UEFA Euro 2012 Poland-Ukraine: Germans Glowing with Anticipation

[Admiral Yi]

The last 15 minutes of the game (even a none-tied, maybe especially those) can be the most exciting minutes all depending on who's got the lead.

[Alexandru H.]

International competitions are for the casual fans like me.

I watch the WC and the Euro. I will not watch any games of the CL, it has no appeal to me.

Pretty much this. I usually watch two games per week and I'd be dead in a world where only international competitions for national teams exist. CL (and the better national leagues) offer quality football 9 months per year, while the WC/EC are simply shows of national pride... but lack the quality and gamesmanship of CL. For the casual fan, maybe the WC has more appeal (even though I'd argue that derbies like Real-Barca, City-United, Bayern-Borussia and CL spring games are 100 times more fun to watch than your Greece-Nigeria group game).

[Liep]

The last 15 minutes of the game (even a none-tied, maybe especially those) can be the most exciting minutes all depending on who's got the lead.

Well, I will grant you a match between Barcelona and Ossasuna might be boring in the last 15 minutes if Barca is already up by 4.

[Valdemar]

I looked this up because I saw it (probably on languish) referenced in the news before, but a study done found that:

researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have found that soccer is the most unpredictable sport, as it more likely that a team with a worse record can defeat a team with a better record. The researchers looked at the results of over 300,000 soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey and football games, and found that the likelihood for an upset was greatest in soccer.

http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/soccer-most-exciting-sport-watch

[it has a link to the study]

I stand by the idea that goals need to be bigger or some other modest innovation to up scoring (such as one less man per side, goalkeepers can only use one hand, 2 point shots from outside the box, players can pick the ball up and throw it to each other, etc).

A real question I have: are there less red cards / penalty shots because the referees aren't idiots from Trinidad and Tobago picked to add geographical diversity, European football just tolerates rough and tumble play more, or these tend to be higher quality sides that don't do stupid things to result in red cards and penalties?

But then it wouldn't be football 

And making bigger goals would only up the chances of offsets as lesser teams would increase their scoring chances

I cannot understand the non soccer nations incessant cry for more goals, why does that have to be a requirement for success??? 3 billion ppl on this planet doesn't seem to agree

V

[Valmy]

My pick of Spain looking pretty good eh?

Teams to be blessed by Valmy in the first knock out round:

Portugal
Italy
Germany
Spain

Go forth and conquer ye PIGS of glory!

[Valmy]

I cannot understand the non soccer nations incessant cry for more goals, why does that have to be a requirement for success??? 3 billion ppl on this planet doesn't seem to agree

It is pretty idiotic.  If they change it the non-soccer nations STILL won't like soccer.  But then the soccer nations would be pissed off.  So basically then nobody would like soccer.  Great thinking there reformers.

[HVC]

My pick of Spain looking pretty good eh?

Teams to be blessed by Valmy in the first knock out round:

Portugal
Italy
Germany
Spain

Go forth and conquer ye PIGS of glory!

nooooooooo!!!! :vader:

[HVC]

and i want to see a italy-portugal final so that downtown toronto can burn

[Zanza]

Alfred's ideas are worse than Sepp Blatter's.

[Barrister]

I cannot understand the non soccer nations incessant cry for more goals, why does that have to be a requirement for success??? 3 billion ppl on this planet doesn't seem to agree

It is pretty idiotic.  If they change it the non-soccer nations STILL won't like soccer.  But then the soccer nations would be pissed off.  So basically then nobody would like soccer.  Great thinking there reformers.

I say soccer needs more goals for the same reson I say hockey needs more goals - because scoring is the most exciting part of the game.  It's what gets people out of their seats.  It's what gets shown on the highlight reels.  It's what you want to see.

Now there comes a point where if the scoreboard is flipping around like a pinball game it loses all excitement (I think basketball has this problem), but soccer is far from that.  The ideal is probably about 5-10 total goals or scoring plays per game.   I remember watching that ridiculous 9-8 Jets/Flyers game this past year and thinking it was getting out of control, but the 3-2 games were a lot more exciting than the 1-0 ones.

