Soccer

I feel I should give other sports a try. I decided I would watch a professional soccer game. I recorded one. Turns out it was the first one of the season. Portland Timbers against someone. Soccer seems to be the warm equivalent of ice hockey. Similar in many ways.

Some observations:

It was boring. It ended up 2 to 1. I can't even describe the action. I thought I could get into it because there aren't a lot of rules. True, there are not a lot of rules, but no, I couldn't get into it.

I couldn't figure out how the timing of soccer work. Most sports have their clock counting down. When you get to 0:00, you're done. In soccer, they apparently count up. To what, I'm not sure. The first half ended at something like 46:31. I can't imagine why. Maybe they take off time for in bound plays, but then couldn't someone just pause the clock, so we know when it ends?

What is a foul in soccer? I know there are red cards and yellow cards, but I didn't know exactly how you get one of those. It turns out you have to do a lot to get one. I saw some players get laid out with no penalty and the announcers not really getting very excited about it. Violent acts are much more common place in soccer than I realized. I thought it was basically a non-contact sport. I've played complete soccer games I which I didn't come into contact with anyone. This had moments of big contact.

But how could something so violent, be so boring? Maybe its just me. Soccer seemed to be just going back and forth. But, to someone who hadn't seen it, basketball probably seems the same. And maybe football would be the same. And football has the added disadvantage of having a million rules. And if those sports would seem pointless, how would someone feel about watching baseball for the first time?

So it turns out, I'm not a fan. That's fine. Its like the world's most popular sport. I don't see it myself.