Letters to the Editor
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How I would change soccer.
If you're thinking about changing some small rules to make soccer more exciting, one rule change would be to add an over-and-back rule, like in basketball. Once the team with the ball moves across midfield, they cannot kick back into their defensive end. I would add a time line, too, to prevent teams from keeping it in their end when they have a lead. If you shorten the field, you would force the offensive team to play offense and crowd the defenders, so that there may be traps and intercepts, causing turnovers and perhaps offensive chances the other way.
On the other hand, they can keep their boring game. They have enough people following it that they don't need our help.
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Offside
Maybe some of the soccer afficionados could explain what it is the offside rule is designed to encourage, or discourage. One thing it cetainly does is produce a game which has relatively few decent scoring opportunities. Unlike King, if you are going to tweak the rule, I would make it so offside was not relevant within the defender's box. How about the equivalent of the hockey blue line at about the 25 metre line, and get rid of the moveable off side line?
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The Stretcher Rule
King, I had the exact same thought about the stretcher that you did, but then realized that requiring a guy to come off for good is too harsh, especially given there are only 3 subs.
I'd make it a mandatory 10-minute break. That way a team could decide whether to play a man down for 10 minutes (which might create more scoring) or sub out. It's enough of a punishment to make it stop (or at least give the viewer a side benefit), but not overly harsh.
I also believe that this so-called sporting gesture of kicking the ball out of bounds when a guy goes down needs to stop. It's all well and good when someone is legitimately injured, but given that the guy is faking about half the time, some enterprising team needs to just play on until there's a natural stop in the play. You'll see the floppers start getting up right quick. Since the rest of the world already hates us, I volunteer the US as the country that needs to pioneer this practice.
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Us vs. them
What is it about soccer that brings out the xenophobe in Americans? Case in point, the "THEY can keep their game" in the previous letter. Who is "they?" I'm an American and I follow soccer quite closely, and there is no shortage of fans filling the pubs where I catch important matches. It's absurd that many Americans get so crazy about the Olympics, but turn their noses up at a sport that is rooted in rabid nationalism. There wasn't anything more moving than hearing the American national anthem play as the camera panned on the pained faces of our undervalued players before the match with Italy.
As far as the stretchers, I think it's a move to deter players from wasting time on the field after injuries, whether they are real or not. Without the stretchers, a player would just hang out, sprawled on the field, stopping play. The stretcher says "Get up or get out."
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Rule changes
King,
The stretchers are used to keep the game moving since the clock doesn't stop for injuries. They started using them in the 90's to keep players from milking the clock while they got treatment. You know, guy gets kicked and goes down like he's been shot and rolls around in unbridled agony. Then the trainer comes out with "the magic sponge" and the player is miraculously restored to playing health again. So now, the guy goes down and if he can't get up right away, they haul them off to the side on a stretcher. Americans see stretchers and we immediately think the guy is headed for an ambulance and ICU, but they really only use them to keep the game moving.
I'm with you as far as diving goes. FIFA has said they are cracking down on it, but it's pretty friggin' tough to enforce. I have seen blatant dives result in fouls called in favor of the diver, and players get carded for dives that are clearly not actually dives. Arjen Robben of the Netherlands got kicked in the shoulder with studs-up and ended up with a foul called on him.
Regarding offsides, back in the 70's, the old NASL used to have a 35-yard line on each half of the field and players could only be offsides between the 35 yard-line and the goal, instead the half-line and the goal. FIFA threatened to sanction the league if they didn't remove it, so they complied. It did increase scoring by letting the forwards hang further upfield and also created more room in the midfield because the defenders had to stay farther back.
Personally, I don't mind the lack of scoring. It's the old pitcher's duel vs the 12-10 slugfest argument for me, and I usually prefer the pitcher's duels.
Thanks for the columns.
Peace,
Andy Smith
Austin, Texas
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King, I was going to disagree with you
But I just saw an Italian buffoon completely fake a trip against Australia and earn a penalty kick, thereby winning the game for Italy. What a total crock. When so many goals are awarded in the World Cup due to faked penalties, it's hard to value the sportsmanship of the game. I'm not a fan of either team, but I am totally disgusted.
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Here's the problem with not knowing what you're talking about...
1) Indoor Soccer -- we Americans started playing with the rules to encourage offense and we ended up with an exciting, fast-paced, high-scoring game that just happened to suck....
2) You guys have no idea how difficult it is to officiate the offside rule as it stands. Soccer officials have to be in better shape--as good as the players in many cases--than officials in any other sport. As it stands, the referee's assistants (linesmen) need to keep up with some of the fastest athletes in the world in order to stay even with the last defender and determine offside. King, if you add your silly rule about not being placed in an offside position, they'll need to run, watch the position of the players, keep track of the ball and who touches it, look out for fouls, and keep track of who moved where to put who in what position. I'm a former official (alright, amateur level, but still...) and I say it's an impossible task.
Nothing personal, but the basic rules in football (soccer) -- including the offside rule (please note, there's no final "s" in offside) have been around for a long time because they make for a great game. Not enough offense for you? Sorry, deal with it. Learn to like the game and you'll start to appreciate the defense, too. I'm pretty sure, King, I've read you complaining about poor defense in many contexts. Look what the illegal defense rule has done to the NBA. There are two sides to most games; good players can do both.
With all that said, and just to indulge my hypocrisy, if you want more offense, make the goal bigger. That will lead to more goals, including longer range goals that won't be directly preventable just by bunkering up the defense, which will lead to a tactical switch towards offense in general.