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World Cup!
The absence of stoppages in play is kind of disorienting to me. The absence of commercials is nice, but it makes it hard to learn the sport. The natural thing would be to run lots of replays and analysis -- just like in basketball games, football games, etc. -- but dumb the level of analysis down for an American audience, but the opportunity doesn't really exist.
It's interesting how normal soccer players look. They're clearly somewhat taller and fitter than most people, but they really do just look like tallish dudes in good shape much as you might find walking down the street somewhere.
June 10, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
Well, not necessarily tallish. Maradona and Pele were both well under six feet. Indeed many attackers are small. Defenders and goalkeepers are usually tall, but there are some exceptions. Steve Cherundolo who plays professionally in Germany for Hannover and is a fine defender on the US team is 5'6".
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 10, 2006 7:50:34 PM
Randy, they do seem to tend to tallish. And this trend seems to be solidifying.
Posted by: TJ | Jun 10, 2006 9:10:04 PM
The fact that top soccer players are close to average size is one of the best things about the sport. Compare it to football and basketball with their unusual physical size demands.
Posted by: Peter | Jun 10, 2006 9:23:36 PM
Yes, but the gerneral population tend to tallish, I guess the point is that you don't see a guy and say "that person looks like a soccer player" , while you probably can say that about basketball layers, sprint runners, volleyball players, boxers and NFL pros.
Posted by: Ale | Jun 10, 2006 9:27:25 PM
You'll pick the game up more as you watch. Sadly, the U.S. commentators so far have been horrible (and that's being generous).
The N.Y. Times magazine had a good breakdown on some of the team strategies last week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/sports/playmagazine/04playbook-italy.html
If you need a basic rules primer, check this out:
http://www.drblank.com/slaws.htm
Posted by: Mike | Jun 10, 2006 10:06:28 PM
I disagree, TJ. There is but one player over two meters (Jan Koller) and players as hugely tall as Koller and Peter Crouch are the exception (Crouch, BTW is 198 cm).
What is considered tallish, anyway? I'm 6'2" which comes out to 185 cm. 5'10" is 175 cm. Go to this page and you can see that the heights are not that tall.
I think what Peter said is absolutely right.
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 10, 2006 10:09:10 PM
to reiterate what Mike said, you do learn as you go, and the constant action is part of what makes soccer special, which you learn to appreciate. although i have very vague memories of watching the '66 finals on wide world of sports, and although i had attended some english (in those days) division one matches in the '70s when my family first lived in london, i mainly learned the game through watching the '74 world cup on bbc-tv, and just by watching most of the tournament, i came very rapidly to a good baseline level of understanding of the game.
If you're feeling literary, you might want to check out Nick Hornsby's first book, Fever Pitch, joe mcginniss' the miracle of castel di sangro, and eduardo galeano's soccer in sun and shadow (mentioned in the times preview that mike referenced in the writeup on the magnificent ronaldinho - and frankly, matthew, if you do nothing else, you must watch brazil to see this truly great player in action), although none will bother to tell you anything about the rules, and if you want a really fascinating soccer-related read, check out bill buford's among the thugs, an account of his second life running with soccer hooligans in the '80s while serving as Granta's editor in London.
Posted by: howard | Jun 10, 2006 10:49:58 PM
Randy, you need to be 2m to be considered tallish? Jebus. The average height (for men) in the US is 5' 9". And, just looking at the US squad, while there are a couple guys at 168, the majority seem to be 185 or taller. "not that tall"?
I think you being tallish is skewing your perception.
Posted by: arcseed | Jun 10, 2006 11:29:00 PM
Arcseed,
It's a matter of degree. Soccer is a game where plenty of players around 5'6" excel. In basketball players like Muggsy Bogues and Spud webb (from the 1980's) were considered freakish. You don't see NBA players around that size these days, nor do you see NFL or MLB players around that size. That's the point I'm trying to make. For soccer, size isn't everything.
Howard,
To add to that, I would recommend How Soccer Explains the World : An Unlikely Theory of Globalization and the recently revised Soccer Against the Enemy : How the World's Most Popular Sport Starts and Fuels Revolutions and Keeps Dictators in Power.
Posted by: Randy Paul | Jun 10, 2006 11:44:16 PM
Normal, except they have thighs like a DOUGLAS FIR!
Posted by: Chris | Jun 11, 2006 2:22:34 AM
And the most important thing you have to learn about (real) football is a qoute by Gary Linnecker (former english player): "Football is a game where two teams of eleven players play two halves over 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans win." ;-)
Posted by: marketing-blog.biz | Jun 11, 2006 2:37:52 AM
The natural thing would be to run lots of replays and analysis -- just like in basketball games, football games, etc. -- but dumb the level of analysis down for an American audience, but the opportunity doesn't really exist.
