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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 5649232, member: 405"] Once you get used to the rhythm of it, soccer is a great sport to watch. Two forty-five minutes halves with no timeouts. The strategy is similar to basketball or lacrosse - it's about finding open spaces in the defense, moving without the ball, shifting the defense from side to side to create overloads. There are fast breaks, presses, and players sitting back in a prevent defense. The passing will surprise you how accurate they are, and how often they hold on to seemingly impossible passes with their feet. Games are over in 2 hours, just like college hoops. You don't have to tie up 3.5 to 4 hours per game, like in NFL football. Promotion and relegation means the worst teams get sent down to the minor league, and the best minor league teams get to compete in the top league in that country the following year. This makes games between losing teams really compelling toward the end of the season because of the money at stake for their clubs, and for themselves, if they get sent down to the lower league. You don't see professional teams that perpetually lose and don't invest in their players, like you do in Major League Baseball, the NFL or the NBA, where teams don't really try to compete, keep their payrolls low, and the owners become billionaires anyway. It's a tough, physical game - played without pads, without helmets, played in sometimes terrible weather. Typical games see about 3 goals scored per game, and another 5-10 shots on goal, so there's about as much action as you see in hockey, although they're not moving as fast, of course. Because there are no timeouts, players tend to wear down and lose concentration as they approach the ends of each half. An average player runs about 5 to 6 miles during a match in 90 minutes. So many goals come at the end of a half, or end of a game, when people are gassed, and barely hanging on, like in a boxing match. Give it a shot sometime. I had a friend watch the last World Cup final between France and Argentina, which wound up a 3-3 draw after overtime, and went to penalty kicks (a penalty shoot out) to crown a winner. He thought it was awesome, and he had never really watched soccer before. [/QUOTE]

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