Soccer, also known as football is the most popular sport in the whole world, and I'm going to call it soccer for now. Soccer is actually a very simple sport, almost anyone can play it anytime anywhere, for a lot of us, some of our best memories are making a few goal posts out of hats and playing soccer in the streets or anywhere with family or friends. The simplicity of the sport makes it so popular and widespread all over the world. So why take away that fun and excitement with a game which is way too long.
If you are unaware a professional soccer game lasts for 90 minutes, plus extra time which is added on by the referees because the clock does not stop, except halftime which means one half is 45 minutes. That sounds like a long time to be running after a ball on a very large field, right? There's more, if the game is tied at the end it either ends as a tie, but in major tournaments there is extra time, which is an additional 30 minutes of game time (two 15 minute extra times), if it is still tied after that, then it goes to a penalty shootout. Even though people who watch soccer games might think that the players don't run or most of them just walk around, in a professional game, a player runs anywhere from 8 km to even up to 14 km a game. You may think, oh why don't they just change the players on the field, this is because each team has on 3 substitutions, which means that of of the 11 players starting at least 8 have to finish the whole game. Yes, professional players have worked hard and are in good shape, but would't a lot of people be tired running back and forth for possibly 120 minutes.
Most games which go to extra time are a so called disaster, the players and fans cheering are so tired at this point. The players often go down with injuries or get cramps, which obviously cause easy mistakes. The fans are so tired from cheering for 90 minutes already that they would want to go straight to a penalty shootout, I mean who wouldn't, it is one of the most exciting things in all of sports. Also in these matches you can see opponents or referees even help other players stretch their legs out because of cramps, and thats not what the sport is about. Honestly extra time is a waste of time as like I mentioned, they are not playing the actual game when so many of the players are getting injured or cramps.
I think that soccer games are too long because the players get too tired as well as the fans, I think that is would be better to go straight to a penalty shootout if the game is tied after 90 minutes, but some people may think, "well that's unfair, it's not even real soccer" so if there is a required extra time it should been 15 or maybe even 10 minutes then to a penalty shootout, to keep the games interesting for the fans and to keep the players at least a little bit safer from horrible injuries. It would need a miracle for a big rule in a huge sport to change, but every sport has it's flaws and this is one of soccers bigger ones.
Sources:
-http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/the-distance-run-per-game-in-various-sports/slide/6
-http://www.thesportster.com/entertainment/top-15-dumbest-rules-in-sports/
-https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2016/jun/25/switzerland-v-poland-euro-2016-live
I like how you've taken a position and argued for why you think this - it's a common feature of blogs. The progression is rather straight-forward and easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteHowever, one area which needs improvement is your punctuation. There are many run-on sentences and rhetorical questions without question marks, for example. If you didn't proofread carefully before publishing, then this is something you should definitely get in the habit of doing in the future. Read the text with the punctuation you have used so you can hear the mistakesn.