Summer Quandaries 19: Basketball's Best Comp: Soccer

http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2015/08/sq19-basketballs-best-comp-soccer.html



SQ19 Basketball's Best Comp: Soccer

By Lee Lauderdale









For two sports that seem so diametrically opposed, soccer and basketball might be the most similar overall. Consider that in one most ball handling is by hand and it is an infraction to apply the feet; while in the other most ball movement is by foot and it is penalty to touch the ball with your hand. That contrast is true for shooting, passing, and defending (except for the goal keeper in soccer). So why am I putting them forward as the most similar sports?

While the ball manipulation takes place at opposite ends of the body, almost every thing about the strategy, tactics, and flow of the games are similar if not exactly the same. Think about screens, on or off the ball, pretty much the same. Reversing the ball, fast breaks to take advantage before the defense gets set, the “hockey” assist where the pass is to reposition the ball so that the assist is made easier, faking the pass (or dribble) to get a reaction that the offense can exploit—all these offensive tactics are almost exactly the same in both sports. Doubling the ball to force possession out of the control of a more dangerous offensive threat, layering the defense to provide backup coverage when the primary defender is defeated, staying between man with the ball and the goal, staying between your defensive assignment and the ball and goal, switching, help defense, --all defensive ploys that are the same, or very similar, in both sports.

Even “big picture” tactics are similar. Pushing the ball to run defenders into exhaustion, overloading one side to enhance the forcing of switches and the resulting mismatches, spacing the field/court to discourage help defenders, running the offense through the best ball handlers and scorers—the coach/team discussion and implementation is equally applicable in either sport. The use of anticipation to steal passes, position defense, hesitation dribble, give-and-go, lead passes, back door cuts, ambidexterity, the devastating effects of speed, using the body to shield the ball—any of these might be a prominent component of a conversation on sidelines of any basketball court, or soccer field.

So while the main ball action takes place above, or below, the waist, the similarities between basketball and soccer are far greater than these differences. I am forced to admit that soccer avoids one of the major injury risks with far fewer sprains due to coming down from a jump onto another players foot. The again basketball discourages sliding into an opponent's ankles, a leading cause of injuries in soccer. Although both sports emphasize conditioning, it pains me to admit that the edge on healthy exercise goes to football (the Continental version). I also like the fact that abnormally tall folks don't have an unreasonable advantage on the soccer pitch. So while my own passion went basketball, I give full credit to those soccer advocates.

As I thought about this article (and the paucity of scoring in soccer that often leaves home audiences snoring), it occurred to me that there might be a “new” sport to be invented here. Shorten the pitch (think arena football), shrink the goal size dramatically and omit the goal keeper but raise the goal a foot or two off the ground so rolling it in is not an option. Dump the off-sides violation to encourage more fast breaks. Make goals two points and institute a 3-point line to encourage/reward attempts at the smaller, but unguarded, goal. More scoring, more movement, more end to end rushes, more emphasis on accurate scoring rather than scrums at the goal trying for the point-blank try enabled by overwhelming numbers. Let's call it Super Soccer or High Octane Football or Snooze-less Soccer.

Only 47 days until camp.



bob
P.S. There's flopping in both sports too, as long as we're on this...


.

Just because I like to argue things, removing the offside rule would not encourage fast breaks, other way around. Offside rule makes the game much more dynamic.

Methinks Lee is running into Celtics Writers' Block.  It must be tough to conjure up a new subject for an article virtually every day.

There are quite a few differences between the two sports in addition to the ones Lee identified.  I've always felt the key difference was that basketball (above any other sport) is the game for fans of frequent gratification (aka scoring).  It's possible to play an entire game of soccer and not wind up with any scoring at all.

Someone could earn an online college degree during the running of a soccer fast break.  I'm not denigrating the excitement that can accompany pinpoint passing the length of the field—just remarking that the rewards of watching soccer must come largely from appreciating the intricacies of the sport more than the thrill of the score.

But I think the greatest difference between the two sports is a hypothetical one.  What if Johnny Most had been a soccer broadcaster?  Can you imagine the tension building in Johnny, minute after period after game, until a ball crossed the goal line?  At which point that pent-up enthusiasm would erupt like Mount Vesuvius......
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL"

Sam

No two sports are alike. Otherwise there'd be no point to two sports. But I think I would agree in the author's point about the similarities as far as major sports. What other major sport is more like basketball? He's not saying they are the same. Just that soccer is the most LIKE basketball. I play competitive table tennis (no not ping pong, the big boy kind) and people tend to assume that it is a lot like tennis or some racket sport. But I would say--and I've had other players agree--that it is more like fencing or boxing. Obviously there are some significant differences but it comes from the kinds of skills, physical and mental required, more than the cosmetic differences of equipment or rules. As for the fans, much of that is a function of culture, not the sport itself. I prefer to think of sport from the player's perspective.

Atcross,

It's understandable where you're coming from in your comparisons of table tennis with boxing or fencing. I believe that one striking similarity between the three is the suddenness of attack and the importance of reflexes, whether on the attack or the counterattack. And it's easy to see how table tennis (a truly great sport) can help maintain or sharpen the lightning instincts that are instrumental in the other two sports.

Sam