Why is soccer so popular?

[Young Blood]

2 hours ago, Dave W said:

RL is exactly the same except we have only one international team that dominates and domestically there are only 4-5 teams that win everything. 

Why do supporters of the other teams continue supporting, despite knowing your team can never win?

Hope!

Difference is RL World Cup held every 4 years while NRL every year. 

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, The Masked Poster said:

In defence of some football players, (not all as there are plenty of divers) it must hurt if someone gets you in the shins with a pair studs, it will really hurt and I bet you might roll around yourself. 

It probably looks fairly tame in comparison with RL but all the same, I bet it's not fun. 

Always thought this, add to the fact that they are built like racehorses and contact is usually intending to bring them down then diving is a much overplayed thing imo.

If anything, I think VAR is starting to have a positive effect on that.

[gingerjon]

6 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Always thought this, add to the fact that they are built like racehorses and contact is usually intending to bring them down then diving is a much overplayed thing imo.

If anything, I think VAR is starting to have a positive effect on that.

My personal view is that you see far less diving and simulation in football these days than you did when I was first watching the game (early 1980s). There are far, far, far too many reasons to go into this but mostly it's because the nature of tackling and contest for possession has completely changed in that time. It's not really in any side's interest to have folk simulating - note that that is distinct from drawing attention to having been fouled by going to ground.

(Also, anyone who thinks that non league and women's football have less has probably been enjoying the bar before the game or only seeing what that they want to see.)

[Tommygilf]

On 29/11/2022 at 10:27, daz39 said:

Modern top level football is about not losing games and getting high stats rather than trying to win them, it's slow, boring and has very little exciting action these days, it's like Chess on grass!

Give me proper non league football anyday.

So is modern day Rugby League, and modern day every team sport.

With professionalism and a huge increase in analysis and data collection over the past 25 years or so, it became abundantly clear in most sports that the easiest way to improve results generally was for a team to get better defensively. Concede fewer points, turn defensive actions into aggressive results (pressing in football, wrestling in rucks to stifle quick PTBs etc), tactical fouls, organising defensive units more cohesively.

This allowed less skillful teams to match more skillfull ones for results. The rules of the sport obviously impact the effectiveness of this, but I remember an NRL game a few years back where the Roosters were happy to keep conceding penalties to Newcastle because they knew their defence would hold them out. In Football its more obvious as even at sunday league level, denying your opponents possession is one of the most valuable assets teams have.

The only contradiction to this philosophy I have seen in my lifetime has been from Bielsaball and the attitude that we will go out to score more goals than you do, regardless of how many you score. It produced a lot of wins, blowing some teams away at all the clubs he has coached at, and yet it also produced a lot of losses. By commentators and professionals within the game alike, it was praised for being so refreshing and different to the general consensus, yet also feared because of how risky it was.

In short, its far easier to get a team to defend better, and defending better brings on average a higher reward, so most coaches in most sports start with that and go from there.

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

My personal view is that you see far less diving and simulation in football these days than you did when I was first watching the game (early 1980s). There are far, far, far too many reasons to go into this but mostly it's because the nature of tackling and contest for possession has completely changed in that time. It's not really in any side's interest to have folk simulating - note that that is distinct from drawing attention to having been fouled by going to ground.

(Also, anyone who thinks that non league and women's football have less has probably been enjoying the bar before the game or only seeing what that they want to see.)

I think the nature of football now is that defenders are so savvy to know when to go in and when not, its usually obvious when a foul has been committed or a player is diving. Likewise with all the VAR, cameras and reviews, refs are more savvy to it too at the top level - I suspect that if the time added stuff from the World Cup comes in too this will be the next big breakthrough for them. Time wasting and cynically slowing the game down is the real menace across the top flight now.

Also, worse players dive more I've found, which is especially in the lower divisions!