Saturday, January 08, 2005

I know, I know... its more soccer news... but jeez

ESPNSoccernet.com: Global: FIFA to discuss offisde law change

Most of you who know me probably also understand soccer enough to understand the implications of this proposed change... Talk about stretching out the field... Its hard for me to fathom a soccer game that would (for most practical purposes) alter the game on a fundamental level. For one, today's 4-4-2 system, would become completely unusable... There would be a period of several years in which different systems would be tried with varying degrees of success. I expect in the end we'd see something like the old W-M system (a 3-2-2-3) but really who knows.

I have long been an advocate of increasing the goals sizes in the men's game to 9 feet high by 9 yards wide. I believe that the reason that the games have become so low scoring is the ease with which most goalkeepers can defend their goal. Salaries for goalkeepers are considerably lower then ANY other position because the size of the goal means that many people are capable of covering the goal well. This offsides adjustment (which is by no means a certainty) has caught me completely by suprise. IT'll be interesting to see what happens with it.