So I’ve watched a few world cup games… mostly because nothing else was on TV at the time. One thing though I don’t really get is, why do people like soccer (or football for everyone outside of the US). I’ll admit that the players have to be in really good shape to be running around like that for 90 minutes, but the game has a number of fatal flaws IMHO:

1. It’s painfully slow. Field is so big it takes forever to get from one side to another.
2. American football, basketball (which I also don’t care for) and even icehockey have the concept of someone able to break away and having a solid chance of scoring. With so much playing field and so many players, breakaways just don’t seem to happen.
3. Tie scores suck. The whole point of playing a competitive game is to see who is better. Ending a game with a tie score is pointless.
4. Few scoring chances. I just finished watching Germany vs. Sweeden. They said that the German goalie stopped 6 balls that had a chance to score. That’s 6 scoring chances in 90 minutes. No wonder why there’s so little scoring.
5. No instant replay. Nothing worse then your team loosing the game because of a bad call by the ref.
6. Penalties don’t seem to be a big deal. In soccer, if you get a red card, you’re kicked out for the rest of the game and your team can’t replace you. But with so much playing field and players on each side running around, it doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal. The tide doesn’t turn and the other team doesn’t seem to get that big of an advantage. Even when down two players, you don’t see rampant scoring by the other side.