I've always been a soccer fan, playing it growing up and have really grown to enjoy watching BOTH the Premiership and the Champions League for the last 10 years or so. But living in London for the last two years has given me a new appreciation for what I really think is the greatest sport in the world. Firstly, it is by far the most widely played game globally, drawing the best athletic talent in almost every country outside of the U.S. Secondly, soccer is a game of flow and patience. Granted, it was not designed well for television advertising, with two running 45 minutes halves, unlike football or baseball (with constant breaks), you are really drawn into the flow of the game. Yes, many games end with no goals, yes there are ties, all concepts not easy for most American sports fan to grapple with, but you earn your glory in soccer. You wait patiently for 90 minutes, enjoying the passing, dribbling and tackling, even without goals. There are shots, and amazing saves, and emotions and sweat and tears. But no goals. Then in the 91st minute, when you least expect it, the ball will hit the back of the net. And exactly then, is why I love soccer. You have to “earn” your goals and your glory. And it’s so much sweeter. It’s not a game for those looking for instant gratification. It’s not a game for those too lazy to learn about the tactics and positing and how teams are set-up for various opponents. But for those who wait ... and enjoy the beautiful game, you get to enjoy moments like this:
When England international, and Manchester United striker, Wayne Rooney scored a bicycle kick in the recent Manchester Darby (Manchester United versus Manchester City) in what many are considering to be the one of the best goals of all time. You don’t even need to know the back-story here to appreciate this goal -- that Rooney has had a horrible season following a disappointing Wold Cup campaign and he almost left Man U earlier this year. You just need to watch the pure athleticism and skill it takes to score a goal of this quality and see the level of emotion in Rooney and the fans after the goal. After the game, he dedicated the goal to Manchester Untied fans, and it couldn’t have come at a more meaningful time.
OK, Jvining, time for me to play a little devil's advocate:
ReplyDeleteFIRST:
I can appreciate that soccer is a game for the patient, that there is no instant gratification that another sport like football, basketball, baseball or even hockey can provide, but to end a 90+ minute game without a goal just does not make sense to me. A sport is based on measured achievements of one team against another team, so you'll understand the frustration that a game like this can bring if you could spend close to two hours watching a ball go up and down the field without ever going into the net.
SECOND:
In soccer, you can never truly possess the ball for more than a few seconds like you can in basketball or football. You don't really have that kind of control, so how can you really employ tactics? You can't plan more than a couple moves in advance so I'm not sure that tactics is the right word.
THIRD:
I heard that Rooney's goal is actually not viewed as that great by soccer purists since the bicycle kick has been around for almost 100 years and players have been scoring like that for awhile. I've always heard that Maradona's goal against England in '86 was the best goal ever scored in soccer? If you watch the so-called 'greatest goals,' many of them are not bicycle kicks.
Crash, a couple of count-points for you:
ReplyDelete(1) You have to appreciate the "game" not just the goals. The game includes, passing, shooting, tackling dribbling etc. Similar to appreciating sacks, and third down holds in football, its not just about TDs. But yes, a 0-0 score can be quite frustrating, but the rules of soccer have been around since 1860's and developed over time, so who are we to mess around with what works for 80% of the world. Similarly, there is no play off system in the Premiership, but there is relegation for the bottom three teams, Champions League for the top four, and UEFA cup for the next three. Which basically means, for the 20 teams, every game counts, which makes for a very exciting season.
(2) You are just wrong here, just watch a team like Barcelona or Arsenal play. Barca will average 8 or so passes per possession and 70%+ possession time per game. There are definite tactics in soccer. The best tactician right now, and current coach of Real Madrid, is Jose Mourhino. Jose has been undefeated for NINE years at home, with four teams, in four different countries. Take a second to think about that record, and then try to say there is no strategy or tactics in soccer.
(3) Sure, I am not saying it is the best goal, or top 5 or whatever. The goal came in a Manchester Darby, and was very meaningful, so it is just an amazing goal to watch. Athletically to do what he did, is also just absurd.
Back to you Crash.
I would really be interested to see where those numbers on Barcelona come from, please cite your source. I find it hard to believe that they AVERAGE 8 passes/possession. I'd also like to see how a possession is defined in soccer, what qualifies as a possession and what doesn't. You're also saying that they hold the ball for over an hour each game? If that's the case, they should not lose a game ever. I just don't think that there are "tactics" in soccer when most of what you're trying to do on offense is keep the ball away from the other team as long as you can in hopes of getting a good shot off. The best example of tactics in sport is in football where you have playbooks of thousands of plays and coaches dedicated to executing those plays on the field. That kind of organization and play-calling (tactics) simply does not exist in soccer.
ReplyDeleteArsenal recently beat Barcelona with only 33% possession in the match. That was the highest possession % of a Barcelona opponent in this year's entire Champions League (Source is Opta Stats). Barcelona's passing stats are real. Commonly, there top 7-8 passers in a game will have completed more passes than anyone on the other team. They hog the ball. They rarely lose, so you're right that it's unlikely to have the ball that much and not win.
