Tua and the elephant in the room.

[75Crazie]

FIt is amazing how much safer things are when other people aren't actively trying to hit you.

... abetted by equipment that is required (theoretically) for their own safety.

[lotusland]

Not a soccer player but I didn’t use my head consistently until my mid to late twenties.

My soccer loving neighbor just looks at me incredulously when I ask him why there is an arbitrary rule that they can’t use there hands. Seems dumb watching a them running around head butting the ball with hands and arms hanging pointlessly from their shoulders. Would the game really be worse if they could hit it with their hands? It’s not like they need to create an extra handicap to tamp down all the scoring.

[rsvman]

Not a soccer player but I didn’t use my head consistently until my mid to late twenties.

My soccer loving neighbor just looks at me incredulously when I ask him why there is an arbitrary rule that they can’t use there hands. Seems dumb watching a them running around head butting the ball with hands and arms hanging pointlessly from their shoulders. Would the game really be worse if they could hit it with their hands? It’s not like they need to create an extra handicap to tamp down all the scoring.

Endorse.

I think the game of soccer could be made a lot better by a few small modifications.
First, get rid of the goalie. Instead, make the goal a lot smaller so it is harder to hit.
Oh, and then maybe raise the goal up off the ground about, say,10 feet or so, and maybe put it horizontal (still thinking this through)?
Then, let the players use their hands.
And make the field a lot smaller. And maybe get rid of the grass. Hardwood, maybe?
I don't know, just thinking out loud...

[rasputin]

I don't watch much soccer, but I've definitely never seen a soccer player in the sort of compromised and terrifying body position Tua was in on Thursday.

That's because they are too busy writhing in pain from a non-existent injury from an earlier play. (Ducks . . .)