Soccer Goes High Tech

[stevevan]

Just read this on cnn.com: futbol story

 

My opinion is one of curiousity, but it appears as if soccer has finally started moving the way of high tech. Hmmmm...maybe the referees can eventually sit in a nice warm (or air conditioned) and dry booth and officiate the match from there!

[Head Guru]

Soccer needs more offense.

 

Sitting for like three hours and the game ends 1-0

 

Yea!

 

Bill

[TCH-Thomas]

Soccer...

[stevevan]

Soccer needs more offense.

 

Sitting for like three hours and the game ends 1-0

 

Sounds like baseball or golf. I'm curious...why is it the most popular sport around the world except in the US?

[rebel]

Soccer needs more offense.

 

Sitting for like three hours and the game ends 1-0

 

Sounds like baseball or golf. I'm curious...why is it the most popular sport around the world except in the US?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

well i guess i have to post a reply, since i'm a football fan (i say football because that is what most people call that sport, with the exception of australia, new zealand, america, canada? etc etc)

 

i don't know why you find football boring and i'm sorry to hear that, but then again, watching golf isn't exactly my idea of fun but i keep seeing it being broadcast on tv. i do watch basketball, gridiron, rugby, and other sports from time to time, but none has really ever captured my attention for a long period of time. football has remained my true love.

 

as for 0-0 games being boring, i have to disagree too. a game does not need to have (a lot of) goals to be entertaining. yes it could be boring, but a game with 10 goals doesn't necessarily have to be entertaining either. what matters is how the game is played, and often when you're watching a game with top players, just to see the players display their skills is enough to satisfy most (and that includes the goalkeeper), even if no one is able to score.

 

but at the end of the day, i guess it's a case of each to his own. if you're brought up on a diet of basketball and hockey then it's probably gonna be hard to convert you to football, and vice versa. but they americans are doing quite well so hopefully more success will make the game more popular over there.

 

(any football fans here at all??)

[stevevan]

Rebel:

 

I'm a long-time player (30+ years, All US Air Force team for 4 years) and I've been refereeing for 22 years.

[rebel]

wow 30 years.... i guess that just proves my point: football stays in your blood!

 

as for the suggestion that they should put a microchip of some sort in the ball to detect whether it has entirely passed the goal line, i think it's unnecessary. michele platini once recommended putting one extra referee behind each goal to watch for exactly that kind of thing and i think that would be sufficient (and they could keep an eye on all the idiots diving around in the box too!)

 

actually just on that point, have you seen much diving lately in the games that you referee or play steve? is it really creeping into the beautiful game? i personally have seen a couple of dives first hand in the competition that i play, although the overwhelming majority of players are still playing the game in the right spirit. i'm a defender who likes a good tackle and i remember i was so angry when a guy fell down even though my foot was nowhere near his legs, and that really really pissed me off!

[stevevan]

Unfortunately, what the kids nowadays see in the "Professional" ranks they try to imitate. They think that it's part of the game, I guess. Fortunately, strictly soccer speaking, many experienced referees are wise to it and laugh at they when they don't succeed!

 

In High School games here in Florida, players are cautioned. (A caution for those non-players in the forums...2 cautions equal you watch the rest of the game from the locker room.) In high school, when a player receives a caution, he/she must leave the field. So it really embarasses them when they do something like that.