I've failed to understand this argument against soccer: They don't score enough (immortalized in this clip).
First of all, it assumes that scoring is a good thing. And that's where I begin my defense. With the premise that not scoring is as good as scoring, if not better. What does scoring signify? Let's say an offensive success and defensive failure. And not scoring would be the opposite. But not really. A team can succeed offensively and not score, whereas a team cannot succeed defensively and allow a score. For example: a base hit in baseball is an offensive success (getting on base) while at the same time a defensive success (the hitter was not allowed to score).
Too much scoring is inherently a bad thing. Both teams, become, in a sense, fed up with scoring. It becomes too easy and the plot of the game is weakened. Much like a movie with too much action. It just gets old.
But in a low scoring affair, be it in soccer or in baseball, there exists and epic struggle between two sides. Both desperately wanting to score and not wanting the other side to at the same time. And thus the story exists, the characters move about and the plot is twisted and revealed at the final whistle.
As an American, stop placing such an impetus on scoring. Place it on the struggle. Place it on the effort to score. Because it is not simple. It is not easy. And when you see that, you see something truly exciting to watch.
The thing of it is: You can watch ESPN360 live throughout the rest of the World Cup. That means all the games. As long as you have internet access.
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3 comments:
The Nederlands and Portugal game was a classic battle of wits, skill and physical combat. It was awesome (even if you want to quaintly add that the official was lousy. The only addition to this game was if it would have been played in a monsoon!
I've said it again and I'll say it before. Americans don't like soccer because there is a lack of stats for us to rattle off. We want to know how many RBI's a guy has and how many touchdowns a guy's rushed for on Monday Night football when the moon is full in the month of October when playing in a stadium that begins with the letter 'S'. Soccer does not offer that and to a society that is sports crazy and all about fantasy leagues and whatnot soccer is just boring (I'm not saying soccer is boring, that's just my take on why folks don't like it.)
People liked sports long before there were OPS's and FFL's. And, sports weren't invented for satisfying statistical desires. I'd argue that American's view of sports is skewed. And soccer shouldn't have to change, American's view of sports should have to change. That's why I debunked the myth that scoring is a good thing.
Talk to anyone else in any other country (even Canada!) and they'll tell you a lot of scoring isn't good for any game.
Give me a 1-0 basbeball game over a 9-6 any day of the week.
My favorite thing: people complain that baseball games are too long, then they complain when there's not enough scoring. As if the two were mutually exclusive and you could score runs faster than you could get three outs. People are stupid sometimes.
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