[CoolHandLuke]

I'm going to try to understand the game, since it's so popular worldwide and I want to have something to argue with foreign fans about!

So, how long does one game last? Do they have a halftime or something?

What is "offsides?" I saw an Italian go offsides against South Korea this morning.

What do the cards mean? How often do they occur?

Just how popular IS soccer? Is it the number one sport by far?

What exactly do midfielders do?

If you could answer these questions, I'd really appreciate it, and it would lead to better discussion of the sport!

 

[aquaitious]

Originally posted by CoolHandLuke
I'm going to try to understand the game, since it's so popular worldwide and I want to have something to argue with foreign fans about!

So, how long does one game last? Do they have a halftime or something?

What is "offsides?" I saw an Italian go offsides against South Korea this morning.

What do the cards mean? How often do they occur?

Just how popular IS soccer? Is it the number one sport by far?

What exactly do midfielders do?

If you could answer these questions, I'd really appreciate it, and it would lead to better discussion of the sport!

Offside-its hard to explain but I will try.
When one player is in front of the Defense and is only in front of the goali. So if the defense is behind that particular player, who is receiving the ball he will be called offside. The other team gets to shoot the ball (free kick)

One game lasts 90 minutes, made up from two halfs (45 minutes each), there might also be a few minutes of injury time. So they might play a game of 95 minutes. It not like basketball they don't stop the clock.
In the world cup when two teams are tied after regulation, they go into overtime one (15) and overtime two (also 15 min), the team first to score wins. If they are still tied they will have a penalty shootout. Penalty Shootout-5 players shoot who gets more goals wins, if they are tied one more shooter comes for each team.

The yellow card means that you have been warned for a dangerous tackel, the red card means you are out of the game and have to play with 10 men, if you get more then one red card you are down to 9, etc.
The cards are not handed out everytime you comminte a foul, only harsh ones. You might also get a card for delaying the game (taking time for the game)

Soccer is the most popular sport by far. On avarage people watch it every day, there is one stadium (in Europe) (Real Madrid is the teams name) that is sold out for 1+ year in advance, and the seating capacitys are most about 50,000+ thousand (there is one in brazil that is as big as 150,000+/- a few thousands)

Midfielders are supposed to make the game, they are the point guards of soccer they have to halp out the defense, they have to score, and they have to make chances for their attackers.

Hope that this cleared things up a bit.

 

[CoolHandLuke]

Thanks, that helped a TON. Two more things: How long are the halftimes? And, what about substitutions? When can they substitute, and how often do they substitute?

 

[european]

Hey CHL¡¡
Halfitme:15 minutes
Subs:3 subs per team in the entire game.No more subs allowed.You can make a subs when you want to.But if you make 3 subs and a player get injured,you have to play with 10 men.
Soccer is the 1 sport of the world by far.It is a "religion" in some countries.
I love this game¡¡

 

[Mongolmike]

more input

Halves are 45 minutes each, plus extra time that is added on to the 45 min to account for injuries, disputes etc that take place on the field (the clock does not stop), usually between 1 to 3 extra minutes of "Stoppage Time".

Offsides: I'll try to use an american football analogy for you.... while breaking some american football rules....

You are the QB, I am the WR. You, as the QB, are allowed to run down the field and still make a forward pass even tho you've crossed the line of scrimmage (which doesn't exist in soccer). So you get the ball on your own 35 and you and I start running downfield. I make a break for the endzone at the 40, burn the DB and am 2 yards in front of him at the 20 yd line. You are now at the 50, see I'm ahead of the DB, and you throw the ball deep to me. I am offsides. Possession turnover.

Same scenario... you get ball at your 35 and move towards the 50. The DB is stride-for-stride with me at the 40. I make eye-contact with you, and you throw a bomb BEFORE I make my move. You throw, I THEN make my move, burn the DB, and run under your bomb and make the catch. I am onsides, the play continues....
but now I see the cheatin' little bastards have another defender between me and paydirt.... the goalie. AND I can't just run across the goal, I have to get the ball into the small defined net area. Of course, with my skills, I am able to do this, and we get a point.

Substitutions... each team can make 3 per game total. They can make them at any time, and many coaches "save" one substitution in case their goalie gets hurt near the end of the game. If you use all 3 substitutions, and later a player has to leave the game with an injury, you play short-handed, unless that player can return to play.

 

[aquaitious]

Re: more input

Originally posted by Mongolmike
Halves are 45 minutes each, plus extra time that is added on to the 45 min to account for injuries, disputes etc that take place on the field (the clock does not stop), usually between 1 to 3 extra minutes of "Stoppage Time".

Offsides: I'll try to use an american football analogy for you.... while breaking some american football rules....

