During the Euro Cup final between Spain and Italy yesterday, ESPN commentators said that they were hoping for a spectacular game to show off the greatness of soccer to an American audience– as opposed to the ugly final between Spain and the Netherlands at the World Cup two years ago. As it turned out, the final showed the worst of soccer.
As anyone who watched the game can tell you, it was unwatchable after 60 minutes. All the air went out of the balloon because Thiago Motta, an Italian midfielder, suffered a hamstring injury and had to leave the field. Because Italy, down 2-0, had substituted three of its eleven players at that point, and three is the limit under soccer rules, Italy could not replace the injured Motta. So it played with ten men for the rest of the match. Those ten men were wiped out, and Spain scored two fairly easy goals. The final score was 4-0.
You would think that the final 30 minutes of the most important game in international soccer over the last couple of years would be the most gripping 30 minutes of all. The two teams were well-matched, I still hoped that Italy would climb back in. The loss of Thiago Motta made the game a farce. My friend and I switched to the Yankees game and Wimbledon.
The substitution rule is crazy. I understand the warlike discipline of the rule, but it damages play in countless ways. For one, you see only about 15 members of a much larger squad in these tournaments, and that’s not much fun. For another, the great Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo, who is 33 and was flagging yesterday, might have played more of a role in the final if he got a breather.
The lack of substitution also affects soccer’s great limitation, the lack of goals. In the last few days two major scoreless games had to be decided by Penalty Kicks — a warm bucket of spit (to quote John Nance Gardner), a shootout between offensive players and goalkeepers after 120 minutes of playing expire with a tied game. Spain Portugal semifinal was 0-0 till Penalty Kicks. So was the England Italy quarterfinal. The Times lead on the Italy England game: “Neither team wanted this. Not the caprice of penalty kicks.”
I don’t want it either. Soccer would be a much better game if they allowed unlimited substitutions. We’d see a lot more players, the quality of play would not sag off quite as wearily as it does now in the second half, and the farce of yesterday’s final would have been averted.
You want Americans to watch this game; change the capricious rules.
John Nance Garner, who was already 64 years old when he became vice president, lived to the ripe old age of 98, dying in 1967 two weeks shy of his 99th birthday.
He may not have liked being vice president, but he ended up having the last laugh.
But, Phil, you must have appreciated the beauty of much of the Spanish play.
“My friend and I switched to the Yankees game and Wimbledon.”
I wanted to switch to Wimbledon, but there is no play on the “Middle Sunday”, which is considered a rest day.
So i went to bed.
RE: “You want Americans to watch this game; change the capricious rules.” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: Wrong again, Phil! If you want Americans to watch soccer then you need to add beaucoup T&A (like the NFL cheerleaders).
Rah, rah, sis boom bah!
• NFL Cheerleaders in slow mo (VIDEO, 04:02) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeKEzcU8DaY
P.S. At any rate, brighter teeth and fresher breath are what Americans really care about!
VIDEO (04:21) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53bAndZgmpY
This is from Roger Domal, via email:
I’m not going to launch into a hissy fit about unlimited subbing in football matches. I’m going to try to explain what a match would look like if you could do that. The game would fundamentally change. There would not be any flow or passing, it would be non stop pressure, almost like full court in basketball. Every touch of the ball would be pressured, the defenders would be up on the half way line playing an offside trap, and the midfielders and attackers would be closing down all over the field. The game would be unwatchable. You have to realize that football is like a 15 round prize fight. The better fighter wears the other fighter down and then knocks him out. That’s what Spain did yesterday. They knocked Italy out. Brilliant. If you turned off the game, that’s fine. But, if you changed the rule, you would have an unwatchable game.
I referee a lot of youth soccer at fairly high levels with unlimited subs. The game is way different because of the pressing. The game isn’t built for a press. It’s built to be played back and forth. The closed-down game is boring.