The Case for More Soccer in Australia

May 31

May 31 The Case for More Soccer in Australia

The 2018 World Cup is two weeks away, and many Australians who don't usually care about soccer will surely tune in to see how their Socceroos go. Here's why Aussies should care more about soccer.

Soccer, or football, is by far the biggest sport in the world. It has the largest viewership, with this year's FIFA World Cup estimated to have four billion people tuning in, more than half of the world's population. With 250 million players in 200 countries, it is also the world's most played sport by a wide margin. Still, soccer is only the third most popular sport in Australia, behind both Australian football and rugby league, and narrowly beating cricket. It's probably time to change that. But why should you care about soccer?

Soccer's rich history

More primitive versions of a soccer-like game was played around the world thousands of years ago, as the Chinese game "Cuju" being played as early as a few decades B.C. Soccer's modern foundation stretches back a couple of centuries, though, like most modern sports do, with the rules of the game being established in the mid 1800s.

Having been the dominant sport in the vast majority of Europe and South-America for over a century, soccer has also conquered Africa and Asia along the way. And if 100 years or more of playing the same game leads to one thing, it's rivalry. Fierce intracity rivalries, rivalries between cities, and bitter sport feuds between countries themselves are all found in soccer, and the drama it can produce is mouth-watering to say the least.

Nicknamed "The Old Firm", soccer clubs Celtic and Rangers' battle for dominance in Glasgow, Scotland, is perhaps the most notorious intracity rivalry in the sport, and one of the best examples of what I mean when I write "soccer history". Games such as these are not simply between two soccer clubs that one follows as a casual fan; this particular game is interwoven into the identity of the clubs and its supporters. It represents something bigger than 22 men and a ball on a pitch. The two clubs are infused with complex political and religious issues. Catholics vs protestants. Natives vs immigrants. Conservatist vs socialist. Please note that these are not metaphors. For example, Rangers' support has traditionally been from the Protestant community in Glasgow, and for decades the club had a rule that they would not knowingly sign a player of the Catholic faith.

Soccer, therefore, is not about your favourite team beating another team. It becomes about what your team represents, and then asserting your values' superiority by beating what other teams represent. When Atlético Madrid face Real Madrid in "El Derbi", indeed, it becomes about Madrid's working class taking on the upper class.

Rivalries, though, need not be rooted in class system oppression or grand religious battles. Sometimes they are more silly. Like a club refusing to pay for a player they have signed from another club, as was the case when Sunderland in northern England bought Ricky Álvarez from Internazionale in sunny Milano, Italy, in 2014. Since then, Sunderland have been relegated twice and will start next season in the English third tier, League One. And they have a rivalry with the club that finished fourth in Italy's Serie A this season.

On the national level, we find bitter rivalries between neighbouring countries, like the Superclásico de las Américas between Argentina and Brazil. International conflict often bleeds over into soccer, as well, with aforementioned Argentina and England's Falkland War in the 1980s leading to games between the two nations being dubbed the Falkland Derby.

There are dozens of examples like these. Clubs fighting for control in their own city. Cities scrapping with other cities, and countries who seek vengeance on their rivals.

Knowing the lore behind the game makes it so much more enjoyable.

Finesse or fights

There are a lot of misconceptions about what exactly soccer is among those who do not watch it regularly. Some of soccer's detractors will scream their heads off about the players simulating fouls and feigning injuries in order to gain an advantage for their team. Others will refer to the old saying of "Rugby is a thug's game played by gentlemen, football is a gentleman's game played by thugs". So which is it? Are soccer players diving divas or tactless thugs?

Well, both. Or neither? These accusations are difficult to respond to because they are so broad and generalising. Clearly, there are players that dive and players who are thugs. However, to paint some 60 000 professional soccer players with one broad stroke is inaccurate and irresponsible. Indeed, the breadth of soccer is one of the game's biggest strengths. Because of how diverse soccer is, you can simply choose the "type" of soccer that you want to watch.

If you are the type of person who thinks soccer players are too soft, you can find plenty of teams and national leagues full of playstyles and players that look better suited for a scrap outside of a pub. A YouTube search for soccer injuries returns 1.7 million hits, never mind the millions of soccer fight videos. If this is more your speed, you can invest some time watching "lesser" leagues, for example the Scottish Premiership, the English Championship, or even our own Australian A-League. These leagues have a bigger focus on the physical side of the game than the technical side, and appreciate a good, crunching tackle. If the Spanish language barrier doesn't scare you off, you would also appreciate the Argentinian Superliga, which is home to the Superclásico between Boca Juniors and River Plate, one of the most heated rivalries in the world.

