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This article is about soccer, called “football” outside of North America. Click here for gridiron football.

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and is played in just about every country that can field a team. Internationally known as footabll or “the beautiful game,” it is a game loved by billions for its simplicity and accessibility.

Introduction

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and is played in just about every country that can field a team. Internationally known as football or “the beautiful game,” it is a sport loved by billions for its simplicity and accessibility.

Many cultures around the world have developed kicking games, but modern soccer is most similar to sports played by the ancient Chinese and Greeks, as well as medieval Europeans. The European games, and particularly the games played in England, are the most direct roots of modern soccer.

A modern soccer game takes nearly two hours (two 45-minute halves and a 15-minute break at halftime) and is played on a large grass field with two teams of 11 players, including a goalie. Each team is loosely divided into offensive and defensive players, but each soccer player has a lot of freedom to adapt to any given situation.

How to Play

Playing soccer is simpler than most other sports: get the ball from the other team and maneuver it into the other team’s net without using one’s arms or hands. Players cannot tackle each other, but they can be somewhat aggressive when trying to steal the ball from an opposing player. Shooting the ball into a net is worth one point (“goal”) and is the only way to score, which means soccer scores tend to be pretty low: three points is typically the maximum for most games. Goalies are the only players allowed to use their arms and hands to handle the ball.

If a player violates the rules (using his arm, hurting another player, going out of bounds), the most common punishment is a penalty kick given to the other team: this lets the team attempt to score directly on the net by kicking the ball in from the sidelines. Defending against a penalty kick typically involves the entire team forming a human wall in front of the net and the goalie covering whatever is left. Penalty kicks are very important at professional levels due to most teams’ strong defense.

How to Spectate

Soccer can seem boring at first glance: much of the game is spent with players running up and down the pitch, but rarely shooting at the net and scoring even less.

In truth, the game is more focused on strategy and positioning. As many professional sports have evolved to become more aggressive and flashy, soccer has remained fairly defensive or neutral (although teams are structured to play more offense and attempt to score more often). There are many teams that focus on defensive or controlling styles rather than straightforward offense.

There are four general patterns of soccer play:
– Aggressive, with the ball: players will try to break through the opposing team’s defense and force shots on goal.
– Aggressive, without the ball: players will hound the ball carrier and isolate him from his teammates so he cannot protect it.
– Defensive, with the ball: players will advance in groups to protect the ball and have a better chance at withstanding the enemy’s defense.
– Defensive, without the ball: players will form a defensive wall to prevent the opposing team from breaking through.

Watching soccer is about following these different strategies and how each team tries to apply them.

Leagues

FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or the International Federation of Association Football) is the main oversight body for soccer played around the world. They organize the World Cup, the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world, which is open to teams from every nation on earth.

At a continental level, soccer is most popular in Europe, Africa, and South America. North America has some national leagues, but the game is far less popular than other national sports like hockey or gridiron football.

Soccer is also an Olympic sport, so countries that don’t have a deep roster of professional talent can still compete with amateur athletes.

Trivia

Coming soon.