There are many reasons why soccer is considered the greatest sport in the world.
It is cheap to play; all you really need is something round and a goal line.
Soccer never stops. There are no time outs, no fifteen minute quarters. It consists of two, forty-five minute halves of non-stop movement.
Intramural soccer attempts to copy this, with a few adjustments.
However, those tweaks come dangerously close to taking what’s ‘beautiful’ in that game.
For example, in intramural soccer, which consists of two teams of eight instead of the usual eleven, there is no offside infraction. In soccer, this rule is quite possibly the most difficult one to teach to young referees or, for that matter, screaming parents on the sidelines.
It basically means an attacking player cannot be closer to the opposition’s goal than the ball when his or her teammate passes it in their direction. This rule is very complex, has many interpretations, and is understandably difficult to teach to college students who only want to make a few extra bucks as soccer officials.
That being said, it is a rule, which is crucial to the game.
Without it, a team can park a player behind the opposing team’s defense and wreak havoc on their goal. This probably sounds good to an attacking team, but it does the world’s game no justice.
Where is the tactical prowess in hitting a long ball from one box to the other and trying to just outshoot one another? Yes, you eliminate having an assistant referee running up and down the sidelines being blamed for missing the offside call. Then again, the referee is always right.
Why not just teach the officials how to spot offside, let them interpret it, and play on? It has worked in professional soccer for decades.
Another rule in intramural soccer that stands out is one that only exists in co-ed. According to the people who run intramurals and make up the rules, in order to keep women included, a goal scored by a female player is worth two points. This is wrong for many reasons, the biggest being it is offensive to female players. Soccer is not like American football, in which women may not have the strength or aggressiveness it requires or basketball where they usually are not as tall and do not dunk as much. In this sport, the field is even.
In regular soccer, the women score the same way as the men. They must practice the same skills, the same drills, and the same tactics in order to be the best. Women can play just as well, if not better, than the men.
There is no reason to change scoring, which basically says the intramural ‘lawmakers’ see it necessary to give women double credit for doing the job they are supposed to do when squaring up against the men.
After all, didn’t the women’s United States National Soccer Team just win the gold medal in the Olympics? The men’s team, meanwhile, didn’t even get past the group stage.
There are other rules in intramural soccer which stand out as unnecessary or foolish. The University’s intramural organization is asking for a lawsuit by not requiring soccer players to wear shin guards and the rule giving soccer teams a time out to use in each half of the game is just plain blasphemous.
These rules are enough to make a true soccer enthusiast turn away in disgust. It is great the University provides soccer players a way to express themselves through their favorite sport, but the rules need to be rethought. With a little extra effort, and a little less tinkering, intramural soccer could be great.