Soccer Needs Changes
| 13
|
I am totally caught up in the World Cup. Actually I see many parallels with hockey -- lots of missed, blocked and cheap shots. What I would like to see is doing away with the yellow/red card approach. Rather, replace this approach with a five minute penalty -- the equivalent of a minor penalty in hockey. Jack it up to a 20 minute penalty for something more egregious such as throwing an elbow (i.e., the kind of elbow blow that McBride received in the Italian game). I just read from BBC sports that De Rossi, the elbow thrower, received a three game suspension. The 20 minute penalty is the equivalent of a major penalty in hockey (i.e., fighting). Then there is the 40 minute misconduct penalty, which is the equivalent of the 10 minute misconduct penalty in hockey (i.e., getting into it with a referee). Finally, expulsions for something truely serious like a deliberate attempt to injury “à la Todd Bertuzzi”. Make teams really pay in the present game by assessing penalties in the game at hand rather than later in the tournament.
Date
Fri 06/23/06, 6:15 am EST
