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Ideas: A. Convince the defense that they should play more upright. For those
who have played basketball, you know that a basketball player
can kick the ball at any time to interrupt the offense, but the
defensive player uses this weapon sparingly because the rules of
basketball do not permit the defense to "win possession" of the ball
by kicking the ball. True, the defense has stopped the play, but the
ball is simply awarded back to the offensive team as a throw-in.
In soccer, we could discourage defensive "smothering" with a rule
that does not allow the defense to 'win possession' with any move
where the defensive player's hand touches the ground. Slide tackling
is still allowed, only the defense cannot 'win possession' with a slide tackle.
I'm not talking about a card violation, only that the ball is simply awarded
back to the offense in some way (throw in, etc.). And the continuity of
game isn't greatly affected, because the ref only blows the whistle when
the "hand down" move causes a change in possession. If the slide tackle
deflects the ball to another offensive player, then no whistle is needed as
possession hasn't changed. Instantly, the game is improved. With the
defense encouraged to keep their feet and truely use the slide tackle as
a weapon of last resort, the offense would have a lot more room to make
things happen. The end result: more goals, fewer dives, easier to officiate
games, safer games, and the near extinction of the "enforcer" marking
back, whose primary weapon is the "closeup" one or two step slide tackle
which is almost impossible to avoid. Thought must be given as to whether
this rule should apply to goalkeepers, as the most athletic keeper saves
usually result in the keeper's hand touching the ground. Maybe I'm a
little too close to the position (both my kids are keepers), but I think this
rule should not be applied to keepers. INCREASE: 3 goals per game!
B. During corner kicks, only the goalkeeper is allowed in the 6-yard goal box
until the ball touches a player other than the player who takes the corner
kick. INCREASE: 1 goal per game
C. Move the offsides line from mid-field line back to the 35 or 40 yard line,
opening up the mid-field. True, it might encourage "kick ball", but
more goals may result. (Idea of CSN contributor "O"!)
D. Only one defensive player is allowed in the 6-yard goal box at a time, and
no offensive players who do not have control of the ball. Exception
would be when a goalkeeper re-enters the goal box to swap places with
another defender who had entered the goal box to backup the goalkeeper
when the keeper had left the goal box. (Idea from hockey.)
E. Restrict the keeper to the 18-yard penalty box when in defensive mode,
but not when the keeper has control of the ball. The keepers will
resist it at first, but will welcome the restriction when the number of
shots on goal (brought on by the above changes) increases by 30 to 40%.
F. If we stick to the "World" rules, let's at least add a statistic called
"FIRST GOALS". Why not, when in Pro soccer, if you score 1st
there's roughly a 50% chance that the opposing team will never
even score a goal, and since the team which scores first in soccer has
about an 85% chance of winning or at least getting a draw in regulation,
why not recognize the "early starters" in the game. The league is
already tracking "winning goal" stats. I feel that the "first goal" is an
even more important measure of a player's production under today's low
scoring reality. Check my page entitled "Numbers don't lie, but..." for
further justification.
G. At MLS games, hold the shootouts at half-time of every game, so that if
there is a tie at the end of regulation, the game isn't made longer. It
will be the most enjoyable 15 minutes of the game for most spectators.
Other ways to spice up the shootout is to require that players cannot
participate in the shootouts of consecutive games, adding to the strategy
and spreading the scoring experience to additional players.
H. Shootouts would not be required under offense friendly rules, as higher
scoring would make draws so few and far between that the occasional
draw wouldn't be a problem for regular seasons games.
Best to hit the back arrow button,