Nice Long Post (About Soccer? Wierd I Know)

This page has been hurting: all pics and short texts, hardly a blog. So let’s try and change that.

First off I must say I watched a lot of the world cup soccer and really enjoyed most of it. I used to play soccer and I’ve tried to catch as many of the world cup games as I can ever since it was in Pasadena in 94. What those guys can do with the ball is really cool to watch. But, like others (often generalized as “Each and Every American”) I do have a few problems with it and I think they should change some rules (soccer “purists” hate this idea). I mean they change rules in the NBA and NFL all the time, why not soccer?

1) Get rid of penalty kicks, especially in the final. This is not a new idea. But it’s like ending a game seven of the NBA finals with a free throw contest (and only AJ would like that). What a French player hits the cross bar, making Italy the better team? Just play overtime until someone scores a game winner.
2) Stop the clock when the ball goes over the end line and give teams a time out or two per half. If a guy falls and can’t walk, a team must call a time out. They could also call time outs to draw up plays, rest and get water legitimately, T.V. could go to commercials, and I could get a fresh beer. The end line stoppage would keep goalies from wasting time getting the ball perfectly teed up. It would also end the practice of that arbitrary stoppage time that everyone loves.
3) Have more refs on the field and keep track of fouls. Say 4 fouls and you foul out. The NBA wanted the guards to score more, so they started calling the fouls closer. You could also call technical fouls for flopping or complaining. Finally, having more refs on the field would allow them to track the game better and actually be in position to call fouls. I don’t know how many times I saw the ref come running in from off the screen to call a foul.

Anyhow, this was inspired by Pete’s post about Zidane so I should probably talk about that crazy head but. I mean that was absolutely bizarre. For some reason I saw almost every game France played and I really started to root for them. France takes a lot of shit as a country, but I’ve been there and I think it gets a bad rap. Racism in soccer is so bad and I liked the fact that their team was diversified (unlike Italy and many others). If the Italian guy really called him “son of a terrorist whore” then he deserved even worse than a head but to the chest. But yeah, that’s the last time I’ll talk soccer, I promise (soccer is for Jeff’s page anyway).