However, it still appears to me as if not enough effort is put into attempting to score.
I agree! I get the same feeling when watching American Football...what's this crap about a running game? Why not Hail Mary it every down? Basketball too...what's all this dribbling and trying to pass around defenders about. Its possible to score from the halfway line, so take the damned shot you lanky gets! I was watching a full handed limit poker ($30/$60) game the other night too - you know those guys hardly bluff! They need to bluff more, put a bit of effort into winning!
I was watching the cycling the other day. I saw a line of 'team mates' and the front one slowed down and went to the back! They must losing miles doing this. It seems to me like the cyclists are not making enough effort to win!
Clearly these athletes, the tacticians and the managers are all missing the obvious - the games are about quantity of shots, not their quality!
Flies - you and I should start our own teams, we'd wipe the floor with these so called world class athletes...they wouldn't stand a chance and we'd make millions!
There's no other way to say it, the way you see it is flawed. The tactics you speak of are the kind of tactics you see from 12 year olds. Those 12 year olds have to develop tactics closer to the ones you see on television or they will end up getting beaten by those that do.
When a kid has the ball, he wants the glory of a great shot, but it hardly ever pays off (it usually ends up giving advantage to the opposition) - passing the balls and beating defenders, taking advantage of weaknesses...this is where consistent goals are scored. When the defense is world class the weaknesses are small and there aren't many opportunities. It makes the game terminally boring and as a consequence I don't really watch it (exceptions: some international matches). I have better things to do than watch 20 guys running backwards and forwards passing a ball between them for 2 hours.
However, what I will not concede is that soccer players are probably the kings (queens) of crying wolf. To me (a person that absolutely will not fake and injury to gain an advantage), the unsportsmanlike conduct of pretending to be seriously injured in hopes of unnecessarily causing your opponent to receive some sort of penalty is cheating...period. I hate it in any sport and soccer players (anecdotally at least), seem to be number one in being a big bunch of pantywaists.
I agree - the sickness isn't just the fault of the players. They are under a lot of pressure to take those dives from their managers and to an extent - the fans. Because defense is so tough, set pieces can be massive advantages. Millions of quid ride on it, and officials don't do enough to penalize people who are obviously cheating. There are a list of reasons I dislike the sport, and that is one of them.
/exclamation mark filled rant
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