So I have a thought on what isn't very exciting to me about soccer. I'm curious if other Americans agree with me, or if the guys who normally lovingly follow the sport think I'm just crazy.
First off, I've been watching a lot of matches this week while on vacation. I love hockey, so 80-90 minutes of play with a 1-0 score isn't a big deal. I fully recognize guys are running out in full sprint to get to the ball. There's obviously great strategy, skill, and and style.
I enjoy a game, where a team making the rush to score clearly has a chance to score. Baseball being the batter, football, a team on the 20 yard line, even hockey over the blue line. I say to myself, wow, someone might score here, what will happen, this is close and exciting.
In soccer, I have often seen a team pressing for the goal only to have a player boot the ball half way across the pitch. All that excitement is gone and quickly. I also found it annoying to see a defender clear the ball, only to send it right to the opposing team only to send it back to the same side the ball just left. Most other sports, a teammate would probably say, "hey asshole, you just passed it to them."
So yeah, basically, I don't really like watching the play deflate so quickly, which makes it hard to wait for a goal. Ivory Coast v. North Korea was fun to watch. Ivory Coast just was just dominating so I got to see better passing and plays developed. Portugal and Brazil, though clearly better teams demonstrated excellent defense and just had a slow game to watch.