International Friendlies: Boring but Necessary

Playing for ones’ national team is a true honor. Tournaments such as the World Cup are renowned for being a showcase of the world’s top talent. In preparation for the World Cup and other similar tournaments, many nations play one another in so called friendly or exhibition matches. With the result meaningless, they are used as opportunities to test out new players or tactics that might be used in the upcoming major tournament or qualification matches, the results of which are critical. These matches are very useful, and nations should continue to organize international breaks with the domestic club leagues to ensure that club soccer does not stray too far out in front of the international game.

The issue with these friendlies, for fans anyway, is that the matches often fail to live up to expectations. The players on show are, on paper, their nation’s best. International friendlies however, are riddled with poor defending, lackadaisical passes, and awful performances from top players. In addition, the ability for coaches to make as many substitutions as they wish makes the game lose all momentum it may have gained, as new players entering the fray take a few minutes to get up to speed. Granted, many coaches use these games to test out entire new rosters, or try new things that they don’t want to risk failing in a proper game. This is fine, but it is necessary that these games are still of high quality and are not detrimental to the overall goal of being successful on the world stage.

It is because of these things, that cause many exhibition games to be rarely watched from the stands or in public areas, instead preferring to watch from home, or not watching at all. This is unusual, as fans love to watch events like the World Cup, and even qualification games. Despite this, knowing that a friendly game is likely going to be a very sloppy affair means that fans elect to stay home. In turn, stadium atmosphere is reduced, and players really do not get too much out of these games, other than practice at the top level against “quality” opposition. 

Coaches should really begin to take a different attitude to friendly matches. They should take them seriously, as if the result would matter in the grand scheme of things. Moreover, FIFA should regulate these games just like they would a real match, in order to create as close to a proper experience as possible. They should allow only 3 substitutes, and limit the roster size for each team. This would benefit the players as they are experiencing something that is real, that is, a fight to show why they should represent over the next person. This would also help rookie players to adjust to the stark difference between club and international soccer. There are many instances where young players are responsible for losses in major games due to inexperience at the top level. If these players are exposed to the international scene in an intense, real environment, even if the result isn’t counted, players will likely perform to a higher quality, better preparing them for actual games. Finally, this would increase fan viewing both at home and in the stadium, as they would know that every single player would be giving their all, and whilst the result would not matter, individual performances would be crucial in future plans for both the individual, and the team.

This is not to say that there are not fantastic friendly games, but there are many matches that end in low scoring ties or runaway victories, and are just generally poor quality games. By making some simple changes, FIFA could create a much more competitive atmosphere that will benefit more than one group of people, creating a much better friendly match concept, and, more importantly, will show that FIFA are doing their all to progress and grow the sport and no longer be complacent and stationary in the sporting and soccer worlds.