My personal observations from watching nearly 20 matches:
I love the lack of commercials. That might be one of soccer’s most redeeming features.
Soccer doesn’t lend itself to the “Sport Center Highlight” style of American TV sports viewing. A home run, a touchdown, or a buzzer-beating trey all have a discrete beginning and end. The highlight conveys the meaningful aspects of the play to the viewer in a thorough way. Watching soccer goal highlights were underwhelming because so often it wasn’t the goal itself that was so beautiful, but instead something that happened 3 or 4 touches earlier.
I think in order to fully enjoy a game it needs to be watched uninterrupted from beginning til end. Every time I had to get up to get another beer, I would sit down and have lost my connection to the game. I needed some time to go by before I was fully immersed again. Probably says more about me than the sport, lol.
I have a visceral, negative reaction to a player who would rather fall to the ground than attempt to finish the play. I understand the math behind it, but it goes against every thing you learn playing sport as a young kid. It seems as if soccer is moving in a positive direction by penalizing players for diving. A good next step would to automatically give a yellow to Arjen Robben every time he sets foot on a pitch.
According to Gotze’s wikipedia page as of a couple hours ago, "After scoring the game winning goal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, GÃ?¶tze set a world record by bedding over 100 women the night of the victory. "
Did Messi deserve the Golden Ball? I’m not sure he did.
First NFL preseason game is in 19 days. woohoo!
The penalty kick from it’s current spot is too great of a reward for an infraction inside the penalty box. %70 of World Cup penalties are converted (%85 of Euro Cup PKs are converted). Moving the spot of the kick would better balance the infraction with the penalty and more importantly, better match keepers and penalty kickers. By making a PK marginally more difficult, it would take a bit of referee’s influence from the game and place it back in the hands of the players.
The lack of commercials and uninterrupted play is the best part about watching soccer. Hockey is pretty good at it too. When you compare this to American Football it’s just completely different. I really wish football were that way, but they would never be able to make their money off of all the commercial sponsors.
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
The lack of commercials and uninterrupted play is the best part about watching soccer. Hockey is pretty good at it too. When you compare this to American Football it’s just completely different. I really wish football were that way, but they would never be able to make their money off of all the commercial sponsors. [/quote]
If I’m at home I usually DVR football games to avoid the commercials. It’s absurd how often they break.
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
The lack of commercials and uninterrupted play is the best part about watching soccer. Hockey is pretty good at it too. When you compare this to American Football it’s just completely different. I really wish football were that way, but they would never be able to make their money off of all the commercial sponsors. [/quote]
If I’m at home I usually DVR football games to avoid the commercials. It’s absurd how often they break. [/quote]
[quote]Aggv wrote:
That’s the only way i can watch real football.
[/quote]
True story: yesterday I was reading another forum I frequent and a poster made a dick comment to an OP who had just had surgery. I though to myself, that sounds just like this dude on TN. I looked at the username, and there you were.
Swear to god, funniest thing that happened to me all day.
[quote]Aggv wrote:
That’s the only way i can watch real football.
[/quote]
True story: yesterday I was reading another forum I frequent and a poster made a dick comment to an OP who had just had surgery. I though to myself, that sounds just like this dude on TN. I looked at the username, and there you were.
Swear to god, funniest thing that happened to me all day.
[/quote]
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
6) Did Messi deserve the Golden Ball? I’m not sure he did.
[/quote]
I think that he did. Messi made more difference to his team than anybody else to theirs, and he had a hand in 7 of his team’s 8 goals. He also had the most successful dribbles–no surprise there–and did more passing than anybody expected.
As for goals: I just re-watched Muller’s goals, and though of course he had a great tournament, Messi scored more spectacular goals, of his own doing, by a longshot. If it were just about the number, obviously Messi wouldn’t win, but that’s what the golden boot is for.
^ And I think a large part of it is that Messi’s legend is his own worst enemy. Messi is one of the few players alive who can score a game-winner and still be said to have underwhelmed, or can have 46 successful dribbles and have his fitness questioned*.
*That said, I do think his this past season took its toll on him, and it showed.
The penalty kick from it’s current spot is too great of a reward for an infraction inside the penalty box. %70 of World Cup penalties are converted (%85 of Euro Cup PKs are converted). Moving the spot of the kick would better balance the infraction with the penalty and more importantly, better match keepers and penalty kickers. By making a PK marginally more difficult, it would take a bit of referee’s influence from the game and place it back in the hands of the players. [/quote]
This is spot on.
And it would make games which come down to PK’s a little more likely to go to the team with more skill, rather than that with more luck. Literally a yard and a half would do.
Having spent most of my life in Bayern (Bavaria) it was fun to watch all the antics of the team in the Prussian capital. They really let their hair down (carnival again!). Of interest in 1990 the final was in Rome between West Germany and Argentina. The score 1 - 0. History repeats itself.
I only watched the final match. I think it’s the first time I’ve watched a soccer match through since I was a kid and played soccer. I knew most of the rules, but never watched it played at this level.
It took me probably a good 15 minutes to wrap my head around just the basic play, and like Dr. Pangloss stated, there wasn’t much room for breaks in there to just step away and come back. I did enjoy watching it though once I started seeing how the basic patterns were created and developed. There was quite a bit more strategy than I expected.
I also was surprised I actually thought “wow, all the soccer players look so skinny”. I’d never have thought that a few years back.
I don’t really watch sports though, and when I do, it’s SANZAR rugby.
Too bad the next two World Cups are in way different time zones than the US. Any momentum created this year in the states will evaporate over the next 8 years…
[quote]AliveAgain36 wrote:
Too bad the next two World Cups are in way different time zones than the US. Any momentum created this year in the states will evaporate over the next 8 years… [/quote]
Well this year for us west coast people the games started at around 9am which is pretty damn early during the week since most people are working at that time. It would just be like the Olympics where they would still air it live, but would replay it during a more suitable time for people to watch it.
And watching a sporting event on tape delay is horrible… You’re bound to know the results prior to watching. Especially with social media, the web, people giving updates.
Who wants to watch a 90 minute soccer game when you know it ends in a tie?
[quote]AliveAgain36 wrote:
Too bad the next two World Cups are in way different time zones than the US. Any momentum created this year in the states will evaporate over the next 8 years… [/quote]
The World Cup captivates randoms like yourself and Csulli,
momentum will be created by internal sources, such as the MLS, not some random cup that happens every four years.
