Venus Williams likes the U.S. team, but needs The Rules of Soccer.
Posted June 24, 2010 by james in World Cup for the Ladies | 0 Comments
Venus Williams commented from England during her Wimbledon tournament appearance that she “doesn’t understand the rules of soccer, so when something happens, I am confused. I actually enjoyed the American game, I guess when you get behind your country, it really is a lot more interesting.”
Like many people that watch the World Cup, the rules of soccer can be confusing at times. There are basically seventeen rules governing the way the game is played, and once you have a basic knowledge of them, the games do get more interesting.
Here is a good link to read more about the rules of soccer. This site is not too wordy, and has pictures to help: http://bit.ly/football_rules
The most confusing rule, the one that frustrates most fans is the “offside” rule. Many excellent and exciting goals are disallowed for a player being offside, usually by a matter of inches. It is usually one of the two linesmen, the game official that runs along the side of the field, that calls the offside infraction.
In simple English, “a player is offside when he is nearer to the other team’s goal than both the ball and the last defender”. The goal keeper does not count as a defender.
Imagine team “Y” is the attacking team, and team “X” is the defending team.
In this diagram the attacking “Y” player is even with, and not in front of the “X” defender. The “Y” player is therefore onside.
X
X
X
Y
X
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X
X
X
Y
X
In the above diagram, the “Y” player is in front of the “X” defenders, so he is offside.
I hope this basic information about the rules of soccer can make your World Cup viewing more knowledgeable and exciting
