I fully admit that I am totally and completely ignorant of how most of the intricacies of soccer work. If I get something wrong, I apologize in advance -- I fully admit to knowing very little.
In watching several of these games, it started to dawn on me why soccer struggles to gain attention in the US. I don't think I'm saying anything that hasn't already been said, but it bugged me enough to the point of writing about it. I don't have a problem with some of the unique aspects of soccer -- but soccer fans need to be cognizant of the fact that these things will always limit the potential audience.
First off: the outright vagueness and opaqueness of clock management in soccer drives me up a wall. In two of the most popular American sports: football and basketball, clock management is an integral part of the game. Accurate clock keeping is reviewable by monitor at any time in basketball, and by challenge in football. In soccer, the fans are kept in total darkness on how things actually work. Stoppage time / injury time / extra time / whatever the hell you call it is apparently kept track of by an official shrouded in total mystery. How much time is added at any given point? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
In every single American sport, we have interviews with coaches throughout the game, we listen in to huddles, we mic up players, we see halftime speeches. American sports are going toward more transparency in every aspect of the game. For soccer to become more popular in the US, we need transparency into how clock decisions are made. At any point that seconds are added for injury time at the end of the half -- show us a graphic on the screen. In the information age, we want to know more, not be kept in the dark. This will likely never change (instead soccer fans will praise this as one of the WONDERFUL absurdities of soccer), but we americans love our clock management in sports. Hiding it from us does not make us want to watch.
When our officials screw up, they admit it (like Jim Joyce did). When officials screw up in soccer, they never admit wrongdoing, and heck, never talk at all. Big Brother FIFA even has the ability to block certain plays from being replayed in stadiums. Can you even comprehend it if the NFL had a button for Roger Goodell to push to block controversial plays being shown on the jumbotron? Well, FIFA does this (and has done it) throughout the World Cup. Unbelievable -- I can't believe this hasn't gotten more play. The officiating is atrocious, and instead of doing anything about it, they try to sweep it under the rug. Americans have gotten used to our major sports fully admitting when officials get it wrong and pledge to do more about it. All four of our major sports use replay in some fashion to get calls right. Soccer seems even further in the dark ages than does baseball. That's saying something.
Sportsmanship is another major factor. I am not saying we're perfect at this, but watching the Algerians act perfectly content to simply block the USA from moving on was nothing short of pathetic. Algeria had very slim chances to move out of pool play - but one thing was for sure -- they needed to score goals and lots of them. However, instead of Algeria pushing men up the pitch to try to force the issue, they were more than happy to play keep-away and try to prevent the USA from attacking. It was nothing short of, "We're not going to make any effort to keep our hopes alive -- we just want to keep you guys from moving on, too." I realize the rest of the world makes minimal effort to hide their hatred for the USA, but this was absolutely egregious. This would be like the Orioles and Blue Jays tanking games to Tampa Bay just because they hated the Yankees and Red Sox so much.
Finally, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Big 12 stayed in-tact. Texas wasn't going anywhere -- they already have a sweetheart deal in the Big 12 and now they're even more of the 800 lb. gorilla than they were before. This conference should be slightly down in football, but holy crap is this an insane men's basketball league. Basically the two doormats just ran off and everyone us stayed. It's a murderer's row from a league that was already one of the best.
The media did what they do best -- protect their own interests. The complete destruction of the college conference landscape was a sexy story full of mystery and intrigue and they milked it for all it was worth -- and blew it our of proportion. Make no mistake, Texas was seriously considering the Pac-10, but whether that was true flirtation or just to scare the rest of the Big 12 remains to be seen. Either way, it looks like the seismic shift has stopped (for now) but it will come around again -- just wait. Iowa State needs to do more to put themselves in better position for the next time realignment swings around -- more on that in another post. That's enough for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment