What Is The Game Called: Soccer?

By: Jason Petrina




Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. And it cannot be argued against since over 40 billion people around the world watches the World Cup of soccer. Soccer is easily the most watched sports, even with other sports combined together. Soccer is popular worldwide as every country can easily participate in it. Soccer is also known as football for many Asian and European countries. Soccer players can be one of the most famous celebrities in the world such as Beckham, Figo, and Zidane. Soccer is generally a very low cost game to play, as it requires very little equipment compared to other sports like hockey. And learning how the game soccer is played is very simple as well.

Soccer is played with a ball, and the objective of the game is to get the ball into the opposition’s net. Soccer is only played between two teams a match and in each team there will be eleven players including a goalkeeper. The positions can be grouped into four basic groups; Goalkeeper, forwards, midfielders and defenders. There is more advanced position for each other the four listed above, but for beginner purposes we will describe them in a more general sense. Goalkeeper is basically the player that is placed in front of the net to be the last person to block the ball from going into the goal. The goalkeeper is also the only one that can use their hands. Forwards are players that will be scoring majority of the goals for the team, they play mainly in the offensive end. Defenders are the one that prevents the other forwards from the opposing team to score. Midfielders play both the roles of defending and being on the offence.

Soccer matches are played with 22 players out on the field. If there is one team that has less than 7 players at the beginning of the match, then the match will not be considered official and may not begin. During a match each team are given three substitutions, unless the rules specifies that more substitutions is allowed. But no matter how many substitutions may be granted only a maximum of 7 for each team is allowed in a match. The game of soccer requires soccer players to be in the best shape they can be to be able to play the sport. With the limited amount of substitutions, only three players per team will get to go off while the other eight players will have to play the full match.

A soccer match is 90 minutes long not including injury time. A soccer match will then be split into two halves. With each half lasting 45 minutes long plus injury time which can range from nothing to whenever the referee feel will make up for the lost time due to injuries or any other interference. A match can be called as a tie if both teams scored the same amount of goals. But there can be an additional 10 minutes of sudden death overtime to try and resolve the tie. Depending on the league, if the game is of importance then a shootout to decide on the winner may take place. But most of the time there will be a number of sudden death overtime periods before a shootout is called.

The goal of soccer is to score the most goals in the given time of play. And of course to make sure that the other team does not score or score as much as your team. That is how you figure out who won in the match. When does a goal count as a goal? When a player is able to move the ball into the net and across the goal line marked on the field. And why does it seem so hard for soccer players to score making most soccer matches’ score being relatively low for the amount of time they play. That is because there are a lot of rules that one must follow to score in soccer. First is that players are not allowed to put the put into the net using arms or hands. The only ways goals will be counted in soccer is when you use your legs or even your head. If there were any contact made to the ball with the hands or arms, the goal will be immediately called off.

The field of play in soccer is pretty big. That is why in a soccer match there will always be one referee with two assistant referees to help catch and fouls that may be hard for only one referee to see. Soccer referees are generally in really good shape as well since they are to follow the play at all time for 90 minutes. The two assistant referees will be placed in the two halves of the field while the main referee will be responsible for monitoring the whole field of play. Referees are also given the power to kick a player off the field if they receive a red card or two yellow cards during a match. In soccer tournaments, fouls from other soccer matches can be carried over to the next soccer match as well.



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