How to Americanize Soccer?

Hi, Taq.

Taq writes: ​ 1. Change offsides to an offside line like it is in ice hockey. No offensive player can enter the offensive zone until the ball has crossed the line. After that, offensive players can be anywhere within the offensive zone regardless of where the ball or defensive players are.

I think offsides works just fine the way they have it. I think they could just stop calling it once the ball is inside the big goal box: that's when all the controversial calls happen, and I think it would improve the chances to see more scoring.-----

Taq writes: ​ 2. Stealing from hockey once again, if someone is actively playing the ball you can hit them with your body. No elbows or blows with the feet, but a good body check is legal.

This would just make soccer stupid.----- Why restrict it to stoppages? Why not just have substitutions on the fly?Edited by Bluejay, : No reason given.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Caffeine. I said, "...once the ball comes inside the goal box."Perhaps I should amend it and say, "...while the ball is in the goal box." I was referring to the penalty area, but the term escaped me at the moment I was writing the post.So, players wouldn't be able to "goal-hang" until the ball is already very near the goal. And, I don't see why "goal-hanging" should be disallowed at that point. The ball spends so little time inside the penalty area anyway, so it's really a rather small exception to the rule.The point of the thread is to Americanize soccer: the #1 complaint Americans have with soccer is that there isn't enough scoring. I think this would increase the scoring while only negligibly compromising the tactical midfield play that makes the game interesting.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Jumped Up Chimpanzee. This isn't really what I meant.While playing the ball into the penalty area, the usual offside rule would apply. But, once the ball is inside the penalty area, offsides will not be called on additional passes or deflections.It seems that the line judges make a lot of mistakes calling offsides when everyone's congested inside the penalty area. It also seems that this would make it easier to turn a trip into the penalty area into a goal, which would increase the scoring as per Americans' wishes.And, yeah, it makes the rules a little more complicated, but we are talking about Americanizing the sport, and this doesn't even approach the complexity of most American sports' rulebooks.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Caffeine. I guess I forgot that you don't get called offsides if you don't touch the ball. So, maybe it would need another extra rule then, making offsides more complicated than it already is.Maybe the hockey-style offsides isn't such a bad idea, after all.But, by the time the offense gets the ball into the area, the defense should be there already, though, so my idea seems like it would only make a major difference on breakaway counterattacks. Other than that, it should only give a slim advantage to the offense.----- Or, they could give two points for long-distance goals.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

Hi, Tram.It takes real guts to be that lame on a public forum.Kudos.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.