The first time I heard an American say that soccer is boring, I thought he was kidding. It was during my undergraduate days, and I was jousting with a fellow student about Americans’ low interest in the world’s indisputably most popular sport. He wasn’t kidding about soccer being boring. Actually, it was a widely-held view in the United States.
Soccer has since made considerable inroad in popularity, thanks in part to the dominance of the U.S. women’s team at the world stage. And though the men’s team has not had comparable success, it has become so much of a powerhouse that its not qualifying for this year’s World Cup was a shock. And the trajectory of popularity points steeply upward. Soccer is one of the most popular recreational sports among American children, a popularity that gave rise to the tag soccer mums.
Even then, the perception of soccer as a boring game to watch remains widespread. Recently a comedian demonstrated it with a skit. “Do you want to know how exciting soccer is?” he asked with a smirk. “Watch this.” He retrieved a soccer ball, rolled it under his foot, then gently kicked it barely a yard away. The TV audience roared in laughter
As I watch games in the ongoing World Cup, I am frequently reminded of that spoof. Of course, I still find soccer an exciting game to watch. But I’ve also become more understanding of why its critics find it boring. Even those who grew up socialized into its methods and aesthetics sometimes get lulled into a slumber.
The problem is that soccer has become too much of a midfield game. It is around there that players numbingly pass the ball back and forth among themselves, including to the goalkeeper. This was the fodder for the comedian’s joke.
The practice has not been as bad this year as it was in the 2014 World Cup and ones before, perhaps because even home crowds have been known to boo their own team for it. But even now, it is still done often enough to deprive soccer of its potential to enthrall every second of its 90-plus-minute duration.
The excitement of soccer lies in the imminence of a score, and that happens only when the attacking team has the ball close to the opponent’s goalpost or has players racing toward it with the ball. Repeated midfield passes have much the same effect as waiting at an airport departure lounge.
Yet, the offence is not always to blame for soccer’s lulling moments. Prolonged mid-field-passing is a strategy against packed defences. During my school days, soccer was offense oriented. We used one and only one formation: the 2-3-5, that is two defenders, three midfielders and five forwards. Now the reverse is the case. Most teams now feature just two forwards, or strikers as they are now called.
So, as Chinua Achebe wrote of Eneke the bird in “Things Fall Apart,” “Since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.” Since teams have learned to pack their defence, offences have learned to lull defenders to sleep before attacking.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, as is evident in some of the games. The game between Poland and Senegal is an example. There was not a dull minute. Both teams employed very similar strategy, and that was to get the ball toward the opponent’s goal quickly.
This was especially the case with Senegal. Whenever, they found space between Poland’s pressing attack, they lobbed the ball deep or raced at the sidelines toward Poland’s goal post. Senegal led 2-0, before Poland scored a face-saving goal toward the last minute of fulltime.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles didn’t do enough of this against Croatia. In contrast, Morocco did so against Portugal, another topnotch European team. Though they lost 0-1, they had various chances to score. On a number of occasions, their players were brought down in the penalty box, but to their chagrin, the referee deemed the contacts incidental. Had some of those been called penalties, Morocco would have joined Senegal as the second African team to upset a European soccer power. What is pertinent here is that they created many opportunities for themselves thus making the game exciting.
American critics of soccer tend to point to the low scores as evidence of its tedium. But the number of goals is not a measure of excitement, granted that that’s what yields moments of ecstasy. A game may end in a scoreless draw and still be exciting to watch if both teams continually make a score seem imminent.
Though soccer is more tradition-bound than Buckingham Palace (at least until recently), a number of changes are worth considering to improve the excitement. And some of these are drastic.
Rule change No. 1: Imposing a time limit on any given ball possession on a team’s side of the field. This would be similar to the rule in basketball that results in backcourt violation.
Rule change No. 2: Forbidding backward passes to the goalkeeper.
Rule change No. 3: Using the number of shots defended between the post as a tie-breaker in place of overtimes and penalty shootouts. One exception would be the championship game, given that nothing but goals would be an acceptable decider.
Rule change No. 4: Allowing unlimited substitutions, except in cases of red flags. This would reduce fatigue, especially in light of the extra toll resulting from reduced lulls in action.
Is there a chance that FIFA will so much as entertain any of these rules in our lifetime? Improbable. Will these changes make soccer more exciting? Absolutely.
World Cup noteworthy
Senegal is the only African team with an African coach. And it is the only African team to win its first match — against a topnotch European team for that matter. Mhm!!!
Seismologists reportedly registered a mild tremor in Mexico the moment their team scored the lone goal of the match against Germany. The tremor resulted from the simultaneous leaping in jubilation by Mexico’s approximately 128 million people. Who said soccer is not exciting enough?
For Mexican star Carlos Vela, it was a bittersweet victory. His grandfather died not long after the game, apparently succumbing to the stress. Maybe soccer is too exciting as it is.
How did Russia manage to get two lowly ranked teams for its first two matches (Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Perhaps a Putin putsch?
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