According to a mathematician I heard being interviewed on NPR the problems with bad calls in soccer is related to the low scores. If teams were scoring 4,5, or 6 goals a game, one bad call may not be that significant. But, when they win 1-0, or 2-1, or tie 1-1 or 0-0, one bad call is a big deal.
+1
I'm pretty much sports agnostic, but of course when a 'big game' comes around, especially if a local team is involved, everyone gets some exposure to it. Then I tend to look at the game more analytically, as a more detached observer, rather than a 'fan'.
And all the low scoring sports strike me as odd. A game with a typical 2-3 goals is subject to bad calls,
and luck. It is luck when that ball hits the frame of the goal and falls in rather than out, but that's a big deal in a 2-3 goal game. It's hard to say the best team won if that determined the outcome.
The same thing happens in basketball, the ball might roll around the hoop and wither fall in or out. But in basketball, that happens many times, and on average, the better team will have it drop in more often.
For me, scoring in basketball, baseball, volleyball, and maybe (American) football are reasonable. Basketball is on the high side, IMO, too little emphasis on each point, American football maybe a little too much on each point. But hockey and soccer (ROW football) that low scoring is just crazy IMO, and removes any little interest I might have in those sports.
Not familiar with scoring in Rugby. They have rules?
-ERD50