[DGuller]

This is the kind of balance that can apply to any sport.  The same thing happens in racing:  you want drivers to be able to pass each other.  However, if there are 40 lead changes in the race, then it just means that they're all meaningless, and that the real race only happens during the last few laps.

[Grey Fox]

I cannot understand the non soccer nations incessant cry for more goals, why does that have to be a requirement for success??? 3 billion ppl on this planet doesn't seem to agree

It is pretty idiotic.  If they change it the non-soccer nations STILL won't like soccer.  But then the soccer nations would be pissed off.  So basically then nobody would like soccer.  Great thinking there reformers.

I say soccer needs more goals for the same reson I say hockey needs more goals - because scoring is the most exciting part of the game.  It's what gets people out of their seats.  It's what gets shown on the highlight reels.  It's what you want to see.

Now there comes a point where if the scoreboard is flipping around like a pinball game it loses all excitement (I think basketball has this problem), but soccer is far from that.  The ideal is probably about 5-10 total goals or scoring plays per game.   I remember watching that ridiculous 9-8 Jets/Flyers game this past year and thinking it was getting out of control, but the 3-2 games were a lot more exciting than the 1-0 ones.

You ready for a new season of the CFL? I'm excited, I miss football.

[Barrister]

I cannot understand the non soccer nations incessant cry for more goals, why does that have to be a requirement for success??? 3 billion ppl on this planet doesn't seem to agree

It is pretty idiotic.  If they change it the non-soccer nations STILL won't like soccer.  But then the soccer nations would be pissed off.  So basically then nobody would like soccer.  Great thinking there reformers.

I say soccer needs more goals for the same reson I say hockey needs more goals - because scoring is the most exciting part of the game.  It's what gets people out of their seats.  It's what gets shown on the highlight reels.  It's what you want to see.

Now there comes a point where if the scoreboard is flipping around like a pinball game it loses all excitement (I think basketball has this problem), but soccer is far from that.  The ideal is probably about 5-10 total goals or scoring plays per game.   I remember watching that ridiculous 9-8 Jets/Flyers game this past year and thinking it was getting out of control, but the 3-2 games were a lot more exciting than the 1-0 ones.

You ready for a new season of the CFL? I'm excited, I miss football.

Yes. 

[Valmy]

I say soccer needs more goals for the same reson I say hockey needs more goals - because scoring is the most exciting part of the game.  It's what gets people out of their seats.  It's what gets shown on the highlight reels.  It's what you want to see.

Now there comes a point where if the scoreboard is flipping around like a pinball game it loses all excitement (I think basketball has this problem), but soccer is far from that.  The ideal is probably about 5-10 total goals or scoring plays per game.   I remember watching that ridiculous 9-8 Jets/Flyers game this past year and thinking it was getting out of control, but the 3-2 games were a lot more exciting than the 1-0 ones.

My only point really is that Soccer needs to cater to the tastes of those who love the sport.  It is their love that makes it the biggest thing in the world of sports.  So any changes need to be done for their sake not people who probably would not pay any attention to the changes anyway.

[frunk]

Alfred's ideas are worse than Sepp Blatter's.

I agree with Alfred, in that if there is a lack of scoring chances the better team will lose too frequently.

Let's assume that the two teams both have 20 chances to score, and for one team it'll score 15% of the time and the other 5%.  The stronger team is seriously stronger than the other, and should dominate.  The weaker team has about an 8.27% chance of winning and a 12.59% chance of drawing.  If we drop the number of chances for both to 10 the weaker team will now win 11.22% of the time and draw 24.93%.  If we raise it to 30 shots for each the weaker team will only win 5.77% of the time and the draws only occur 7.56%.

There's a balance between ending up with the score fests of basketball and having too few chances resulting in a lot of draws and upsets.  It shouldn't be heresy to be concerned about the issue.