International (read, non North-American) players should be subject to baseball’s draft, much like they are in hockey or basketball.
Soccer could use “field” hockey’s offside rule … there isn’t one. It was abolished in 1998.
The effect on the game is not as pronounced as you would think and takes out one pronounced cause of controversy.
Yes, but you’ll quickly find that teams who have players hanging around the opposition goal lose consistently to the teams who, due to greater numbers, dominate possession in mid-field.
Perhaps I’m just showing my ignorance here, but surely it’s a lot easier to send a long forward pass in soccer than it is in field hockey.
Why would they have greater numbers?
Team A has a forward camping out in the penalty box, no defender around. Long ball. Goal. All game long.
Now the same situation, but with a defender sticking around him. Each team has one player hanging out, so there’s no numbers advantage.
How so? Do you really think you can kick a ball further and more accurately than you can hit a ball? The laws of leverage are working against you.
As a hockey defender, hitting the ball over the opposing goal line after a period of defending to gain ground and release pressure is fairly common. That’s a hit of around 80 yards, on the ground the whole way. When is the last time you saw a soccer goal kick being collected by the opposing goalkeeper? But the reason it’s not used in the game is that it’s a low percentage pass.
You may remember the UK club Watford that for a period played a long ball game on the basis that the majority of soccer goals are scored off moves with 1 or 2 passes. They still are, as they are still in field hockey. Watford had their successes, but they didn’t change the way the game was played.
We had all these arguments in hockey circles. We thought you’d see scores in double figures rather than 2-4 per game. Teams started playing with two very high forwards on either side of the goal. Lasted for about a month until teams began to work out the required defensive pattern. A decade on and no international, regional or decent club level team in the world plays that way.
In soccer any number of top club and international teams play with a lone high striker. These play both higher and far more isolated than hockey forwards. They aren’t up there to score break away goals. Now, sure they can, and these figure disproportionately on “goal of the week” highlight reels. Doesn’t that tell you something about their success rate?
The high/lone strikers role is get possession of a long pass from their defenders and hold up the ball until the midfielders arrive. This strategy would not change if there was no offside.
A soccer goal keeper has all the rights of a field player plus can catch and hold the ball in an area significantly larger area than the hockey 16 yard “D”. A hockey goalie is essentially only a shot blocker and can’t stop the play as the equivalent in ice hockey does.
Consider the obvious similarities in the two games. Similar sized field (soccer 105 m x 68 m, hockey 91.40 m × 55 m). Same number of players. The European teams use much the same playing systems for both games. Very similar game play styles. Hockey does have more goals than soccer, again always has, but is towards goals scored from corners rather than field goals.
Prior to 1972 hockey offside was based on 3 defenders at the halfway line (50 yards).
In 1972 it changed 2 defenders at halfway, which is essentially soccer’s rule now.
From 1987 offside applied only in the 25 yards area.
In 1998 offside was abolished, after having been a mandatory experimental change for two years.
It may sound counter-intuitive or even heresy but, the long term experience from a sport that has gone through the transition is that it doesn’t make a profound difference to the number of goals scored, nor the way the game is played.