Those who would like their sport a little more on the cerebral side could do well to seek out the German Bundesliga or the Italian Serie A. The latter changed they way the game is played with the introduction of the "Catenaccio" tactic, especially as it was executed by Helenio Herrera's Internazionale. Perhaps a little more slow-paced and cautious than other top leagues, Serie A is still seen as a defender's league. The Bundesliga, likewise, has seen some incredible tactical developments over the decades, and at the moment it is home to some of the most promising young managers in Europe. Hoffenheim's Julian Nagelsmann was only 28 years old when he was given the task of saving the club from relegation in 2015. Not only did he pull it off, the next season they finished fourth for the first time in the club's history. This season they finished third.

For those who demand nothing less than technical perfection, there is one league that stands out, and that is Spain's La Liga. Spanish teams have won nine of the last 10 European cups, a streak of domination that is simply unheard of. Beyond the two juggernauts Barcelona and Real Madrid, we find Atlético Madrid, Valencia, Villareal and Real Betis, all capable of playing incredible soccer. There is also Sevilla, winning the Europe League three times in the last five seasons, and knocking out Manchester United from this season's Champions League before succumbing to German giants Bayern München.

If you want a league that mixes the best parts from the leagues above, you should look no further than the English Premier League. The most popular league in the world is home to physical teams like Burnley, Manchester United and Bournemouth, tactical masterclasses from world class teams in Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City. The latter two also ooze technical superiority, creativity and attacks at a blistering pace. The Premier League being broadcast in English also makes it very accessible and is therefore an obvious pick for those who are not competent in a second language.

Of course, all top leagues will have varying degrees of the aforementioned tackles, tactics and technical abilities; it all depends on the team and its individual players. While the summaries I give here are generalised, there is a kernel of truth to the basic traits of these leagues.

Soccer can be whatever you want it to be. You just have to know where to look.

The highest skill ceiling in sport?

Let us start by discussing what skill floor and skill ceiling means. We will start by defining the former since a house is built from the ground up. Skill floor is a term used to describe the accessibility of a given activity; it essentially refers to the minimum amount of skill needed in order to do something. For example, the skill floor for playing tic-tac-toe is incredibly low. You need the ability to write either X or O into one of nine spaces. Easy. Chess has a slightly higher skill floor. You need to memorise the movement patterns of six types of chess pieces, but once you've mastered that, you're all set to start playing. It may take years of conscious practise to become a good chess player from that point, but you can play it.

Skill ceiling, then, is the opposite. It is the highest theoretical amount of skill any given activity can have. Take tic-tac-toe again: does it have a high skill ceiling? Clearly not. The amount of spaces you can place your character is a maximum of nine (assuming you go first), and it decreases every turn. Chess is often called the ultimate "easy to learn, difficult to master" game, and for good reason. Its skill ceiling is incredibly high, with top players dedicating decades of their lives to studying strategies and memorising board positions. As futile as that may be, given that there are more possible board positions in chess than there are atoms in the observable universe.

We have probably not reached the skill ceiling for chess yet, and we might never reach it. But it does exist. Each player can only make one move per turn, they have to alternate turns, and the pieces can only move in limited ways.

Things get a little bit more complicated when discussing sports. There are no turns in soccer and team sports like it. Every player is acting autonomously at every second of the game, and their performance is based not only on their decision making, but also their instincts, their vision, their physical strength and speed, their close control of the ball, and dozens of other skills that, for the most part, are within our ability to change through training.

There are, though, facets of soccer that I believe makes its skill ceiling vastly higher than any other team sport.

You cannot tackle a soccer player like you can in Aussie rules football or rugby. This often means that defenders have to stand off, which means that the onus is on the attacker to be aggressive and force defenders to make errors.
A soccer pitch is roughly 3-4 times as big as a basketball court. This allows the players more space to do things (technical term), and because it takes a team longer to go from their own goal to the opposition's, the players' skills and abilities are on display more often.
Yeah, the goals are big. But there's a goalkeeper in front of it. Their only job is to save shots. They are good at it.
There are no restrictive rules in soccer. As long as you use your feet and play nice, you can essentially do whatever you want. This freedom increases the skill ceiling exponentially.

Does a true skill ceiling even exist in soccer? In theory, it does. But the game has never stopped evolving, which is part of what makes it so incredible. In the '70s, they said nobody would ever be better than Pelé. Then we had Diego Maradona. Now we have Lionel Messi, by far the best player the world has ever seen. And in a few decades, a kid will come along who will make Messi look as limited as he makes everyone else look.

Soccer is a sport with a culture and tradition that runs deep. Not only is soccer played differently from nation to nation, but it is arguably the hardest sport in the world to "perfect". It is a shame that most Australians only care about it every four years.