2018 World Cup

[SDHornet]

2018 World Cup TV Ratings Are Down 44% From 2014

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -from-2014


World Cup Ratings Are a Complete Nightmare for Fox and Comcast

http://fortune.com/2018/06/22/world-cup ... telemundo/

Nothing shocking about that. No USA in the tournament, no Italy, no Netherlands, now no Germany. But the biggest reason is the time difference - 2014 tournament was in Brazil, which meant you got to have prime time matches in the US in all time zones. Now you have games like today that are at 10AM and 2PM EDT (7AM and 11AM PDT). Even Europe struggles to watch soccer matches when they don't match up well with the time zone. There was a reason why UEFA was originally trying to push Morocco to be the 2026 host - well travel as well - the time zone would put it in prime time in all of Europe. I think I may have watched one match live so far - rest of the matches I follow on the phone or on the BBC (I like their live updates) and then I pick and choose to watch either the games I record or sometimes even just the 30 minute highlight show of all the games.

Not to mention all the games stream live on Telemundo's website for free...unless those are accounted for in the ratings somehow.

[Ivytalk]

France and Uruguay advance. Argentina and Portugal out. So long, Messi and Ronaldo.

[93henfan]

Spain colluded.

[Ivytalk]

Spain colluded.

Yup. They really fvcked the frijole today.

[Skjellyfetti]

Was a fun game to watch with a bar full of Russians.

Have a decent chance to make it to the semifinals. Croatia will probably be favored, but not insurmountable.

One of Russia, Croatia, Switzerland, Sweden, Colombia or England will play in the final.

Вперёд Россия!!

[UNI88]

Spain colluded.

Who did the FSB threaten or bribe to get Spain to throw the game? How many more games will "go" their way?

[Skjellyfetti]

Spain is a bunch of aging relics who are good and playing tiki taka at midfield for 90%... but, that's about it.

NO COLLUSION!!

[BDKJMU]

On penalty kicks I thought goalies couldn't step forward of the goal line before the ball is kicked. Yet just about every time the goalies take a step or 2 forward a half second to second before the ball is kicked. So is it a rule or not?

[CID1990]

Was a fun game to watch with a bar full of Russians.

Have a decent chance to make it to the semifinals. Croatia will probably be favored, but not insurmountable.

One of Russia, Croatia, Switzerland, Sweden, Colombia or England will play in the final.

Вперёд Россия!!

I hope its England

their soccer hooligans have been out of the news for FAR too long


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Skjellyfetti]

On penalty kicks I thought goalies couldn't step forward of the goal line before the ball is kicked. Yet just about every time the goalies take a step or 2 forward a half second to second before the ball is kicked. So is it a rule or not?

Yeah, it's a rule. But, rarely enforced.

Same with the penalty taker feigning a shot or hesitating to get the gk to commit.

They should go with the retro MLS penalties.

phpBB [video]

[Pwns]

Soccer has absolutely the dumbest tie-breaker of any major sport.

The penalty shots are analogous to baseball settling a tie with a home run derby or basketball settling ties with a 3-point shooting contest.

[Skjellyfetti]

Baseball can pretty much just play ad infinitum. 17 innings. Your bullpen is in shambles. But, for the rest of the players.... meh.

Hockey has a fairly similar shootout scenario - but, as I said - soccer would do better to emulate it by having the shooter start at midfield and allowing the gk to come off the line. Apart from that, I'm not sure how it would be improved.

[Pwns]

Baseball can pretty much just play ad infinitum. 17 innings. Your bullpen is in shambles. But, for the rest of the players.... meh.

Hockey has a fairly similar shootout scenario - but, as I said - soccer would do better to emulate it by having the shooter start at midfield and allowing the gk to come off the line. Apart from that, I'm not sure how it would be improved.

This is what I would suggest:

Both teams take turns playing down 3 or 4 guys for several minutes. Of course that's not the same as playing soccer but it would much more resemble soccer than just having players take turns taking shots on the other team's goalie.

[UNI88]

Spain is a bunch of aging relics who are good and playing tiki taka at midfield for 90%... but, that's about it.

NO COLLUSION!!

Rumor has it that Mueller has added it to his investigation.

[BDKJMU]

On penalty kicks I thought goalies couldn't step forward of the goal line before the ball is kicked. Yet just about every time the goalies take a step or 2 forward a half second to second before the ball is kicked. So is it a rule or not?

Yeah, it's a rule. But, rarely enforced.

Same with the penalty taker feigning a shot or hesitating to get the gk to commit.

They should go with the retro MLS penalties.

phpBB [video]

Seems dumb to not enforce it. Seems would be easy to enforce- like a lane violation in basketball.

So the refs are told not to enforce it unless the goalie takes ____ number of steps forward before the ball is kicked. How many steps is that?

[BDKJMU]

Soccer has absolutely the dumbest tie-breaker of any major sport.

The penalty shots are analogous to baseball settling a tie with a home run derby or basketball settling ties with a 3-point shooting contest.

Yeah, the whole penalty kicks thing is retarded.

What's as dumb is the whole extra time thingy. The several minutes they add at the end of each half is a fraction of the amount of time the ball is out of play due to the minute or 2 celebration after every goal, penalty kicks where the ref sprays down that white stuff for players to stand behind, penalty kicks right in front of the goal, corner kicks, goal kicks, all the drama flopping, fake injuries, substitutions, arguing with the ref, yellow cards given out, stopping the game to look at instant replay, etc, etc, etc. Then at the end of the half and game someone pulls a few minutes out of the their arse for how many minutes extra time there are. And then the game will sometimes go a minute or 2 past that the extra minutes listed. WTF?

