Originally Posted by CDSmith

Okay, you're not wrong with what you're asking. I'll try to answer some of it as best I can. For one thing soccer is the #1 sport in the world for one main reason (and lots of lesser reasons of course), that being that it's the cheapest easiest sport to play. All a bunch of kids need in even the poorest ghettos of the world is a round ball-like object of some sort (ball of tape perhaps? Gum wrappers?) an open area to play on and a couple of shirts on the ground for goal posts and it's game on. By comparisson, hockey, football, golf, tennis etc all cost ZILLIONS of dollars to play. By comparisson.

This sport is a way of life in most countries, much like hockey is in canada, like football is in the USA, yes it's that much of a sporting 'religion'. Several billion people live it and breath it every day. Hard for us over here to grasp, but that's how it is.

Secondly, why isn't there more scoring and action? Again, one main reason, and to me that reason is the rather stupid offside rule this sport has. If an attacking player happens to get behind the last defender he's for some idiotic reason deemed "offside". To me if one team can get a guy behind the other team then it's the defending team's fault, not on the ref to save them. To add insult to injury a lot of teams actually move their back players forward in times of attack almost forcing the attacking team offside. And you're right, it's boring, if not downright annoying. I say bring in the 'tough shit' rule... that being if the ball is passed beyond your last player and an attacker gets to it ahead of you and ends up scoring, then it's 'tough shit' on you if you don't like it.

But one of the biggest entertainment values these games contain for all those happy fans, aside from it being their country that is being represented, is the tactical play. Nothing excites those fans like a good 15-way passing play that ends up a strike into the goal or a wild header just under the crossbar, etc. And because it happens so rarely like that where it all comes together so amazingly perfect, the fans tend to go wild when a developing play has even a HINT of potential greatness. Remember, the guys "kicking that dumb ball around" are national heroes in thier countries. People tend to cheer for heroes.

Anyway that's all I know. I usually only watch this sport when the FIFA world cup is on. At that time I love it. Love the games, love the fans, HATE the vuvuzelas, love the overall atmosphere, love the competition between nations. And I'm currently kicking ass in that WC pool that's going on here. :D