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How often in a football game do we hear, “This game needs a goal” and how often do teams “Park the bus”. On both counts, too often for me as a paying fan.
Football is about winning, but it’s also (at least in a domestic League) about entertainment.
Perhaps some tinkering needs to be done with the game to encourage teams to score more goals. However it needs to be done from within the nature of the game.
Goalmouth action is entertaining for the average punter, but if a team scores first and then parks the bus, in some matches the spectator may as well go home.
Don’t buy the argument teams need to play their way through packed defence, because in the A-League we don’t have the quality of players to do so.
Brisbane or Adelaide may play like Barcelona, but they don’t have the players to be Barcelona.
Three points for a win hasn’t really changed anything – teams still grind out 1-0 wins whether they’re worth three or two points.
What’s needed is to encourage teams to attack and score more goals, using the old two points for a win system as a base, but without getting silly.
So let’s reward teams for scoring the first goal by earning an extra point. However it’s pointless to leave it at that, they can still park the bus for a 1-0 win.
So I would add to that that they can only earn a bonus point if they score at least another goal and go on to win the match.
The match still needs to be opened up. So score the first goal win 1-0 earn two points, score the first goal to win 2-0 or 2-1 and earn three points.
If the score ends up 7-1, it’s still three points for the win – teams occasionally get on a roll.
If however you don’t score first and can’t gain that bonus point via this method you need to have some incentive to do so.
In that case, if you can go on to win the match by at least two clear goals, you get the bonus point.
Team A plays team B, team A scores first. Team B wins the match 2-1 or 3-2, team B gains two points. Team B wins 3-1 , 4-2, they gain three points.
You may say in the 4-3 win, as per the Victory versus Adelaide match (where Adelaide scored first), Victory deserve a point for winning and the fans seeing plenty of goals.
However Adelaide matched them all the way so unless Victory had won by two clear goals, the margin is not enough to find that balance within the nature of the game.
Feel free to discuss, dissect and put up alternatives within the nature of the game to help open up the game and discourage teams from stacking the defence and opening up to attack and win.
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