re: Amazingly, American Football is not in Europe... why?

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what? don’t tackle the other team, don’t touch the ball with your hand, stay in bounds, and go kick it in the goal. How is this more complicated?

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Well it is complicated in a different way than American football. Professional teams need to have a seamless philosophy that encompasses both offense and defense. Thus what is important in the game is the spacing between players. You can have a team that has a narrow defensive line, in a spacing pattern called the "Low Block", where the spacing between the defensive line and the offensive line is less than 25 yards. In a low block system, you can have a variety of pressing patterns. You can have one where the front players press the CB's on the ball to force them to move it quickly to the wings, where the wide player and the fullback, along with a spare midfielder on that side of the field, can develop a numerical advantage against the opposition's wide players (the fullback and winger), and win the ball back, with the expectation that the front players will run into space to start a counter-attack. You can have a low block with wider spacing where the defensive midfielder is expected to fill in as cover for gaps in the defensive line, with the other side of the field remaining narrow. You can have a low block with a midfield press, where the focus is on denying passing lanes to the opposition and forcing a mistake through passing.

This is just a short description of the varieties of ways teams can employ a defensive strategy. A full description of the tactical elements would fill a book. The complexity in soccer is different than American football. Suggesting one is more complex than the other is to ignore the context of each sport.

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, stay in bounds

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Actually you don’t have to stay in bounds. The ball does though.