The Best Rule Tweaks for Improving Soccer

I enjoy watching international soccer on TV.  I've been watching men and women's Olympic soccer and I'm already looking forward to the 2014 World Cup.  Soccer does have its exciting moments, but some minor rule tweaks could exponentially increase excitement and likely viewership in non-soccer-centric nations.

1. Too often a player has the ball in the penalty area and a defender simply boots the ball out of bounds.  This maneuver is akin to clearing the puck over the boards from the defensive zone in hockey (which would result in a two-minute delay of game penalty).  It's far too easy to take the heat out of a hot kitchen.  A throw-in for the opposing team just isn't that big a detriment to the defenders.  I propose that if a defender kicks a ball out of bounds from the penalty area the opposing team should always get a corner kick, even if it goes out on the sidelines halfway down the field.

2. Defenders often get away with murder in the penalty area.  Refs seem to be very hesitant to award a penalty kick.  Just the other day in the France vs. Japan women's semifinal match a Japanese defender essentially arm tackled a French player with the ball in the penalty area and nothing was called.  Refs need to be ready to enforce the rules that are in place strictly.

3. Offsides rules should be less strict.  A horizontal line should be drawn across the field and offsides should only be called if the offending pass crosses this line (similar to the blue line in hockey).  It's kind of frustrating to see a player with the ball deep in the opponent's zone or even in the penalty area and still see offsides be called.  The current rule basically prevents breakaways, which would likely be a sure goal, but I think that would part of the game and force the teams to play tight defense.

4. Soccer is already a tough game to put points on the board and the fact that a team with the lead can easily pass the ball up the field and backwards makes it quite easy to defend a lead.  Like in basketball, a team should not be able to pass the ball back across mid-field after they have crossed into the opponent's half of the field.  This would make the field much smaller for them to pass the ball around and try to delay.  Violating this rule would give the opponents a free kick from mid-field.

Overall, I think these rule changes would not fundamentally change the game of soccer and would act only as minor tweaks to rid soccer of maneuvers that take away from the excitement of the game.