Actually, the Ties Don't Bother Me

When many Europeans watch American football, they see a bunch of crass, overdressed Americans run into each other; someone carries or throws an oddly-shaped ball somewhere; and then for some reason, play stops, and minutes could go by without any real action. Wash, rinse, repeat. For them, it's the very definition of a boring sport.

I try to explain that for many Americans, myself included, the padded men look like modern knights. The hitting is part of the fun, and all the stopping is really just re-loading for a multitude of possibilities and plays. One of the best parts of football is that more things can actually happen than any other sport - more ways of progress, regress, offense, defense and scoring. Football is cerebral as chess and as physical as rugby, and the moves made by some of those specialist ball carriers rival Messi at his most beautiful. But, for anyone choosing to remain rationally ignorant about another country's sport, rational explanation is rarely welcome.

The same, of course, goes for Americans watching soccer. As more of us travel, as more of us grew up playing, more of us are buying into it. But the prickly reaction so many of my fellow yanks have to the sport every four years is curious (and sometimes extreme). I get not liking it. I'm not a figure skating fan myself. But I don't feel the need to go to the barricade and defend myself against those who do.

One of the thing that really twists the collective undies of Americans everywhere are ties. Ties happen in soccer, and quite often, especially compared to American sports. The marketers of U.S. sports have tried to destroy the tie everywhere it goes. Even in the NHL, where there used to be ties during normal league play, the powers that be switched hockey league play to golden-goal overtime followed by penalty shots, even though no team would be knocked out of a tournament. Don't get me wrong, I love the drama of these moments, but I wonder if this manufactures a sort of "drama-inflation" - couldn't we save it all for the playoffs?

Ties are part of soccer group stages and soccer league-play. It allows one more possibility for an outcome (I'm a strong P on the MBTI and lover of possibilities). It allows teams to stay alive and be more competitive, and this is a good thing in a long tournament where everyone plays everyone in their group.

No one is satisfied after a tie, of course. But, the tournament, the league, the competition is not over yet, and for those of us who can take a long view, it is simply part of the race. There will be a winner, eventually, and ties aren't forever. As we Americans are now painfully aware, the World Cup has entered in the knock-out stages, complete with overtimes and penalty kicks to decide who goes on. Don't worry friends, there will be one winner in the end.

There are things I would change about the World Cup. I wish there were a more scientific (dare I say, computerized) way of determining stoppage time, and that everyone would know exactly how many seconds there are left in a game. Soccer would benefit from an equivalent of basketball's buzzer-beater. And they should allow for more than three substitutes (I would double it to six). When I made this suggestion to my wife, she retorted, as perhaps many purists would retort, that soccer is a sport of endurance and more substitutes would undermine this. True, but one of the reasons play quality can be bad at the World Cup is the professionals are simply tired after long seasons (particularly the English premier league), and fresh legs would move things along. Besides, it would have the added benefit of giving more young men chance to represent their country on the world's greatest stage. One more suggestion - perhaps there would be less dives and better calls if they simply added more refs.

But I wouldn't change the ties. They're just one of the many possibilities that keep us watching.

Watch the World Cup

Paris, France: 1998. Two weeks in the City of Light, assisting a group of college students telling other students about Jesus. I attempted to play soccer once. The French guys must have kicked soccer balls in their cribs. It was embarrassing, and I will never do it again (at least in France). But that summer, I learned to watch soccer.

12 years ago, France hosted the World Cup. When they won, outclassing an exceptional Brazilian side in the final, the city erupted into the biggest street party since the Allies liberated Paris. I had a foretaste in Italy, where every Italian soccer victory turned the streets of Bologna into a scooter derby covered with red, white and green flags. I was in Germany in 2002, where both the Germans and their sizable Turkish minority had near daily reasons to celebrate - they finished second and third, respectively. But that '98 victory, in Paris, for France - nothing short of heaven will beat that spontaneous burst of joy, smiles, screams and fire-crackers.

At the time, I did not know that France featured the great Zidane, France's Michael Jordan, up there with Pele and Maradonna as one of soccer's all time greats. I had a vague association with Brazil and the great striker Ronaldo, who currently owns the record for most World Cup goals. But sitting between sweaty, intense continentals, staring at large screens, I saw why soccer is the beautiful game.

Yes, to American eyes, the field can seem needlessly big, with too much time in the middle, not enough time attacking the goal. Yes, the goals are infrequent. But watch those Zindane videos again. Good passing, good soccer play is skillful, beautiful, and, once you know what to look for, enchanting. As to the infrequent goals, I've never watched a sport where a single score is so special. It takes work, and when it finally happens, the celebration is infectious, and looks something like this.

Don't get me wrong - I'm thankful for American sports. I remain a huge college football fan, and I love me some baseball and basketball too. (Side joke - I had a baseball coach that once referred to soccer as "Communist Kickball," and whenever we made a mistake would say, "why don't you go kick black and white ball around!") I watch them enough that whatever soccer's flaws - the potential for a boring game, athletes behaving poorly - they certainly exist in other sports.

So, in ten days (or less!) find your European or South American or African friends. Go to an international sports bar open in the Middle of the day. Order a beer from the one of the countries on the flat-screen. Put away your biases, open your mind, put on your red white and blue (yes, America, our boys are in the tournament and favored to go to the second round. We play England a week from Saturday), and let yourself be mesmerized.