DefJam101
Arcane
The following post is on-topic because soccer is in fact an RPG. Prove me wrong
A lot of people who don't play soccer think players on TV are just "passing the ball around". They see the camera focus on Ronaldo's wacky dribbling hijinks and instantly ignore what everyone else on the field is doing, even when the latter is almost always more important. Playing successful soccer means knowing how to move and position yourself when you don't have the ball. This is very difficult because, unlike American football, there's little structure in place telling you what a player in your position is "supposed" to be doing at any given moment, since every player on the field can and will position themselves almost anywhere to suit the situation.
So, to play soccer properly, you need to understand how to manage space on the field. You need to understand how to threaten the defense through positioning, how to open space to receive a pass, how to close down attacking players' passing lanes, how to create passing lanes for your teammates by drawing defenders out of position, how to place a ball so a receiving teammate can shield it successfully, how to angle yourself to one-touch a pass into open space for a teammate, how to position yourself to effectively support one or more teammates possessing the ball, and so on. When you watch pro footballers pass the ball around endlessly they typically aren't playing keep-away to run the clock down; they're trying to force open holes in the opposing team's defense by making them move around to contest the ball.
And that's how soccer works. Teams who manipulate space to their advantage create more (and better) passing lanes while shutting down the opposing team's lanes. This leads to more meaningful possession, which creates more shooting opportunities, which creates more chances for goals, which results in more goals, which — over a long period of time — leads to more wins. It's an angles game, pure and simple.
If you want to see an example of a professional soccer team built around athletic, individually-talented players who either do not understand or cannot apply these basic principles of controlling space on the field, look no further than the United States men's national soccer team, who only ever win by kicking the ball down the wings and scoring miraculous fluke goals, and always lose by running themselves into the ground versus a smarter team who manages 80% ball possession.
TL;DR American football is about planning and executing; association football is about reacting, improvising, and executing.
source: running back in high school, been playing soccer since I was six, have played club soccer for eight years as a left / center midfielder
edit:
sorry for being a faggot good sir
I would say they're roughly equal in terms of tactical complexity, but the styles of both games are totally at odds. American football requires a lot of pre-snap planning to manage the complicated, five-to-ten second window following the snap, but the more rigid nature of the game means you don't have to react to changing or unexpected situations anywhere near as often as a footballer.
A lot of people who don't play soccer think players on TV are just "passing the ball around". They see the camera focus on Ronaldo's wacky dribbling hijinks and instantly ignore what everyone else on the field is doing, even when the latter is almost always more important. Playing successful soccer means knowing how to move and position yourself when you don't have the ball. This is very difficult because, unlike American football, there's little structure in place telling you what a player in your position is "supposed" to be doing at any given moment, since every player on the field can and will position themselves almost anywhere to suit the situation.
So, to play soccer properly, you need to understand how to manage space on the field. You need to understand how to threaten the defense through positioning, how to open space to receive a pass, how to close down attacking players' passing lanes, how to create passing lanes for your teammates by drawing defenders out of position, how to place a ball so a receiving teammate can shield it successfully, how to angle yourself to one-touch a pass into open space for a teammate, how to position yourself to effectively support one or more teammates possessing the ball, and so on. When you watch pro footballers pass the ball around endlessly they typically aren't playing keep-away to run the clock down; they're trying to force open holes in the opposing team's defense by making them move around to contest the ball.
And that's how soccer works. Teams who manipulate space to their advantage create more (and better) passing lanes while shutting down the opposing team's lanes. This leads to more meaningful possession, which creates more shooting opportunities, which creates more chances for goals, which results in more goals, which — over a long period of time — leads to more wins. It's an angles game, pure and simple.
If you want to see an example of a professional soccer team built around athletic, individually-talented players who either do not understand or cannot apply these basic principles of controlling space on the field, look no further than the United States men's national soccer team, who only ever win by kicking the ball down the wings and scoring miraculous fluke goals, and always lose by running themselves into the ground versus a smarter team who manages 80% ball possession.
TL;DR American football is about planning and executing; association football is about reacting, improvising, and executing.
source: running back in high school, been playing soccer since I was six, have played club soccer for eight years as a left / center midfielder
edit:
god damnit i wrote this whole post without seeing this one
sorry for being a faggot good sir
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