My favorite parts of a soccer match
Like many Americans the only time I watch soccer is while I'm waiting for my burrito at the local taqueria. So I know very little about the sport. But since the world cup is on broadcast TV this year I decided to watch a few games and see what it's like. I know that soccer has a reputation in America for being boring and low scoring. But after watching a few games I found there are quite a few things that I like about it.
First, I love that there are very few commercials compared to American sports. In a baseball game there's commercials every half inning. Having fewer commercial breaks felt like I could get more immersed in the action.
I noticed that players get to choose what name appears on their jersey. I saw one player with his first name on his jersey where as in American sports, it seems that it's always the last name, which is kind of business-like and formal.
I like that European audiences sing in unison. There are chants and songs that large segments of the audience are singing together. How much nicer to hear than just random white noise and yelling that's the typical American stadium noise. It feels like the fans are providing more unified support for their team.
My favorite part is the referee. Unlike American sports, where the referees are these dispassionate judges, I love that the soccer referees are right down there in the action. I especially love when they are officiating a play, they are right in the face of the players, explaining their transgression. It looks like an elementary school teacher on the playground, disciplining the students, gesturing and pointing.
I like how at the end of the game the players will greet the opponents and shake their hands. Unlike American baseball where the teams retreat to their own dugout and never speak to the opponents. It seems like a nice display of sportsmanship.
I enjoy when the referee comes out onto the field with a can of spray paint and adds a little decorative touches to the field. It's nice that the game allows for that spontaneous, artistic creativity.
Another fun aspect of the game is how there's bonus time added to the end of regulation play and nobody knows the duration of the bonus time. When regulation time expires some arbitrary amount of bonus time suddenly appears and it's a big surprise to everyone; the players, the spectators, and even the announcers. It's like the fairy godmother just bestows a random gift for everyone.
I find it very amusing that if a player commits a foul he's punished by the referee waving a yellow post-it note at him. I'm not sure quite why this gesture is received with such seriousness. But clearly a post-it note is a mark of shame. The referee waves it like it has magical properties casting some hex on the violator.
There's a really funny moment when everyone stops, the team defending the goal get in a line and one of their players lays down on the ground behind them and takes a quick nap.
Sometimes you get two games in one which is a bonus for the audience. If the score is tied at the end of the game then they start a new game, a different game, where one player at a time takes a turn trying to kick the ball into the goal from short range with a single defender. It has quite a different feel to it, uses different strategy and tactics, and different skills. It's like a completely different game tacked on to the end of a soccer match.
Overall, I decided soccer is like fishing; long periods of not much happening at all, interspersed by a sudden flurry of activity and then the fish gets away.