One major, yet easy fix to Soccer

OregonDucks

OregonDucks

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Look, I get the world loves this sport and embraces it for what it is and probably doesnt want any changes to it, or at least could care less if the U.S got on board with following it and becoming fans of it. But what Soccer desperately needs to do is get rid of games ending in a tie. Eliminate that, and I can definitely see myself investing 1.5-2 hours of my time to watch a game. Knowing that when i watch a game i will see a winner.

Heck, in comparison to other sports, being able to watch a full game that has a winner within 2 hours is a huge positive, because most sports these days are a solid 3-4 hour long commitment.

But I have such a hard time investing all that time and seeing a game end 0-0. Even more mind boggling is seeing some teams and fans getting excited over a 0-0 finish or 1-1 finish or 3-3 finish.
 
It’s basically just watching a bunch of foreign dudes run around aimlessly for two hours. I can go to park and see that.
 
OregonDucks said:
Look, I get the world loves this sport and embraces it for what it is and probably doesnt want any changes to it, or at least could care less if the U.S got on board with following it and becoming fans of it. But what Soccer desperately needs to do is get rid of games ending in a tie. Eliminate that, and I can definitely see myself investing 1.5-2 hours of my time to watch a game. Knowing that when i watch a game i will see a winner.

Heck, in comparison to other sports, being able to watch a full game that has a winner within 2 hours is a huge positive, because most sports these days are a solid 3-4 hour long commitment.

But I have such a hard time investing all that time and seeing a game end 0-0. Even more mind boggling is seeing some teams and fans getting excited over a 0-0 finish or 1-1 finish or 3-3 finish.
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I thought it was going to be some other suggestion. Yeah….that won’t happen.

I get the gripe (though I would counter that while it’s far, far less we can still see a tie in NFL).

Strangely the occasional NFL tie aggravates the fuck out of me, but soccer doesn’t. Maybe it’s because other levels of football like college have a solution not to have a tie.

Here’s the thing…if it’s not elimination a draw will always be a thing. I grew up playing soccer so I can watch a 0-0 game. There is a lot of strategy and tactics at play. A chess match going on. Short of knowledge and appreciation for the game you won’t ever see enjoyment in these types of games.

I would imagine similarly take a foreigner and give them the basics of baseball and show them a 0-0 game that goes 12-13 innings before settling. They will be disgusted by it. But we can find something in such a game to enjoy.

And, yes, that’s not a perfect analogy because at least that baseball game will settle when a winner.

TL;DR: Without a solid tactical understanding, and care, these soccer games will never entertain. They also won’t change.
 
Orlando_Eagles said:
I thought it was going to be some other suggestion. Yeah….that won’t happen.

I get the gripe (though I would counter that while it’s far, far less we can still see a tie in NFL).

Strangely the occasional NFL tie aggravates the fuck out of me, but soccer doesn’t. Maybe it’s because other levels of football like college have a solution not to have a tie.

Here’s the thing…if it’s not elimination a draw will always be a thing. I grew up playing soccer so I can watch a 0-0 game. There is a lot of strategy and tactics at play. A chess match going on. Short of knowledge and appreciation for the game you won’t ever see enjoyment in these types of games.

I would imagine similarly take a foreigner and give them the basics of baseball and show them a 0-0 game that goes 12-13 innings before settling. They will be disgusted by it. But we can find something in such a game to enjoy.

And, yes, that’s not a perfect analogy because at least that baseball game will settle when a winner.

TL;DR: Without a solid tactical understanding, and care, these soccer games will never entertain. They also won’t change.
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No professional sports should end in a tie. Ever.
 
Make the ball a puck, give the players sticks and play it on ice then i'll be interested.
 
Orlando_Eagles said:
I thought it was going to be some other suggestion. Yeah….that won’t happen.

I get the gripe (though I would counter that while it’s far, far less we can still see a tie in NFL).

Strangely the occasional NFL tie aggravates the fuck out of me, but soccer doesn’t. Maybe it’s because other levels of football like college have a solution not to have a tie.

Here’s the thing…if it’s not elimination a draw will always be a thing. I grew up playing soccer so I can watch a 0-0 game. There is a lot of strategy and tactics at play. A chess match going on. Short of knowledge and appreciation for the game you won’t ever see enjoyment in these types of games.

I would imagine similarly take a foreigner and give them the basics of baseball and show them a 0-0 game that goes 12-13 innings before settling. They will be disgusted by it. But we can find something in such a game to enjoy.

And, yes, that’s not a perfect analogy because at least that baseball game will settle when a winner.

TL;DR: Without a solid tactical understanding, and care, these soccer games will never entertain. They also won’t change.
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I too can't stand when an NFL game ends in a tie, the NFL should probably do without a tie as well, but it's sort of a rarity that it does end in a tie because the league does whatever it can to avoid it. Fact is, an NFL game is more likely to end in a winner, even when it goes into OT than a Soccer game is to end in a winner from the start.

Hell, I even hate when my fantasy football game ends in a rare tie.

I think why amongst soccer fans that draws are acceptable and understandable is because it has been a part of the game for so long. But I dont see how it would negatively impact the sport or game if it eventually went to goal kicks to determine the winner. In fact, goal kicks are super exciting and very intense, you'd probably get a huge interest to see games coming down to goal kicks.
 