It doesn't help that the #1 announcers SUCK. Marcelo Balboa couldn't explain a cucumber. The other announcing teams are a little better - Shep Messing had a nice explanation of the passive offsides rule in the Argentina-Ivory Coast match - but in general, the announcers are the worst. You are more likely to learn about soccer if you watch the Spanish language channels - regardless of whether you speak that language.
BTW - I noticed Matthew posted some world cup related stuff on his other blogs. It always makes me happy to see people who aren't soccer fans get interested in it a little bit. BTW - the answer to Matthew's post at TAPPED about who to root for in tomorrow's Iran-Mexico match? You root for Iran. All true fans of the US Men's National Team HATE Mexico. Iran only threatens us with nuclear holocaust; Mexicans, on the other can, are really nasty at Azteca stadium in Mexico City.
Finally, of interest to absolutely none of you I'm sure, but I'm posting my thoughts on the WC here: http://alsworldcupblog.blogspot.com/.
Posted by: Al | Jun 11, 2006 2:45:31 AM
Randy, i haven't read Foer's book (you probably know that he's got a world cup blog with a stable of 6 here: http://www.tnr.com/blog/world-cup); the other one is new to me, but a great title!
i suppose i should join in to the general disregard for the US announcers as i get ready to watch holland v. serbia and montenegro.
Posted by: howard | Jun 11, 2006 8:52:00 AM
Soccer players tall? Doesn’t sound right to me. Of all the major professional sports it’s the one that doesn’t seem to cater only to the tall (rugby is slightly different in that there are certain positions where the players will always be tall and others where they most definitely won’t be. Which is one of the attractions of that sport, that there is a place for all physiques).
Posted by: Tim Worstall | Jun 11, 2006 10:52:58 AM
As others have noted, soccer players aren't particularly tall. The main advantage height gives is in aerial play in front of the goal and while important, it isn't essential. But you will see the European teams with taller players play a more aerial game with more attempts to score via headers than smaller Asian and Latin American teams. Historically the truly greatest players have all been average size.
Matt: One key to understanding the appeal of soccer is to understand that the flow of the game is almost entirely controlled by the players rather than coaches. American sports like Baseball, Football, and basketball are almost entirely controlled by the coaches who move players around like chess pieces and run the game like generals on a military campaign. Look at baseball with 1st and 3rd base coaches signalling every offensive move. In soccer, with no timeouts and the ability to only substitute 3 times during a game (once a player comes out for substitution he can't go back in) it means that coaches really don't have much control over the action except to yell and wave their arms around a bit on the sidelines. Watch the typical soccer coach when they flash to the sidelines and he'll usually be sitting there on the bench looking comfortable. Contrast that to the typical football coach pacing the sidelines with headphones on screaming at players, calling plays, berating the refs etc. etc.
That's one of the great things about soccer from a players perspective. It is the players who really run the game.
Posted by: Kent | Jun 11, 2006 11:10:22 AM
Of all the major professional sports it’s the one that doesn’t seem to cater only to the tall
Clearly baseball doesn't cater only to the tall, although the torque generated by a taller player is certainly an advantage. (On the downside, height emlarges the strike zone.)
Goalkeepers will tend to be taller in soccer, one would think, for fairly obvious reasons.
If 175cm is average height there doesn't seem to be a single team, with the possible exception of Argentina, where the average height is average.
The US team averages a bit over 181cm and is in the middle of the height scale. Smaller than Trinidad and larger than Brazil, barely. They average a centimete shorter than the English and almost four centimeters shorter than the Serbians.
Baseball players are larger on average, my favorite team has a single player listed under six feet. (Although I'm certain to 100% certainty that there are others, since I've stood beside more than a few, and I'm 5' 10". You have baseball height and real height. OTOH, my favorite team has not a singel player on their opening day roster listed at over 6' 4"; a remarkabley similar group.
Finally, anyone who believes that first base coaches (in particular) are signaling every offensive move hasn't played a lot of competative baseball.
Yeah, you get signs from the third base coach. Hit, take, whatever. Baseball isn't soccer, but there's nobody signaling every offensive play... And how could there be?
Pretty unique among sports, in baseball the defense has the ball.
Baseball is a game of discrete one on one confrontations at every level, within the context of a team game. It's also not a fluid game in the sense of continaul motion, it's a game of repose and explosive motion; the closest thing you have to this in soccer are corner kicks, throw-ins and penalty kicks.
There's nothing wrong with soccer or the people who play it...
But there's nothing wrong with any other game either.
They are what they are.
Posted by: Lettuce | Jun 11, 2006 12:24:22 PM
To go back to the issue of height, when I played in high school I was mostly a keeper (occasionally a forward) and I'm about 6'3" and I was probably the tallest guy on the team. Thierrey Henry is just over 6 feet and Ronaldinho, probably the world's best player, is just under 6 feet.
