OPINION: Indoor Game Pales to Outdoor

Thoughts on Indoor Soccer and Beckham's Galaxy

August 12, 2008

By Mark Goodman

Last December, I finally began my career in organized soccer.

It started with a pair of indoor seasons at Sports World Center in Tewksbury, Mass., followed by a recently completed outdoor campaign with games all across Eastern Mass.

SNE Columnist Marc Goodman shares his thoughts at least once a week.

After all the early wake-up calls, long rides to unknown suburbia, sore muscles and missed tackles (not good when you’re a fullback), I can safely draw one conclusion:

Playing outdoor, 11v11 soccer is superior to indoor.

Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a column to disparage the indoor game. It certainly has its place in the sport’s landscape, particularly in New England, where the thought of kicking the ball about in 20-degree weather in January isn’t very appealing.

I got my start playing indoor, took my lumps and learned my lessons playing indoor, and I plan to do it again when the winter season rolls around.

Looking at it strictly from the perspective of playing and enjoying the game, however, there is no comparison. There is nothing like trying to split the defense with those long through balls, or working your way up the pitch with pass after pass after pass (or trying, anyway).

And there is nothing in sport quite like making a 75-yard run down the pitch, then having to go all the way back and defend. Tough, yes, but that’s soccer.

It’s just a matter of preference, I suppose. The anti-soccer types who say the sport is “too slow” or “doesn’t have enough scoring” would probably get more enjoyment from the indoor game. It’s certainly much faster paced, and in that small field with only five or six players per side, you can rack up some goals in a hurry.

I like to call it “human pinball.”

But I’ll take traditional soccer any day. Give me the intricacies and full-field movement of the 11v11 game, and if the game ends up with “only” a couple goals being scored…Well, again, that’s soccer.

David Beckham will come to Foxboro at the end of August.(CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com).

And, as one who is a little slow-witted with even slower feet, I'll gladly take a couple seconds to think about the pass I need to make, thanks.

I got my tickets for “The Beckham Game” today.

The Revolution-Galaxy game is set for Aug. 30 at Gillette Stadium, and I’ll be interested to see the turnout. Will we see the 35,000-plus we saw at last year’s sold out event?

It will also be interesting to see how the “new look” Galaxy come out, with Monday’s news of head coach Ruud Gullit’s resignation and General Manager Alexi Lalas’s dismissal.

The promotion of first-year assistant Cobi Jones to the head coach position seems like a publicity move for a team that already has plenty of it, but let’s see if Jones can turn it around in L.A. It certainly can’t get much worse for them, the way they’ve been playing lately.

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