Compared to most other big team sports, soccer is exceedingly simple, perhaps explaining its popularity with youths. Teams of up to 11 compete, with the goal of trying to get a ball into a rectangular net. Each time the ball is scored, the scoring team records one goal; the team with the most goals at the end of time is the winner. That's it! That's all you really need to know to enjoy a match. Compared to American Football, baseball, or even basketball, that's not so tough, right?
In this article, we're going to discuss a few more of the basics of the sport. In the next article, we'll break down the rules a little more comprehensibly.
The biggest feature of soccer, and the reason why it's called football everywhere else in the world, is that the ball cannot be advanced by the use of hands. In fact, touching the ball with anything starting at your shoulders and ending at your fingertips is against the rules. Doing so is an infraction that leads to penalties of varying intensity, depending on the degree of touching, the intent of the player, etc. Touching the ball with any other part of the body is acceptable; generally the ball is advanced either with the feet or the head. The fact that players can't use their hands leads to some of the most graceful, interesting sport that you'll ever see.
A soccer team at the professional and other competitive levels, is made up of 11 players on each side. One of these players is the goalkeeper, or keeper for short, who is the only player allowed to use his hands during play. The keeper's job is to protect the goal and act as the last line of defense for his team. The other ten players on the team are called outfield players, to distinguish them from the keeper.
The other members of the team, who aren't currently involved in play, may sit on the bench and be used as substitutes. Unlike most other sports, the bench in soccer is fairly regulated, perhaps the one area of the game that has a higher rule count. A soccer club can have as many players as they wish signed to their club at any given time; however, come match time, only a certain number of those players can participate in the game. Besides the 11 starters, most high-level professional play allows only seven substitutes to be named to the bench, and of those, only three may eventually enter the game. Unlike basketball and football, subbing in soccer is permanent. Once a player leaves the game, he is not allowed to reenter it. This inability to stop and take a break for a bit means that soccer is one of the most physically grueling games to play and requires a great deal of stamina.
Soccer is officiated by a crew of at least three officials and at the professional level, four. One official, designated the head referee, runs up and down the field with the players during the game, keeping an eye out for infractions. The other two officials, dubbed assistant referees, stand on either sideline and are mainly responsible for making sure the offside rule is followed, and can also call attention to rule infractions, though this is rare. At the professional level, a fourth official participates and keeps track of the administrative aspects of the game - players report to him or her when they are subbed in, the fourth official watches the clock, etc.
These are the very basic things to know when getting ready to watch a match. In the next series of articles, I'll discuss the laws of the game one or two at a time. Unlike most other professional sports, soccer only has 17 laws of play. Compare to American football, which has more than 10 rules just about how the ball should be placed in a dead ball situation. I'm going to write in-depth about what each of these laws are and what they mean for the fan who wishes to follow the game.
