Imagine you are in a stadium filled with thousands of people. It’s the last play of the game. You have the ball dribbling past defenders. You kick the ball and it goes straight into the net. The stadium goes crazy. This is the sport of soccer.
Soccer is a sport that is played all around the world and is an important part in many cultures. There are many ways to play it, but to do that, you have to learn the basics of the sport. Dribbling, shooting, passing, pace, and defending are all important skills to learn about soccer. To start shooting and defending the ball are basic skills to have. There are many ways to kick the ball based on how you want the ball to move, but you should never kick the ball with your toes. Instead, use the side of your foot. For defending, you should always put pressure on your opponent and try not to give them space to kick the ball into the net. Next is dribbling and passing. To dribble, you use both of your feet going back and forth with the ball between your feet. Then we have passing. There are many ways and styles for passing; the basic one is with the middle part of your foot. Lastly we have pace, which is your ability to run and how long you can run, which is important to soccer going up and down the field.
Next thing you should know about soccer is the professional world. Some common players’ names you probably hear of are Messi and Ronaldo. They are icons to the sports and get paid hundreds of millions a year from their team, their brand, and endorsements. Some other famous names of the sport are Mo Salah, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer, Kevin De Bruyne, and Virgil Van Dijk.
Another thing is the different competitions in soccer. The biggest one is the World Cup, which happens every four years consisting of nations all over the world competing for fame and the biggest trophy for their nation. On the topic of a World Cup, there is another trophy similar to that which is the Club World Cup, where all the best teams in the world play against each other. Another big trophy is the Champions League where the best clubs in Europe compete to make it to the final and win for their club. Lastly, almost every country has their own league where teams from that country play for that trophy.
Now that you know the basic ways to play and a little bit about the professional world of soccer, you should know about the rules. To start, you must at least have a team of ten on the field and a goalkeeper. There are different rules you must follow on the field to start. We have the offside rule, where the offensive player can’t pass the last defender when receiving a pass and when that happens, the defending team gets a free kick. Another rule is you can’t use your hands, which is obvious, but the goalkeeper is the only one allowed to.
You may have already known these basic rules but did you know about some of the hidden rules? To start, a player may receive a red card even before the match starts. Though this may sound bad, a substitute can still take place in that spot. Another thing you may have not known is that a team can still play with only seven players. A team can only have a max of eleven players but a minimum of seven, meaning that a team can have a max of four red cards before the match is disqualified. I told you about the offside rule, but there is a slight exception to that and that is with throw ins, goal kicks and corner kicks, where it does not matter if the player is offside or not.
One last thing you should know are the clubs and their jerseys. Starting off, we have Manchester City. They are one of the biggest teams in the Premier League (England’s league) having won four times in a row. Their main kit color is light blue and white, and their best player right now is Kevin De Bruyne. Then we have Real Madrid, one of the biggest teams in La Liga (Spanish League) whose main color is white, and their best player right now is Jude Bellingham. Then Bayern Munich, who is one of the biggest teams in the Bundesliga (German League). Their main color is red and white, with their best player being Manuel Neuer. Then we have Inter Milan, which is one of the biggest teams in Serie A (The Italian league). Their main color is blue and black; also their best player is Alessandro Bastoni. Lastly, we have Paris Saint Germain, PSG for short, which is one of the biggest teams in Ligue 1 (French League) and their main colors are blue, red, white, and gold with their best player being Ousmane Dembele.
Now that you know most of the basic information about soccer, go outside, play with your friends and score some amazing goals.