ReplyDeleteOf course to beat the other team when you know that they’ll mainly have the ball, you better have a really good plan, tactics you might say, to get it done. Here’s the tactical overview from the Arsenal-Barcelona game: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/02/17/arsenal-2-1-barcelona-tactics/, it’s a really interesting comparison of two great teams who try to do the same thing in a match, only one team does it better (Barcelona), and so for Arsenal to win, they have to change their tactics and come up with a new plan. Their manager did that well, and the Barcelona manager actually changed tactics at the exact same time in a way that made it more likely for Arsenal to win. He screwed up his tactics.
Here's a great primer on possession and how they calculate it time of possession: http://www.optasports.com/about/news/feature-a- ball-possessed.html.
Crash, I know you're not trying to say you have all of the information about soccer, but you shouldn't speak in absolutes w/ so little knowledge. Soccer tactics are so intricate and involved, it would surprise you. There's a book called "Inverting the Pyramid" that looks at the evolution of soccer tactics over the entire history of the game. The story is constantly one of new innovations in formations and tactics, and then the reactions to the chose changes as other teams figure out how to nullify the advantage that was created.
There's a very popular Website called Zonal Marking that analyzes tactics in soccer games to understand the impact of different formations and approaches to the game and how that influenced the outcome. You can look at the formations and the changes made throughout the game. Because there are so few goals, and because you can’t call plays for most aspects of the game, the tactics matter MORE. The manager has to set out his players in the right way, doing the right things, making the right movements, or they will lose.
Having played soccer in college, I can tell you that we watched extensive video of our next opponents, laid out a formation that we thought would help us win the game, and then we tweaked that as we went through the game, in response to what the other team was trying to do. Imagine how much more seriously they take that in the professional leagues.
And I’m sorry, but lumping in baseball in the sports that are more interesting than soccer is insane. Baseball is extremely slow and boring. The majority of the players are not involved in the majority of the action. You do not have to be in good physical shape to play the game. The sport takes at least three hours to complete, unless it’s Yankees-Red Sox and then it takes 4 hours. The season is way too long, and then at the end of 162 games, you throw it away, so that some random team who had a half-decent season can be crowned as the best team in the league.
I am a huge sports fan, and used to watch a ton of baseball, basketball and football, even some hockey. But with the ability to watch soccer now from all of the major European leagues, I gave up baseball entirely, and barely watch basketball anymore. Soccer, if you understand it, is infinitely more interesting and exciting to watch. If you can only appreciate a goal, yes, it will be boring. If you can appreciate that the average player has less than a second with the ball each time he gets it and has to do something meaningful w/ it in that time, well then suddenly, it becomes fascinating.
Oh, and the Rooney goal. He actually made contact w/ his shin, so I have to agree it was not one of the all time greats.
SSJ, the purpose of my comments were mainly to get a rise out of Jvining but I will try to address some of your points as well. You are right that I am a novice and have been taking some pretty aggressive angles against soccer; as a sport it doesn’t appeal to me like others do mainly because of the scoring. To see two teams battle for almost two hours and then see one goal or even a 0-0 tie really isn’t my cup of tea, but I get that the finer points of the game are lost on me if that’s how I feel. I mean, there better be some finer points to soccer if you could devote two hours of your day to see a 0-0 tie.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the Zonal Marketing site and will admit that I didn't understand much of it but I will still stick to my guns in saying that I do not think that one team can be especially tactful over another, when so much of the game is uncontrolled. How many times in an average soccer game does one team put together a sequence of passes that result in a shot? You pass the ball to get it to the open man so that he can shoot so that he can score, simple math. So many passes get broken up or miss their mark that it is rare to see one of these sequences develop, but I understand that this is why so many of you like the sport, because it can be that frustrating at times. That’s what brings you back.
I never said that baseball is the most exciting sport; it’s probably the second least exciting mainstream sport in the U.S. next to NASCAR. You’re may be right by saying that you don’t have to be in good shape to play the game, but most MLB players had to choose which sport to play and they chose baseball. There are very few baseball players that only played baseball, most of them chose it because it was the sport they were the best at and it gave them the best chance to play professionally, which is quite a feat considering how many teams there are.
When I think of tactics, I think of devising plays and schemes that are used to give your team an advantage over the other. To think that a formation is one of the best tactics that a soccer team can use seems pretty basic to me, football uses different formations on every single play and then there are hundreds of plays they can run off each formation.
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ReplyDeleteStop embarrassing the blog. For all the reasons mentioned as positives for soccer, plus the skating, hitting, puck possession, actual injuries, power plays, and, God forbid, goal scoring, everyone knows that hockey is the greatest sport in the world. Move on.
ReplyDeleteHAhah - well done SSJ! Looking forward to watching some Gunners soccer at some point soon!(tough loss today)
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