I've managed to watch a decent amount of football over the last week+. Not as much as I would have liked, but more than I expected. Mostly recorded at night, given unfortunately the matches are on at 0900, 1200 and 1500 PST. We do have a room setup with a projector for the games at work, but not much time when at work. I did catch a couple of halves at lunchtime.
First, I am happy Spain are out. I'm fed up with the whole tiki-taka, keep possession endlessly type of football. I loved Barcelona when they won the Champions league in 2009 and 2011, but started to get tired of it after. I remember Portugal being one goal down in the knockout stage in (I think) the last European championship and just passing and passing around the opposition penalty area, not a single player in the penalty area, no crosses etc. (They lost 1-0).
Yes you need great skillful players to play it. But couple it with the seeming move towards banning any kind of tackling in soccer (more on this later), it doesn't make for entertaining football. Especially when the oppositions plan is also to let Barcelona have the ball until they get near the penalty area.
Best games I have seen so far:
1. Todays 2-2 USA vs Portugal. Great drama. It is amazing that a team made up of mostly players from the MLS, definitely a much inferior league to the top leagues in Europe, equalled a team made up of players from the top leagues. It really says something about the coaching (Klinsmann), and the mindset of the players themselves.
2. Germany vs Ghana. 2-2. What a great game. Both teams trying to win, not just sitting back, attacking with purpose, and playing in the right spirit, no playacting. I think there was one yellow card right at the end. Both sets of players just played, there were some hard / mistimed tackles, (I think mostly from Ghana) but the players just got on with the game. Credit also to the referee, but I think many times the players make it impossible for the referee to do a good job. I enjoyed watching the contrasting styles. Ghana, with more individual dribbling and pace and emotion, and Germany, who just somehow always manage to perfectly combine individual skills with playing so well as a team. They could (maybe should) have won that game: After going 2-1 down, they played some great football and created many chances.
3. England vs Uruguay.
Suarez! My favorite player for the last 2 years (obviously playing for Liverpool). Amazing watching him all season in the Premier League, and then he scores two goals not having played for the last month. Compare and contrast with Gerrard (another all-time favorite and great player). But right now, the mental states of the two players are so different. This game requires you to be at your peak physically. Suarez is there right now (he is 27 - in his prime). Gerrard - at his peak he would be in the midfield for any team - is 3+ years past his. I’ve seen Gerrard mistime the defensive headers a couple of times for Liverpool, and I’m betting Suarez was just instinctively aware of that, and when the ball came his way, two touches was all it took.
4. Australia vs Netherlands (2-3).
All credit to the Aussies. When you watch Australia in any sport, you can be sure of what you’re going to get. Always positive, great team spirit, 110% effort. They just came out and played positive football. When they attacked, they committed players forward, passed the ball, and attacked with a purpose. Other (so called lesser teams) should take note. You’re at the world cup - just go out and play the game, not be so worried about losing. And of course, Netherlands just did their thing - they have so many good players.
5. Chile vs Spain
It was fun to see pace and power and dribbling win against the tiki-taka (admittedly not the same team that we saw 4 years ago in terms of being past its peak).
Looking forward:
After the great 2-2 between the US and Portugal today, any of the US, Germany and Ghana could progress. In terms of being underdogs and yet producing really good performances, the US deserves to go through to its first (?) knockout round.
Otherwise, I’d love to see Chile or Costa Rica go far in the competition. I like watching South American teams in general, but I don’t like to see the over-the-top play-acting that sometimes the game degenerates into. And that leads me to some thoughts on keeping the greatest game the greatest game, and some general comments about sports, my favorite hobby.
Scoring systems
I once read an article talking about different sports and the scoring systems. In essence it said the scoring system is very important. You want the better team to win, but retain enough for a lesser team to be able to pull off a surprise. So, if you have a lot of scoring / points, the better team has a better chance of winning.
I.e. take basketball. In a game where you score 50 baskets on average, the better team will win most of the time. On the other side is football. The average number of goals in a game in the World Cup is 3. So, scoring one goal is huge, and a lesser team can score one and hold on. And so you have different variations on this. Individual games, the emphasis is on the the better player winning, and most games reflect this. I.e. tennis, where it is very hard for a lesser player to win, given the number of points that must be won. Etc.
What is undeniable is scoring a goal is a big deal in football. And right now, the rule for penalties is just bad. Examples in this world cup: Brazils second goal against Croatia (the game was 1-1). Australia’s second goal against the Netherlands (game was 1-1). I think there was also one against Belgium that was similarly doubtful early in the game.
Right now the rule is: any foul that would result in a direct free kick is a penalty if the foul occurred in the penalty area. So, a clearly unintentional hand-ball, most definitely not a clear goal-scoring opportunity, on the far edge of the penalty box, and the referee gives one team a goal. When the average number of goals in a game is 3!
My proposal 1:
If the referee deems the foul to be unintentional (yes there is discretion), he can award a direct free kick. The attacking team can choose to make it into a single unopposed (apart from the goal-keeper) shot at goal from the spot of the foul, or just a normal direct free kick. He can still award a penalty if he deems that it prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity, but he has the discretion for the former option.
This would be a fairer reflection on the actual probability the foul lead to a goal not being scored.
