Freind doesn’t understand soccer’s worldly appeal
After reading Chris Freind’s latest article this past week, I had a choice to remain quiet or to respond to the sensational rhetoric used when discussing soccer. The loyal soccer fan inside of me prevents me from being silent.
So, what exactly does Freind want us to take away from that column?
Perhaps Freind strived to highlight the immovable object that has become known as the “March Madness Hype Train.” After all, it doesn’t take much critical thinking skills to observe the media fiasco surrounding college basketball players in March. Or maybe he wanted to shed light on the incredible atmosphere radiating throughout the country when the first four days of the tournament begin.
But if he wanted to play the role of cheerleader for March Madness, or as Freind sees it “the best sporting event on the planet” sure to spark that good old American “nationalistic fervor” – why actively try to smear the world’s most popular sport, soccer, along the way?
A few reasons come to mind. But as the editor of this Delco Times suggested when I reached out regarding Freind’s opinions, I’ll strive to keep this conversational. Although it’s difficult. Especially since Delaware County, whose name resides on this paper’s title page, houses a professional American soccer franchise – the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer (MLS). I thought Freind would know better than to trash a sport with significant roots throughout the county.
Since the Union’s inception in 2008, the organization has invested enough to secure a whole square mile of land along the Delaware adjacent to the stadium. That stadium has become known as one of the best venues throughout all of MLS by the way. That land now encompasses a state-of-the-art training facility and top-quality training fields creating a soccer-focused campus dedicated to growing the game of soccer throughout the Philadelphia region.
The Union also possess their own youth soccer academy in Wayne, known as YSC Academy. Richie Graham, one of the team’s minority owners, owns the YSC sports facility which the academy is run out of. And Graham also funds a full-time high school which sits next to the training facility making the Union the first professional sports franchise in North America to run and operate their own full-time soccer-focused high school. The academy is the main pillar upon which the entire franchise stands atop.
That’s a ton of time and money spent on what Freind considers a mere “recreational activity.”
Why so much investment? People love soccer around here. There is real interest.
Attendance on gamedays may have thinned out throughout the past few seasons due to some mediocre soccer, but the interest from young soccer players throughout the region continues to boom, as evidenced in recent increased investments from Graham and his academy.
Despite these facts, Freind went on bashing the sport. As the professional guest columnist Freind is, I thought he would think of something a little less lazy than the unoriginal “soccer isn’t a sport” nonsense. Perhaps Freind simply googled “most common stereotypes about soccer” considering he nailed the trifecta of tired anti-soccer takes.
He stated soccer isn’t a sport, players get injured too easily, and that he’s bothered by a running clock which counts upwards instead of down. He also labeled the offsides rule too complicated for Americans to understand. Really?
Any sport seems like a recreational activity when you don’t understand it!
A running clock is used because there are too few significant stoppages to warrant the need for stops and starts. If a player goes down with an injury or the ball goes out of play or if any other events occur forcing a brief pause in play, an assistant referee stationed on the sidelines tracks that idle time. The idle time is then added to the end of each half as ‘extra time’ ensuing that each match lasts 90 minutes of total play.
But if the clock is continually running when will the games typically end? Great question Chris. Halftime lasts typically 20 minutes. Each match must run 90 minutes. If you grant about 10 minutes for the anticipated extra time, you can bank on every single soccer match lasting roughly the same amount of time: two hours.
Let’s discuss those crazy colorful cards. There’s only two. Just two.
One is yellow, the other is red. Why colors? The game of soccer is played in every corner of the globe, so instead of having complicated hand motions and explanations for fouls, colored cards are used to eliminate any language barriers that are bound to pop up.
And since you preached at length about basketball, thought I could use that to I help explain the purpose of those two cards. A yellow card is about the same as a technical foul in basketball. If you get two yellows, that equals a red which means an ejection. In basketball, if you get two technical fouls, you’re ejected.
And get this, if a player accumulates too many yellow cards, they get a suspension. What happens when a basketball player gets too many technical fouls? They also receive suspensions. Not all that different huh?
Now that pesky offsides rule. The moment a ball is played, or simply passed from one player to the next, there must be two defending team players between you and the goal line if you’re in your own attacking half unless you are behind the ball. You are not offsides unless you try to play the ball or influence the play (ie block the goalie or run into a defender). There is no offsides on throw ins, corner kicks and no offsides in your own half.
Just think as offsides as the main rule preventing cherry picking from becoming a viable soccer strategy.
The next time Freind tries to sully a sport with such wordly acclaim, maybe he will provide some more intelligent opinions to back up his claims. After all, labeling the world’s most popular sport as a recreational activity because ‘American’ sports may be easier to understand is only slightly embarrassing.
I’ll close by reminding Freind that the USA is actually pretty good when it comes to soccer on the international level. After all, the US Women’s team has won three World Cups. Perhaps Freind forgot about those inspiring, incredibly successful female soccer players who continue to rally the passions of millions of Americans whenever and wherever they play.