[Alberta's Child]

Soccer has many of the elements needed to make a great sport, but some of the attributes you describe are what makes it exceedingly dull.

Just one example ...

You are 100% correct when you point out the superb physical condition that is needed to play continuously for two halves of 45-50 minutes apiece. So what? It takes even more conditioning to run a marathon, but that doesn’t mean long-distance running is a popular spectator sport.

My biggest complaint about soccer is that it seems to have been frozen in time at a point in human history when an hourglass was used to track time and an air-filled rubber ball was the most advanced invention in human civilization.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

I think the dullness comes from those who are not used to things taking time to develop and happen. You get instant gratification in most sports, not so with soccer.

It’s a mind game and patience is a core of the strategy. You also don’t have those mind-numbing commercial breaks every 3 minutes or so. Games last 2 hours, a football game can last over 4 sometimes.

I’ve thought about it a lot and I really cannot think of a cleaver way to make the game more entertaining to the average North American sports fanatic. You would think no commercials would be enough?

You either like it or you can’t stand it.