Soccer is Hard to Watch:  5 Ways to Make it More Interesting

Photo credit: PickPik https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Ok, so I know we’re a sports business and we like to promote all kinds of sports gear, but I have a confession to make.  I don’t like soccer.  I don’t want to say hate, but I really dislike soccer.  For me, soccer is hard to watch.  The fake dramatics with injuries, the weird (to me anyways) offsides rule, the even weirder additional time sometimes added to the end of a game.  Oh, and here’s the worst, the amazing and exciting game that ends in a 0-0 tie.  Oh boy, that’s fun!  I think I may have some ideas that would make soccer more interesting and therefore more fun to watch.

  1. Establish a fixed offsides line: have an actual line instead of it depending on where the defender is (or at least I think that’s how it works):  If a team wants to have a player hand around the offsides line for a chance at a fast break, so be it.  There are not many things more exciting than a breakaway in sports.
  2. Enough with the dramatics:  People sometimes tell me that hockey is just soccer on ice and it makes me want to get violent.  Simply put, as far as I can tell, soccer players pretend they are hurt and hockey players pretend they are NOT hurt.  I have seen countless and outrageous attempts to fake an injury and draw a penalty.  ENOUGH!  Be a big boy or a big girl and play the game!  Players should be penalized for embellishing a penalty or even outright faking it.
  3. The game time is the time:  No more adding time on.  What is that anyways?  The game is 90 minutes but for whatever reason more time is added on at the end.  Ummm, dumb.  Play hard for the time allotted. 
  4. More action and more scoring:  I think one big change could promote more fast paced action and more scoring opportunities.  Make the field smaller and have a small wall around the field.  Bank passes, less stops in play, players closer together all lead to more action and scoring chances.  The small wall (thinking 2-3 feet?) still allow for out of bounds kick in and throw in opportunities that can be exciting. If you don’t like the wall idea that’s ok, a smaller field will still bring about more action.
  5. No more ties:  Ties in sports are dumb in my opinion.  Two teams play a game, and one wins.

Who knows, if soccer incorporates these rules, you may just find me watching a game or two.  What do you think?  Am I crazy?  Let us know!

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