or, Where's the Scoring? A Response
or, Goals Are Overrated
or, The American Double Standard
or, If You Score It, They Will (Supposedly) Come
You know that old argument that soccer doesn't appeal to Americans because there isn't enough scoring? Well, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that it's crap; but just in case there are a few non-soccer people who might wander by here accidentally, or if you happen to need a few responses the next time a soccer-hating (or dismissing) friend of yours comments that the game is "boring", I thought I would lay out a few of my thoughts on the matter.
The impetus for this post was Fulham and Arsenal's entertaining 0-0 draw yesterday, an end-to-end match filled with chances for both sides. Despite the lack of goals, the game never failed to engage me. After checking with a few knowledgeable parties (hi Twitter friends!) just to be sure that I wasn't the only one who found it enjoyable, the thought hit me: this match is the perfect example of why the "not enough scoring" argument is less viable than one might think.
Now, as a soccer junkie, I'm admittedly biased. While the game held enormous entertainment value for me, perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions by saying that Americans are shortsighted in their position on scoring in soccer. Let's take a step back and look at the sports that Americans hold most dear: baseball and American football.
Baseball glorifies the pitcher's duel, the shutout, and the no-hitter. While home runs are seen as crowd-pleasers, tradition loves "small ball", sacrificing, and hitting behind the runner. One hundred forty plus years of history have made baseball an American institution; hence, for the Americans indoctrinated with the sport, the total scoring in a game is independent of its entertainment value, something as true today as it was during the Dead Ball Era, or the pitching dominated 60's. Even today, "Web Gems" are a celebrated part of every game, with today's modern athletes making defensive plays that amaze fans every night. Home runs, and scoring overall, has trended downward in recent years thanks to the fallout from the steroids scandals still affecting the game, yet attendances and television ratings have gone up, and revenues are higher than ever before. Runs scored matter less to fans than fantastic performances or victories by their favorite team.
Football glorifies the impenetrable defense, the tough-as-nails linebacker, and the defensive struggle. While high-octane offense is a crowd-pleaser, tradition loves ball-control, time-of-possession, and winning the field-position battle. Ninety years of history have made football the foremost American passion; hence, for Americans indoctrinated with the sport, the total scoring in a game is independent of its entertainment value, something as true today as it was during the era of the Doomsday Defense and the Steel Curtain. Even today, stingy defense is a celebrated part of the game, with a Super Bowl champion known more for defense than for scoring points. Even if scoring dropped thirty percent in a single season, football would still reign as the king of American sports; points matter less to fans than a competitive game or victories by their favorite team.
As modern sports fans, we're told so often that points make the game that we've forgotten that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Passionate football fans love a classic defensive struggle, with two teams battling it out to a 7-3 result. Baseball fans are often entranced by a pitchers duel, with two dominant hurlers shutting down the opposing team's hitters one after the other. Every sport has its stinkers, boring games with no scoring and little intriguing action, a situation that has nothing to do with scoring and everything to do with the individual teams.
Chances in soccer can often be just as exciting as actual goals. Keeper saves, missed sitters, balls that hit off the goal frame: all of these add to the entertainment value of a soccer match. It's this nuance of the game (although I almost hesitate to call such an obvious thing a nuance) to which most Americans seem oblivious; argue with them that an American football game is boring without touchdowns, and they'd likely point out big hits, sacks, fumbles, and a litany of other events that have little to do with actual scoring. The same can be said for baseball, where situational tension, rather than any actual action, adds significantly to the level of excitement.
Conclusion? The scoring argument is crap, but more specifically, Americans are simply using it as a cop-out, a way to denigrate soccer by pointing out what seems to be an obvious "flaw".
This went way longer than I intended, and the format is not what I originally planned; I may try to present a challenge-response version of these points sometime in the future. I also wanted to work in actual statistics, but that's not really my point. Needless to say, the differences in "scoring events" for the sports I'm comparing here (using only touchdowns for football) aren't as big as you might think.
