This is a common misconception. Outside England rugby is just a normal game played by everyone ... not posh
Gotta say, I like that they are being aggressive with some of these rule change ideas... https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-th...proposes-kick-insoffside-tweaksdiy-free-kicks Personally, I think that the offside rule change, which is probably the least likely to happen, would be fantastic. Anything to create more goals is good.
Personally I don't like his suggestions regarding offside or free kicks to yourself, and if they allow kick-ins instead of throw in don't make it time-dependent, just allow the option all match. I do, however, think the allowance for corners to swinging back into play. That would be easy to enact, doesn't dramatically alter the flow and pace of the match, and avoids touchy calls on slight mis-hits. But I'm not a change-for-change-sake kinda guy.
Interesting. I haven't read 100% of the detail but the kick-in thing sounds a bit silly to me. But allowing a ball that's swung out of bounds in the air but curls back into the field seems fine. Kinda like tennis. I could also imagine this rule applied to all passes, near any perimeter line. However, I can also see why they only want to apply it to end lines and corner kicks, where there's an AR always in the perfect spot to judge this, and where there's likely to be cameras they could use for VAR if needed. Allowing this all over the pitch would probably open up Pandora's box, which is probably why he didn't recommend that. As for the offside rule, it sounds basically like the "daylight" proposal which I think he's been making for a while, no? I'd be OK with that but I wonder if it makes it harder for the VAR, i.e. is it harder to see on a monitor if 2 players intersect by 1cm (or less?) or to see if the attacker is ahead of the defender by 1cm? Also, the part of the offside rule that I really dislike the most is how they complicated it (years ago) by saying that you can't be offside if you're not interfering with play (a very high subjective decision), instructing the AR's to hold their flags down until they see how the play develops, etc. I really think the old rule was better, simpler, and led to less controversy. I'm not sure how many years back this was but it used to be "if you're in an offside position, you're offside, period... flag raised, play stopped".
IIRC, there was a discussion of a daylight interpretation of the offside rule in the late 90s or early 2000s. I think at one point, referees may even have been instructed to interpret the rule in this manner. I don’t know if it was a FIFA instruction or just a USSF instruction. Either way it disappeared shortly thereafter. So the daylightidea has been around for a while. The free kick to yourself works well in Rugby, but they are different games. Being able to dribble from a free kick would potentially improve delivery angles for balls played into the box and might increase conversion rates for free kicks taken just outside the box. Alternatively the Rugby rule for conversions after a try might also improve those conversion rates, i.e. allowing the free kick to be taken a few yards behind the spot of the foul. The kick in rule is from futsal. In some situations It might speed up the game, but I can see it slowing the game down too, if a team brings their center backs into the box every time they have a kick in in the offensive third.
The throw in thing is something g Liverpool hires a coach for just get better at it a kick in is too much of an advantage I think the offside rule should be based on your feet personally, if they are level then you are on
I like the simplicity of that, but I wonder if AR's find it easier to judge chests/torsos. Wasn't that how they did it in the old days?? Anyway, as long as they continue to use human AR's, I think whatever change they make they should make it easier not harder for those folks to do their job. IMHO, linesmen are amazing in how many calls they get right, given the speed and complexity of what is happening in real time. But I feel that they are under extreme pressure and could use a bit of a break from the rule makers.
I actually think the ball swinging back into play is a good rule and could be brought in everywhere without disrupting everything. You make the rule that if the ball goes out of play and then back into play while in the air over the ground its not a dead ball, then its a fair rule that applies all the time but realistically the only time it will happen is on corners.
mot happens a lot on clearances by the throw in lines if the outside foot is used on the same side ie bellerin clearing up the pitch with his right foot on the right hand side
For years I imagined Federico Higuain talking to his baby bro Gonzalo on the phone, saying "come on over, it's nice over here... would be cool to play in the same league with you" Then Inter Miami signed Gonzalo and the dream was realized. But maybe the dream was even a bit bigger than that? Miami signed Federico yesterday to unite the 2 boys on the same team. Now the trick will be to see if the elder can get improve his fitness & sharpness, so as to be able to be subbed into a game with the younger. Then I guess the dream will be realized. Unless there's more?
Playoff Rondo was amazing. There were so many stories from this team. I love Dwight Howard’s redemption arc. So nice to see us winning it after 10 years of drought. I’m from LA and it was annoying to heard Clippers tell us it was there year. Clippers are the Spurs of the NBA lol
lol Steve Ballmer injected a lot of money into the Clippers. They had a strong team since Lob City and should’ve won at least one championship. Unfortunately for them, they had to face GSW—who were the best team in the last couple years—and the mentally collapsed last season like the Tottenham. Next season will be the Clippers final push for championship since they traded their future for Paul George. It’ll also be last year for Kawhi and Paul George. It’s All or Nothing for them lol
Did anyone else order Wenger's book? The wait to ship across the pond is annoying, especially because I'm trying to avoid seeing snippets.
I’m gonna buy it this weekend he was interviews in talk sport this morning, still his usual self Made me laugh when the hosts talked about the story ray parlour told them (he’s a regular guest host) how kolo toure kept smashing people in tackles at his trial and took out bergkamp and then smashed into wenger knocking him over and hurting his ankle Wenger then wryly said...”clearly, kolo knew I was the best player there” made me laugh anyway
There was a discussion about it on Handbrake Off today, and Amy Lawrence was the only one who'd actually read the whole thing. She kept talking about things that were inferrable and how you could read between the lines, to which Ian Stone replied "I don't want to read BETWEEN the lines, I want to read the LINES" which I thought was funny. So, if any of us we're hoping for a he's-been-zipping-his-lip-for-years-until-he-retires-and-then-can-do-a-proper-tell-all, well you'll have to wait a bit longer for that... probably never actually... he's just too much of a gentleman for that. Which is one of the many many things I respect him for. Supposedly he's going to do the reading of it as an audio book. Maybe that could be the preferred way to experience it?
What I found fascinating about the Amazon Spurs doco is maybe there is no secret oil? The hidden side of Football really is just like corporate life - only with way more money. They sit through stupid power point slides, crappy team talks, cringey 1 on 1s with the boss. Lots of stupid power grabs and plots and schemes. People behave like arseholes and everyone hates them. Everyone sucks up to the boss despite how embarassing he is. I also had the same feeling with Pep confidential. What was revealed in it really is how it is. Very detailed drilling/automatisms. Deep and meaningful talks with pep for hours about tactics. Otherwise Pep is watching 700 videos to prepare for the next game.
Still not quite got over that tournament and the shame of losing to england. But I never believed we would 3-peat