Many years ago, I took soccer as a PE elective in college (in New York,) and the coach told us that Americans generally prefer high-scoring games for entertainment’s sake (i.e., would prefer soccer games have scores of 4-3 or something like that) whereas non-Americans tend to prefer lower scoring games like 1-0 or 2-1 because they consider it more “purist” that way.
So…non-American Dopers…do you feel that way? Would you prefer hockey games be 2-1 rather than 5-4? Or basketball games be 70-60 instead of 120-110?
Most Europeans prefer soccer the way it is, which happens to be that games at the top level are generally low scoring. Doesn’t translate into preferring low scoring games in any other sport.
Why do Americans favour high scoring NFL over low scoring soccer/football but favour low scoring baseball over high scoring cricket?
Let’s, arguendo ( thank you @DavidNRockies), posit that for the non-American doper sports fans [NADSF] that the fundamental purpose of sports is for an even contest and that for American doper sports fans [ADSF] that the fundamental purpose of sports is to win.
That for NADSF in every true sport there needs to be a balance between the two sides in their attack and defence.
The inevitable corollary of having a contest between two teams with balanced attack and defence is that the game’s outcome can be a draw. And that the draw can represent a fair and equitable outcome for both sides. For NADSF, this is the inherent charm, Corinthian attraction of “amateur” (though often well paid) sport. On the other hand, ADSF consider even the possibility of “no result” as an anathema, an incontrovertible heresy to professional sport.
And the easiest way for the laws of the game to ensure that there is a clear-cut result at the end of normal time is for the scoring is done more frequently.
Three illustrations of the point:
Gridiron is considered by the ADSF as high scoring compared to the more pedestrian soccer. But were the gridiron rules constructed so that the only way to score was by a touchdown. And a touchdown was worth one point, then much of the scoring differential vanishes. The other NFL scoring modes are simply dross to reduce the chances of the scores being even after regulation and then overtime to specifically negate the possibility.
Cricket
From the first in Jan 1971 to Mar 2006 2,356 ODIs had been played and no team had ever scored 400 runs in the allotted 50 6-ball overs. Australia were the first team to break the 400 barrier vs South Africa, and not by a little margin as they compiled 434. Their new record lasted about 2 hours as SA chased the total down to win. There is a possibly apocryphal story that ,on returning to their dressing room, having just conceded the world record score (including Ricky Ponting’s 164 off 105 balls), South Africa’s Jaques Kallis extolled his teammates with “We can win this, they are 15 runs short!”.
Now those few cricket aficionados in Doperworld who have seen a replay of this game will tell you that it is as BORING, as batshit. To a NADSF, as a sporting contest it represents cricket as no more than tossing ping pong balls at an electric fan. Similarly and only a couple of weeks ago England set a new ODI record with the 21st 400+ score in knocking up 498 vs Netherlands. A remarkable effort but soon forgotten as a contest.
AFL vs Rugby League
Now for most ADSF these “activities” don’t cross your radar but more fool you. They are the two dominant winter sporting codes in Australia. In league, if your team scores 20 points you are in with a reasonable chance of winning. In Aussie rules that benchmark might be closer to 100 points.
There is no suggestion among even the most parochial fans that simply because AFL scores more 5x points that it is 5x more attractive as a sport.
The score in baseball can be equal at the bottom of the ninth innings.
For the most part the NADSF would be content for that score to be final, whether it was 0-0 or 12-12.
For the most part the ADSF would be content with increasingly outlandish modifications to the rules of the game applying in the extra innings played so as to force a win/loss result within a reasonable timeframe.
Apparently the East Asian professional leagues have a 12-inning limit before the game is declared a draw. So I guess than means baseball can be a draw.
Indeed. The most exciting hockey games I remember were either 0-0 or at least were tied at the end. I miss the days of a hockey game ending tied! The only time they should play on is the playoffs. The “shootout” is an abomination and has nothing to do with hockey. And the new baseball bullshit of putting a runner on second during extra innings is a money thing and nothing else. I am sometimes happy to be old so as not to see what rubbish they will come up with next to appease the advertisers by making the games all end exactly on time for TV. Grr.
No. I prefer soccer games with lots of goals, assuming relative close scores. So yes, I’d prefer a 5-4 game to a 2-1 game.
I wouldn’t be disappointed in a 0-0 game, as long as there were lots of attempts at goals. But I prefer the goals that actually happen to the ones that don’t - I guess I’m more on the side of strikers than goalies.
I would be happy with slightly higher scoring football games. No matter what these so-called purists say, I think the majority of fans would agree it’s rare that a 0-0 draw is more entertaining than a 3-2 thriller.
Give me a baseball game where one pitcher is throwing a perfect game and the other side is making miracle catches in the outfield and acrobatic double- and triple-plays on the infield, and I’ll be happy to sit through a 1-0 finish.
I don’t think this is true. All of the fans I’ve talked to or seen discussing it on line think that the “runner on second” is a horrible idea. I’d be fine with call the game a tie or calling it a tie after 12 innings.
There are a total of 16 * 17 = 272 games in an NFL season. If they end in a tie once every one or two years on average, it might be pretty close to 365 games per tie. We get a solar eclipse every year?
Back on the OP, a couple of notable events occurred in African football over the past weekend:
2nd division Kahunla walloped cross town rivals Lumbebu United 95-0. Pretty good going considering it was 2-0 at half time. Kahunla scored goals at an average of less the one every 30 seconds. That’s up there with basketball.
Now that would clearly indicate, for the ADSF contingent, that these games were likely podium finishes for the most entertaining games of soccer in history.
For the NASDF, this would indicate that somebody took a bung for a dive, and whatever it was being played, it wasn’t football.
