Soccer was my favorite sport when I was growing up. Of course for most of the world it is the only sport so people love it no matter what. Having just finished watching the World Cup, I feel that despite the popularity of the game world over, it needs some changes. The defense is so good that players with enormous dribbling and shooting skills can rarely get a shot off. Not only is the scoring too low but the acrobatic skills of the goalies are rarely on display. And a penalty shootout is not a way to determine the world champion. So I make the following suggestions. It is unlikely that significant changes will be made but I can hope. Several years ago I said to myself that they should get rid of passing back to the goalie to decrease offensive pressure, and lo and behold, they actually put that rule in. So maybe there is hope for other changes.
1. Change the no offside rule from mid-field to about the 35 yard area. This will lead to more fast breaks and help the fast players.
2. Shrink the penalty area by one-third. This will leave less area that the goalie can handle the ball. It will decrease the number of penalty kicks but that's o.k. because the penalty kick is deciding way too many games which means that the referee is deciding way too many games. If a foul is really close to the goal the pk is a reasonable penalty. But a foul 17 yards away generally do not deserve a pk. A free kick by someone like Beckham with a wall blocking him is much more interesting than a pk.
3. For the world championship no shootouts with sudden death goal wins. Have unlimited substitution in OT if you are worried about player exhaution. You have 23 players on the roster why are you using a maximum of 14? The team with the better depth should have a better chance to win.
4. Anyone who has received a yellow card, cannot stand in the defensive penalty area during a free kick or a corner kick.
5. Two referees, each monitoring half of the field. The game is too fast and often the referee, trailing the play cannot see fouls correctly and also cannot see what's happening behind him.
If you have other suggestions, write in. I have ideas for rule changes in other sports also if anyone is interested.
Horray for Bob and Mike Bryan of Camarillo for winning Wimbledon doubles championship and thus achieving a career grand slam!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
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I've been waiting for your Israel/Lebanon blog but I got your World Cup one instead! I agree with some of your ideas, though they still pass back to the goalie. I would like to see the offsides become a permanent line like the hockey blue line. This will make it easier for the linesman to judge if the player was truly offsides. I like your idea of having a smaller hotbox. I would accept an increase in substitutions for overtime, like one or two extra per overtime period. I would actually not mind a NASL type shootout where the goalie can come out of the goal line and the shooter must dribble before firing upon the goal. This will make it more of a skill contest rather than a guessing contest. As far as injuries go, I'd like to have the injured party go to the sideline and stay out for a determined amount of time like at least 1 minute or he stays on the field. I'd like to get rid of the running clock and have a countdown timer. Once the clock goes to zero, the game's over. Plain and simple. I like the idea of having another on-field ref as well.
ReplyDeleteLBOAYM