Or is it just a perception because soccer announcers bring more to attention it? Gridiron has its share of teams which move the ball between 20 yd lines and fail to score.
I guess by unfair, you mean that a team can completely dominate the run of play and create more opportunities, but still lose the match. In that sense, soccer may seem unfair. But I don't think it's unique to soccer. Consider these examples: - A better example in American football would be an offense that outgains and outscores the opposing offense, but the special team allows more points. - In basketball, a team has a superior shooting percentage, but a failure to make free throws costs the game. - In hockey, a dump-and-chase team beats a skilled team with a short passing game. Remember that the object of the game is to score goals, not to create opportunities or out-maneuver the opponents. The team that dominates doesn't always win. But no team has ever won by scoring fewer goals than the opposition.
Maybe so but a win (or loss ofcourse) can still be experienced as unfair. I agree that football is the most unfair sport sometimes and there is actually something like a 'lucky and undeserved goal'.
I don't know. Baseball people often speak of teams (usually their own) "doing everything right except winning." So something similar can happen in a baseball game. And extremely mediocre NHL teams have made terrific Stanley Cup playoff runs because one player -- the goalie -- got hot. As long as soccer doesn't adopt a scoring system based on the figure skating model, there will be the occasional matches where what seems better team doesn't get all three points. BUT since the rules by which games are won and lost are already settled before the match starts, there's no way you can say that these results are "unfair."
undeserved it is then. But if you don't deserve something and someone else does... isn't it kinda unfair that the one that doesn't deserve it gets it anyway?
I believe Greg Maddox had the lowest ERA of any pitcher in the MLB while playing for the Cubs. He still had a losing record because his offense could never score. Talk about unfair. Soccer is no different than any other sport where one must depend on others to obtain a goal.
It's part of the game. Soccer differs from other sports because scoring isn't very easy. So a team can get agonizingly close to scoring but never make it. While another team can get lucky.
This is why Football is the greatest game on earth. It mirrors real life. Things can change in an instant. One minute you're succeeding, everythings going fine, the next minute you've lost it all. Like nature, sometimes it's fair, sometimes it's cruel, but it always balances out.
I think its imperfect, but not unfair. baseball in my mind is the most unfair team sport. There are som many outside factors that contribute to it unfairness. I also think baseball is the most negative game there is. You fail more times than you succeed in baseball. To put it into perspective.... and below average player hits the ball 2 out of 10 times. The avergae player hits it 3 out of 10 times. The greats hit it 3 out of 10 times on a consistant basis...
Soccer has many matches ending in draws. This is more fair than a sport where two evenly matched teams play a close game but one happens to have the lead at the end. Soccer is also the most difficult game to play offensively. So any team that can score more usually deserves the win. Soccer is fair.
I'd say baseball is the most unfair. Close game, bottom of the ninth, one bad pitch, it's all over. The entire team loses on account of one person's mistake. You can of course argue the same thing about football, and the GK, but usually a goal involves more of a defensive breakdown than just beating the GK.
Unfair? Last night I watched a High School playoff game go to two overtimes, then to penalty kicks. The last kicker was a senior, the captain. A kid who absolutely works his ass off 12 months a year. A kid who, when he has some trouble sleeping, goes outside and kicks a ball off the barn for a couple hours. A kid who won't let the other seniors harass the Freshmen because "we're teammates". A kid who, when he got fouled a year ago and got a shoulder separation, played the last 35 minutes of the match holding his arm tight against his body and fighting off the tears because "the team needs me" He missed the kick. The team lost. It's his last soccer game ever.
Tough titty! I hit the post in the state playoffs vs. the #1 HS team in the nation my senior year and we lost 1-0 despite totally outplaying them. It was a disappointment for sure, and I agonizingly watch the game tape every once in a while (I also blocked my own teammates sure goal with my ass while jumping over the goalie trying to get out of the way) but I am over it and certainly lived to play another game. (and to win state in tennis) I still wish I had scored though. As for soccer being unfair...that is what makes it great. I have played on a team that had thirty shots and lost 1-0 on the other team's only shot. It sucked for us, but they were pretty psyched. What really sucks is when the ref jacks your team. PK's or no calls determine games way too often and shootouts are lame.
American football can be pretty unfair as well. Last Saturday my Iowa Hawkeyes had 150 less yards of total offense than the Indiana Hoosiers, yet didn't allow a single touchdown. Every time IU got the ball into the redzone our defense just clamped down and didn't give them any space.
I saw an article recently that attributed to Gary Lineker a statement that soccer is a game in which 22 players run around for 90 minutes and then Germany wins. By that standard, of course soccer is unfair. That's what makes triumph by the team with the more entertaining style of play all the more rewarding -- there's never a guaranty that the more fun team will in fact win. A fan has to cherish the wins when they come.