John Harkes, often referred to as the captain for life of American soccer, took to Rupert Murdoch's mouth piece-The Wall Street Journal--to espouse the physical virtues of playing soccer. He also took mentioned in detail that interest in watching soccer in America will decline now that the World Cup is over. Harkes tackles the idea of the lack of interest in American soccer first but only as the approach to describing the merits of playing soccer. He wasted a couple of paragraphs explaining Europe's unrequited love for soccer without explaining how soccer can be more lovable to Americans (subscription may be required). Instead he makes the point that soccer is also about staying in shape. Thanks Billy Banks. Maybe soccer can become the next exercise fad, but that is not what Mr. Harkes, as an ambassador of the game should be harping on. He should be trying to make soccer more popular in America. It is not an easy task but one worth pursuing not just for personal health reasons but also because it is a truly international sport.
Our first way to make soccer more exciting may sound blasphemous. First off, we can all acknowlegde the best part of soccer is the goals. More goals scored, more fans will watch. I think almost every day during the World Cup I got an email from a friend bemoaning the lack of goals in the game they watched for the day. These fans are only going to watch the World Cup because it is water cooler talk and really all they are going to discuss is the goals they saw. I do not want more goals for the sake of more goals I want more goals because the build up of plays and velocity of the game is measured that way and while a team may have possession 70% of the time without a goal the score shows 0-0 and well 0-0 ties are rather boring. How do we create more goals? For one, I am not for more penalty kicks, but I am for a larger goal.
The pitch is regulated by FIFA and while the length and width is variable from league to league the larger the field the greater it tests a team's fitness but goalies and individuals are getting bigger and better the goals are not. Great saves make the highlight reels and goalies get praised for it but lets put more pressure on the goalies. I think everyone would rather see a higher scoring game except the goalies. As we have written before on this blog, goalies are a different breed of soccer players. They play with their hands and the rest of us on the field play with their feet. Bigger goals gives individuals more to shoot at and more area to score in. So if I was MLS commissioner I would make the goals bigger, maybe just a couple of inches, nothing huge. A small change could go a long way because of the psychology of a bigger goal. Players will have more confidence in their shots and goalies will be a little more active.
Written by:
