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Ladies Man: Gotta Love The Goals
In the latest installment of the Ladies Man women's soccer column, Goal.com's Giovanni Albanese Jr. discusses why scoring goals at a high rate is not good for other countries, but perfect for the United States.
Jul 28, 2010 9:40:00 PM
By Giovanni Albanese Jr.
If this wasn’t the United States, the past weekend of Women’s Professional Soccer would have been an embarrassment of epic proportion. Luckily for everyone involved, this is the United States -- so what would have been seemingly catastrophic for leagues in England, Italy or Germany was a delightful change of pace.
With the countries used to their hard-nosed, grind-it-out style of football they have watched for hundreds of years, they have become accustomed to one- and two-goal games max; anything bordering on four or five goals would be an aberration and something they could handle, but not tolerate.
Head westward to these here United States and you have reverse logic: four- and five-goal games are welcomed with open arms; one- and two-goal games are considered boring and uneventful. Who knows if there’s even an adjective to describe U.S. soccer fans’ thoughts on a scoreless draw.
In week 15 of the WPS -- taking out the 2-1 Gold Pride win at Boston and 1-0 Atlanta win over Chicago on Wednesday -- there were 14 goals scored in three weekend games: Gold Pride 4 @ DC Freedom 1; Sky Blue FC 1 @ Philadelphia Independence 4; and Boston 3 @ Chicago 1.
A soccer purist would have to fight back vomiting at such results, but in America, if we want to gain a religious following of people outside of the purists, we’ll need a consistent goal-scoring soirée to keep the sex appeal of the game.
Soccer is a beautiful game that not many Americans can appreciate. With football, basketball and baseball leaving us with tons of high-scoring games, the thought of a consistent low-scoring affair in soccer leaves a bad taste in the mouth of any non-soccer fan.
All the other sports are making rules to make it more advantageous for the offense.
In the NFL, you can’t hardly lay a finger on the quarterback. If you do, 15-yard penalty and the offense is heading down the field for another scoring opportunity.
Over in the NBA, in the late 90s, they added the rule that you could no longer hand-check on defense. What does that do? It allows any ball-handler the space he needs to free himself up for a shot. The result, an influx of teams scoring over the 100-point plateau on a nightly basis.
In Major League Baseball, they are trying to speed the game up, which directly affects the pitcher. Less time between pitches leaves little time for a breather, which may cause a pitcher -- mainly the power pitchers -- to leave a pitch over the fat part of the plate and allow a crooked number at a pivotal part of the game.
And in the NHL, after returning from the strike, it lost most of its on-the-fence fans. What has it done to remedy that? They have taken away the two-line pass, allowing a team to send the puck from their end of the ice to the opposition’s blue line, lending a more up-and-down style of play. In addition, the net-minder can’t come out of a restricted zone behind the net to play the puck and offenses can dunk the puck into the offensive zone with a player in there and remain onside as long as the guilty party clears the zone before re-entering.
All the major sports have changed the rules of the game to help the offense. Clearly soccer can do little to change the way a game is played to have higher-scoring games. And it’s also clear that high-scoring games can happen when one team is clicking and the other is struggling.
What soccer should do is rid the offside rule while a team is possessing the ball in the attacking half. If a team clears the ball from the defensive end, regular offside rules should apply. However, anything else is legal -- like small-sided games.
Perhaps that will raise the appeal of soccer in the United States. It may not be needed, but it can’t hurt, right?
Goal of the Week
Tiffeny Milbrett, FC Gold Pride -- Sure it was against Cat Whitehill, playing for the injured Erin McLeod who came off for the Washington Freedom in the 84th minute with what turned out to be an ACL tear. Since Washington already used its allotted three subs on the smolderingly hot day, Whitehill finished out the final six-plus minutes.
Milbrett showed no mercy, burying home her second goal of the night in the upper 90 from 20 yards out. It was perfectly placed and quite possibly unstoppable by even the best of keepers in WPS.
Have a look at the goal here:
Save of the Week
Alyssa Naeher, Boston Breakers - Naeher got top save for this week because of two things: first and foremost, it kept her Breakers within reach of the Gold Pride in what turned out to be a 2-1 loss at home last Wednesday; secondly, it came off of a Marta shot, on a breakaway.
Enough said. Now have a look at the save here:
Quote of the Week
“I feel like we have hit rock bottom,” said Washington Freedom’s Cat Whitehill after the team’s 4-1 loss at home against the first-place FC Gold Pride.
It may not be rock bottom just yet, but a loss to the Atlanta Beat on Wednesday won’t help that cause for the Freedom.
For more on Women's Professional Soccer, visit Goal.com's WPS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
With the countries used to their hard-nosed, grind-it-out style of football they have watched for hundreds of years, they have become accustomed to one- and two-goal games max; anything bordering on four or five goals would be an aberration and something they could handle, but not tolerate.
Head westward to these here United States and you have reverse logic: four- and five-goal games are welcomed with open arms; one- and two-goal games are considered boring and uneventful. Who knows if there’s even an adjective to describe U.S. soccer fans’ thoughts on a scoreless draw.
In week 15 of the WPS -- taking out the 2-1 Gold Pride win at Boston and 1-0 Atlanta win over Chicago on Wednesday -- there were 14 goals scored in three weekend games: Gold Pride 4 @ DC Freedom 1; Sky Blue FC 1 @ Philadelphia Independence 4; and Boston 3 @ Chicago 1.
A soccer purist would have to fight back vomiting at such results, but in America, if we want to gain a religious following of people outside of the purists, we’ll need a consistent goal-scoring soirée to keep the sex appeal of the game.
Soccer is a beautiful game that not many Americans can appreciate. With football, basketball and baseball leaving us with tons of high-scoring games, the thought of a consistent low-scoring affair in soccer leaves a bad taste in the mouth of any non-soccer fan.
All the other sports are making rules to make it more advantageous for the offense.
In the NFL, you can’t hardly lay a finger on the quarterback. If you do, 15-yard penalty and the offense is heading down the field for another scoring opportunity.
Over in the NBA, in the late 90s, they added the rule that you could no longer hand-check on defense. What does that do? It allows any ball-handler the space he needs to free himself up for a shot. The result, an influx of teams scoring over the 100-point plateau on a nightly basis.
In Major League Baseball, they are trying to speed the game up, which directly affects the pitcher. Less time between pitches leaves little time for a breather, which may cause a pitcher -- mainly the power pitchers -- to leave a pitch over the fat part of the plate and allow a crooked number at a pivotal part of the game.
And in the NHL, after returning from the strike, it lost most of its on-the-fence fans. What has it done to remedy that? They have taken away the two-line pass, allowing a team to send the puck from their end of the ice to the opposition’s blue line, lending a more up-and-down style of play. In addition, the net-minder can’t come out of a restricted zone behind the net to play the puck and offenses can dunk the puck into the offensive zone with a player in there and remain onside as long as the guilty party clears the zone before re-entering.
All the major sports have changed the rules of the game to help the offense. Clearly soccer can do little to change the way a game is played to have higher-scoring games. And it’s also clear that high-scoring games can happen when one team is clicking and the other is struggling.
What soccer should do is rid the offside rule while a team is possessing the ball in the attacking half. If a team clears the ball from the defensive end, regular offside rules should apply. However, anything else is legal -- like small-sided games.
Perhaps that will raise the appeal of soccer in the United States. It may not be needed, but it can’t hurt, right?
Goal of the Week
Tiffeny Milbrett, FC Gold Pride -- Sure it was against Cat Whitehill, playing for the injured Erin McLeod who came off for the Washington Freedom in the 84th minute with what turned out to be an ACL tear. Since Washington already used its allotted three subs on the smolderingly hot day, Whitehill finished out the final six-plus minutes.
Milbrett showed no mercy, burying home her second goal of the night in the upper 90 from 20 yards out. It was perfectly placed and quite possibly unstoppable by even the best of keepers in WPS.
Have a look at the goal here:
Save of the Week
Alyssa Naeher, Boston Breakers - Naeher got top save for this week because of two things: first and foremost, it kept her Breakers within reach of the Gold Pride in what turned out to be a 2-1 loss at home last Wednesday; secondly, it came off of a Marta shot, on a breakaway.
Enough said. Now have a look at the save here:
Quote of the Week
“I feel like we have hit rock bottom,” said Washington Freedom’s Cat Whitehill after the team’s 4-1 loss at home against the first-place FC Gold Pride.
It may not be rock bottom just yet, but a loss to the Atlanta Beat on Wednesday won’t help that cause for the Freedom.
For more on Women's Professional Soccer, visit Goal.com's WPS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
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