LOL!!! Hockey and football are nearly identical. ( :lol: :roll: )

No one said that. All that was said is that the gameplay is similar, as compared to other sports, like baseball and American football. Hockey, European football and basketball all use both offensive and defensive players on the playing field at the same time, frequent possesion changes, personal fouls and penalties, a lack of play stoppage on possesion changes, and running clocks. In this sense all three games are very similar.

I think ball game type team sports can be divided into two broad categories:

A. Games where each team trades control of the ball for a set number of game events (outs, downs, scores, etc)
Examples: American Football, Baseball, Volleyball.

B. Games where control of the ball (puck, etc) is passed back and forth repeatedly in a much more free flowing fashion.
Examples: Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Polo.

I tend to favor the A type games with a taste of the B type.
Ie: American Football where an intercepted pass or a fumble can result in a fantastic (or heart breaking) defensive score that can totally change the impetus of the game.

pay hommage to the mighty boro
 

I am afraid that our North American friends are talking about ice hockey instead of (field) hockey when it is compared with footbal (soccer).
:D
I am talking about footbal and hockey, two sports in which the Dutch (and the Germans) excell.