and sit back and play 9 or 10 behind the ball, which is indeed boring soccer, but that's the way just about everyone would play with no offsides.

The rules also reward speed from your strikers and attacking midfielders. With no offsides line, you would see more lumbering unathletic types who could camp out right around the box for 90 minutes.
 
that was a good no call by the ref to allow advantage to be played... what a goal by the swiss
 
Wow, that Switzerland finish, gutting for Ecuador with that good chance on the other end just a moment earlier
 
Danpisco12 said:
That Pirlo free kick was almost unfair. Hart had no chance.

The Italy-England game as a whole was great. I expected both teams to be much more content to play for a draw but it ended up being a great game to watch.
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i kept saying the whole game Pirlo is going to score off a free kick, so close! he is amazing not only free kick wise but hit poise and vision... the only thing i want to see are some amazing free kick goals
 
UConnSwag11 said:
i kept saying the whole game Pirlo is going to score off a free kick, so close! he is amazing not only free kick wise but hit poise and vision... the only thing i want to see are some amazing free kick goals
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Letting the pass go through on Italy's first goal was sick. I had been reading a lot of English media in the days leading up to the game and all the articles were about England vs Pirlo and shutting Pirlo down by surrounding him when he touched the ball. That's why I found it so funny that he let that ball go through.
 
Danpisco12 said:
That Pirlo free kick was almost unfair. Hart had no chance.

The Italy-England game as a whole was great. I expected both teams to be much more content to play for a draw but it ended up being a great game to watch.
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somewhat related, i'm really liking the england youth movement. i was very impressed by sterling. kid is only 19 years old and looked fearless out there. should be a great player for them going forward.
 
61cygni said:
Wow, that Switzerland finish, gutting for Ecuador with that good chance on the other end just a moment earlier
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Yeah nuts. And props to the ref, great advantage played.
 
UConnSwag11 said:
thats a much better idea for the diving than stopping and doing replay during the game... will players still do it, of course but not as many and once that player gets a ban the others will notice... the slow motion replay makes things seem a lot worse than they are
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I'm not knocking you here, but doesn't the match stop significantly (comparatively) when there is a penalty kick called?
 
uconnjunkie said:
Fifa is to blame for diving..full stop.

If the players knew that they could face a 3 game ban for diving in the box, they would not do it. Right now, the risk/ reward of diving is so skewed, it begs for players to do it.

Win the match for my country/club or a yellow card?

Fifa uses video technology post match on all red cards to determine a 1 match- 3 match ban. They could do the same for all pks given in the box.

And a note to refs..if a player rolls around 125489631225478 times...he isn't really hurt....just walk over to him on roll number ,say 8 or 9 and give him the yellow for unsportsmanlike behavior...the would stop too.
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I would prefer that if you can't (or don't bounce up) right way, you have to sit off the field for a minute or two. That would stop the rolling around pretty quickly.
 
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