Ghana ghana Ghana.
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Why reward bad defending? Why give more incentive for players to slide in/break up play/hold etc?
A consistent and somewhat fair criticism of Football is it’s a low scoring game and yet y’all keep coming up with ideas that will make scoring harder and by a lot. Also as Aofrantic points out will make the games more uneven and more favorable to the better side.
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Which is bad.
You get grabbed/held, it’s very, very unlikely you’re going to score by “fighting to stay up.”
It’s really bizarre in a low scoring game the American takes are “let’s make it tougher to score, and reward fouling more.”
The opposite is true. Refs should call more pens/reds. They are too worried about influencing matches
That’s what VAR is for?
Would have been an all time howler from the Portugal gk had the Ghana player not slipped
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It’s designed that way to deter people from fouling to prevent goal scoring opportunities which would rob the game of its fluency.
Canada Belgium looked quite like a lot of top club matches, just not with each side playing the role you expected.
Belgium only entered the Canada final third a few times. The Canadian defenders a few times did try to foul and breakup play, most noticeably Johnston taking a bad yellow. But if they could have just done it on the Michy goal without risking a red or pen? Then Belgium just dont score.
That’s now as Leeds said, the dominant teams just basically never lose.
Both Japan and Saudis don’t win if the defenders aren’t scared of fouling! They both tried to play defense, and did it poorly. This is why the upsets happened!
Not sure if this would be a decent solution, but I would go the other way on PKs and award more of them. Especially on corners and free kicks, defenders get away with outrageous holding that would be a super obvious foul if it took place in the center circle. Call it in the box the same as you would at midfield. This would increase scoring via additional PKs and would also lessen the impact of 1 single PK decision. Instead of games being decided by 1 big PK, if there are 2-3 a game, it’s not as big a deal. Also, defenders will eventually adjust by being more cautious in the box, and this would lead to more freedom for attacking play and non-PK goals.
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Each “score” in a low scoring sport has higher value than a score in a high scoring sport like basketball which to these eyes is tedious and lacks drama and excitement.
Also Americans don’t realise they’re arguing that Test cricket is the greatest of all sports. 
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We need a second penalty spot at the top of the box for soft fouls obv
whenever the excitement gets cranked up to a 4 out of 10 the Fox commentator Jacqui Oatley starts sounding like an incompetent ghost learning how to haunt
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The game has won the hearts of fans around the world for a long time just as it is but thank you for your suggestion.
I agree 100%.
Especially this bit ‘Also, defenders will eventually adjust by being more cautious in the box, and this would lead to more freedom for attacking play and non-PK goals.’
A rule I would introduce now the technology exists is to have refs not look for the pushing and shoving at all and just have the VAR men call it to him when and if it happens. Will take about 4 or 5 rounds of games for that shit to basically stop completely.
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The holding at dead balls has become farcical in recent years and more needs to be done to deter it, I agree.
Minor tinkering with offside, hand ball, cards and the number of subs are the only things that spring to mind apart from 3 points for a win decades ago.
Also, I wanna see the fouled player take the PK. If I foul the soccer equivalent of Shaq shooting FTs, then that guy will take the PK. Might lead to some more hilarity with some of the lesser skilled PK takers blasting the ball into orbit under World Cup pressure.
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This really is laughably wrong.
You’ll soon find that sometimes the fouled player is so badly injured by the push that he has to be taken off and someone else who just happens to be a penalty expert has to take it.