SlinkyRedfoot said:
So you must know what the hardest thing about playing soccer is, right?
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I think of more than one thing. Trying to decipher offsides from where you currently are on the field……getting the right curl on the ball outside the box……I’ve never had normal shins.

But, I also feel like a punchline is coming.
 
There are two BIG issues with getting rid of ties in soccer.

1. Because so many games only have 2-3 goals scored you're going to go to OT more than most other sports. Soccer OT is 2 15 minute periods in general. So you're playing an extra third of a game instead of an extra quarter like a lot of other sports. You could go to golden goal to try to shorten things up, but even that doesn't mean you're not still playing the full OT. And that full extra OT is going to be exhausting for most of the guys on the pitch. At the highest levels you only get 3 subs the whole game. Dudes don't come out willy nilly whenever they need a break like in basketball or hockey. In the regular season or group stage of a tournament it just doesn't make sense to allow a decent chunk of games go that extra 30 mins.

2. The other option if you don't do full OT is the penalty shootout. This is basically just a bunch of coin flips to decide who wins. It's exciting to watch, but an awful way to decide the better team. It should only be used as a last resort (after the full OT periods in a tournament) and even then I don't like it.
 
SlinkyRedfoot said:
No professional sports should end in a tie. Ever.
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No disagreement. I’m not making a case for it. Just saying I don’t see it changing.

Many will say the extra minutes of extra time on a tie is too brutal for the players. Fine, from end of regulation time go right to penalties.

Possibly realistic is maybe seeing MLS do something like this. Problem is they are tied into the international game so much they have probably had it made clear to them that the international support for MLS could drop massively if they did such a thing.
 
OregonDucks said:
I too can't stand when an NFL game ends in a tie, the NFL should probably do without a tie as well, but it's sort of a rarity that it does end in a tie because the league does whatever it can to avoid it. Fact is, an NFL game is more likely to end in a winner, even when it goes into OT than a Soccer game is to end in a winner from the start.

Hell, I even hate when my fantasy football game ends in a rare tie.

I think why amongst soccer fans that draws are acceptable and understandable is because it has been a part of the game for so long. But I dont see how it would negatively impact the sport or game if it eventually went to goal kicks to determine the winner. In fact, goal kicks are super exciting and very intense, you'd probably get a huge interest to see games coming down to goal kicks.
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No soccer fan enjoys a draw. They are extremely unsatisfying. But, if you think baseball has rabid traditionalist it’s nothing compared to soccer. I can’t see the winds blow for such a change for at least a long time.

Much like the NFL again…..as long as the sport is extremely popular why change anything? You just don’t have to.

And no, traditional international football does not care about your fandom, or mine, or any Americans.
 
Cave_Johnson said:
There are two BIG issues with getting rid of ties in soccer.

1. Because so many games only have 2-3 goals scored you're going to go to OT more than most other sports. Soccer OT is 2 15 minute periods in general. So you're playing an extra third of a game instead of an extra quarter like a lot of other sports. You could go to golden goal to try to shorten things up, but even that doesn't mean you're not still playing the full OT. And that full extra OT is going to be exhausting for most of the guys on the pitch. At the highest levels you only get 3 subs the whole game. Dudes don't come out willy nilly whenever they need a break like in basketball or hockey. In the regular season or group stage of a tournament it just doesn't make sense to allow a decent chunk of games go that extra 30 mins.

2. The other option if you don't do full OT is the penalty shootout. This is basically just a bunch of coin flips to decide who wins. It's exciting to watch, but an awful way to decide the better team. It should only be used as a last resort (after the full OT periods in a tournament) and even then I don't like it.
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Really good point on #2. It might seem more exciting in comparison to a draw, but it’s not a great way to decide games as it is currently set up.

Extending some form of OT to regular season would make more sense if you up the amount of substitutions, maybe even allow one subbed out player to be subbed back in within OT.

But again, why should they do anything at this point?
 
Orlando_Eagles said:
No soccer fan enjoys a draw. They are extremely unsatisfying. But, if you think baseball has rabid traditionalist it’s nothing compared to soccer. I can’t see the winds blow for such a change for at least a long time.

Much like the NFL again…..as long as the sport is extremely popular why change anything? You just don’t have to.

And no, traditional international football does not care about your fandom, or mine, or any Americans.
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That is why i said i doubt the rest of the world really cares and thinks the U.S casual fan needs to jump on board with the sport, because the sport is doing just fine with little US fan interest. But maybe something MLS could give a try to capture more fans within the US.
 
Orlando_Eagles said:
But, I also feel like a punchline is coming.
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winner GIF
 
Orlando_Eagles said:
I grew up playing soccer
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SlinkyRedfoot said:
So you must know what the hardest thing about playing soccer is, right?
Click to expand...

Orlando_Eagles said:
I think of more than one thing. Trying to decipher offsides from where you currently are on the field……getting the right curl on the ball outside the box……I’ve never had normal shins.
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I'm sorry, no. The hardest thing about playing soccer is telling your parent's that you're gay.
 
Cave_Johnson said:
The other option if you don't do full OT is the penalty shootout. This is basically just a bunch of coin flips to decide who wins. It's exciting to watch, but an awful way to decide the better team.
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I think the best option to decide which is a better team at a given sport is for those teams to play that sport until one team wins. I see that it would be hard on the players, but they get paid a shitload to play a game. Play it.

That said, if they go to a shoot out (which is quite a bit different than coin flips), it might be an awful way to decided the better team, but it's a shitton better than not deciding.
 
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