# Make the soccer goal wider **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 1, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321 "2014-02-01T23:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/41 "2014-02-03T18:13:22Z")
If I were made King of soccer, if make the field more like an ice hockey rink – smaller with a wall that prevents the ball from ever going out of bounds. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/42 "2014-02-03T18:27:33Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > Being unwilling to entertain rule changes proposed by people who don’t follow the sport isn’t conservative - it’s just common sense. This isn’t what makes soccer fans conservative. > [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > What is your favorite sport? Whatever it is, my guess is you like it pretty much as it stands. Soccer is my favorite sport. Obviously, I don’t think it’s perfect. I hate PK shootouts (although there doesn’t seem to be a better idea unfortunately). I also think a small uptick in scoring would make the games better (and work towards decreasing PK shootouts). Actually, a better way to put this is that I’d like to see attacking soccer better rewarded through increased scoring. Just blindly making serious changes (like bigger goals) will have too big of an impact. That said, I don’t really have the answers to how to do this. But I’m not against entertaining ideas about how to. I try not to be as knee-jerk about it as my fellow fans. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/43 "2014-02-03T18:56:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > If I were made King of soccer, if make the field more like an ice hockey rink – smaller with a wall that prevents the ball from ever going out of bounds. That’s indoor soccer. ---
**Author:** ![Esco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@Esco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esco)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/44 "2014-02-03T19:06:33Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Soccer is my favorite sport You’re from N. Cali. I’m Dutch-Canadian and the fact more and more Americans are starting to like soccer makes me very happy. I hope it some day overtakes one of the 4 major North-American sports. It’ll probably bypass NHL first, after that maybe NBA or baseball . ---
**Author:** ![Esco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@Esco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esco)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/45 "2014-02-03T19:13:14Z")
Make that Southern Cali :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/46 "2014-02-03T19:33:07Z")
The main problem with any low scoring contest is that the likelihood of the outcome being determined by a poor decision by a referee is increased. It’s not that refs in those games are more likely to make mistakes, just that their mistakes are more likely to be highly important to the outcome of the game. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/47 "2014-02-03T19:46:57Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > This has been discussed worldwide for decades. (I think this is the second-most discussed “problem” with soccer, after, “The offside rule needs to be changed.”) I for one would prefer something like sudden death with each team having to take a player off every 10 minutes (i.e. 10 minutes of 11-on-11, 10 of 10-on-10, 10 of 9-on-9, and so on); however, this has been dismissed by people who think, “Anything short of 11-on-11 is no more ‘soccer’ than a penalty kick shootout.” > > It’s better than what they used to do (or at least have planned - it never got this far) for the World Cup Final - if the final was tied after extra time, everybody comes back two days later and they play another full match. (If that match was tied after extra time - for that matter, if either semi-final was tied after extra time - then they would have a penalty kick shootout.) It’s also better (IMO) than alternatives such as fewest fouls in the match, coin toss, or, if it’s the final, declaring co-champions. > > The main problem with “keep playing 11-on-11 until somebody scores” is, if the first 120 minutes were 0-0, what makes you think somebody is going to score any time soon - and you have to get the match finished before darkness, or you run into the problems of having to delay some of the remaining matches in the tournament and wrecking the travel plans of everybody who came to see the final. (Then again, that’s what would happen anyway if the final was rained out…) > > As for the OP idea of making the goal bigger, you run the risk of making it so big that any team with a reasonably accurate kicker is pretty much assured of making a penalty kick; in fact, this is considered to be a problem with women’s soccer (reportedly, if you can aim the ball for either side of the net, it is out of reach of most female goalies). **Then again, you can solve this problem as well; move the penalty kick spot back.** The bolded is an idea that has occurred to me as well. The current PK system makes it almost an issue of luck (the keeper guessing right or the infrequent outright miss by the shot taker). Moving it back to the edge of the box, for example, makes it a tougher shot to make but by no means impossible. Players hit free kicks from beyond there all the time but it’s not a gimme. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/48 "2014-02-03T19:48:30Z")
> [@Esco](#): > > You’re from N. Cali. I’m Dutch-Canadian and the fact more and more Americans are starting to like soccer makes me very happy. I hope it some day overtakes one of the 4 major North-American sports. > > It’ll probably bypass NHL first, after that maybe NBA or baseball > > . Ooh, interesting tangent. How do European soccer fans view the upsurge in interest in the US? Are they happy about it in general? Worried in any way? Or still generally dismissive? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/49 "2014-02-03T19:54:28Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > The games that typically come down to penalties (World Cup knockout games, late stages of league cups of various types) tend to be between equals, so on an equal playing field, I can’t see that it’s going to make so much difference that it’s worth everyone in the world buying new goalposts. My underlying thought is that **any** game of skill should be designed in such a way that even in contests between very nearly equal opponents, such advantages as one team has over the other are able to come to the fore during the contest and make a difference in the ultimate outcome. Penalty kicks are just such a small part of the overall game during regulation that having nearly one in five World Cup elimination matches come down to a penalty kick shootout really looks like a design failure. One thing about changing the game to increase scoring is that you _could_ just go into OT in elimination games. If a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation is fairly common, then it’s misguided to expect OT to resolve things in a reasonable amount of time, whether that particular game tied at 0-0 or 1-1 or whatever. But if a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation is quite unusual, then chances are good that a tie at whatever score can be resolved in an OT of reasonable length. ---
