Learn the five most important facts about soccer
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| Braden: Top 5 Things To Know About American Soccer. |
| Ann: In this lesson, we’re looking at the top 5 things to know about American soccer. Maybe it would be better to say soccer in America, because the soccer in the United Stated isn’t really any different from soccer around the world. |
| Braden: That’s true. However, there are a number of peculiarities in how Americans treat soccer, especially when compared to how the rest of the world treat soccer. |
| Ann: That’s right. So, we’re gonna look at soccer being a major league sport in the United States. Soccer being a very popular sport in the United States and the World Cup, which is very important to American soccer players. |
| Braden: And as far as rules are concerned, we’re going to talk a little bit about offsides which is very confusing and about fouls in soccer. |
| Ann: And that sounds like an interesting lesson. Let’s get to it. |
| Braden: Our number 5 most important thing to know about American soccer is that it is a major-league sport. |
| Ann: Just to make it clear, in the United States there are minor league sports and major-league sports. Major league sports are where the best of the best players are. |
| Braden: Minor leagues are where the good players train so that they can get into the major leagues. |
| Ann: The catch for soccer in the United States is that even though it is a very old sport and by far the most popular around the world, for some reason, Americans just don't find soccer as interesting. |
| Braden: Of the five major league sports, soccer brings in the least amount of money, has the lowest number of spectators, and the lowest paid players. |
| Ann: Our number four most important thing to know about American soccer is that everybody plays it. |
| Braden: And this is the paradox with soccer in the United States. People start playing soccer as young as four years old on almost everywhere in the country. |
| Ann: They play through elementary school, to middle school, through high school, through college, and into the professional leagues. |
| Braden: Beyond that, there are both men's and women's versions at all of these different levels. For example, the United States women's team was actually world champions and Olympic champions several times. |
| Ann: During this time, soccer grew in popularity in the USA. However, after losing the next championship, most Americans—again—became disinterested in soccer. |
| Braden: Sadly, the men’s teams have never won any world championship. |
| Ann: Our third most important thing to know about American soccer is the World Cup. You probably know what the World Cup is, so we won't go into that. |
| Braden: However, in United States, there is a conflict. The major league soccer schedule occurs from spring to fall. |
| Ann: This conflicts with the FIFA World Cup schedule. In other words, many of the best American soccer players either abandon their team midseason to go play in the World Cup or abandon the World Cup in order to play with their team. |
| Braden: And such division is a major contributing factor to why the United States consistently has difficulty in performing well in soccer in almost any international competitions. |
| Ann: This is also one of the major problems why many of the best players in the world refuse to come play in the United States. |
| Braden: The problem here is that if a player leaves to play in the World Cup, they usually don't get paid for the games that they missed. That’s another huge problem. |
| Ann: Our number 2 most important thing to understand about American soccer is offsides. For those of you who know what it is, it may seem strange to have this as number 2, but for people who don't understand, this is one of the most irritating and confusing rules in soccer. |
| Braden: That’s right. So, offsides means that a player is in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, what defines "wrong place" is the problem. So, the rules state that when an offensive player receives or a player who’s playing offense receives a pass on the defensive side of the field, there must be at lest two defensive players in front of him. |
| Ann: Now, usually, this includes the goalie and at least one of their defender. If there are not at least two players between the offensive player and the goal, the team is called offsides and the ball is given to the defensive team for a free kick. |
| Braden: Now, the key here is timing. For example, the rule states that offsides is determined at the time the ball is passed, not the time that the ball is received. So, if you are onsides, your teammate passes the ball and you run past the defenders to get the ball, then everything is legal, that’s okay. |
| Ann: However, if you are offsides when the ball is passed and then move back to receive the ball, then you are offsides. |
| Braden: Okay. so, hopefully, that helped a little bit because it really is a pretty complex issue. And our number 1 most important thing to understand about soccer is fouls. And no, not that Americans like to commit fouls, but they don't like fake fouls. |
| Ann: This is because the United States has so many full-contact sports, like football and hockey. To Americans, many of the common fouls in soccer seem petty and childish. |
| Braden: Americans particularly don't like the tendency that European teams have to exaggerate fouls. |
| Ann: Because of this, many Americans look on soccer as if it were a child's sport or a sport for weak people, a sport for people who complain. |
| Braden: And as you can imagine, Americans don’t like seeing themselves as weak, so they tend to avoid soccer at the professional level. That just about does it for this lesson. Thanks for listening! |
| Ann: See you next time. |
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