Nielsen Says Most Rabid College Football Fans in Northeast Are in CNY and Western PA

[All4SU]

Old fart here. Can't stand baseball, but I will go to an occasional game just to be outside, enjoying a beer with good company.

Love soccer. But agree that soccer in the US has a big uphill climb. IMHO this will only change when we have many BIG homegrown names. Pele' wasn't going to get it done. A Landon Donovan alone is not enough. A Tim Howard or two. People, largely kids, need to be able to recognize the players on sight, know their names, who they play for. And our best players play overseas. A big World Cup showing would help develop player identity, but it would take more than that. It's a chick or egg situation. The game is not the problem.

 

[HtownOrange]

Old fart here. Can't stand baseball, but I will go to an occasional game just to be outside, enjoying a beer with good company.

Love soccer. But agree that soccer in the US has a big uphill climb. IMHO this will only change when we have many BIG homegrown names. Pele' wasn't going to get it done. A Landon Donovan alone is not enough. A Tim Howard or two. People, largely kids, need to be able to recognize the players on sight, know their names, who they play for. And our best players play overseas. A big World Cup showing would help develop player identity, but it would take more than that. It's a chick or egg situation. The game is not the problem.

With your circumstances, soccer could rise to a respectable level in the pro sports category. However, the pansy falls and such must stop. Perhaps allow body checking on the player with the ball, too.

 

[Eric15]

Old fart here. Can't stand baseball, but I will go to an occasional game just to be outside, enjoying a beer with good company.

That's how I approach baseball, as well. I find the game itself mind-numbingly boring, but I treat going to one as basically an outdoor Happy Hour.

 

[SUbear]

It should adopt a shot clock and eliminate face offs.

There already is a shot clock rule, it may need to be modified though. They already tried eliminating the face off back in the seventies, everybody hated the way it affected the game of lacrosse and face offs were brought back after a couple years.

 

[Mr Peabody]

With your circumstances, soccer could rise to a respectable level in the pro sports category. However, the pansy falls and such must stop. Perhaps allow body checking on the player with the ball, too.

I hate the flopping. Would like to see the 'flopper' taken out of the game for a fixed period of time to 'heal'. That should decrease it. Hockey addressed the diving very nicely and it's worked.

 

[HtownOrange]

I hate the flopping. Would like to see the 'flopper' taken out of the game for a fixed period of time to 'heal'. That should decrease it. Hockey addressed the diving very nicely and it's worked.

This is what I see when I see soccer floppers:



Explains a bit, at least to this viewer.

 

[All4SU]

With your circumstances, soccer could rise to a respectable level in the pro sports category. However, the pansy falls and such must stop. Perhaps allow body checking on the player with the ball, too.

Except 9 times out of 10 when you see a player grabbing his ankle and rolling on the ground, he has indeed been fouled, just perhaps not as severely (read that card-worthy) as he might make it appear. It's gamesmanship. It needs to be addressed. But it's not nearly as big a deal as people seem to make it.

 

[Hoo's That]

Except 9 times out of 10 when you see a player grabbing his ankle and rolling on the ground, he has indeed been fouled, just perhaps not as severely (read that card-worthy) as he might make it appear. It's gamesmanship. It needs to be addressed. But it's not nearly as big a deal as people seem to make it.

Very simple way to end it. The sideline guy with the substitution sign becomes a 4th official assigned by the league/FIFA, if he already isn't. He has a stopwatch. If a player goes down in a heap, for real or imagined reasons, the 4th official starts the stop watch and holds it high over his head to show that it's been started. If the player is on the ground for 45 seconds or more, the attendants are sent over for him from his bench and the guy comes out for the game for 2 minutes while his team plays shorthanded or they send in a sub. My guess is, by about the 3rd game that it's enforced, they'll fully understand the ramifications of what they're doing and the feigned injuries will stop.

 

[lincolncuse]

Old fart here. Can't stand baseball, but I will go to an occasional game just to be outside, enjoying a beer with good company.

Agree. I do enjoy playoff baseball. Lots of late inning drama, based loaded pitcher vs hitter etc. Those games are fun.

 

[All4SU]

Very simple way to end it. The sideline guy with the substitution sign becomes a 4th official assigned by the league/FIFA, if he already isn't. He has a stopwatch. If a player goes down in a heap, for real or imagined reasons, the 4th official starts the stop watch and holds it high over his head to show that it's been started. If the player is on the ground for 45 seconds or more, the attendants are sent over for him from his bench and the guy comes out for the game for 2 minutes while his team plays shorthanded or they send in a sub. My guess is, by about the 3rd game that it's enforced, they'll fully understand the ramifications of what they're doing and the feigned injuries will stop.

In theory, referees already take that time into account when they employ stoppage time

 

[Townie72]

In theory, referees already take that time into account when they employ stoppage time

I think you missed his point. He wanted to penalize floppers by requiring them to come out of the game for two minutes.

It makes my point about how Americans would want to change a lot about soccer to bring in in alignment with their tastes. I can hear the calls for Instant Replays on all sorts of plays now and challenge flags to boot.

The problem is that the US market is not going to drive the rest of the world to change the game as many Americans assume. We Americans would have to deal with the frustrations and we aren't very good at that.

I marvel at the imprecision of soccer games after being conditioned to the precision of US games. But at least they don't stop play for five minutes while they "check with New York" while New York goes through the tape frame-by-frame to see if the runner's hand touches the base before the tag is applied.