World Cup - NHLitis

Everyone, including intellectuals like Dov Bear, has to admit that this year's World Cup has been brutally boring (even more boring than usual). The average sore is about 0.5 - 0, the refereeing has been atrocious (especially if you are an African team), and there have been more flops than in the Yeshivish shidduch world. They shouldn't hand out Man of the Game awards, they should offer Oscars.

This is more or less what happened to the NHL a number of years ago. The New Jersey Devils figured out that you could win Stanley Cups with stiffling defense and a great goaltender. Most teams followed suit, scoring went way down, offensive stars were held and interfered with and the NHL became unbearable to watch.

Last year, the NHL made some radical changes to fix the game and they worked. The past season was reminiscent of times gone by. Scoring was up, offensive players got to shine and the product was much more watchable. Soccer needs to figure out what to do. Maybe 9 men? Maybe more subs? I don't know.

(In the meantime, all those intellectual Africans, South Americans and Europeans continue to watch this garbage, so maybe they don't really have to do anything at all).