re: when will LSU get a mens soccer team

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Its a flawed sport.

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Please elaborate. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to fix it

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Its a flawed sport.

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Please elaborate. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to fix it

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I've discussed them before on the soccer board. It is too hard to score so it makes way too many possessions meaningless.

To better understand what I mean, compare it to football. In football(american), when you have to punt, you are unable to score. However, the yards you gained(or failed to) on the drive were meaningful. The equivalent of soccer would be if in football anytime you were turned over on downs, the opposition started with the ball on your 20.

Now basketball has this same problem but they alleviate it by high scoring. Because they score such a high percentage, a large enough portion of the plays are meaningful.

A solution would be widening the goals by a small amount.

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What's more beautiful than watching some pansy-arse mid-fielder take a dive trying to draw a red card after a thug of a defender showered him with bad breath? Some call it "The Beautiful Game." I call it an inferior game.

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Sounds like you're describing the NBA. Or hell, now adays even the NFL.

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A solution would be widening the goals by a small amount.

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How about making the goalkeepers shorter? Or we could make them stand on their knees

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How about making the goalkeepers shorter? Or we could make them stand on their knees

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No that would be stupid. Sports aren't meant to be corrected by restricting athletes. They are corrected by fine tuning the rules.

You seriously think that is a golden comeback? That is so far from the idea I suggested. So many of you soccer fans never want to address an issue someone brings up. You just resort to assuming that the person suggesting change is ill-informed and doesn't understand the sport.

I watch the sport, and I enjoy it. That doesn't mean it can't be fixed.

There are plenty of reasons to not widen the goals. They have been discussed on a different thread and I agree with some of them. You clowns have offered none of those reason though.

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That is so far from the idea I suggested.

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Thats because your idea was stupid

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So many of you soccer fans never want to address an issue someone brings up.

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I would be happy to address you're ideas if I took them seriously. No offence, I assumed you were trolling but you seem like a nice enough guy.

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You just resort to assuming that the person suggesting change is ill-informed and doesn't understand the sport.

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This is almost always the case.

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I watch the sport, and I enjoy it. That doesn't mean it can't be fixed.

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Keep watching then. I have a feeling you will come around. The sport is not "flawed", if you keep saying that, people will not take you seriously. Find a club to follow in the EPL for next season or follow the US national team as the try to qualify for the world cup starting this summer.

I agree there are things that can be done to make the sport better. Goal line technology and post match suspensions for foul play such as diving are pretty high up the list for me.

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There are plenty of reasons to not widen the goals. They have been discussed on a different thread and I agree with some of them. You clowns have offered none of those reason though.

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You're argument comparing it to football is a bad one IMO. They are two different sports, I'm sorry if you don't like how the game is decided but its been that way since long before American football even existed.

Also, I have never heard an argument to widen the goals that I consider to be even somewhat compelling. Widening the goals is the kind of thing I would have said years ago before I started to watch soccer and had some understanding of the game. This is probably why we assume when somebody has an argument like yours that you are ill informed and don't understand the sport. I don't think you'll find anybody who really regularly watches the sport who would support that idea.

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It is too hard to score so it makes way too many possessions meaningless.

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This is a good example to point out how you don't understand the sport. Possesion is supposed to be meaningless, there is one thing that determines the outcome of the game: goals.

This lends to a lot of different approaches to the game. Some teams like to pass it around and keep the ball, they might not create as many chances by being more patient in their approach, but the other team can't score when they don't have the ball.

Some teams like to just play defense and try to score on a counter attack. This is often (but not always) a tactic employed by a team that is considered inferior to their opponent. It's part of what makes the game great. If the tactics are correct and the execution is good, you don't have to be the better team to win the game. All you have to do to win is score more goals than the other team. This is how a team like Chelsea was able to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. Should they have won the game? Probably not, but they took advantage of their relatively few chances and put the ball in the net.

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I replied to the cliche that other the USA, the rest of the world loves soccer

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When somebody says this you think that they mean literally everyone of the 195 other countries in the world love soccer more than any other sport?

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I listed several hugely populated countries aren't enamored w/ soccer either.

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You did. However with most of your examples (India, China, Japan, etc...) soccer is the fastest growing sport in those countries. It has not been as popular in Asia historically but it has really started to boom there as of late. In India they opened the Indian Premier League this year featuring some(mostly well-aged) stars from around the world. People in Asia (China and Japan specifically but the whole region in general) have become soccer crazy ever since the world cup in 2002 in South Korea/Japan. Most English Premier League teams have put a huge focus on targeting that massive market and have spent time on preseason tours of Asia.

I'm not as familiar with Russia but if hockey is on equal terms with soccer as of right now I'd be willing to bet in 10 years time that will no longer be the case. Russian teams have really started to become a force in European soccer (CSKA Moscow, Zenit St. Petersberg, Anzhi) only in recent years.