Why It Pains Me to Watch the World Cup

This is usually a science blog. But with the World Cup on, I think I’ll digress…

I’m from Canada, but my grandparents come from Holland. So you’ll find me walking the streets in my Oranje jersey during the World Cup (take THAT Brazil!).

Football (or ‘Soccer’, as it is called in my homeland) is a physically intense, strategic sport.

It requires teamwork, thoughtful planning and well-timed execution. I have the utmost respect for the endurance and pressure faced by soccer players from all nations.

Between World Cups though, I don’t watch a lot of soccer. Its not a very popular sport here, and by the time the World Cup runs  around, I start to wonder why.

Unfortunately, it only takes about 10 minutes of watching the first game in the group stage to remember exactly why.

Sit around a pub table with a group of Canadians while watching soccer, and this is what you’ll hear:

“Ugh, what a baby!”

“He called THAT a foul!?!”

“Get the hell up! He barely touched you!”

“What the hell is he crying for?”

Canadians are tough. Thats not me being arrogant, its a fact. Look at Steve Nash in the NBA. How many other basketball players would play when their face looks like this?

And how about hockey? That just speaks for itself.

So we can’t stand it to see people diving, falling, and crying. Its a sport. Grow up and be a sportsman.

Whats even more frustrating is FIFA, which doesn’t want to do a damn thing to fix the sport. How bout 2 referees? Nope.

And now with those two really controversial goals for England and Mexico, people are screaming for video replay. But what is FIFA’s response?

They say it will interfere with the “flow” of the game, because soccer is a game that “never stops”. Bullshit!

Maybe the clock doesn’t stop, but the action stops probably just as often, if not more so, than in hockey. The ball goes out of bounds, some moron decides to showcase his diving skills, players ignore the play and throw up their arms at the referee trying to get a phantom handball called. All this interferes with the “flow” of the game, and no one seems to care.

The play stops all the time, so your game is no better than anyone else’s. And for a game like soccer, it would only take 15-20 seconds to check the replay and see if the ball crossed the goal line, or if the attacking player was offside. These are obvious calls on a TV monitor, but are very difficult for a single referee and his assistants.

So FIFA, please do what you can to improve your game. Because we in Canada are huge sports fans, and we appreciate the good things about your sport. But my god, quit diving and play the freakin’ game!