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The World Cup
I know that because it's the World Cup and all, I'm supposed to care about soccer. Sportscenter, ESPN.com, and PTI, all of which haven't mentioned the word soccer in 3 years, all of a sudden have meaningless matches between countries I've barely heard of as the top story. The problem is, the sport is still dreadfully boring.
I know, I know, I'm a myopic American. The fans are crazy and great (as long as you're not from one of the countries where the fans kill you if you accidentally tip the ball into your own goal), and it's the most watched sporting event worldwide.
It's not so much the lack of scoring that turns me off (although that is a big reason) as much as the inane timekeeping system. As far as I can tell, the clock starts at zero and counts up until 90 minutes, at which point the refs arbitrarily add on extra time based on how much time they think elapsed when no soccer was going on (penalties, injuries, drunk fans running onto the field naked, those long 20 minute stretches where the ball never leaves the midfield area).
This is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, and as far as I can tell makes it unique from all other sports. Almost all other team sports have timekeeping as the one rigid aspect while everything else (balls and strikes, first downs, whether the player who grabs another player's crotch gets thrown out of the game or not) is a subjective judgment call. In letting refs arbitrarily decide when the game ends, Soccer has reduced every single aspect of the game to judgment calls, which leave even more room for drunken fans to riot and loot and burn the field.
Comments
All valid points, but Soccer's biggest problem to me is faking injuries to get foul calls. I'm not saying some of the collisions aren't violent enough to warrant injury; it's just that ANY time ANYONE makes any contact with ANYONE else's legs, you'll see at least one (sometimes both) of the idiots acting like they just Daunte Culpeppered their knee. I get mad enough at flopping in basketball, and they don't even writhe around on the ground for 5 minutes after the fact. Plus, they bring out that stretcher and paramedics every time (contributing to the timing problem), just to see the player hop right off as soon as he gets to the sideline.
That's what you get for letting Europeans run a sport. This is why people think soccer players are sissies.
Now I've made myself angry again....
Posted by: Lucas at June 19, 2006 3:49 PM
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