**Author:** ![Aman27deep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@Aman27deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aman27deep)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/50 "2014-02-03T19:57:21Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > Ooh, interesting tangent. How do European soccer fans view the upsurge in interest in the US? Are they happy about it in general? Worried in any way? Or still generally dismissive? We really couldn’t be arsed. MLS football is generally of real low quality. If you make an MLS XI, even a mid tier team from the English championship (second tier) can beat them. But yes, it’s improving. MLS hasn’t even existed for 25 years yet, whereas most European teams have existed for well over a decade. In a decade or two, the gap will surely lessen. ---
**Author:** ![Esco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@Esco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esco)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/51 "2014-02-03T21:09:06Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > Ooh, interesting tangent. How do European soccer fans view the upsurge in interest in the US? Are they happy about it in general? Worried in any way? Or still generally dismissive? Not worried at all. The general feeling is what took you Yanks so long to join the party??! I predict in the future a world league will happen. When scramjets become commonplace in airline industry a flight from NY to Amsterdam would take no more then 2 hours. Then I think you’re gonna see the US catching up with rest of the world. I predict probably in 20 to 30 years a US national team will make the WC final (and maybe even win it) . ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/52 "2014-02-03T21:43:59Z")
You don’t even need scramjets - Rugby has had a [hemisphere-spanning](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Rugby)competition since 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Esco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@Esco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esco)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/53 "2014-02-03T21:55:46Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > You don’t even need scramjets - Rugby has had a [hemisphere-spanning](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Rugby)competition since 1996 It could theoretically be done, but American teams would have to go for extended road trips to Europe, and not just single games (similar to how Eastern baseball clubs go on long road trips on the West coast). I dont see it happening before scramjets appear though ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/54 "2014-02-04T01:48:21Z")
> [@Aman27deep](#): > > We really couldn’t be arsed. MLS football is generally of real low quality. If you make an MLS XI, even a mid tier team from the English championship (second tier) can beat them. > > But yes, it’s improving. MLS hasn’t even existed for 25 years yet, whereas most European teams have existed for well over a decade. In a decade or two, the gap will surely lessen. I would say MLS has improved in the last few years. A mid-table Championship team certainly _could_ beat an MLS XI, but then again mid-tier Championship teams do quite often beat Premiership teams. In terms of quality I would say MLS teams are lagging a bit, but not that far behind Championship teams. The main difference being that there’s a much bigger drop-off in quality in MLS between the best and the worst players. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/55 "2014-02-04T03:01:22Z")
> [@Esco](#): > > Not worried at all. The general feeling is what took you Yanks so long to join the party??! > > I predict in the future a world league will happen. When scramjets become commonplace in airline industry a flight from NY to Amsterdam would take no more then 2 hours. Then I think you’re gonna see the US catching up with rest of the world. I predict probably in 20 to 30 years a US national team will make the WC final (and maybe even win it) > > . We won’t be there in full force until 20 years after the demise of our domestic brand of football, and that’s at least 20 off. But when we turn out in full, we’ll have one of the deepest pools of great athletes in the world from which to draw. And I agree that FIFA would like to see this happen to bolster its inevitable world league. That would be awesome to watch, with the champions of the national leagues having a big tournament to determine promotion into the world league. Strong clubs in North America would bolster things nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/56 "2014-02-04T03:06:36Z")
Make the goal much much much smaller. Then get rid of the goalie. Goalies are the Captain Bringdowns of the sporting world. All those great saves they make would be impressive if they weren’t waiting the whole game in position to make them ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/57 "2014-02-04T04:35:14Z")
Yeah, imagine if basketball had a goalkeeper standing on a platform right behind the backboard and he was allowed to reach down and try to knock away any ball approaching the basket. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/58 "2014-02-04T05:01:01Z")
Goalkeepers are bitter, twisted individuals who can’t score goals for themselves so they have to satisfy themselves by stopping other people from scoring ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/59 "2014-02-04T05:42:56Z")
Yeah goalies are the worst! How about those hockey goalies as well? ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321/60 "2014-02-04T06:03:52Z")
> [@Esco](#): > > You’re from N. Cali. I’m Dutch-Canadian and the fact more and more Americans are starting to like soccer makes me very happy. I hope it some day overtakes one of the 4 major North-American sports. > > It’ll probably bypass NHL first, after that maybe NBA or baseball I got my love for soccer from my Dutch father. > [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > I would say MLS has improved in the last few years. A mid-table Championship team certainly _could_ beat an MLS XI, but then again mid-tier Championship teams do quite often beat Premiership teams. > > In terms of quality I would say MLS teams are lagging a bit, but not that far behind Championship teams. The main difference being that there’s a much bigger drop-off in quality in MLS between the best and the worst players. Yeah. Depth isn’t great. But it’s getting better and better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-the-soccer-goal-wider/680321.md?page=4)