lurker1965
In the Starting Line-Up
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2009
- Messages
- 3,132
- Reaction score
- 1,105
Registered Members experience this forum ad and noise-free.
CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Makes sense. Their teams (soccer) don't lay down when they're ahead. They don't understand our flawed concept of sportsmanship (and I don't blame them).
It will never be understood in the uk. Rugby is the closet sport to american football and in rugby it is the team's goal to destroy the opposition. If they walk on the field with them they are fair game!
I think the british aren't really familiar with downing the ball and what it means. They probably just want the usual game pace to just continue and get their money's worth
I think the british aren't really familiar with downing the ball and what it means. They probably just want the usual game pace to just continue and get their money's worth
Yeah, was gonna say. The whole concept of running up the score being a bad thing is absolutely alien over here. Very much an attitude of 'if teams don't like being hammered it's up to them to stop it, not the superior team to call off the dogs'. If any soccer coach over here came out and complained about being beaten 5/6-0 they would be mercilessly mocked.
It's not that. It's the fact that time is kept differently in both games. There is no 35 second clock in soccer. In football, running out the clock equals winning. This is no different than defending more with a three goal lead. Don't tell me Europeans don't do that in soccer.
It will never be understood in the uk. Rugby is the closet sport to american football and in rugby it is the team's goal to destroy the opposition. If they walk on the field with them they are fair game!
Obviously there's differences (the use of goal/point difference in soccer/rugby is another) but it's the same mentality. We're not talking about taking knees when 10-7 up - obviously that makes sense and would be the equivalent of a soccer team pulling everyone back in the last few minutes when defending a 1-0 lead. We're talking about taking knees at 35-7, with the game already won.
It's pretty rare teams defend more when 3-0 up or more with time running out. There's usually an element of taking it easy but they have freedom to play and often go for more goals, especially if the other team is pushing forward looking for more goals and can be caught with a sucker punch on the counter attack.
I'm talking about running up the score being an alien concept, not running out the clock.