Look, I'm trying to like soccer. There are just fundamental elements to the game that I don't like which keeps me from having any true genuine interest in the sport.
Soccer might be the most popular sport in the world, but that doesn't make it the best sport. There are probably many reasons why soccer is popular worldwide (except in the USA), and it's not just the game itself.
I don't want to be seen as one of those soccer-bashing ignorant fools who hate on it simply because it's different. I am certainly not that.
However, soccer just lacks something to me. Any play in football has the potential to be a touchdown. Any pitch in baseball has the potential to be a base hit or home run. Basketball has 3s, slam-dunks, and fast breaks. Hockey also has fast-breaks; along with the slap-shot, and excellent goalie saves. Soccer just seems to move like a slug in the regard that it takes a long time to ever set up a potential scoring chance, and takes even longer for a goal to actually materialize.
Here is a comment from a reader of Clay Travis' blog about the World Cup (this is not me, but I agree with much of what this person said):
"It's not the lack of scoring that's the problem, it's the lack of scoring chances. Hockey isn't that high scoring either, but there's almost always a bunch of quality scoring chances, and the goalies have to play well to keep the score low. Soccer isn't like that, as there are rarely any quality scoring chances, and when they DO happen, they usually end up in the back of the net. Don't believe me? Let's look at the stats.
In 64 matches of the 2006 World Cup, there were just 147 goals scored (a paltry 2.3 goals per match or 1.15 per team per match). Worse, there were only 734 shots on goal in the entire tournament. That's an average of just 11.5 shots on goal total between the two teams (so 20 percent of the actual shots on goal end up in the net). Single NHL teams routinely get more than that many shots on goal in a single period. For example, the Washington Capitals averaged an astounding 41.7 shots on goal per game in its seven-game loss to the Montreal Canadiens, but Canadien goalie Jaroslav Halak was so good that the Capitals only scored 3.14 goals per game (just 7.5 percent of the shots went in). Spectacular saves are just as exciting as goals are. Seven other teams averaged at least 31.6 shots per game during the playoffs, and 16 teams averaged at least 30 during the course of the regular season. The team with the least shots on goal during the playoffs was the Colorado Avalanche, who averaged just 24.8 per game in its six-game loss to the San Jose Sharks. Of course, that would probably shatter records in high-level soccer. In the regular season, every single team averaged at least 27.6 shots on goal per game. So again, soccer's problem isn't the the lack of scoring, it's the lack of scoring chances. And yes, soccer is violent, but it's still for wusses. It's all the flopping in soccer that has migrated to the NBA and tainted that sport. Long before the ultimate wuss (Paul Pierce) got taken off in a wheelchair, only to come back and make big shots, soccer players had routinely done the same thing, only it was stretchers instead.
...I'm glad you're not trying to defend the single worst rule in sports (the off sides rule in soccer), which actually penalizes players for playing well offensively and rewards defenders for screwing up. So, if you manage to get behind the defense, that should be a good thing, right? Nope. Soccer has its arbitrary off sides rule, and the play is wiped out. I'm not saying players should be allowed to camp out by the goal when the ball is on the other side of the field, but it's pretty ridiculous when just about every member of both teams is in the box, and the play is STILL off sides. Hockey has a nice blue line that makes everything simple, AND it makes sense. It prevents players from just setting shop in their opponent's zone while the puck is still in their own zone or the neutral zone, but it still allows for exciting breakaways, which are almost nonexistent in soccer. And there's no confusion. If you get in the zone before the puck does, or if it leaves the zone while you're still in, you're off sides. And the line doesn't move around like soccer defenders do."
Edit: Again, the above long quote is not my words, but I agree with much of the sentiment.
If soccer is to ever be popular in the USA, some nuances on how the game is played will have to be tweaked.
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