A Neophyte Watches Soccer

I've never been able to get into soccer -- for all the usual reasons. But when the World Cup came to Boston and the US, I started watching since it was a cultural phenomenon and it was fun to get the fever a bit. I've watched a lot of the matches and felt like a traveler in a foreign land trying to make sense of the natives. Basically, I knew nothing about the sport, so started to make sense of it as I watched. Here are some impressions.

1. I had no idea that most goals, or at least half, are not scored with the feet, but with the head! This is because your best chance at scoring is when the ball is kicked so that it ends up head-height directly in front of the goal. At this point it becomes a toss up, with offense and defense fighting for it. The offense does have an advantage when they anticipate that the kick is coming.

2. It appeared that there are few ways to get the ball into the zone in from of the goal. The most common is the corner kick, which presents a mini-drama each time it happens. The next is when a player can create enough room and get themselves down by the baseline to basically recreate the corner kick on the run from closer in. The third is the free kick from 20 or 30 meters out, where they kick it over the heads of the players to once again get the ball in front of the goal to set up a free for all. Finally, players can execute a kick while in the pack to create the set up.

3. Soccer is a lot like hockey in that the ball/puck spends a lot of time being all gummed up in packs of players fighting over it. Over and over. And over. This why when the ball somehow gets free of the crowd and an offensive player and defensive are out there running fast it's one of the most exciting things in the game. At least there is the potential to score, which is something not true of huge swaths of the game.

4. The low scoring in soccer is something to behold, and makes it something of a head scratcher that the game is so widely and wildly popular. Basically a lot of the game is boring, but that's sort of a good thing. Like baseball it can be seen as a "pastime." I would put on the game when I got home from work and let it play while I read the news on my device. Baseball is the same way. You can let it play while you do other stuff. Of course you might miss some rare scoring, but when you hear the big roar, you can watch the replay from several angles. In replay or slow mo you can really see the athleticism of the players.

5. Scoring is so rare that each goal is celebrated like we would a game winner in American sports. They basically halt the action while players flood the field and players pose for the cheering crowd. I even saw one game where the guy scored a goal and literally ran up into the stands to kiss his girlfriend. Like he just won frickin' Wimbledon! His team went on to lose, but whatever.

6. Of course, the lack of scoring does make each one an event, which is where the thrills come in for fans. They scored!

7. This brings me to my problem with the in-game penalty kick. It seems way out of proportion. In a sport where the final score might be zero-zero, or maybe one-zero, to give the guy a chance to get a goal with a pretty easy kick is staggering. It's like if foul shot for a flagrant foul in basketball was worth, I don't know, 40 or 50 points. I would be very pissed if that's how my team lost a game.

8. They also end up calling a lot of goals back, usually because of a player being a few inches offside. I confess I don't actually know how offside works. Pardon me while I ask AI.

9. Given how hard it is to score, it is truly remarkable that some players, like Lionel Messi and others, have the ability to do it nearly every game! No wonder they are idolized.

10. Speaking of Messi, after Argentina won a squeaker against spirited underdogs Cape Verde, I saw a pic with Messi posing with the Cape Verde goalie who had done a remarkable job keeping his team in that game with the highly favored powerhouse. It really showed a spirit of sportsmanship that I think pervades the World Cup. How delightful to see the fans of so many countries coexisting happily and enthusiastically.