Why not just stop the clock when the ball is out of play in certain situations, and start it again when back in play. Duh.

[Skjellyfetti]

Seems dumb to not enforce it. Seems would be easy to enforce- like a lane violation in basketball.

So the refs are told not to enforce it unless the goalie takes ____ number of steps forward before the ball is kicked. How many steps is that?

Every sport has rules like that.

Think "pick play" in football. Blatant violation of the rules. Easy touchdown if executed. Rarely called. And, when it is - the team called for it loses their minds.

[89Hen]

Seems dumb to not enforce it. Seems would be easy to enforce- like a lane violation in basketball.

So the refs are told not to enforce it unless the goalie takes ____ number of steps forward before the ball is kicked. How many steps is that?

Every sport has rules like that.

NBA, for sure on lane violation, but I'm trying to think of the equivalent in MLB, NFL or NHL. Help me out.

[CAA Flagship]

Soccer has absolutely the dumbest tie-breaker of any major sport.

The penalty shots are analogous to baseball settling a tie with a home run derby or basketball settling ties with a 3-point shooting contest.

Yup. Hockey finally took a step in the right direction by pulling a few players off the ice for overtime and opening up the game. Soccer needs to do the same, though modified, where certain players are limited to certain ends of the field like lacrosse.

[CAA Flagship]

Soccer has absolutely the dumbest tie-breaker of any major sport.

The penalty shots are analogous to baseball settling a tie with a home run derby or basketball settling ties with a 3-point shooting contest.

Yeah, the whole penalty kicks thing is retarded.

What's as dumb is the whole extra time thingy. The several minutes they add at the end of each half is a fraction of the amount of time the ball is out of play due to the minute or 2 celebration after every goal, penalty kicks where the ref sprays down that white stuff for players to stand behind, penalty kicks right in front of the goal, corner kicks, goal kicks, all the drama flopping, fake injuries, substitutions, arguing with the ref, yellow cards given out, stopping the game to look at instant replay, etc, etc, etc. Then at the end of the half and gamesomeone pulls a few minutes out of the their arse for how many minutes extra time there are. And then the game will sometimes go a minute or 2 past that the extra minutes listed. WTF?

Why not just stop the clock when the ball is out of play in certain situations, and start it again when back in play. Duh.

Yup. College soccer stops the clock. No reason the top level of soccer can't.

[89Hen]

No reason the top level of soccer can't.

Traditional soccer fans actually take pride in how stupid the rules are and how angry non-soccer fans get about them.

[∞∞∞]

One of my favorite suggestions is making extra periods 5 minutes and teams win if they're ahead after any period. At the start of each one though, player counts are reduced by 1 for each team.

Minutes 90-95: 10 players
Minutes 95-100: 9 players
Minutes 100-105: 8 players
Minutes 105-110: 7 players
Minutes 110-115: 6 players
Minutes 115-120: 5 players
Minutes 120-125: 4 players
Every 5 minutes afterwards: 3 players

It's a gradual way to open up scoring opportunities and punish mistakes.

[CAA Flagship]

One of my favorite suggestions is making extra periods 5 minutes and teams win if they're ahead after any period. At the start of each one though, player counts are reduced by 1 for each team.

Minutes 90-95: 10 players
Minutes 95-100: 9 players
Minutes 100-105: 8 players
Minutes 105-110: 7 players
Minutes 110-115: 6 players
Minutes 115-120: 5 players
Minutes 120-125: 4 players
Every 5 minutes afterwards: 3 players

It's a gradual way to open up scoring opportunities and punish mistakes.

At some point, you have to "lacrosse rule" the field. There is no way a limited number of players can play the whole field that late in the game. I think rather than going below 10 players you have to limit them to certain halves of the field like lacrosse.

Lacrosse rules for reference:
Each team must keep at least four players, including the goalie, in its defensive half of the field and three in its offensive half. Three players (midfielders) may roam the entire field.
The reason they do this is because of the size of the field.

[89Hen]

At some point, you have to "lacrosse rule" the field. There is no way a limited number of players can play the whole field that late in the game. I think rather than going below 10 players you have to limit them to certain halves of the field like lacrosse.

Lacrosse rules for reference:
Each team must keep at least four players, including the goalie, in its defensive half of the field and three in its offensive half. Three players (midfielders) may roam the entire field.
The reason they do this is because of the size of the field.

While I'm for change, I'm not for changing the whole sport.

[CAA Flagship]

At some point, you have to "lacrosse rule" the field. There is no way a limited number of players can play the whole field that late in the game. I think rather than going below 10 players you have to limit them to certain halves of the field like lacrosse.

Lacrosse rules for reference:
Each team must keep at least four players, including the goalie, in its defensive half of the field and three in its offensive half. Three players (midfielders) may roam the entire field.
The reason they do this is because of the size of the field.

While I'm for change, I'm not for changing the whole sport.

It's not changing it that much. It's just limiting the defense and opening up scoring chances. The 3 players that are limited to the offensive end can't help clog up the defensive end. The three guys that are limited to the defensive end rarely cross midfield anyway. I think the only thing you have to do is create a 20 yard zone in the middle of the field where offsides can't be called. That would help in the transition.