Soccer: For most of the world, it's exciting

An estimated 40,000 Dutch soccer fans marched
before their team's game in Houston on Saturday.

        
     For those of you who are temporary soccer fans, meaning while World Cup games play on your television daily …  welcome. 

     Here is what to know: Watching soccer requires patience.   

     You might have observed — say, many years ago — that soccer (which is football in the rest of the world) is not a high-scoring game. A game with, say, three goals is a bonanza. Every now and then, in a mismatch, one team scores seven goals or five. Very much the exception.
     So, welcome, 1-0, or 2-0. Or even — yikes — 0-0.
     Yes, it can be a “slow-paced game.” But think golf, or baseball (especially before the major leagues installed a pitch clock). We don’t much mind the slow pace there.
      But those of us who have been soccer fans for life know that there is more up-and-down the field action than soccer neophytes realize. 
     To see a game in person — this month to see a World Cup game in person — is a heckuva lot better than to watch on TV. To see play over the whole field in context to a television view makes a huge difference.
     And people in the U.S., plus Mexico and Canada, are watching by millions on TV and by tens of thousands in full stadiums. No matter how high the ticket prices. 
     (How high? Seeking tickets for a game in Kansas City this week, the low price we could find — for a seat high in the Chiefs’ stadium — was $638. No, thank you. The game will look OK on TV.)
     FIFA, soccer’s international organization, is raking in millions (billions?).
     Americans are streaming to the games in person. And if you’ve seen the huge fan followings here of so many of the countries involved, there are amazing sounds (songs, dances, drums, pep rallies) in the streets around the stadiums and in the stands.
     Borrowed this from a recent story in USA Today: Soccer has now replaced baseball as the third most popular sport in America, behind football and basketball, according to data analytics firm Ampere Analysis. 
     C’mon. As a baseball fan(atic) since we first saw a game, we are offended (OK, we call offside). It’s still No. 1 here, and soccer always has been 1A. Football and basketball, take a back seat now. (Sorry, it’s an un-American view).
     Of course, in this country, there always will be sceptics. Have a friend, a retired Louisiana sportswriter — let’s call him Ted — who two weeks ago posted on Facebook: “No offense to World Cup fans but I have long held that unless your kid is playing, soccer is boring. This is one notion that should spread across the political spectrum. Agree or disagree?”
     He followed that a few days later with, “Am I supposed to feel guilty because I could care less about the World Cup?”
     No, my friend, enough people care.
     We replied to his original post: “It is boring, especially for boring people. No more boring than listening to blowhard politicians.”
     Another friend, from Louisiana but a longtime Texas resident, said this week, “Watching soccer I am amazed at the athleticism of the players.”
     Yes, with many of these World Cup teams, these are those countries’ best athletes. They can use their feet, and they can use their heads.
     Even the U.S. team now has impressive athletes. Suddenly, after two dominant victories, the Americans are thinking they could go a long way in this World Cup. A championship? Do you believe in miracles? Wouldn’t bet on it.
     One aspect of World Cup play that is acceptable to most of the world but not here is games that end in a tie. There were 14 ties — four in one day — in the first 48 games. (In group play — the first three games for all teams — it’s three points for a victory, one for a tie.)
     Around the world, ties are part of soccer in regular-season league play. In the U.S., we decided decades ago that ties were antiquated in football — high school, college and most-not-all NFL games. The National Hockey League regular-season games, if tied at the end of regulation, requires a brief overtime and then a penalty shootout. Of course, baseball always has had extra innings, basketball overtime, golf a playoff, etc.
     Once this World Cup reaches the final 32 teams stage, ties will be broken — even not in 30 minutes of overtime, then with a penalty-kick shootout. Five shooters to begin with; team that converts the most wins. If it still tied after five shots, keep alternating shots until there is a winner.
     This, we think, is stupid. This is our biggest criticism of soccer.
     It’s like ending a baseball game with a home run-hitting contest, or basketball with a free-throw or 3-point shooting contest, or golf with a long-drive or putting contest. 
     Our idea for soccer in overtime is (1) play on, but take one man off the field every five minutes until someone scores, or (2) even better, do away with the offsides rule, giving offenses a chance for a breakaway. (It’s the offsides rule, in the first place, which makes it so difficult for teams to score.) 
     No one from FIFA has called for our advice. 
     PK shootouts? Yes, consider them a boring finish. But soccer itself is an exciting game … for open minds. Just be patient.