it's as simple as this -- there will always be a core group of great soccer fans - like the ones who drove 500 miles to see one game when the Fire played here in Peoria --
..but if anyone associated with soccer expects or wants the game to generate broader appeal in the US -- it's going to take more than a week of good play on ESPN or winning the World Cup --
The soccer purists abhor even thinking about
what must be done to interest Americans -- they won't speak it and won't consider it in any way...but I am going to be bold and speak it here even if it curdles the blood of a few soccer purists...
The game must be changed to give more action and more scoring instead of perhaps one exciting play every 10 minutes or an exciting goal at the 122nd minute...
If they choose not to change the game then they will get what they have always gotten from Americans -- just a passing bit of interest when our team in playing on a world level. If the US hadn't qualified for the World Cup then the number watching would be just a fraction of what it is.
Example...even though soccer was played more than 200 years ago -- a problem developed in the mid-1800's when teams had players that stayed downfield somewhat "basket hanging" or "cherry picking"....
balls were just kicked long for easy scores to cherry picking players so something had to be done...
In other words -- ironically --
the scores were TOO HIGH and the rules had to be changed.
In order to clean that part of the game up -- rules then started including "offsides" rules...
In other words -- the offsides rule came into the game as a way to change it and prevent gobs of easy scores from cherry picking --
Now we have exactly the opposite problem -- long scoreless games....but now every player plays the full field unlike when they all just played their positions (mid-field, forward, etc..) - so forwards are constantly trying to get just an advantage and defenses are trying like crazy not to let them downfield by using tricks to provoke them offsides.
In the end -- tons of exciting scoring plays are ruled offsides, making it exceedingly hard to score.
If that's the way the Brits like it -- fine -- but the Yanks hate that style and so the game's never gonna catch on here -- never, much to the dismay of the soccer enthusiasts who wish otherwise.
BTW -- the offsides rules have been changed several times already so it wouldn't be precedent-shattering to do it again...
Check out this paragraph...
"In 1848....to be the first set of "Cambridge Rules"..... included laws governing ....offside. .... Rule No. 9 required more than three defensive players to be ahead of an attacker who plays the ball.
The rule states:
'If the ball has passed a player and has come from the direction of his own goal, he may not touch it till the other side have kicked it, unless there are more than three of the other side before him.
No player is allowed to loiter between the ball and the adversaries' goal.
As football developed in the 1860s and 1870s, the offside law proved the biggest argument between the clubs. Sheffield got rid of the "kick-throughs" by amending their laws so that one member of the defending side was required between a forward player and the opponents' goal. The Football Association also compromised slightly and eased the Cambridge idea of "more than three" (i.e. four opponents) to at "least three" (i.e. three opponents). Finally, Sheffield came into line with the F.A., and "three opponents" became the rule until 1925.
The change to the "two opponents" rule led to an immediate increase in goal-scoring.
In 1990 the law was amended to adjudge an attacker as onside if level with the second-to-last opponent. This change was part of a general movement by the game's authorities to make the rules more conducive to attacking football and help the game to flow more freely."
So the rule's already been changed numerous times to help the flow of the game......so why such resistance to changing it again along the line of how Major League Baseball has changed the height of the mound to alter pitchers' prowess or how football has constantly adjusted hitting rules to prevent injury or even hockey's rules for offsides have gradually EVOLVED to what they are today. (There was even once a time in ice hockey where NO forward pass of any kind was allowed -- all advance had to be accomplished by carrying the puck -- you could never pass forward - ever! -
LINK)
