Soccer

Name commonly given in North America to a form of football in which members of two opposing teams use their feet, heads, and bodies in attempting to advance a spherical ball into the opponent's goal. The team that scores the most goals is the winner. Soccer is the most widely played team game in the world and the most popular spectator sport, followed avidly by hundreds of millions of fans. Originally called association football (the name soccer is a corruption of the word assoc, derived in turn from association), soccer is distinguished from American football, Canadian football, and from rugby in that it is primarily played with the feet. Soccer also differs from these other games in that it does not have complex and detailed rules. The action is almost constant; with few stoppages of play, players must improvise tactics as play proceeds, constantly shifting positions to receive or intercept passes. See also Gaelic Football.

Playing Field and Equipment

All that is needed to play soccer is a ball, goals (which may be represented by chalk marks drawn on the playing area), and for those who want them, uniforms consisting of shorts, stockings, and athletic shoes; the game can even be played barefoot. The simplicity and informality of soccer is a chief reason for the worldwide popularity of the game.

Organized soccer is played on a grass field, or pitch, of not more than 130 yd (119 m) in length by 100 yd (91 m) in width, and not less than 100 yd (91 m) in length by 50 yd (46 m) in width. At each end of the field is a goal comprising a pair of upright posts 8 ft (2 m) high and 8 yd (7 m) apart, spanned by a cross-bar at the top of the posts and backed by netting. The boundary lines at each side of the field are called touchlines; those at each end are the goal lines. An area 44 yd (40 m) wide and 18 yd (16 m) deep directly in front of the goal is the penalty area. The ball is a leather-covered sphere 27 to 28 in. (68 to 71 cm) in circumference, weighing 14 to 16 oz (397 to 454 g).

Play

The game is divided into two, 45-min. halves, with a change of goal after the first half. Each team is comprised of 11 players, usually 5 forwards, 3 halfbacks, 2 fullbacks, and 1 goalkeeper. Play begins with a kickoff at center field. The ball is kept continually in motion by dribbling (nudging while running), kicking, or propelling it with the head or chest. Only the goalkeeper, standing within the goal area, may handle the ball. A point is scored when a player propels the ball into the opponent's goal; one point is awarded for each goal, and the team with the most points wins the game. If the game is tied at the end of regulation time, an overtime period may be played; if the teams remain tied at the conclusion of overtime, the winner may be decided by a kicking contest (called a shoot-out) in which each team takes up to five unobstructed kicks at the opposing goal.

Opponents gain control of the ball by intercepting it or by tackling opposing players. Unlike a tackle in American football where a player is thrown to the ground, tackling in soccer means taking the ball away by use of the feet. The player making the tackle may not deliberately kick, trip, or hold the opponent directly. The penalty for these infractions, or for using hands or arms to propel the ball, is a direct free kick by the opponent from the place where the infraction occurred. A penalty kick is awarded if the infraction takes place within the penalty area--the kicker, standing 12 yd (11 m) away from the center of the goal, aims a kick directly at the goal with only the goalkeeper to attempt to obstruct the ball. For other infractions--such as deliberate obstruction of other players or time-wasting tactics--an indirect free kick, which must be touched by at least one other player on the kicking team before a goal can be scored, is awarded to the opposition. The referee may also assess other penalties, warning players for unnecessary rough play and, if necessary, removing them from the game.

Players may not call for time-outs, but the referee may stop play briefly if a serious injury occurs or if the ball crosses the goal line or goes outside the touchlines. When the ball has been driven over the touchlines, an opposing player may throw it in with the use of his hands. If it is driven over the goal line, it is put back in play in one of two ways: If the defending team touched it last, the attacking team gets a free kick from the corner of the field (appropriately called a corner kick); if the attacking team touched it last, the defending team puts it in play with a goal kick from the area in front of the goal. While any member of the defending team may make a goal kick, it is usually made by the goalkeeper.

The only major rule change in the 20th century was the offside rule, by which a player is declared offside (that is, potentially in an unfairly advantageous position) if he or she is nearer the opponent's goal line than the ball at the moment the ball is played, unless one of the following exceptions applies: The player is in his or her own half of the field; two opponents are nearer to their own goal line than the player is; the ball was last touched or played by an opponent; or the player received the ball directly from a kick or a throw-in. An offside position is penalized by awarding an indirect free throw to the opposing team. Another recent rule revision allows for substitute players: two substitutes (without resubstitution) under international rules, up to five substitutes under U.S. regulations.

History

England is considered the home of modern soccer. The game began there in the mid-1800s, played mainly in the great public (private) schools of the day. Association football clubs began to form about 1855, and in 1863 the London Football Association was founded; it published the first set of standardized rules that same year. The game developed quickly as a spectator sport that transcended its narrower class origins. Professional players were admitted into Football Association-supervised play in the mid-1880s. The game was thereafter dominated by professional clubs and increasingly drew its public from the working class. British professional play today is governed by the Football League, founded in 1888.

Soccer began to spread internationally in the 1870s and within a decade had gained adherents in central Europe, where it became immensely popular. Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and other European nations took up the game early in the 20th century, formed clubs, and began to field teams in international competition. The game had reached an extraordinarily high level of play by the mid-1900s in South America, where soccer had been introduced by English emigrants in the late 1800s. In competitions after World War II, nations from the Middle East and Asia began to field formidable, well-trained teams.

Soccer was first seen in the Olympic Games in 1900 and was included as a medal sport in 1908, but professional players could not officially compete until 1984. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), formed in 1904, governs international competition and, in 1930, sponsored the first World Cup. This round-robin tournament between qualifying nations, held every four years, has evolved into one of the major sporting events in the world. Only 13 teams competed the first year (with host country Uruguay the winner); today, more than 170 national teams seek to be among the 24 that qualify to compete in the tournament. Also governed by FIFA, the women's World Cup match was first played in Mexico City in 1991.

Soccer in the U.S.

Although the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) was formed in 1913 and sent a national team to the first World Cup competition, soccer was long resisted in the U.S., where a different and indigenous form of football had evolved. Nevertheless, the sport was popular among groups of immigrants, mainly central Europeans and Latin Americans, and the U.S. Open Cup competition has been held since 1914. With the goal of promoting professional play, the North American Soccer League was formed in the U.S. in 1968. Interest became widespread after Pele, the popular Brazilian athlete considered by many the greatest who ever played the game, joined the league's N.Y. Cosmos in 1975. After his retirement in 1977, the league slowly lost popularity and fan support until it was dissolved in 1985.

The men's World Cup competition, held in the U.S. for the first time in 1994, renewed interest in the sport, and Major League Soccer (MLS), another professional soccer league founded in 1993, began its first season in 1996; 10 teams played 32 regular season games and playoffs before some 3 million fans. The league expanded to 12 teams in 1998. It expanded to 13 teams with the addition of the first non-U.S. team, Toronto FC, to begin play in the 2007 season. The women's World Cup competition, founded in 1991 and held in the U.S. in 1999, also greatly increased interest in the sport.

Soccer also became extremely popular among young athletes in the 1990s. U.S. Youth Soccer, a division of the USSF, which began in 1974 with slightly more than 100,000 registered players, had grown to include 3.2 million participants between the ages of 5 and 19 by 2004.        J.D.; rev. by B.G.

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