I’d love to have some of your thoughts on this, and I’m sure there would need to be tweaks etc. But it would be much fairer and more interesting I think. I’d like to see how many goals are scored from “free” shots from the edge of the area etc.
Fouls / bookings / play-acting / diving
This is one of the main reasons I don’t watch many (champions league) games any more. I don’t want to waste my time watching players rolling around play-acting. It just doesn’t make sense that FIFA (well maybe it does given FIFA seems to be about collecting bribes for hosting world cups) or UEFA or the national football associations haven’t done anything about it. The solution is not that difficult. Use after-the game video and anyone who is clearly diving / play-acting gets a X game ban. Yes, sometimes it is not clear, and the rule should err on the side of being sure it was diving.
What about penalties as a result of diving?
Again, given the importance of a goal, a bad penalty decision ruins the game.
My proposal no 2: All penalty decisions are reviewed by a 4th official. How would this work given the decision stops the game? The referee always plays advantage, until there is no more imminent goalscoring opportunity, at which time the game is stopped for the penalty review. Yes it is also not ideal, but the alternative of having the game completely change because of a wrong penalty is much worse.
Sin-bins
This addresses the sending-off, which also completely changes the game. Especially when a player is wrongly sent off and a penalty is given. Serious double jeopardy. And completely spoils the rest of the game. Instead, why not have a sin-bin for 10 minutes. This would penalize a team, make the game more interesting in that a team has 10 minutes to press its advantage, and not completely ruin the game. Perhaps even have a sin-bin with compulsory substitution or some such, to really penalize the team and player for a bad offense. Any such decision should also be reviewed, unless the referee indicates it is for talking back or some such.
Tackling
I watched some of the UEFA champions league this year, and I think the trend is clearly to outlaw tackling of any kind. It seems like if as a result of a tackle, someone falls down, thats a free kick. Couple that with the obligatory 9.8 score theatrics after any type of contact, and it is a recipe for more just boring games, with constant stoppages, and more premium placed on keeping possession, because it is so hard to get it back if you aren’t allowed to tackle.
I’m all for many of the rules in the last 10 or 15 years, such as not allowing going through the back, two-footed tackles especially off the ground. But you have to allow tackling! This world cup has been much better, and in general the premier league is pretty good. Lets use after game video to root out the malicious tackles, and let the players play hard. We watch some sports for the passion and the emotion and the physical challenge, not to see a ballet.
More controversial stuff
I have been following (and enjoying) sports in the US over the last 13 years. One big difference in basketball and American football vs soccer is having to make progress. In American football this is totally embedded into the game. In basketball, where arguably it may be more difficult to keep possession of the ball given the much smaller court and no double dribble (ok tackling is very difficult without fouling), there is still a shot clock.
There could be a similar thing in football. Lets say 5 minutes. If no one from the other team touches the ball, there must be an attempt at goal in 5 minutes. Or maybe 4 minutes. A cross would essentially constitute an attempt if it was anywhere near the goal, because either there would be an attempt or the defense would clear it, touching the ball in the process.
Another “make progress” rule might be discouraging the passing back all the way to the goalkeeper when you had possession deep inside the opposite half. This happens quite a lot (mostly a sign of a not so good team I feel), and is frankly just boring, drives both sets of fans nuts. Portugal did this quite a lot a few years ago trying to keep possession. How about, once the ball crosses the half way, no more pass back to the goalkeeper. This would make the game more positive, yet allow the pass back as a defensive measure to deal with the ball over the top, and teams just trying to essentially gain territory by punting the ball forward, or a team just lying back and not committing men forward.
Live sports is fun
Having said all of that, it is fun to watch live sports and the only game you can watch right now is football and rugby or tennis. It is almost impossible to watch live American sports, because you essentially watch advertisements with a little bit of action thrown in between the timeouts and “2 minute warnings” and just general longer and longer breaks between the actions. My kids have been super into baseball (the older two were playing little league AAA and their team went unbeaten, won the league etc). But we hardly ever watch live baseball. Too much time between innings = too many ads. I always record on the DVR, and we either watch a day or two late, essentially to get the skills vs to know the result, and always about 1 hour of action in 20 minutes skipping the ads. Basketball and American football - both great games, but generally just unwatchable due to the constant breaks for ads. BTW I found myself not watching cricket for many years for essentially the same reason. The joy of the commentator telling you about the game, the replays, everything was taken away as the ads began before the last ball of the over was in the goalkeepers gloves and didn’t end until the first ball was almost out of the bowlers hand.
So if anyone in any kind of position of influence in the sports organizations is reading, you’re losing my kids (and hopefully many more too). I’m just not going to allow them to sit there and watch ads for coke and fast food and generally brainwashing them into being “consumers” over and over again.
Coaching kids
On the subject of kids. I’m going to be coaching all my kids football teams (U10 for Dinu and Shantanu, U8 for Abhi) in september. I’ve been listening to this series of podcasts on the BBC where they interview coaches. I heard one on a tennis coach, and also recently one on Klinsmann (our fellow Californian now). If anyone has any pointers to good material for coaching kids, I’d like to hear from you. I’ve been coaching my kids for the last 4+ years, and I need to learn a lot more on how to get the kids to have fun, yet challenge them to push themselves.