Frankly, the main rule a newbie should know is what constitutes offsides (seen here with a nice chart):
http://www.burtrandworld.co.uk/offside-rule.php
Posted by: Mike | Jun 11, 2006 12:44:17 PM
Normal, except they have thighs like a DOUGLAS FIR!
Funny, I was watching yesterday afternoon, and I completely missed the needles....
Posted by: flippantangel | Jun 11, 2006 1:38:13 PM
eah, you get signs from the third base coach. Hit, take, whatever. Baseball isn't soccer, but there's nobody signaling every offensive play... And how could there be?
Ha...
I played high school football and baseball. Just try stealing 2nd sometime when the steal sign isn't on and watch your coach have an aneurysm. 20 years later I still remember watching Mr. Bendix screaming at me and wondering if that vein on his head was going to explode. I can still remember him screaming at me: "Just don't think. Do what I tell you and just don't think". Or try changing plays in the huddle from what the coach called in.
Hey, I love both football and baseball and know the games well enough to watch them intelligently. But you absolutely can't tell me that both sports aren't absolutely micro-managed from the sidelines. That's all I'm saying. And from my point of view, it's one of the main ways how soccer differs from all the American sports. Soccer, by its very nature simply can't be micromanaged. The captains on the field really have to be doing all the thinking and playmaking. None of this American tendency to call a timeout for the coach to diagram a play. I like it that soccer players are forced to think on the field and adapt. In my mind that makes the sport somehow more complete than the typical American sports where the coach does all the thinking and the players do what they're told.
Posted by: Kent | Jun 11, 2006 2:44:41 PM
Just curious, Kent, but were you safe at second?
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | Jun 11, 2006 2:48:16 PM
What strikes me about the average-ness of soccer players isn't so much the (relative) averageness of their height, but rather of their frame. Again, they look like averagely built guys who happen to keep in excellent shape and do a lot of very high impact running. But most positions in (American) football almost necessarily place a premium on how much muscle weight you can pack onto your frame (excepting, much of the time, QBs, WRs, and DBs), so NFL guys trend very endomorphic (I'm not a huge fan of the endo/meso/ectomorph thing, but it is useful in talking about extreme examples like pro athletes). It's a considerable minority of men who could stand 5'10", carry 210-215 lbs., and have it all be muscle (and an even smaller minority who can do that and still have the explosive quickness of a running back, of course). Basketball puts a premium on height, but also on speed, which is why basketball players tend to be crazily ectomorphic (like fashion models, w/Tayshaun repping for Kate Moss), excepting the really big big men and a few of the stronger point guards - Marbury and Billups look like average guys who spend a lot of time doing bench presses, but they're the exception. (Also, at least in the US, if by high school you can play soccer at a high level and you've got the body to be an NBA swingman or an NFL running back, that's probably what you're focusing on; the more freakish athletes, at least in the US, probably just get siphoned away from soccer to sports where their genetic freakness is more useful and a necessary cost of entry.) In this they tend to resemble baseball players - except for power sluggers and power pitchers, where the prototypical guy these days seems to be 6'4" or 6'5" and relatively heavy (especially the Clemens-esque pitchers, where it doesn't really matter if they're trending to fat).
Posted by: Quarterican | Jun 11, 2006 3:06:18 PM
Soccer, by its very nature simply can't be micromanaged.
What's to micromanage when you pack in the defense and aim for a 1-0 victory? Stop and clear. Stop and clear. They should let Cup spectators vote boring teams out of the tournament.
Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Jun 11, 2006 3:33:51 PM
Because soccer is played with the feet, I think it helps to be smaller. Taller people have longer strides, making them less nimble with their feet. If you look at relatively tall soccer players (non-GKs) - Peter Crouch, for example - they are just more awkward than smaller players. It's just natural when your stride is long. So the nature of a game that is played with the feet, rather than hands, will lead to a premium to be paid to players with nimble feet.
Posted by: Al | Jun 11, 2006 3:49:26 PM
Just watch the Brazillians, the Dutch and the English teams play and you will just about understand all systems of play. Please no more dumbing down... I am already watching the games on "MUTE".
Posted by: Ali | Jun 11, 2006 5:58:51 PM
Just curious, Kent, but were you safe at second?
Nope, got thrown out for the 3rd out of the inning and left one of our power hitters standing at the plate.
OK, so I was better off not thinking and just following orders in that particular situation. But I thought I was fast and the pitcher had a slow motion so I thought I could make it and get into scoring position.
Anyway, point is that there really isn't much room for creativity and innovation when you're playing baseball and football, especially if what you're doing isn't what the coach called. Basketball is a bit different and a lot more like soccer in that the action is fluid and teams aren't always just running set-piece plays. But with the coach right there on the floor and endless stoppages, basketball is still much more managed from the bench compared to soccer.
Posted by: Kent | Jun 11, 2006 6:20:56 PM
