I love soccer and grew up playing the game. I can remember discovering soccer on TV for the first time in the summer of 1986 when the World Cup was played in Mexico and Diego Maradona led Argentina to the title. I’ve watched every Cup since then with great interest, and 2010 has been no exception.
Many people hate soccer, and that’s fine. I don’t like the NBA and other people do. So what? But there are an increasing number of sports fans in this country who are discovering the “beautiful game,” and that’s a beautiful thing. What follows are a three of the things I really like about soccer, and, for balance, three of the things I do not:
What I don’t like:
1. Diving. I understand that players will embellish contact or take a dive to get a penalty, but this happens WAY too much. And the way some players roll around like they’ve been shot is just unseemly – especially when they hop back up a moment later. I always associate this behavior with the Italians, but there are many offenders. It’s silly and more than a bit pathetic.
2. FIFA referees. You never notice refs when they do a good job, but too many refs have been noticed for all the wrong reasons – disallowed goals (see: team USA), bad offsides calls (and non-calls – see Argentina-Mexico), bad bookings, etc. FIFA brings in under-experienced refs who can’t keep up. And FIFA needs to embrace goal-line technology and perhaps even limited use of replay.
3. Accumulated cards. It’s silly that two yellow cards over the course of five games can cause an important player like Germany forward Thomas Mueller to miss the semi-final match with Spain. Wipe the slate clean after the first round.
1. The constant flow of the game. Time is never called except for injury. There are no commercial time outs to kill the action. There is constant movement and motion and flow. (A related point: Unlike most big-time sports in this country, there are no fat soccer players, or refs for that matter.)
2. The yellow card/red card system. While the door is open to subjectivity here, I like the booking system and think other sports would benefit from it as well. It’s especially great that if you do something stupid and get ejected, you not only harm yourself but your team, who is not allowed to replace you.
3. It’s the ultimate team sport. A star player can be a great catalyst for a team, but he alone usually can’t make or break a squad. Soccer requires maximum effort from all eleven players. It requires crisp passing, solid runs off the ball, getting back on defense, etc. It’s a great team game.