You are the QB, I am the WR. You, as the QB, are allowed to run down the field and still make a forward pass even tho you've crossed the line of scrimmage (which doesn't exist in soccer). So you get the ball on your own 35 and you and I start running downfield. I make a break for the endzone at the 40, burn the DB and am 2 yards in front of him at the 20 yd line. You are now at the 50, see I'm ahead of the DB, and you throw the ball deep to me. I am offsides. Possession turnover.

Same scenario... you get ball at your 35 and move towards the 50. The DB is stride-for-stride with me at the 40. I make eye-contact with you, and you throw a bomb BEFORE I make my move. You throw, I THEN make my move, burn the DB, and run under your bomb and make the catch. I am onsides, the play continues....
but now I see the cheatin' little bastards have another defender between me and paydirt.... the goalie. AND I can't just run across the goal, I have to get the ball into the small defined net area. Of course, with my skills, I am able to do this, and we get a point.

Substitutions... each team can make 3 per game total. They can make them at any time, and many coaches "save" one substitution in case their goalie gets hurt near the end of the game. If you use all 3 substitutions, and later a player has to leave the game with an injury, you play short-handed, unless that player can return to play.

Nice post. Even though I didn't understand a thing. I don't watch football. I did get into it at the last superbowl.

 

[Mongolmike]

lol

no problem The truth.... but really, the example I used was as a follow-up to CHL's questions.... and I think he knows american football and could follow the analogy. Soccer is like hockey in a lot of ways... hockey has some odd rules too, that take a bit of 'splainin' to understand and ya gotta watch a few matches to see how these odd rules fit into the rythmn of the game.

 

[CoolHandLuke]

Thanks Mongolmike, european, and others. I understand now! And watching the World Cup was more enjoyable since I had a clue what was going on...

But, "the_truth," don't think that Mongolmike's analogy explains (American) football at all; don't use that to get an idea of how it works! Yeah, he broke a few rules...

 

[Mongolmike]

heh, heh, heh

I don't minding breaking the rules if it is MY idea...

but I hate breaking the rules when someone else tells me to....:grinning:

 

[Mulk]

Ppl, I am from england, the home of football and will clear up any of ur problems.

Offside's is where and attacking player is closer to the goal he is shooting in than the furthest defender bk when a player on his team kicks it to him. You cannot be offside in your own half of the field.

Subs. 3 max per game. can be made whenever the ball goes out of play.

Red Card: Player ejected from the field

Yellow is a warning card. 2 Yellows = 1 red

half time is 15 mins

Football or "soccer" is by far the most popular sport over the majority of the world. many countries simply call public holidays during the world cup to stop moody bosses from sacking

 

[Chops]

What happened to the second half of your post? Did you start using a different font?

Also, I saw this on "Outside the Lines", are Europeans threatened by the recent success of the U.S. in the WC? Can you speak of the general attitude you are witnessing over there in England?

 

[Mulk]

No idea what happened at bottom of my post!

Some think the gap is closin between smaller football nations and the big powers but im not totally convinced it is as close as this WC suggests.

US team did well tho, unlucky against the much hated germans

 

[Mike_UK]

I'm British too so am pretty well qualified on the 'soccer' football debate.

As far as popularity goes there are very few places in the world where it is not the number 1 sport. Apart from USA and Canada I would say India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka where cricket is king, New Zealand and South Africa with rugby, Australia with rugby, cricket and Aussie Rules, Kenya and Ethiopia with long distance running and some of the Asian countries too like Thailand where its boxing.

In Ctl & Sth America it is a religion and for many kids the only way out of poverty. Same story for Africa. Kids cant afford a proper football so they improvise with anything that resembles it. Mexico has the 115,000 Azteca Stadium and in Brazil the 150,000 capacity Maracana in Rio. The 1950 WC final had the largest crowd ever with 205,000 watching Brazil vs Uruguay.


Same for Europe, football is king with only maybe Lithuania the exception with basketball. Basketball is the number two sport in most European countries behind soccer.

The Italian, Spanish, English and German leagues are the strongest and attract the best players from around the world. The best Sth American players come to Europe too rather than play in their own leagues as many of the teams there need to sell to keep the books balanced.

The best teams in each league qualify for the Champions League with Real Madrid the current champions. Other strong teams are Bayern Munich, Man Utd, Barcelona, Valencia, Deportivo, Arsenal, Liverpool, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Roma, Bayer Leverkusen.

The offside rule is very tricky to explain.

Its best to sit down with the salt cellar and tomato ketchup bottle on the kitchen table to explain.

Basically an attacking player is offside when, as the ball is played to him from a team-mate, he is ahead of the last defender. If he is LEVEL with the last defender as the ball is played to him he is ONSIDE and play can continue.

