What I hate about soccer

With the World Cup starting today, let me just first say this: I love soccer. Great game. Played it my whole life. In school, I started at goalie. I could have started at fullback, but we needed a goalie.

As an adult, I played both positions in many indoor leagues over the years.

Here's what I hate about field soccer, as played in the World Cup and elsewhere: OFFSIDES.

Offsides sucks.

The problem with offsides is, it gives the defense an unnatural advantage. This is unlike any other sport. You don't see it in basketball or lacrosse. Hockey has the blue line (which also kinda sucks) but at least that's a permanent line, always in the same place. And it doesn't matter where the defenders are in relation to it.

Only in soccer do you have this stupid rule to prevent the offense from beating the defense downfield. Here's an idea: If you're getting beat, PLAY BETTER DEFENSE!

The indoor game has a few differences, like a smaller field, and the ball can be played off the boards. But the biggest difference is, there's NO OFFSIDES. The game is much more fast-paced, there's more scoring, it's more fun to play or watch. And the lack of an offsides rule doesn't seem to bother anybody. The game plays just fine.

The outside game would, too. Getting rid of the offsides rule would make the game better for everyone (except maybe goalies like Kasey Keller, pictured). So I say, just dump the rule altogether. It adds absolutely nothing to the game. No value whatsoever.

Get rid of it.