Soccer contractors throughout this country consistently complain that soccer is not a contact sport. This is just another verbal montage used to invite the people out of the masses to complain even more about soccer's existence in this country.
Football is a contact sport. Well, duh. That's the basis for this sport. Every play there is contact of some sort or another, including those missed scoring opportunities (otherwise known as field goal attempts). Often, the contact is brief and uneventful, usually resembling two bears "hugging it out" (sorry, this just called for the old Entourage reference). Occassionally, a player will get laid out and the crowd goes nuts and the player goes nuts like he's just slain the dragon and saved the town for all eternity (but that's another story). So, yeah, there's a lot...and I mean a lot of contact in football.
But that's not the argument here.
Soccer is a contact sport. Well, duh. The contact in a soccer match would never live up to the violence levels of American Football, but there is contact...and a lot of it. The slide tackle is the most obvious form of contact in soccer. But what many people don't realize is that the slide tackle can be highly dangerous. Poorly executed slide tackles result in snapped legs, broken ankles, torn/sprained ligaments to name a few. Goalkeepers are not exempt from contact either, usually having to barrell through players to get at an attempted cross. These are plays that most resemblent of the football tackle...the only differences being that the players aren't wearing pads (other than shin pads) and the players aren't trying to "lay out" their oppoenent, they're just going after the ball.
There are many videos that show this "contact" on the soccer field (for some dirty tackles, check out some of the Roy Keane vids at Youtube).
So, next time you want to spout off about no contact in soccer, check out some videos (readily available online), and heck, even try it out for yourself. You'll think twice about claiming soccer not being a contact sport.
Hilary Rhoda
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Comments (13) Add A Comment
Whenever I play unorganized soccer with my friends (street) I always slidetackle. It's fun, it gets the other person mad, and it makes the game more intense.
G.O.A.T. is back?
Scranton, PA
Total Comments (12359)
My soccer career was ruined by slide tackles. I am going into my senior season of high school and I haven't been able to play in a year because I broke my leg severely last summer and then rebroke it my first game back this spring. The first time it happened, the other guy got a red card, the second time, a yellow. This is somewhat of a freak thing but it still proves soccer is definitely physical.
TouchdownTommyMaddox
Total Comments (161)
Now by Tommy's comment you may think I am a dirty player which I'm not. My friends slidetackle me as well but we have NO intent to hurt one another.
G.O.A.T. is back?
Scranton, PA
Total Comments (12359)
Who cares.
DavidSternBlows
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1802)
I don't have anything against sliding, I play defense, I am just saying soccer is physical.
TouchdownTommyMaddox
Total Comments (161)
I love playing soccer and agree it's a great game to watch and play. But football is the better sport to watch.
PhillyFan
Medford Lakes, NJ
Total Comments (1236)
more intense than u think, ill tell u
jeevs BS
Schenectady , NY
Total Comments (4139)
I like watching football a lot, but soccer is great too. During the fall, I watch some EPL action in the morning before football starts. Good days.
IrishR#1
Total Comments (8517)
i really dont like that davidsternblows guy
jeevs BS
Schenectady , NY
Total Comments (4139)
I'll say that football is more phyiscal and a better game overall. Soccer just can't compare...all of your blogs on this football vs. futbol is written to favor soccer so it will always make soccer look better or equal to football...
Big Ben68
Total Comments (20639)
I wish americans cared little enough about football to stop endlessly attacking the world greatest team sport.
I would never imagine journalists in the uk creating gridiron sucks or baseball sucks websites, we are far more secure.
I just wish americans would get over their inferiority complex and leave football alone. They tried to usurp football with their own steroid enhanced mediocrity and have failed big time, get over it. You clearly have lost.
ruggedstud
Total Comments (6)
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