What causes so many problems is that the linesman has to look at two things happening at different parts of the pitch. Usually when a player passes to the forward he was behind the last defender when the ball was played (ONSIDE) However a linesman will look up a split second later to see the forward ahead of the last defender and flag for OFFSIDE.

That's what caused so much controversy in this World Cup especially with Italy who had some poor decisions go against them. However FIFA do not want video replays. I think it would be a good idea and a similar system to the NFL could be used when a coach or manager can issue a certain number of challenges per half.

In league games in Europe if a match is tied after 90 minutes both teams get a point. You get 3 pts for a win and 0pts for a loss.

When it gets to knockout football, a tied game will go into a maximum of 30 mins extra-time with the first team to score the winner. This is only a recent rule over the past few years. Before that 30 mins was played no matter how many goals were scored. If it is still tied after extra-time thats when you have penalty kicks. Each team takes 5 kicks. If its still tied after that, its sudden death. So if you score and your opponent then misses you win.

Hope this sheds some light on the subject. USA had a great tournament getting to the quarter-finals and were the better team vs the Germans. They should have an even better team in 2006 but the traditional teams of Brazil, Argentina and the European giants will be very hard to beat on European soil.

Maybe if the USA gets the WC again in 2014 they would have a decent chance of winning.

 

[Mongolmike]

I'd be surprised

if the WC comes back to the USA in 2014.....

North America (USA) in 1994

Europe (France) in 1998

Asia (Japan-Korea) in 2002

Europe (Germany) in 2006

probably Africa (S. Africa?) in 2010

maybe South America in 2014

back to North America or Asia or maybe Saudia Arabia in 2018?

just my speculations...

 

[Mike_UK]

South Africa are strong favourites for hosting 2010 but i think FIFA's plan for rotating amongst the confederations will fall flat. At the end of the day FIFA will bow to their sponsors.

Its almost like the Olympics where only a few countries are now capable of hosting such a massive event.

That's why the USA had the 84 and 96 Summer Olympics and the 80 and 02 Winter Games. Don't be surprised that the USA gets the WC again in 2014.

Where in South America are you going to host it? Argentina is a bankrupt country and in Brazil the stadiums are crumbling and the football federation is in in chaos on a domestic level. Too much of a risk to take it there. No other country in Sth America is capable of hosting a 32 nation tournament.

Future hosts:
2010 Sth Africa
2014 USA
2018 China (No way Saudis get it. Security risk in Middle east and the climate go against them).

 

[Mongolmike]

hmmm....

Argentina won't stay bankrupt forever, and with soccer so important to S. Americans, I think there could still be a chance of Argentina or Brasil hosting in 12 or 16 years from now.

You are right tho, that the cost of stadiums, decent lodging, security, etc. make the cost out-of-reach of many nations, however, I still think Saudia Arabia could do it.... oil dollars will not be going away, and they already have air-conditioned stadiums, and a decent infrastructure.... plus, with world events as they are today, all the more reason why to have an Arab nation hold a successful WC. Again, just my musings....

 

[Mike_UK]

No doubting South America deserves it and maybe things will be different in 12-16 years time. The last time they had a WC was in 1978 and they are certainly are due another one.

The problem with the stadiums in Sth America is that they are not all-seated stadia. The Maracana in Rio is a crumbling white elephant. The 2014 WC will be awarded in 2008 and I can't see Brazil and Argentina sorting out their problems within 6 years. 2018 is a more realistic target for them I think and will give them plenty of time to get their act together.

Under FIFA rules now there is no terracing allowed for safety reasons. Sure, they could build new stadiums in Argentina and Brazil but I can't see the governments throwing so much money at the idea when there are so many social and economic problems there. They should be spending it on health and education and fighting povertry and corruption.


As for Saudi I can see your point, but I still think the Middle East situation, which I can never see being resolved, holds them back.

Just think of the security for the USA team if they qualify. FIFA will not take the risk. If it goes to Asia again it will be China.

Remember that the 1986 WC was awarded to Colombia originally but FIFA had to drop them for security reasons and switched to Mexico.

 

[bebop]

1) In Thailand. Over 95% of the population tuned in to watch live broadcast of WC Soccer games in 98. Keep in mind that the tournament was held in France and live games in Asia were aired between the time of midnight and before the sun came up. Yes, I did write 95% of the population; and Thailand was not represented in the WC.

2) In Bangladesh, angry mob invaded two separate power plants and beat up the staff; after power outages occurred for the second time while live WC games were being shown. News reported that the power plant failed because too many people were tuning into the game, and the country simply didn’t have enough supply of electricity.

3) In Holland, the government devised an ingenious plan. Any citizen who failed to pay back taxes would be locked up during WC game time and prohibited from watching the games. Almost all overdue payment was received prior to WC begin.