I realize that soccer/football is the most popular sport in the world, but watching the USA/Slovenia game yesterday morning, there are a few glaring problems that I have with the sport. (Note: I played soccer through the 9th grade, so I am familiar with its rules.)
1. The ref has too much control.
Referee Koman Coulibaly stripped the U.S. of its go-ahead goal by calling a foul, yet he doesn’t have to explain what the foul was. Replays showed that no one was offsides, and the only physical fouls that could be seen on the replays were on the Slovenian players. Moreover, the ref keeps the official time. Why is this? Why can he arbitrarily say there’s three minutes or four minutes of injury time? Why not have an official clock that stops and starts when the official blows the whistle?
2. Offsides takes the excitement out of the sport.
It seems like anytime a player makes a nice run, there’s the sideline official raising his flag and stopping the play. Why is there offsides in the first place? Look at American football and basketball, two of the most exciting sports in the world — no one is penalized for beating the opposing team down the field/court. If a player can make a break for the goal and his teammate can hit him with a nice pass, why are we penalizing them? The defender needs to stay with his guy; that’s the whole point of defense. Under the current format, the defender is encouraged to sandbag it (pull up when he’s beat) in order to get the offsides call. With no offsides, scoring would go up and it would be a far more free-flowing and exciting sport.
3. The vuvuzelas.
WTF? What are these and why do fans feel the need to blow them for the entire game?
What about you — what would you change about the World Cup?
Photo from fOTOGLIF
