Introduction
Sports are an important aspect of recreational activity as well as cultural affairs. With the technological advancements, there are many different sports activities that are in the world today. However, an exceptional sporting exercise that is enthralling to a lot of people currently is soccer. As an individual, I am more attracted to watching football, either as a fan on the pitch, or through the live broadcasts.
It means that every weekend I am glued to my television to watch the football actions of different teams from England which participate in the country’s top league tournament. Interestingly, soccer is characterized by high levels of entertainment, artistry, suspense and surprise, variability between the ball games, as well as fierce resistance, all of which make people fascinated to watching it. Notably, an element of the game such as the mastery of physical skills for performing football techniques by players contribute to the desirable qualities that make watching of football games to be thrilling.
Reasons Why Football Watching is Fascinating
Entertainment factor
As a part of recreational activity, football watching is an entertaining action to the spectators and also the fans that follow live matches through broadcasts. For most fanatics, there is nothing that makes a game to be enjoyable more than observing a team scoring. They watch as the ball is chipped from side to side, pinging all over the penalty area, the goalkeepers making extraordinary saves, and the ball clearing from the offline (“Why is Football”).
All the mentioned football actions give the viewer high levels of excitement and makes soccer to be one of the entertaining sports in the world. In addition, football is ostensibly easy to watch because of the extensive playing space in the soccer pitch or when watched through television (“Why is Football”). For instance, a televised broadcast shows a green pitch, magnificent stadia, and the fanatics signing or cheering. Indeed, comparing the scenes of an on-going football match to that of another game, the former is livelier. Therefore, it leaves no doubt that soccer is an entertaining sport.
Players’ Artistry
Footballers are known to possess great creative skills and abilities that make the football lovers to identify with them. Great passes, headers and goals that are scored by some of the players are some of the considerations that football fans give to soccer. Therefore, artistry of the players cements the existing football lovers’ passion and the game. For instance, it is undeniable that the thrill factor can be greatly reduced when an individual watches a match that had already been played and the result is known (“Why is Football”). Nevertheless, if the artistic characteristic is still in the game, that is enough to keep one entertained. This is a fact which is evident in the manner in some football fans do watch games which were played a long time before they were born because of a distinguishable skill that was showed by one or more players (“Why is Football”). Without doubt, an exemplary skill portrayed in a match, keeps the fanatics entertained for long periods of time and even the generations to come.
Suspense and Surprises
Again, watching a football match can be compared to reading an exciting story with uncertainties on its flow of events. It means that soccer is characterized by surprises and suspense, especially for someone who is watching a live game. Strikingly, football has more surprises and suspense compared to other ball games (“Why is Football”).
For example, handball, table tennis, and volleyball have high scores and therefore the tension of the game can be lost if a specific team or player runs-up a healthy lead. Comparably, in football games the scores are actually close with each goal carrying a significant weight in the game. As such, if a team goes one-nil or even two-nil, there is a lot of tension in the game when the opposition pulls a goal back because things can speedily change to either team’s favor (“Why is Football”). Moreover, there is an element of luck that results in many surprises in a football game. To illustrate, slight deflections can lead to shock goals or a poor referring decision may grant the underdogs an advantage over their rivals (“Why is Football”). Accordingly, suspense and surprises create the strong urge for one to continue watching the game.
Teams Variability
Many factors contribute to results that are witnessed from a soccer match. Of these, variability between teams and games is a factor that makes many fanatics be attracted to soccer. With all the transformative aspects of every soccer match, each ball game is different and each one repeated is not exactly the same (“Why is Football”). This quality of football ensures that watching of successive football games does not become tedious. The numbers of players in a football pitch are more compared to those of tennis and badminton, and consequently increased interactions among the players making it exciting (“Why is Football”).
The playing field is not divided by nets and the players can penetrate each team’s section and create formidable formations (“Why is Football”). The extensiveness of the playing field is enough for diverse and dramatic activities of the players to create variability from one game to another. Furthermore, there exist different ways through which one may score. Headers, deflections, long and short passes, deflections, and penalties are all techniques of balls entering the goal. Inarguably, the transformative aspects of football enable breakage of the monotony of soccer, more so from watching one game to the next.
Feral Resistance
Another quality of football as a game is that every team puts up a fierce resistance against each other. In soccer, the two meeting teams’ players compete on the pitch and do not rush to the finish line as competitors in athletics do (“Why is Football”). Not only that, players directly face one another as opposed to volleyball where they face each other through the middle net. The direct contact between football players makes it a fierce competition (“Why is Football”).
As a matter of fact, every sporting activity is a matter of competition but no sport exhibits intense battling than soccer. Even the physical antagonistic martial arts exercises such as karate and, boxing, and judo are far much behind soccer in terms of combat and attractiveness (“Why is Football”). The explanation for this peculiarity is that opposition in football is collective and non-linear. Certainly, soccer is a battle replica in the form of an interesting game and that is a reason for its attraction and excitement to many fanatics.
Cheering of Football
In my opinion, watching a football match entails cheering which is a sign of excitement that comes from soccer fanatics. Cheering for football also helps in overcoming some challenges that may arise in one’s life. It may reduce worries and anxiety among the cheerleaders hence enabling them to deal with depression. For example, cheerleading helped Mitchell Knoth to overcome unhappiness that engulfed him because of how his teammates treated him after he had recovered from some injuries in the playing field (Whitney 1). Cheerleading also changed Knoth’s perception about others in a positive way. He admitted that cheering made him more open to what others’ talents and skills were (Whitney 8). Evidently, cheering is also an important aspect of watching football that can change someone’s life.
Primary Factor for Football Excitement
There is a factor that contributes to the quality of football which in turn makes watching the match exciting. Mastery of the physical skills for performing soccer techniques by players is the prime competence that makes football watching, a fascinating affair (Hakman 1237). Clearly, the factor is more extrinsic than it comes from the fanatics. Application of techniques such as dribbling, ball-control, blocking and tackling skillfully during match time is a crucial factor for achieving victory (Hakman 1240). Since those watching a game are interested in the number of goals as well as the quality of the game played, the techniques exhibited by players definitely prettify the match.
Conclusion
In summary, football is multifaceted sport with qualities such as great extents of entertainment, superb creativities, surprises, differentiability between the teams, and vicious competition that thrill the fans. All these qualities stem from players’ mastery of physical expertise that is requisite for performing soccer tactics. Fanatics are entertained through scores that emanate from players’ creativity and mastery of the game. Surprisingly, soccer has suspense and uncertainties that result from the variability within the team and stiff resistance that each team puts against the opponent. Impressively, excitement towards football is exemplified through cheering which is also another form of physical activity. Truly, football remains to be the sport that commands the largest fan base in the world.
Works Cited
Hakman, Anna, et al. “Analysis of the accretion of aptitude and understanding of physical prowess for performing tactics by upcoming footballers.” Journal of P.E. and Sport, vol.18, no.2, 2018, pp. 1237-1242. Web.
Whitney, Mason. “From Football to Cheerleader.” Iowa State Daily, vol. 213, no. 54. 2017, pp. 1-8. Web.
“Why is Soccer so Alluring to so Many People?” Football Talk. 2020. Web.