American association football championships
NWSL Portland Thorns 2 Kansas City Current 0,
The game drew 915,000 television viewers in prime time.
https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/nwsl-championship-tv-ratings-are-a-record-breaker-20221102-WST-406608.htmlMLS Los Angeles FC 3 Philadelphia Union 3 (Los Angeles FC wins 3-0 on penalty kicks)
The commentators described the game as 'the best MLS game ever.' I agree it was interesting, but it wasn't the best. I thought the play itself was up and down. The first goal was a fluke scored off a free kick that was directed in by one of the players in the wall. One Philadelphia goal was scored after a free kick in which the Los Angeles players remained more or less stationary.
MLS games I think compare to English League Championship games with a lot of fast pace and physical play and technical ability but not necessarily a lot of creativity/creative skill. Because MLS teams have 'designated players' there is likely slightly more creativity but slightly less technical ability than in the League Championship (due to the salary cap for non designated players.)
The game was called the 'best MLS game ever' because of the momentum changes including Philadelphia leading 3-2 before Gareth Bale tied the game in the last two minutes (with L.A down to 10 men.)
The problem though, was that the play was physical to the point where 4 players went down for several minutes each, three of them from collisions on headers and one of them a collision between Canadian international keeper Maxime Crepeau and the Philadelphia player who was in all alone on him. Crepeau sustained both an injury and a straight red card for the incident.
That aside, I don't know what specifically can be done, but keeping in mind that the game is called 'football' and not 'headball' I wonder if soccer needs to look at limits to heading and playing the ball in the air. There seems to be a steady increase in aerial collisions leading to concussions. Obviously part of the problem is the frequent size mismatch between central defenders and all the other players in the game.
I'm certainly not sure of all the consequences, but I wonder if heading the ball needs to be limited to just in the box when going for a goal or when trying to prevent a goal, and not allowed in midfield 'open play' anymore. Obviously that would significantly limit the use of kicking balls into the air.
There are already limits in at least some areas to heading the ball in youth soccer. So, new tactics are already brought in at the youth level. Of course, this is a result of the concern of the headers themselves leading to concussions and not due to the collisions.
