Does anyone remember when soccer was fun?Nowadays, watching a so-called beautiful game is like having a tooth pulled. This was not done by a dentist, but by a pub thug, using a set of power tools as the device. Oh, I’m also blindfolded.
If it’s not a long throw, it’s an NFL corner scrimmage. It’s not about players wasting time on set-pieces, it’s about players going down ‘injured’ or goalkeepers feeling imaginary frustration so managers can pass on tactical advice mid-match.
Watching soccer has become a chore and that needs to change.
Once upon a time, soccer was the simplest form of entertainment. Two 45-minute halves, with no forced breaks and a continuous flow of action. Tennis, cricket and rugby were criticized by some for their stop-start hassles. How the table of powerful sports has changed.
But perhaps the solution to fixing the sport may lie in one of the games that was previously considered boring compared to the free flow of football. What would happen if the time came for football to swallow its pride and take a leaf out of rugby’s book?
Now, this is a sentence that would probably shock any self-respecting soccer fan, and rightly so. Rugby has always been a legitimate and proper cousin of football, and the two cultures have been at odds since the sport was codified in the 1800s.
But rugby seems to have solved the puzzle that even the most monotonous affair can reliably contain plenty of drama and entertainment. And that’s because of bonus points.
But what’s stopping soccer from doing something similar? Perhaps a workaround is needed to stay within football conditions. For example, the concept of bonus points for losing (extra points if you lose by 7 points or less) doesn’t work in any way. Profit margins in the soccer world are too narrow.
But do you get extra points if your team scores 4 or more goals in a game? Sign up. Think how much this changes things and encourages teams to take off the handbrake.
Imagine this. In a high-pressure chase, the title-chasing team found themselves 2-0 up at half-time. Will the manager stick or twist? Do you go for the jugular for extra points, or settle for the three points offered for a regular win?
If this were true, we wouldn’t see goalkeepers faking injuries or two-minute set-piece routines.
