LibriumArcana.Games

So I rocked when we tied England and cursed when the refs cost us a win against Slovenia and got up to the bar with a buddy (who is so cool I even forgive his sin of being a Texan) and watched the game...

Let me just say I think the Goalie for Ghana is awesome. He was like freaken Spiderman you know? That said... I want to punch him in the mouth, he knocked us out of the World Cup!

Anways the England-German match is coming up. So let me give you this to consider.

TWO WORLD WARS AND ONE WORLD CUP!

We German, German! We better football then you.

Ole! ole ole ole!

Ole

Ole

Jesus Christ, why do so many people like such a boring-ass sport in dire need of rule overhaul.

Get rid of that offside bullshit and open the game up, get some real scoring going to keep up the excitement.

*looks around shiftily*

Uh.... good games everyone?

*flees from horde of irate soccer fans*

Jesus Christ, why do so many people like such a boring-ass sport in dire need of rule overhaul.

What you mean baseball?

frigidmagi wrote:

Jesus Christ, why do so many people like such a boring-ass sport in dire need of rule overhaul.

What you mean baseball?

Oh, that too. Boring as hell.

Hockey at least has speed and lots of rapid movement, and I still don't watch it (caught a bit of Blackhawks-Flyers Game 6 when I wanted background noise on while I finished The Amber Spyglass).

Soccer's a fun game Steve, just cause you can't keep up with it, is no reason to knock it.

What I would really like is instant replay, then we wouldn't have been fucked over on a win.

European Football is pretty boring and filled with a bunch of prima donna's who pussyfoot around the pitch and act like total drama queens if they even get touched. Rolling around on the ground for two minutes then getting up and walking off like nothing. I also can't get into a game with so much fucking politics. USA will never win a world cup, the other countries and the refs wont allow it. And it's utter bullshit that the ref's aren't required to give a reason to throw out a perfectly good goal. the only good thing about soccer is the fans... they provide HOURS of entertainment.

I also hate baseball. (When I can go to a game, fall asleep in the 2nd inning and wake up top of the 7th and nothing has changed.... I find me a new sport to watch.)

Rukia, no offense but that's bull (not the part about the Euro-weenies, you should see a good game in the rec leagues back home, we beat each other near senseless) we haven't won a world cup because frankly... Our teams have never been that good. We're getting better though and in a generation or two we'll be dominating.

That's funny cause all of the European customers in the mall tell us we should be doing much better even with the team we have and that because we seem to get more heavily penalized we don't take enough risks for fear of a foul.....


And just because there are inter-mural teams that play rough doesn't a good sport make. I prefer rugby, if you want a good tough sport that the only rule is "don't kill the guy with the ball" that's the one to watch.

I actually like Baseball and Soccer both, but they're very different sports, and I frankly can only watch soccer when it's being played at World Cup level. I couldn't care less about the Champion's League or English Premier.

frigidmagi wrote:Soccer's a fun game Steve, just cause you can't keep up with it, is no reason to knock it.

Keep up with it? Ha, a 90 year old grandma in a walker could "keep up" with it.

As long as it's not happening, here, let the people who enjoy it have fun with it. I don't, but that doesn't mean much. I also don't like mushrooms, nBSG or SGU, and RTS games, yet a lot of people do.

Keep up with it? Ha, a 90 year old grandma in a walker could "keep up" with it.

You think so buddy? Come out and play with me.

Do you play with that atrocious "offside" rule? If you don't, I give your soccer a pass, because it would actually be nice and fast-paced.

Just like how my 5th Grade class (and other classes) played it at Osteen Elementary ("Offside? What's that?") Well, save Mrs. Sheppard's class. They were fucking cheapass because the entire damn class played at the same time and clogged up the field (they also, naturally, demanded a strictly narrow "boundary" instead of a nice wide field).

*Blows his vuvuzela right in Steve's ear*

As for the offside rule, the game would be ruined by getting rid of that. The game would just consist of booting the ball up the field as far as you could for the strikers to kick it at the net with no strategy at all. It's the same reason Hockey has an off-sides, and why American Football penalizes you so badly for crossing the line of scrimmage.

Charon wrote:*Blows his vuvuzela right in Steve's ear*

As for the offside rule, the game would be ruined by getting rid of that. The game would just consist of booting the ball up the field as far as you could for the strikers to kick it at the net with no strategy at all. It's the same reason Hockey has an off-sides, and why American Football penalizes you so badly for crossing the line of scrimmage.

For one thing, hockey's offside isn't anywhere near as limiting from what I've seen.

For another, the way football is played makes offside in it a perfectly logical penalty to assess.

But the way offside is called in soccer basically kills rapid offense, so you get long games with scores of 1-0 because the defense is heavily favored. Plus it allows cheap-ass ploys like the "offside trap". (Read a wiki article on the rule, that's how I know so much of it).

I used to play soccer back in high school, I was a striker. So yes, I know a bit about how much defense is favored, but they still can't trip up the offensive movements too much because then the chance of a breakaway goes up a lot and those can get converted into a goal really easily. Honestly, I rather like the heavier emphasis on defense that so many other sports lack. It makes the shots and the goals that much more epic when they occur.

Either way. What's your solution to this supposed problem? As I said before getting rid of it entirely will only make the game worse.

It might be an issue of POV, really. You think the defensive focus makes things more interesting. I, OTOH, consider them boring. I don't want to see fewer scoring where each is epic, I want to see lots of scoring, because you can still have it where a single score is epic.

For instance, look at basketball, arguably the most offensive game around (And sadly a bit moreso than it should be due to poor officiating and rule-handling by the NBA). For all the frequency of the scoring, individual scores can still be decisive. Hit a hard-to-shoot three or make a difficult reverse layup and you can deflate the other team's morale, either stopping a run or starting one for yourself. A close game in the half quarter? Your heart pounds as each and every possession becomes critical.

For instance, last year (2009) and Game 1 of the Eastern Finals between Orlando and Cleveland could've given me a heart attack. Slim leads, changes of leads, each possession being critical. The surge of emotion and elation when Rashard Lewis drained a 3 from the wing to turn a 2 point Cav lead into a 1 point magic one, then feeling your heart stop every time the Cavs put a shot up in their last possession until the very last try, after a jump ball, goes toward the rim, toward the rim.... off the corner! MAGIC WIN!

God damn that game almost gave me a heart attack.

And of course the next game was just as epic, with the decision being LeBron's immediate 3 off the inbound from the top of the arc.

Then I look at soccer and see scores of... 1-0? 1-1? 2-1? Sure, I imagine they get tense in the final minutes as you wait to see if one team will tie it up, but the advantage to the defense, the speed at which the game moves, it's just not the same to me.

I suppose, though, you may be right. Soccer may simply be a sport that works best when it gives advantage to the defense and attempting to "offensive"ize it would only hurt it (our elementary recess games could be fairly scoring IIRC, usually stuff like 5-3... unless those cheapasses of Mrs. Sheppard's class played, but that's kid sports, not the real thing with actual athletes). Of course, that means it's unlikely I'll ever enjoy the sport. Just ain't my thing.