I sometimes think of soccer as hockey except played by people running around on a large field instead of skating around on a smaller ice surface.
Hockey is low scoring game like soccer.
But the fact is, a sport like Hockey is very fast paced and exciting even when goals aren’t being scored.
Soccer, where they’re running up and down the field things take longer to develop things or slower… It’s completely not exciting to watch to my eyes .
Other people may differ, because they have a cultural attachment, or whatever… But I will never be able to watch soccer. As other posters have said, it’s probably fun to play, but watching it… Not so much.
If Soccer had a shot clock requiring a shot on goal every couple of minutes or whatever, it would change the game completely making it a much faster paced game. Obviously the powers that be, for reasons that I do not understand, like it slow and boring.
I think it is a great game for young children to play as they learn to play team Sports, however. It is also a sport that adults can continue to play for many years unlike football.
My take is that it’s a bit like football, but without the break in action. Do you love watching a running back get taken down after he’s only gained a few yards, or what happens if he gets past the defense and everyone is scrambling to stop him? Or when an interception happens, it changes the possession.
Soccer is much like this game of possession without the downs. And the players who a minute ago were playing offense are suddenly playing defense, without putting on different players. So each player has certain skill sets that are both offense and defense. So it’s like ice hockey in that regard, but a hockey rink is about 1/4 the size of a soccer field.
Anyway, I like all of these sports. For me, they each have their fun parts and their drawbacks. To me they are fun to watch even without the scoring aspect. I will grant that our MLS teams aren’t as talented as they are in other countries, but that is improving. I do not expect much from our USA team, but will be pleasantly surprised if they do well.
And, the hockey fights! Perhaps soccer would catch on if they raised the testosterone levels and threw a few punches.
The field is too big. Soccer resists innovation in a way that American sports don’t. Maybe it’s because so many countries are involved that it would be hard to imagine them agreeing about anything.