BANZAI!!!!
Okay guys, it’s time for me to have a rant. In order to get this rant going, I have a question to ask…
Does anyone actually take soccer seriously anymore?
Not even counting the quality of the refereeing decisions, which varies from game to game with no rhyme or reason, the amount of acting that can be found in this game, from taking dives to supposed hits to the head, is appalling! In no other sport that I know of would this level of cheating ever be accepted. But for some reason, soccer seems to embrace it! It’s gotten to the point now that people are saying that it is actually part of the sport, and it makes it so much more exciting.
No, I’m sorry, it doesn’t make it more exciting, it does, however, make it pathetic to watch.
If you have gotten to a point where you are so readily able to accept cheating, in ANY way, shape or form as being part of a (supposedly) professional sport, well then, your sport is already in the crapper, and is just waiting for someone to flush the remains. When the ability to cheat convincingly can decide the outcome of a game of the caliber of the World Cup, it has moved beyond the point of simply being a joke. It has become a scandal that even the governing bodies of the sport are complicit in.
Now, it’s not like they haven’t had the chance to drag the name of soccer out of the mud and redeem themselves. For YEARS, people have been advocating the use of video referees, pointing out that other games, like Rugby for example, have been successfully using the technology, without affecting the flow of the game. Even those times where it may take an additional minute or two to get the decision correct, isn’t it better to take a little longer, and make the RIGHT decision, then it is to make a mistake and give someone a penalty, and possibly also the game, that they don’t deserve?
I’m going to try to draw a comparison here, as flimsy as it may be, so bear with me here…
As gamers, I’m going to assume that most, if not all of us, have played Modern Warfare 2. Right? Right! When you first discovered people using the javelin glitch (or other similar game breaking boosts), did you, or more importantly, the community as a whole just say: “Never mind, it’s fine, don’t worry about it”?
Hell no we didn’t! Why? Because it was CHEATING! What did we do instead? We called “Shenanigans!”, and the developer listened. Using the technology available to them, they did the one thing that soccer hasn’t been able to do… They fixed it. They fixed an obviously faulty system, got rid of the ability for people to cheat, and made it fair again. Why? Because games were being won or lost on the skill of the player, not on how well they could flaunt the system.
Soccer players could learn a lot from this guy…
Back to soccer again, that’s another point I want to quickly touch on. Some of these players are payed millions of dollars for their skills to put the ball into the net, NOT for their skills at falling down and covering their face when they were tapped on the shin, because quite frankly, if the referees could see what the rest of us could see, they would realize the same thing… these guys can’t act for shit.
In today’s world, it continues to amaze me that doing the right thing is overshadowed because people don’t care about it being fair, they just care more about being entertained. It kinda reminds me of Wrestling. You know, entertaining as hell to watch, but still contrived bullshit with the outcome controlled from behind the scenes, which is exactly what soccer is, to me anyway. It’s flashy, loud, and in your face, but is more about the entertainment side of it then about the actual sport of soccer.
Anyway, that’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it!
-Muttonchop, The Gamer from the Outback!