1. I would love to see football and basketball players play soccer...in the spring. Placing soccer in direct competition with both excludes some of the best athletes in the state.

 

2. Soccer is just as dangerous is football and would be more so if the bigger, stronger athletes played like they do in football.

 

3. The game needs an update. Allow offsides, widen the goals, shorten the pitch, add more players...just something to increase the scoring.

 

Offside in soccer is THE STUPIDEST RULE IN SPORTS. Can you imagine a football or basketball player outrunning a defensive player having the ball passed to him and being called back because he was able to get past the defensive player? In soccer if all a defender has to do to take away an offensive players speed advantage is move forward. The soccer enthusiasts will say it prevents offensive players from just camping out in front of the goal, I say learn to defend it if a player camps out in front of the goal. Stupid, stupid rule.

Nothing needs to be changed with soccer. It is "the beautiful game" when played correctly.

 

There is a lot of bad soccer in high school, even the "good teams" in some of our regions is awful.

And I'm really going to step in it now but after the travesty that was the run to the finals by a boorish team last year where the officials completely lost control of a semi final game, until something is done to stop that kind of play I'll never be a fan.

Soccer is an incredible sport. I've coached youth soccer for almost 10 seasons now and it is far from boring.

 

Anyone who says it is boring doesn't fully understand the sport. There's a lot more to it than scoring goals.

 

I'm not worried about the "it's boring" crowd. It's fine. Not everyone has to like the things I like.

 

I also enjoyed "Mad Men" on TV, the music of Tomas Luis de Victoria, and books by Stephen King. Not everyone does. That's fine.

 

But the anti-soccer crowd can be hilarious sometimes. They will NEVER pass up an opportunity to tell you just how horrible that 'dumb commie kickball' is.

I hear this all the time and I disagree. I understand soccer, it's boring.

 

I disagree but it's not for everybody. A lot of people like baseball too and it's not for me.

I'm not worried about the "it's boring" crowd. It's fine. Not everyone has to like the things I like.

 

I also enjoyed "Mad Men" on TV, the music of Tomas Luis de Victoria, and books by Stephen King. Not everyone does. That's fine.

 

But the anti-soccer crowd can be hilarious sometimes. They will NEVER pass up an opportunity to tell you just how horrible that 'dumb commie kickball' is.

 

Yeah, I agree. People seem to either like soccer or feel the need to hate on everyone who does like it :lol2:

I've never understood this false competition and why the anti-soccer crowd feels so threatened by the sport.

 

It is perfectly normal to fear what you do not know.... :walk:

And I'm really going to step in it now but after the travesty that was the run to the finals by a boorish team last year where the officials completely lost control of a semi final game, until something is done to stop that kind of play I'll never be a fan.

 

Officials in soccer seem to have the largest breadth of objectivity among all of the sports that I watch, save maybe for home plate umpires. The center ref sees a foul where another does not and it changes from game to game. Linesmens' calls can be overturned at the whim of the CR. I don't get that. At the Freshman level where there are 2 refs, you will see one ref call lots of fouls in his half of the field, and the ref on the opposite side calls nothing. Strange. At least in BBAll they can confer and the variance of what is a foul doesn't change WILDLY amongst refs in the same region. That is the part of soccer that I don't get.

Offside in soccer is THE STUPIDEST RULE IN SPORTS. Can you imagine a football or basketball player outrunning a defensive player having the ball passed to him and being called back because he was able to get past the defensive player? In soccer if all a defender has to do to take away an offensive players speed advantage is move forward. The soccer enthusiasts will say it prevents offensive players from just camping out in front of the goal, I say learn to defend it if a player camps out in front of the goal. Stupid, stupid rule.

 

I see offsides in soccer similar to that in football. Why can't the wide receiver run down the field before the ball is snapped? Because the play starts when the ball is snapped. Why can't a forward run down the field (offsides) in soccer before the ball is played? Because the play starts when the ball is played. The biggest difference between football and soccer is that there is a whistle blown and everyone lines up before the play starts. In soccer, it is more similar with football than you think, only the play starts new every time someone touches the ball.

 

I'm sure I've not explained this well enough, but hopefully it clarifies it somewhat.

I'll add wrestling; the sport I lettered in.

 

Talk about exposure. Either you're better than the other guy or you're not.

 

And the uniform !!!! Pretty "exposed"

 

Why is it that the more "manly" the sport, the more feminine the uniform.

 

Football......put them in spandex capri pants and muddy up the field

Wrestling....put them in a women's one piece bathing suit

Pro Wrestling.....boots and speedos

 

(wish I was that smart....credit to comedian Pete Lee)

I have to say... Maybe the reason we have been talking about soccer rising for three or four decades, is because they start kids so young. Maybe they are burning out on it because they are playing a 2 or 4.

 

I also am not sure that flag football for 3-6 year olds is good, either. To be honest, I think starting kids before 10 in football is kind of silly. You run the risk of kids being run off out of the game because of burnout, or just because they don't really have the mental capacity to process the complexities of the game that young. Nevermind the fact that it is REALLY hard to find quality youth league coaches... If you have fewer teams, you might get higher quality coaching.

 

Maybe do flag for 7 -9 year olds?

 

Then again - I am often of a little different mind when it comes to this sort of stuff.

Offside in soccer is THE STUPIDEST RULE IN SPORTS. Can you imagine a football or basketball player outrunning a defensive player having the ball passed to him and being called back because he was able to get past the defensive player? In soccer if all a defender has to do to take away an offensive players speed advantage is move forward. The soccer enthusiasts will say it prevents offensive players from just camping out in front of the goal, I say learn to defend it if a player camps out in front of the goal. Stupid, stupid rule.

 

It opens up the game. Without it, there are offensive and defensive players camped in front of goal and a dull midfield with long passes from end to end.

 

They've been tweaking it for years and years and I'm sure they'll continue to tweak.

 

We only see the close calls that get pulled back. We don't get to see the practical effect it would have on the game if the rule were gone.

 

The offside rule allows for the game to take place in the midfield and for a game of possession and buildup to occur rather than a more random game of punt and attempt.

I see offsides in soccer similar to that in football. Why can't the wide receiver run down the field before the ball is snapped? Because the play starts when the ball is snapped. Why can't a forward run down the field (offsides) in soccer before the ball is played? Because the play starts when the ball is played. The biggest difference between football and soccer is that there is a whistle blown and everyone lines up before the play starts. In soccer, it is more similar with football than you think, only the play starts new every time someone touches the ball.

 

I'm sure I've not explained this well enough, but hopefully it clarifies it somewhat.

 

Offisdes in soccer would actually be compared to lining up offsides in football...not outrunning the player. You wouldn't let the WR stand at the goal line during the snap, right.

Smh......

-communist kickball-

Offisdes in soccer would actually be compared to lining up offsides in football...not outrunning the player. You wouldn't let the WR stand at the goal line during the snap, right.

 

That's a better description. In my post/comparison, I said the wide receiver gets to take off before the snap. That would be similar to what you are saying.