Soccer

Soccer is a famous team sport including two teams with eleven players each. This sport can have the name of soccer, football, futbol, and footy or footie. A soccer field can range from one hundred ten yards length and seventy yards width as the minimum measurement and one hundred twenty yards length and eighty yards width as the maximum measurement. The normal soccer field is a rectangle of grass or artificial turf with a goal post at each short end and can be played indoors or outdoors. The object of the game is to score the most goals in the opposing goal post. If the game were to end as a tie, it could be declared as a draw or the teams can go into over time and/or there can be a penalty shootout. Soccer is internationally governed by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (or the International Federation of Association Football), which is known by the acronym of FIFA and they hold a football competition every four years called the FIFA World Cup and has an audience twice the size of the Summer Olympic Games.
The rules for soccer are known as the “Laws of the Game” in which the most complicated rule is offside rule. This law limits attacking players ability to be closer to the opponents goal line, the second-to-last defending player, and the half-way line. Players who commit fouls while the ball is in play, can be punished with a yellow card (a caution) or a red card (being sent off.)
The FIFA World Cup has over one hundred ninety national teams that compete over the four years between each World Cup Tournament to qualify for the finals. At the finals, thirty two national teams compete for four weeks to earn the FIFA World Cup. The last championship match took place in Germany in two thousand six and the next tournament will be two thousand ten in South America.
A regular soccer match has two forty-five minute quarters and usually a fifteen minute break between halves. After a match, it’s known as full-time. Even when the ball is out of play, the clock runs continually and doesn’t stop. The referee is the official time keeper of the match and may make an allowance for lost time through injured players, substitutions, and any other cause that stops game play. This time is known as “Stoppage Time” or “Injury Time” and isn’t stopped until the referee says. Only the referee can signal the end of the game. Time added to a half of a game was introduced because of an incident in a game in eighteen ninety-one between Stoke and Aston Villa. If a game is tied at the end of the match, then the referee may call for two more fifteen minute periods. If the game is still tied after the extra time, some competitions use a penalty shootout which is a kick from the penalty line. Teams can be from the MLS league or from worldwide teams like the Columbus Crew or Manchester United.